[governance] Fwd: Re: UN Censorship

[Pranesh Prakash]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: UN Censorship
Date: Tue, 06 Nov 2012 07:39:21 +0400
From: Pranesh Prakash <pranesh at cis-india.org>
Organization: Centre for Internet and Society
To: bestbits at lists.igcaucus.org

Here's a draft statement.  Please feel free to edit it directly:
http://igcaucus.org:9001/p/un-censorship-statement

A few things we still need to figure out:
1. Who the officials were.
2. Whether the postcards were being handed out of if they were kept at a
stall, and in either case, where.
3. What rules, if any, govern the conduct of UN meetings and what may be
distributed at such meetings.  As far as I know there are different
rules of procedure for different UN organizations.  And as far as I
remember, we were never presented any written rules on this issue in Sharm.
4. What exactly we should be asking for and from whom?
5. Apart from a mere statement, what else should we do?  Arthit and Anja
suggested that we all hand out these postcards (or photocopies of them)
tomorrow.
6. Could we get governments and inter-governmental organizations (and
independent rapporteurs, etc.) to endorse a statement or otherwise
comment on this incident?
7. Whether these incidents are symptomatic of a larger problem with the
IGF being located within the United Nations, or if that feeling is
merely over-reaction?


====

Statement of Undersigned [Civil Society Organizations and Members / CS
and Industry and Governments and Inter-governmental Organizations] on
Restrictions of Freedom of Speech at the Internet Governance Forum

On the evening of Monday, November 5, 2012 at the Internet Governance
Forum (IGF) happening in Baku, attendees from an Indonesian civil
society organization (ICT Watch) were prevented from distributing
postcards that read "Government Censorship: Protecting You From
Reality"[1], and "What if... all the media runs the same story?"[2].
They were prevented from doing so by a person who identified himself as
a United Nations official.  [Name? Designation?]

They were told that these postcards would make [any / some / certain]
government[s] "unhappy", and that "written rules" required that any
materials distributed at an event organized by the United Nations event,
such as the IGF, require prior approval by the UN or the "IGF Committee".

Such restrictions on distribution of materials about censorship is
highly objectionable and is completely unacceptable.  This goes against
accepted international principles of human rights, including Article 19
of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 10 of the European
[Convention] on Human Rights.  The IGF, as a UN-convened forum, is
committed to promotion of all human rights, including the freedom of
opinion and expression.  Indeed, this principle is reaffirmed in
Paragraph 42 of the Tunis Agenda for the Information Society.

[We would like to note that this is not the first time that such a
restriction of freedom of expression has taken place at the IGF.  At the
IGF in Sharm el-Sheikh in 2009, UN officials objected to a poster that
referred to censorship in a UN Member State.  In the present case, the
material did not even refer to specific UN Member States[— indeed even
preventing attendees from peacefully distributing materials that name UN
Member States amounts to censorship of political views].]

This certainly proves the concerns about censorship expressed by various
speakers at the IGF, and that content of the postcards in question, were
indeed justified and relevant.

We urge [ ] to [ ].

-- 
Pranesh Prakash
Policy Director
Centre for Internet and Society
T: +91 80 40926283 | W: http://cis-india.org
PGP ID: 0x1D5C5F07 | Twitter: @pranesh_prakash



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