This is jumping from a frying pan to fall into the fire... Not a good idea 
to run a national public resource like a ccTLD by a private for-profit firm 
(some countries even give it to a foreign company), but even worse to 
centralize it in the hands of a national government.

Why not seek the alternative of a non-profit association (governed by a 
council representing interest parties from civil society, government, 
private sector and the research community) running it and directing the 
proceedings of the service to the development of the Internet or to digital 
inclusion in the country? This is what we are *trying* to do in Brazil.

fraternal rgds

--c.a.

At 19:29 27/10/2003, Chris Chiu wrote:
>Reporters Sans Frontieres has expressed "alarm" over efforts by the 
>government of Ukraine to take control over the country's top-level domain. 
>In a statement, RSF's secretary-general Robert Menard suggested that the 
>Ukrainian government's "bid to take over management of the national domain 
>name '.ua', currently in the hands of the private firm Hostmaster, and its 
>proposal that parliament legalise e-mail monitoring, will allow it to 
>effectively gag online activity."
>
>See
>http://www.internetdemocracyproject.org/#highlights
>
>Sincerely,
>Christopher Chiu
>Technology Policy Analyst
>American Civil Liberties Union


Carlos A. Afonso
Diretor de planejamento e estratégia
Rede de Informações para o Terceiro Setor - Rits
http://www.rits.org.br
A partir de  / From 15/10/2003 - novo endereço / new address:
Rua Guilhermina Guinle 272 - sexto andar / 6th floor
22270-060 Rio de Janeiro RJ Brasil
fax +55-21-2527-5460