[governance] [Fwd: [oni] IGF UN Official story] - on the blocking of the ONI poster: CLARIFICATIONS

[Al Alegre]

To friends in the IGC and in APC who, while in IGF Egypt, have been making
official representations to, or engaging in informal private conversations
in response to yesterday's incident at the ONI reception, with various
officials in the IGF leadership...

We are sending this clarificatory message because of an "official" IGF
version of the events, which has come to our attention. We are doing this
in good faith to correct errors on all sides, in the interest of the truth
and genuine accountability.

Some media reports that have since circulated about the incident have
indeed had some minor factual errors, which we have since last night been
trying to correct by writing/commenting on the online media outlets.

Here is the gist of the clarifications Ron Deibert has been trying to
make, both to correct the above, but also to reiterate the true and
indisputable acts of censorship that were justified then on the basis of
the appeasing a member state.

We hope this helps bring the focus back to the real issues, and do please
circulate this note as  you feel appropriate. Thank you

Al Alegre
Regional Coordinator, ONI Asia

---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: [oni] IGF UN Official story
From:    "Ronald Deibert" <r.deibert @utoronto.ca>
Date:    Mon, November 16, 2009 10:09 pm
To:      "oni at eon.law.harvard.edu Initiative" <oni at eon.law.harvard.edu>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi everyone

the IGF and UN officials are now peddling an official story that the
"real reason" the poster was taken down was because it was for a
commercial product, which is not allowed.

Those of you who were there and were listening on the conversations
know that this is not the case.

it is important that we get our facts straight and make sure that we
convey the truth about what happened.

I have posted these as a guideline, feel free to correct but also to
use and spread as you see fit.

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 @ utoronto.ca
http://deibert.citizenlab.org/
twitter.com/citizenlab





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