Dr Joseph A. Cannataci, LITRU's co-ordinator, was recently elected Vice-Chairman of the Council of Europe's Group of Specialists on the impact of new communications technologies on human rights and democratic values (MM-S-NT). Dr Cannataci was a principal co-author of key European principles on universal access to Internet services and has recently contributed to the European debate on how convergence of Internet and other communication technologies, including mobile telephony, will impact content self-regulation and action against harmful content on the Internet.

In the field of data protection law, Dr Cannataci was invited by Poland's Inspector General for Data Protection to deliver the keynote speech on the protection of medical data during a national seminar held in Warsaw on the 8-9th May.  LITRU's work in data protection law was also followed up in a meeting of the co-ordination group of the Council of Europe's Project Group on Data Protection held in Strasbourg. During the latter meeting Dr Cannataci piloted the discussion of a forthcoming European recommendation on Data Protection and surveillance systems. The draft recommendation was largely researched within LITRU and then elaborated by the Council of Europe's Working Party on Data Protection in New Technologies of which Dr. Cannataci has been Chairman since 1995.

Meanwhile, Dr Jeanne P. Mifsud Bonnici, who contributes to LITRU's Technology Law and Cognitive Science in Law programmes, participated in the British and Irish Legal Education Technology Association's (BILETA) Annual Conference held at the University of Warwick. BILETA is the UK's national association grouping law technology academics and 22 universities where Law and IT is taught at various levels.

12 June, 2000