[governance] What happened?
Ronald Deibert
r.deibert at utoronto.ca
Mon Nov 16 09:25:15 EST 2009
Apologies, some typos in my previous post now corrected (was typing in
a hurry) to respond to the inaccuracies that were sent around by Mr.
Kummer.
Proper post:
This contains a number of inaccuracies that need to be corrected. We
were told to remove the poster not because it was advertising anything
but because of the reference to China. This was immediately following
an earlier incident in which we were told to stop handing out to
friends and colleagues invites to the book reception because of a line
in the invitation about Tibet. Although it irritated us and seemed
outrageous, we agreed not to distribute those invitations because the
launch had already started and there was no point distributing
anything more.
We booked the room for a book launch, and yes as part of the book
launch we were giving talks about the ONI as a whole, showing clips
from a documentary about the topics covered by the ONI, and its
research that was undertaken by researchers who are part of the ONI
Asia group (not a whole film -- as was falsely reported by the IGF).
Is it not allowed to show slides and movie clips as part of a book
launch??
In no way did UN officials tell us that the reason to remove the
poster was because of commercial advertisement. We were told
explicitly it was because of the mention of China.
I mean, let's get real. The reason had nothing to do with advertising
and everything to do about substance.
Ron
On 16-Nov-09, at 4:14 PM, Ronald Deibert wrote:
> This contains a number of inaccuracies that need to be corrected.
> We were told to remove the poster not because it was advertising
> anything but because of the reference to China. This was
> immediately following an earlier incident in which we were told to
> spot handing out to friends and colleagues invites to the book
> reception because of a line in the invitation about Tibet. Although
> it irritated us and seemed outrageous we agreed not to distribute
> those invitations because the launch had already started and there
> as no point distributing anything more.
>
> We booked the room for a book launch, and yes as part of the book
> launch we were giving talks about the ONI as a whole, showing clips
> from a documentary about the topics covered by the ONI it's research
> that were undertaken by researchers part of the ONI Asia group (not
> a whole film -- as was falsely reported by the ONI).
>
> Is it not allowed to show slides and movie clips as part of a book
> launch??
>
> In no way did UN officials tell us that the reason to remove the
> poster was because of commercial advertisement. We were told
> explicitly it was because of the mention of China.
>
> I mean, let's get real. The reason had nothing to do with
> advertising and everything to do about substance.
>
> Ron
>
> On 16-Nov-09, at 2:48 PM, Ian Peter wrote:
>
>> Here is a reply received from Markus Kummer in response to my email
>> below. I
>> will try to organise a meeting.
>>
>>
>> Dear Ian,
>>
>> I am happy to explain more in detail what happened, as I am equally
>> concerned about these media reports. We don't allow posters,
>> commercial or
>> otherwise. The IGF Village is the only place to advertise
>> organizations and
>> their activities.
>>
>> You may or may not have noticed that we asked a big corporation to
>> take down
>> their posters/banners at the Rio meeting. They did so without any
>> complaint.
>>
>> As it happened, the group in question did not act in good faith.
>> They asked
>> for a room for a book launch and we gave them a room for a book
>> launch. The
>> incident you are referring to did not occur in the way it was
>> reported. The
>> poster was already on the floor when the UN officials arrived.
>>
>> Please let me know what would be a suitable time for a meeting.
>>
>> Best regards
>>
>> Markus
>>
>>
>> MY EMAIL FOLLOWS
>>
>>
>>
>> Markus KUMMER <MKUMMER at unog.ch>, IGF <IGF at unog.ch>
>>
>> cc
>>
>> Ginger Paque <gpaque at gmail.com>
>>
>> bcc
>>
>>
>> Subject
>>
>> Information requested re poster removal
>>
>>
>> Markus,
>>
>> I am writing on behalf of the Internet Governance Caucus, whose
>> members are
>> greatly concerned by the media reports about the poster removal
>> incident
>> yesterday. I must also say that IGF delegates of all persuasions
>> have been
>> talking about this and genuinely want more information.
>>
>> Is it possible to get from you some information about the
>> Secretariats role
>> in this and why the action was taken? I believe such information
>> will help a
>> great deal in gaining a more measured and appropriate response to
>> this
>> incident.
>>
>> All the best,
>>
>>
>>
>> Ian Peter
>>
>>
>> ith
>>
>> On 16/11/09 8:46 PM, "William Drake" <william.drake at graduateinstitute.ch
>> >
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Hello,
>>>
>>> The ONI event was to publicize the book, "Access Controlled: The
>>> Shaping of Power, Rights, and Rule in Cyberspace," edited by
>>> Ronald J.
>>> Deibert, John G. Palfrey, Rafal Rohozinski and Jonathan Zittrain.
>>> The
>>> book will be published in April 2010 as part of the series I co-edit
>>> for the MIT Press on The Information Revolution and Global Politics.
>>> If anyone is interested in knowing more or pre-ordering, please see
>>> http://mitpress.mit.edu/IRGP-series
>>> .
>>>
>>> Curious thing just happened. I had put out a stack of flyers about
>>> the book, as well as another in the series, on the table in the back
>>> of the room at the session I'm now speaking in on the IG summer
>>> school
>>> program. I stepped out of the room for a moment, and coming back
>>> saw
>>> three Chinese people standing outside the room conferring. Walked
>>> back into the room and someone had removed all the flyers from the
>>> table. I have to presume they are going around the building doing
>>> this.
>>>
>>> There are also flyers at the IGP booth if anyone here here wants
>>> one.
>>> At least there were, not sure about now.
>>>
>>> Best,
>>>
>>> Bill
>>>
>>>
>>> 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--
>>>>>
>>>>> ____________________________________________________________
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>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> 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
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>>>
>>> ***********************************************************
>>> William J. Drake
>>> Senior Associate
>>> Centre for International Governance
>>> Graduate Institute of International and
>>> Development Studies
>>> Geneva, Switzerland
>>> william.drake at graduateinstitute.ch
>>> www.graduateinstitute.ch/cig/drake.html
>>> ***********************************************************
>>>
>>>
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>>
>>
>> ____________________________________________________________
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>
> 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
>
>
>
> ____________________________________________________________
> You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
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>
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>
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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