WePromise.eu: Digital Rights campaign unites Europe and unites political opponents
PRESS RELEASE – Brussels, March 11th
Support is flooding in from voters and from election candidates for the WePromise.eu campaign. The premise is simple – voters sign a pledge to vote in the European Parliament elections, and to vote for a candidate that has signed the charter of ten digital rights principles. Hundreds of voters and dozens of candidates are already supporting the project. The diversity of supporters is remarkable – from Eurosceptics to Euro-federalists, from the left and the right, all united by a common cause – positive support for our civil rights in the online world.
With the elections now just two months away, the campaign is moving up a gear with launch of a series of video statements, from Members of the European Parliament, candidates and representatives of civil society explaining why they are giving their support to the project.
In a first video message, Joe McNamee (Executive Director of EDRi) explains the idea behind the campaign, presents the Charter and highlights the role of the voters in this campaign. Joe McNamee states:
“The campaign offers a unique opportunity for voters to shape the debate ahead of the European Parliament elections”
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Partner organisation GoVeto adds:
“We are using online tools to boost voter turnout by appealing to non-political or undecided voters. We are doing this by giving them a clearer picture of which candidates want to defend their digital rights and freedoms.”
The campaign was initiated by European Digital Rights (EDRi) a network of 35 civil rights organisations run in cooperation with international activist group GoVeto. It now has the support of nine other organisations including Wikimedia Germany, Reporters without Borders and the German national consumer protection association VZBV. In the first month 57 candidates for the European Parliament and over 900 citizens signed the Charter.
Video Statement Link: http://youtu.be/O8av7GNBBX4
Notes for editors:
https://twitter.com/wepromiseeu
EDRi – European Digital Rights
Kirsten Fiedler
www.edri.org
0032 2 2742576
GoVeto
www.goveto.org
0032 470 64 80 58