Fwd: [governance] global events in non-democratic countries

Wed Sep 5 01:43:10 EDT 2012

Dear Oksana Pryhod and All --

I'm not at all sure that you're right that WAN's maintenance of its plan to hold its congress in Kyiv was the right decision. Only time will tell. Yes, it gave you a very good opportunity to demonstrate against the President, but who knows whether he will act to get even with you ? His goons took photos of all of you demonstrating.

I heard a fair amount of hypocrisy in the statements about Ukraine at the conference. Not once did anyone mention how the government has been persecuting Yulia T. Was that a self-imposed red line by the conference participants ?

I recall the debates over whether to hold a UNESCO conference on press freedom in Kazakhstan 20 years ago. I argued against going there and was told to wait and see, that it would improve things. We went and protested violations of press freedom. Things did improve for 2-3 years, apparently as a direct result. But the government gradually returned to its old habits and the situation now seems to be as bad or worse than when we went 20 years ago. And now the Kazakh government is about to hold a new conference to commemorate the one from 20 years ago -- in other words, they are wrapping its current repressive policies in the legitimacy that we gave them by going there back then.

We had the same debate over holding the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis. I do think that going there and letting the world see the real nature of the Ben Ali regime did prepare world opinion for the need for a revolution, even if freedom of expression isn't doing so well in Tunisia now.

So, I'm not at all sure that holding the next Internet Governance Forum in Azerbaijan will be a net plus. On balance, I think we shouldn't be lending our legitimacy to dictatorships. They compete to get us to hold conferences in their countries precisely because they mean to use us to strengthen their grip on power. It doesn't always work out that way, but sometimes it does achieve exactly what the dictators wanted.

Best regards,

Rony Koven, World Press Freedom Committee

-----Original Message-----
From: Koven Ronald <kovenronald at aol.com>
To: oprytula <oprytula at gmail.com>; oprytula <oprytula at yahoo.com>; idmytrychyn <idmytrychyn at noos.fr>
Cc: sana.pryhod <sana.pryhod at gmail.com>
Sent: Tue, Sep 4, 2012 10:21 pm
Subject: Fwd: [governance] global events in non-democratic countries

FYI, one of the editors in the delegation that met with the President today told me that he replied to the criticisms by saying that Ukraine is "a country in transition."

As a Balkan colleague remarked uopoin hearing that, "Maybe he meant 'in transition' from democracy."

Buzi, Rony Koven

-----Original Message-----
From: Oksana Prykhodko <sana.pryhod at gmail.com>
To: IG Caucus <governance at lists.igcaucus.org>
Sent: Tue, Sep 4, 2012 6:46 pm
Subject: [governance] global events in non-democratic countries

Dear all,

I would like to add new food to our old discussion about propriety to
hold international events in non-democratic countries.

Kiev just now is hosting World Newspaper Congress, with participation
of the most influential editors and journalists from the whole world.

Yesterday Jacob Mathew, President of the World Association of
Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), gave excellent analysis of
media situation in Ukraine, underlined main threats to media freedom.
Then Ukrainian president Victor Yanulovich gave his interpretation of
the same situation, stating, that there are no problems for the
freedom of speech in Ukraine.
During his speech 12 Ukrainian journalists and media activists (I was
among them) stood up with critical banners. And were brutally attacked
by Yanukovich securities.

It was excellent illustration to his words, and received world-wide
coverage (except of Ukrainian TV channels).

Today 14 the most influential editors met Yanukovich and demanded to
investigate this incident and not to persecute protesters.

I really highly appreciate support of WAN-IFRA and all lessons, that
it gave to Ukraine. And I hope that IGF in Baku will be also of great
use to Azeris.

Best regards,
Oksana

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2012/09/03/world/europe/03reuters-ukraine-journalists-protest.html?_r=2&ref=politics
http://www.wan-ifra.org/articles/2012/09/06/press-freedom-an-own-goal-for-ukraine

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