[Media Caucus] Internet Governance

[Ricardo Trotti]

Muchas gracias Mark

-----Original Message-----
From: media-bounces at wsis-cs.org [mailto:media-bounces at wsis-cs.org] On Behalf
Of Mark Bench
Sent: Tuesday, February 05, 2008 9:14 PM
To: WSIS Media Caucus
Subject: Re: [Media Caucus] Internet Governance

Please note that Ronald Koven's new email is KovenRonald at aol.com. 

Mark Bench,
WPFC

Quoting RSF INTERNET <internet at rsf.org>:

> 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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>>
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>>
> Clothilde Le Coz
>



-- 
Mark Bench, Executive Director
World Press Freedom Committee
11690-C Sunrise Valley Dr. 
Reston, VA  20191, USA
Tel: (703) 715-9811
Fax: (703) 620-6790
E-mail: embench at wpfc.org
Website: http://www.wpfc.org


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