[bestbits] RE: UNESCO WSIS plus 10

[Anriette Esterhuysen]

Dear Jeremy and all

This sounds interesting and important. (Have not read full paper yet). 
As not all of us can attend the presentation due to prior workshop 
commitments in that time slot, couldthe civil society/Best Bits people 
present in Paris not get together for dinner / lunch or early morning to 
have some kind of meeting?

Provisionally, can I propose lunch on day 2, Tuesday 26 February, or, 
dinner that same evening.

Thanks

Anriette


On 18/02/2013 10:06, Jeremy Malcolm wrote:
> Here is a shorter version of the presentation that I'll be giving at the
> meeting:
>
> http://www.digitalnewsasia.com/insights/internet-freedom-in-a-world-of-states
>
> and here is a longer, serialised version on my IGF Watch blog:
>
> http://igfwatch.org/discussion-board/three-false-assumptions-internet-freedom-in-a-world-of-states-part-1
>
> Apologies for "spoilers" for next week, but the presentation will include some
> content that you won't see above!
>
> Here is an abstract, which also appears in neither of the Web versions:
>
> Last year's ITU WCIT conference inflamed the community's fears of the
> extension of intergovernmental control over the Internet. Whilst this fear was
> legitimate, an over-emphasis on the ITU can obscure the fact that the Internet
> is already controlled in undemocratic ways - often by governments, through
> both national and global processes, but also by corporate interests. It also
> obscures the fact that government action is sometimes necessary to uphold the
> rights of Internet users, just as government inaction can sometimes support
> their freedoms.
>
> This is no less true at the global level than at the national level, although
> the appropriate mechanisms of governance at each level differ. Specifically,
> there are some areas in which developing globally-applicable principles for
> the governance of the Internet could be valuable and important. Despite
> popular belief, there is no network of global multi-stakeholder processes or
> institutions that covers all of the important public policy areas in which
> such global principles could be useful. However, with the convening of a new
> CSTD Working Group on Enhanced Cooperation, we now have the opportunity to
> fill that gap.
>
> To date, civil society has been very reluctant to participate in the
> development of such a positive agenda for the evolution of Internet governance
> arrangements. But if we do not, either the status quo will prevail or less
> democratic and multi-stakeholder alternatives (such as the ITU) will come to
> the fore. This paper suggests one possible format for operationalising the
> enhanced cooperation mandate from WSIS, but its principal message is that
> regardless of the format adopted, now is the time for civil society to
> seriously consider the merits of a more formal institutional platform for the
> protection of the rights and freedoms of Internet users.
>

-- 
------------------------------------------------------
anriette esterhuysen anriette at apc.org
executive director, association for progressive communications
www.apc.org
po box 29755, melville 2109
south africa
tel/fax +27 11 726 1692

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