[governance] Open letter to Arab IGF

[Wafa Ben Hassine]

Hi all,

I am new on this list, but I have been greatly enjoying and benefiting from
all the discussions thus far. Very informative, especially for a newcomer
such as myself. I wanted to share with you all an open letter that a few of
my colleagues and I drafted for the 2nd annual Arab IGF. We read the
statement out loud during a plenary session at the Arab IGF, and the
response we got was quite expected.

The letter can be found here: http://igfarab.net/?lang=en.

Some old school censorship techniques were used *during* the conference
itself - such as a security agent, dressed in civil clothing, standing
right in front of Mohamed Najem (my colleague who read the statement),
preventing anyone from taking pictures or videos of him as he read it...
Then we got negative feedback from folks who are more closely linked to
state actors in MENA (Lebanon, Algeria)...  I was personally attacked by a
woman working within the Lebanese Ministry of Telecommunications on how
using the domain name "http://igfarab.net <http://t.co/ZcYSu0F7Gv>" for our
Open Letter is "dishonest". I felt like there was animosity and suspicion
from state actors directed at civil society actors participating in the
Forum. It was my first IGF.

Regards,
Wafa



-- 
Wafa Ben Hassine
J.D. Candidate 2015
University of Denver
Sturm College of Law

p: +1 720 412 5216
email <wbenhassine at gmail.com> | twitter <https://twitter.com/#!/ousfourita>
 | blog <http://thepoeticpolitico.wordpress.com/>

*Think Green* - Please consider the planet before printing this email.
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