Plan for Online Freedoms Stalls at European Meeting

The United States and two dozen other nations called for the adoption of a declaration of freedoms in cyberspace at a European security conference, but the proposal stalled in the face of opposition from Russia and countries that view the Internet as a threat to their political systems.

The draft declaration, circulated at the annual meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, came only two days after parliamentary elections in Russia that included a crackdown on dissent before and after the vote, with computer attacks reported on Web sites of election observers and the news media. Despite the support of more than half of the organization’s 56 member nations, including Canada and most of Europe, the proposal has no chance of being adopted because the organization acts only by consensus, allowing countries to wield a veto. Still, in the wake of the Russian elections in particular, it became a proxy for a broader debate within the organization over basic freedoms.