Closing remarks have concluded the International Youth Law Forum “The limits of restricting the freedom of speech and distribution of information on the Internet” at KAZGUU.  The forum was attended by international experts from Azerbaijan and Bulgaria, and teams from Kazakhstan, Ukraine, and Kyrgyzstan took part in the legal debates.  The main topic of the forum was the issues of protecting free speech rights on the Internet and the limits of restricting these rights.

As was noted by the Vice-Chairman of KAZGUU Miras Daulenov, in today’s world there are instances when disseminating destructive information leads to terrorist attacks; and this area must be regulated.

“However, the basic human right to distribute information must not be violated.  Our Forum’s goal is to establish the limits, where this freedom ends.  With the support of OSCE and Soros we were able to attract experts from Azerbaijan and Bulgaria to share experience in this field”, said Miras Daulenov.

As part of the first (distance) stage of the competition, student teams submitted their memorandums, which reflected two legal positions: “for maximum restrictions” on freedom of speech and distribution of information on the Internet; and “against maximum restrictions”.  The memorandums were assessed by three experts in Human Rights and Media Regulation.  At the end of the distance stage, 16 teams were selected to participate in the live event.  These teams met in the next stage of the competition on 9 December; and only two of them made it to the finals.

At the end of the final stage of the competition, the title of the Winner and the prize of 200,000 tenge were given to the team from Taras Shevchenko KNU.  The second prize went to the KAZGUU team, who received 150,000 tenge.  In addition, the expert panel awarded four members of the audience who asked the most interesting and relevant questions.