[Media Caucus] Internet Governance

Tue Feb 5 08:36:20 GMT 2008

Hi,
I will put you on the list.I am sorry for what you missed until now.
Best
Clothilde Le Coz
Le 4 févr. 08, à 12:00, KM Shrivastava a écrit :

> Hi,
> This is just to check if this email still works.
> Let me have all the news about you.
> K.M.Shrivastava
> Professor
> Indian Institute of Mass Communication
> New Delhi-110067
>
> --- Ronald Koven <rkoven at compuserve.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> RE: Internet Governance
>>
>> WPFC Position Paper
>>
>> INTERNET GOVERNANCE: DEFEND FREE FLOW OF
>> INFORMATION
>>
>> It is becoming increasingly clear that
>> so-called  governance,  management
>> and administration of the Internet will be the
>> central issue in
>> preparations
>> for the second World Summit on the Information
>> Society. UN Secretary
>> General
>> Kofi Annan was mandated to direct a study
>> incorporating the views of
>> diverse
>> interests to be produced in time for WSIS II,
>> scheduled for Tunis, Tunisia,
>> in November 2005.
>>
>> Civil society caucuses are already exchanging
>> message traffic on how to
>> determine their positions. Many of those groups
>> have histories of favoring
>> content controls.  Any proposals that threaten
>> press freedom on the
>> Internet, whatever the source, should be
>> rejected.
>>
>> It was clear at WSIS I that there was a general
>> feeling among
>> member-states,
>> including US allies in the European Union, that
>>  Internet governance
>> should
>> not be the exclusive preserve of ICANN, the
>> Internet Corporation for
>> Assigned Names and Numbers, a California-based
>> company under contract to
>> the
>> US Commerce Dept.
>>
>> ICANN has allocated Internet domain names on a
>> neutral, technical basis. It
>> has included industry, NGOs and international
>> representation in its
>> governing board and committees.
>>
>> Governments which want to turn responsibility
>> over to an international
>> body,
>> presumably in the UN system, want to go beyond
>> technical matters to deal
>> with content questions, like pornography,
>> pedophilia, fraud, hate speech,
>> etc., in a way that ICANN has refrained from
>> doing. The Council of Europe s
>> Cybercrime Convention points the way
>> governments seem to be headed. The
>> United States signed that Convention, but it
>> has a separate protocol on
>> hate
>> speech that was designed to give the United
>> States the option not to sign
>> onto an element that would clearly violate the
>> US Constitution s First
>> Amendment.
>>
>> Under the US-accepted compromise of a two-year
>> UN study to submit
>> recommendations to WSIS II, a process has begun
>> that will probably produce
>> a
>> UN proposal for modifications of the Internet
>> governance system.
>>
>> A role for ICANN should be preserved as part of
>> any new system that may
>> emerge under UN auspices. Supporters of a free
>> and open Internet should be
>> able, with the backing of allies like the UN
>> Department of Information and
>> Communications and the UNESCO Secretariat, to
>> resist any changes that
>> threaten the free flow of information and ideas
>> on the Internet.
>>
>>  Governance  must not be allowed to become a
>> code word for government
>> regulation of Internet content. The
>> intergovernmental debates over two
>> years
>>
>> of preparations for WSIS I amply demonstrated
>> that authoritarian
>> governments, which already censor their own
>> Internet traffic,
>>
>> seek content controls internationally and/or
>> legitimization of such
>> controls
>> nationally. The system must not be reorganized
>> to permit this on an
>> international level or encourage it at the
>> national level.
>>
>> In fact, the Internet s growth, popularity and
>> integrity are based on its
>> content not being regulated by governments or
>> international organizations.
>>
>> Bearing in mind that the Declaration adopted
>> December 12, 2003, at the
>> World
>> Summit in Geneva provided that  freedom of the
>> press and freedom of
>> information are essential to the Information
>> Society,  the following
>> principles should guide any changes in the
>> Internet governance system:
>>
>> 1. There should be no controls over content,
>> nor modifications of the
>> Internet s technical  architecture  that
>> facilitate or permit censorship of
>> news or editorial opinion. Nor should
>> self-regulation  be allowed to
>> become
>> a surrogate for governmental regulation of
>> content on the Internet.
>>
>> 2. The system should explicitly commit itself
>> to respect and to implement
>> Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of
>> Human Rights, and to the
>> fundamental principle of press freedom.
>> National or international security
>> concerns must not be allowed to limit freedom
>> of expression, including news
>> and editorial comment, in cyberspace.
>>
>> 3. Considerations of  ethics  should not be
>> allowed to become a veiled
>> approach to introducing or allowing censorship.
>>
>> 4. There are many forms of communication over
>> the Internet, and it is
>> important not to confuse them. News, for
>> example, is different from such
>> things as pornography, pedophilia, fraud,
>> conspiracy for terrorism,
>> incitement to violence, hate speech, etc.,
>> although there may be news
>> stories about such problems. Such matters are
>> normally covered in existing
>> national general legislation and should, if
>> appropriate and necessary, be
>> prosecuted on the national level in the country
>> of origin.
>>
>> 5. Any legal actions that may arise should be
>> adjudicated in the
>> jurisdiction where a disputed message first
>> originated, or in a single
>> jurisdiction agreed upon by the parties to any
>> given dispute.
>>
>> The Internet is a major opportunity to improve
>> exchanges of information and
>> ideas throughout the world. Nothing should be
>> allowed to restrict this
>> powerful new medium for better communications
>> among people. #
>>
>>
>>
>> -------------------- End Forwarded Message
>> --------------------
>>
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Clothilde Le Coz
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