[governance] some facts that may be helpful

[Ronald Deibert]

1. We were told that the banner had to be removed because of the  
reference to China. This was repeated on several occasions, in front  
of about two dozen witnesses and officials, including the UN Special  
Rapporteur For Human Rights, who asked that I send in a formal letter  
of complaint.

2. Earlier, the same officials asked us to stop circulating a small  
invite to the event because it contained a mention of Tibet. They even  
underlined it in showing it to me. Because the event was just about to  
start, we said that we would not be distributing any more of these  
invitations so it was a moot point.

3. We asked repeatedly to see any rules or regulations governing this  
act. They did not give us any, only referring to the "objections of a  
member state."

4. There were in fact many posters and banners in many of the rooms  
that I attended, including others in our own. The video itself shows  
us, at one point, taking one of the other posters we have and offering  
to cover up the original one. They objected to that and told us this  
banner must be removed.

On another matter of clarification:

The UN officials did not throw the banner on the ground. They asked us  
to remove it and one of our staff placed it on the ground for us to  
consider what to do. That's where we had the discussion. When we  
refused to remove it, their security guards bundled it up and took it  
away.

Hope this helps to clarify.
Ron

Ronald J. Deibert
Director, The Citizen Lab
Munk Centre for International Studies
University of Toronto
r.deibert at utoronto.ca
http://deibert.citizenlab.org/
twitter.com/citizenlab



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