[governance] What happened?

[Katitza Rodriguez]

ONI means Open Net Initiative!

On Nov 16, 2009, at 11:11 AM, Shahzad Ahmad wrote:

> Dear Colleagues,
>
> Just to keep the facts straight... the Network of the Soros  
> Foundation or
> Open Society Institute) has nothing to do with ONI Asia or this  
> event. ONI
> Asia is an independent network of researchers supported by Toronto
> University and Harvard in the US.
>
> best wishes and regards
> Shahzad
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Fouad Bajwa" <fouadbajwa at gmail.com>
> To: <governance at lists.cpsr.org>; "Karl Auerbach" <karl at cavebear.com>
> Sent: Monday, November 16, 2009 2:05 PM
> Subject: Re: [governance] What happened?
>
>
> I am at the IGF and heard about this issue that during the ONI open
> network initiative (of the network of the Soros Foundation/Open
> Society Institute) workshop in the morning. The issue arose when the
> meeting was disrupted by UN officials who demanded removal of a poster
> that mentioned Internet firewalls in China.. Here is the post by the
> Pakistani Civil Society at the IGF:
>
> 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
> 16 Nov 2009
>
> 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.
>
> On Mon, Nov 16, 2009 at 4:11 AM, Karl Auerbach <karl at cavebear.com>  
> wrote:
>>
>> News is just filtering out about the teardown of a book poster at  
>> the IGF
>> because it violated some UN rule about China.
>>
>> We've seen videos of the teardown of the sign but there's not much  
>> news
>> out
>> here about the why except that it was done by UN security because a
>> sentence
>> violated some rule or another.
>>
>> Anyone have more details?
>>
>> --karl--
>>
>> ____________________________________________________________
>> You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
>> governance at lists.cpsr.org
>> To be removed from the list, send any message to:
>> governance-unsubscribe at lists.cpsr.org
>>
>> For all list information and functions, see:
>> http://lists.cpsr.org/lists/info/governance
>>
>
>
>
> -- 
> 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
> http://internetsgovernance.blogspot.com/
> Follow my Tweets:
> http://twitter.com/fouadbajwa
> MAG Interview:
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATVDW1tDZzA
> ____________________________________________________________
> You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
>     governance at lists.cpsr.org
> To be removed from the list, send any message to:
>     governance-unsubscribe at lists.cpsr.org
>
> For all list information and functions, see:
>     http://lists.cpsr.org/lists/info/governance
>
> ____________________________________________________________
> You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
>     governance at lists.cpsr.org
> To be removed from the list, send any message to:
>     governance-unsubscribe at lists.cpsr.org
>
> For all list information and functions, see:
>     http://lists.cpsr.org/lists/info/governance

____________________________________________________________
You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
     governance at lists.cpsr.org
To be removed from the list, send any message to:
     governance-unsubscribe at lists.cpsr.org

For all list information and functions, see:
     http://lists.cpsr.org/lists/info/governance