Forwarded for information:
IGF 2009 event rattled by UN Security
Office:
"If we cannot discuss topics about
Internet censorship and
surveillance policy at a forum about
Internet governance then what is
the point of something like the IGF,"
said Ron Deibert, director of
the Citizen Lab at the University of
Toronto's Munk Centre for
International Studies and one of ONI's
principal investigators.
By Rabia Garib
KARACHI, 15 NOVEMBER 2009 - An
anti-censorship group holding an event
Sunday at the United Nations-sponsored
Internet Governance Forum (IGF)
in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, was disrupted
by UN officials who demanded
removal of a poster that mentioned
Internet firewalls in China.
According to a Pakistani delegate,
Shahzad Ahmed of Bytesforall.net, a
reception hosted by Open Net Initiative
(ONI) was rattled by IGF
security, who objected to a poster
advertising "Access Controlled", a
book being introduced at the event. "The
poster was thrown on the
floor and we were told to remove it
because of the reference to China
and Tibet. We refused, and security
guards came and removed it. The
incident was witnessed by many," Ahmed
reported.
The poster promoting ONI's forthcoming
book, "Access Controlled" was
removed by the IGF's organizers because a
sentence in the poster
apparently violated UN policy. The
sentence in question reads, "The
first generation of Internet controls
consisted largely of building
firewalls at key Internet gateways;
China's famous "Great Firewall of
China" is one of the first national
Internet filtering systems."
"If we cannot discuss topics about
Internet censorship and
surveillance policy at a forum about
Internet governance then what is
the point of something like the IGF,"
said Ron Deibert, director of
the Citizen Lab at the University of
Toronto's Munk Centre for
International Studies and one of ONI's
principal investigators.
Deibert, one of the organizers of the
reception, said he will file a
complaint against the censorship of the
event and send it to the
United Nations Human Rights Commission.
"We condemn this undemocratic act of
censoring our event just because
someone is trying to impress or be in the
good graces of the Chinese
government. It is ironic that while
people are allowed to gather here
to discuss freedom of expression online,
censorship and surveillance
practices on the Internet, we are being
restricted in expressing our
views," said Al Alegre of the Foundation
for Media Alternatives, a
member of the ONI Network.
--
Regards.
--------------------------
Fouad Bajwa
Advisor & Researcher
ICT4D & Internet Governance
Member Multistakeholder Advisory Group
(IGF)
Member Civil Society Internet Governance
Caucus (IGC)
My Blog: Internet's Governance
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