Everyone talks, but no-one listens…. Spam, multilingualism, cybercrime, cybersecurity, privacy and data protection, freedom of expression, human rights, interconnection …. The Internet is one of the most powerful inventions of the digital age…. Given the huge impact of the Internet on our daily lives, states must remain the ultimate guarantors of our Internet rights and freedoms,… Reporters Without Borders will be at the Internet Governance Forum in Athens to remind participants that free expression must be at the centre …. A long-simmering dispute over whether the U.S. government has too much control over the Internet’s underpinnings …. Some voices emerging prior to Athens.
Everyone talks, but no-one listens. — BBC headline on the event. — http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6091282.stm
Spam, multilingualism, cybercrime, cybersecurity, privacy and data protection, freedom of expression, human rights, interconnection costs were among the most frequently mentioned issues for theForum to deal with. — IGF quoted by http://www.digitalopportunity.org/article/view/141610/1/1138
The Internet is one of the most powerful inventions of the digital age. It has the potential to empower and educate, to cross cultural boundaries and create global communities. It offers the means for any individual with access to a computer and a gateway to the internet to communicate with others
across the world in a free flow of information and ideas — a powerful force for human rights. But, while the internet has brought freedom of information to millions, for some, it has led to imprisonment by governments that have sought to curtail this freedom. — Amnesty International. http://www.amnestyusa.org/news/document.do?id=ENGPOL300542006
Amnesty International calls on IT and telecommunications companies: to publicly commit to honoring human rights, and develop human rights policies that state a clear commitment to support the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and comply with the requirements of the UN Global Compact … http://www.amnestyusa.org/news/document.do?id=ENGPOL300542006
Given the huge impact of the Internet on our daily lives, states must remain the ultimate guarantors of our Internet rights and freedoms, and may be held to account for their respect under international law. But to be effective, states must work with key Internet actors to ensure that our rights and freedoms are both practical and effective on the Internet. —Council of Europe press statement. http://www.noticias.info/asp/aspComunicados.asp?nid=235031&src=0
Reporters Without Borders will be at the Internet Governance Forum in Athens to remind participants that free expression must be at the centre of any model of Internet governance, and to reiterate its positions on Internet neutrality and the need for Internet companies to behave ethically. — RSF.
http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/October2006/27/c5645.html
Nitin Desai, who will chair the meeting, said the technology is young and people have not really sorted out how the Internet should be treated. He compared debates about the Internet to those about the chemical composition of ink and the design of the paper when the printer was invented, which missed the point. — ITnews.com.au in
http://www.itnews.com.au/newsstory.aspx?CIaNID=40729&src=site-marq
“This has always been there and it will always be there. We will always have to continue to act to protect it because it is in the very nature of government to try and restrict people’s liberties.” — UN’s Nitin Desai, saying that much of
the discussions about the Internet recently have centered on the tension between openness and control. http://www.itnews.com.au/newsstory.aspx?CIaNID=40729&src=site-marq
The conference, to discuss the future of the internet, is likely to blast IT companies like Yahoo, Google and Microsoft, for aiding and abetting regimes who lock up journalists who say nasty things about them online. —http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=35368
A long-simmering dispute over whether the U.S. government has too much control over the Internet’s underpinnings will heat up again next week at a United Nations summit in Greece. Starting this weekend, about 1,200 diplomats and technology ministers will gather at a hotel in the outskirts of Athens to resume a debate that has often pitted the Bush administration and a handful of its Western allies against Brazil, India, China and African countries. — http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-6130087.html
I welcome the U.S. government’s declared intention to grant more autonomy to ICANN. — Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media, Oct. 2. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-6130087.html
It would be nice to think that next week’s first meeting of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) will mark the transition between today’s Western-dominated internet and a true global network, but I’m not expecting too much. — Bill Thompson, regular commentator on the BBC World Service programme Digital Planet.