TPID:
From the Register:
The level of secrecy shrouding the EU’s ACTA negotiations reached new heights earlier this week, with the news that Pirate Party MEP Christian Engstrom felt compelled to abandon a meeting with ACTA negotiators in the European Parliament after he was forbidden from sharing information with the public.
According to a write-up on TorrentFreak, a blog dedicated to bringing the latest news about BitTorrent, Commission negotiators were scheduled to update European parliamentarians on progress in the latest round of ACTA negotiations in Lucerne.
An invite went out to Pirate Party MEP Christian Engstrom, but the meeting was closed to the public and, he was informed, he was not allowed to share any information he obtained at the meeting with his electors.
Storming out of the meeting was an excellent start for the Pirate Party MEP, but I hope he’ll go a step further and spill the beans about what was being discussed out of public view.
He has an excellent opportunity to do so coming up in a couple months — “International Talk Like A Pirate Day” is coming up on September 19:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Talk_Like_a_Pirate_Day
Sad to say, but change a few of the nouns and this could have easily been a story about the Libertarian National Committee, or the California Libertarian Party’s executive committee, given that many representatives on said committees appear to be equally determined to keep the public (and ordinary members of their own party) in the dark.