[governance] Interesting News Media coverage of the IGF

Tue Sep 27 04:24:03 EDT 2011

From:
http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/wire-news/activists-meet-to-defend-internetstate-control_590791.html

Activists meet to defend Internet from state control

By Georgina Prodhan

LONDON (Reuters) - Internet activists will this week make an 11th-hour
attempt to stop governments seizing more control of the Web that has fuelled
Arab revolutions, enabled mass leaks of U.S. diplomatic cables and allowed
online piracy to thrive.

The Internet Governance Forum that begins in Nairobi on Tuesday brings
together companies, non-profit groups, academics, engineers, government
representatives and ordinary citizens.

They hope to show they are best placed to write the rules of the road ahead
for the World Wide Web, an increasingly important driver of economic growth
in a world on the brink of recession.

In a study published this year, consultancy McKinsey found the Internet
accounted for 21 percent of GDP growth in mature countries, and that almost
$8 trillion changes hands through e-commerce each year.

"Stronger influence of governments seems inevitable. The Internet has simply
become too important for them to ignore it. They prefer a top-down
approach," Markus Kummer of the Internet Society, which campaigns for the
open Internet, told a recent London seminar.

Groups like the Internet Society fear the creeping use by governments of
tools like "three strikes and you're out" laws to cut off Internet access
from citizens caught breaking copyright rules, already passed by France and
being considered in several other European countries.

Some countries have tried more radical measures, like Egypt cutting itself
off from the Internet during the Arab Spring to stop flash protests being
coordinated on websites like Twitter.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who applauded the Arab Spring, hosted the
e-G8 in Paris this year, a conference of political leaders and Internet
company bosses at which he put the case for more government regulation while
paying lip service to an inclusive approach to governing the Internet.

"It was very exclusionary. For women and the global South there was
virtually no consultation. It was a hand-picked group of white, male
billionaires," Internet lawyer and consumer advocate Jeremy Malcolm told
Reuters.

"The IGF is really the last best hope for this process. If it fails, what
we're going to get is India, Brazil, South Africa, China, Kazakhstan, Russia
and so on putting forward the idea that we need an intergovernmental
process."

The Internet's potential to raise living standards is under-exploited in the
developing world where just 21 percent of the population have access,
compared with 69 percent in the developed world.

Its role as a catalyst for development will be a key theme of the IGF, a
United Nations-sponsored event where speakers will include World Wide Web
inventor Tim Berners-Lee and EU digital agenda commissioner Neelie Kroes.

If it is to succeed in keeping governments at arm's length, the IGF will
also have to show it is serious about cybersecurity

which companies now view as a bigger threat than traditional crime, natural
disasters and terrorism.

The forum comes at a time of technical upheaval for the Internet where
top-level domains such as .com or .org are about to be liberalised, enabling
companies and communities to buy, create, name and run their own domains.

Web addresses in languages like Arabic and Russian have also recently been
made possible, a move expected to transform the Internet and give more power
to non-English speakers.

"The technology continuing to change is a given that we have to accept,"
said Jeff Brueggeman, who runs public policy for U.S. telecoms operator AT&T
<T.N> and will attend the IGF. "The idea is always to be looking ahead at
the next issue."

(Editing by Robert Woodward)

======================

From:

http://www.itnewsafrica.com/2011/09/internet-governance-fosters-africas-development/

 *Internet Governance Fosters Africa's Development*

South Africa’s Minister of Communications, Roy Padayachie today addressed
the High Level Ministerial Forum on Internet Governance taking place in
Nairobi, Kenya on 26 September 2011.
<http://www.itnewsafrica.com/2011/09/internet-governance-fosters-africas-development/laptop2/>

The first High Level Ministerial Forum on Internet Governance taking place
in Africa (image source: file photo)

The Ministerial Forum, which is the first in a series of high level
ministerial forums on Internet for Development in Africa, aims to foster
meaningful debate for developing countries on the importance of Internet
Governance as well as Internet Policy. The outcomes of this Forum will be
shared with the 6th Annual United Nations Internet Governance Forum (IGF)
Conference, which takes place at the same venue, from 27 – 30 September
2011.

This is the first time that the global IGF – under the theme “Internet as a
catalyst for Change: Access, Development, Freedom and Innovation” – takes
place on African soil.

“I would like to express the appreciation of the Government of Kenya and the
International Telecommunications Union (ITU) by the South Africa, for
bringing the Internet Governance Forum back to Africa for the second time,”
says Padayachie.

“The internet has become a critical tool for national cohesion and poverty
eradication in national development. It is already widely recognised that
investment by developing countries in ICTs yields positive multiplier
effects towards economic growth. We have also seen the impact of the
internet in social, political and economic transformation.  The internet is
changing the way we do things, both nationally and globally,” says
Padayachie.

“The internet has a huge impact on public policy.  It is our view that
Governments have to be involved in the development of public policy to
ensure that the internet develops in* *ways that offer the most benefit to
humankind,” adds Padayachie.

“This Forum could therefore make a valuable contribution towards
implementing the decisions of the World Summit on the Information Society
with regard to Internet Governance. The Tunis Agenda of WSIS refers to the
role and responsibility of governments to address issues of public policy
with respect to the Internet, on an equal footing, but also involving all
stakeholders in their respective roles.  This Tunis Agenda also underlined
the need to maximise the participation of developing countries in decisions
regarding Internet Governance, which should reflect their interests.”

“I would like to emphasise the need for inclusivity in the global system,
and for fair and transparent multilateral decision making, so that all
countries, including developing countries, can participate in addressing
public policy issues that pertain to the internet, in line with the WSIS
outcomes.  Decisions concerning Internet Governance, Cybersecurity and the
future of the Internet cannot just be the preserve of the powerful and
dominant vested interests,” concludes Padayachie.
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