GENEVA (Reuters) - The Estonian picked as the U.N.'s first digital privacy investigator was blocked on Friday by the German president of the Human Rights Council after activist groups said she would not be a strong enough critic of U.S. surveillance.
Katrin Nyman-Metcalf was the candidate ranked first by a "consultative group" of five ambassadors - from Poland, Chile, Greece, Algeria and chaired by Saudi Arabia. But when it came to approving her appointment, Joachim Ruecker said he was over-ruling their choice and proposing the second-ranked candidate instead, Malta's Joseph Cannataci.