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<DIV>We have just been informed that OPGA has made two changes to the civil
society speakers nominated for WSIS+10. Tatiana Kapinga, who was unable to
secure a US visa, and Anriette Esterhuysen, who was unable to stay to address
the meeting, were replaced by Deborah Brown of APC and Matthew Shears of Center
for Democracy and Technology.<BR><BR>While not wishing to be critical of either
of the people chosen, members of the Civil Society Selection Committee believe
that, despite the short timeframe, it should have been consulted about
these changes. In particular, we are concerned that the changes made by
OGPA resulted in four of our five speakers being from WEOG areas. This lack of
geographic balance is unfortunate, and could have been avoided.<BR><BR>We will
convey our disappointment to OPGA at a later stage, but wanted civil society
networks to be aware of this issue.</DIV>
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<DIV>Ian Peter</DIV></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>