Colombian lawmakers advanced the possibility Wednesday of making Internet access a constitutional right for all Colombian citizens, reported newspaper El Espectador.
The first commission of the Colombian Senate approved the first step in reforming the constitution in order to establish the fundamental right for Colombians to access the online network.
Senator Luis Fernando Velasco, a supporter of the reform initiative, explained that the Internet is mechanism which defends freedom of expression, and Colombia should facilitate access for the entire population.”In any country one can close a newspaper, or even shut down a television channel, but through the Internet citizens can express themselves,” he said.
Velasco explained that “a young person in a distant town can request that their school be hooked up to the internet because obviously there is no equality in the educational process for a city-dwelling schoolchild and a child living far away.”
The United Nations already consider the right to access the Internet as a fundamental human right.