Civil society speaks out, condemns attempts to regulate Internet

Civil society representatives gave an unofficial news conference this morning in one of the conference rooms of the “e-G8” forum on Internet issues in Paris, voicing their opposition to attempts to regulate the Internet and criticizing the lack of representativeness of most of those who were invited by the French government to take part in the forum.

Participants in the news conference – improvised at the last minute and not part of the forum’s official program – included Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Jean-François Julliard, Jérémie Zimmerman of the French NGO Quadrature du Net, former ICANN board member Susan Crawford, US journalist Jeff Jarvis and Creative Commons founder Lawrence Lessig, a specialist in copyright.

Jarvis said he was “scared by those who are scared of the Internet.” Julliard said he was “extremely disappointed” by the course taken by discussions during the e-G8 forum, including the lack of a strongly-worded message to governments that target journalists, bloggers and cyber-dissidents.

“The free Internet must be defended before thought is given to regulating content,” Julliard said. “The priority for G8 governments should be defending the Internet.”

Julliard made similar comments when he took part in a panel discussion today on “Electronic Liberty: New Tools for Freedom,” an official part of the forum’s program. Other participants included Google representatives, Alec Ross of the US State Department, and journalists and activists from the Arab world.

“The G8 should say clearly that Internet access is a fundamental human right, before discussing anything else, whether economic development or copyright issues,” Julliard said.

He also accused certain democracies of saying one thing and doing another. He cited the US administration’s actions as regards WikiLeaks but said other democracies did not lag far behind. “It is easy to defend freedom of speech in Syria, but we should defend it in Italy, Australia and France as well.”

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Joint appeal to e-G8 participants by more than 30 NGOs
25 May 2011

Reporters Without Borders is one of the signatories of the attached letter to the organizers and participants of the two-day “e-G8” forum on Internet issues which the French government began hosting in Paris yesterday ahead of the G8 summit that will begin in Deauville tomorrow.

The letter calls for issues involving online freedom of expression to be on the G8 summit agenda. Only two NGOs were invited to take part in the e-G8 forum: Reporters Without Borders and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Reporters Without Borders is due to participate in a workshop at 11:30 a.m. today on “Electronic Liberty: New Tools for Freedom.”

The letter, whose 36 signatories also include Access Now, Attac and La Quadrature Du Net, asks the e-G8 participants and the G8 member states “to publicly commit to expanding internet access for all, combating digital censorship and surveillance, limiting online intermediary liability, and upholding principles of net neutrality.”

A press Conference is to be held at 11:00am on Wednesday 25 May at the e-G8 Networking Space (outside) with the participation of Jean Francois Julliard, Secretary-General, Reporters Without Borders, Jeremie Zimmerman, spokesperson, La Quadrature du Net, Susan Crawford, member of ICANN board of directors (2005-2008), to rally against calls for Internet regulation.

After French President Nicolas Sarkozy delivered his opening address to the forum yesterday, Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Jean-François Julliard was able to put a question to him about jailed bloggers and cyber-dissidents, especially in the Arab world. Julliard deplored the lack of support from France for these detainees and asked whether the democracies could not do something to help them.

President Sarkozy said in his reply that “all those who have tried to shut down the Internet in their country have put themselves in the camp of the dictators.” He added that “the Internet has become the watershed” between democracies and dictatorships.

In his speech, Sarkozy recognized the role that the Internet plays in “reinforcing democracy and social dialogue” but stressed that it has to accept “minimum values, and minimum rules.” He added: “Your actions must be part of the logic of civilization.”

Reiterating arguments used during the debates in France on the LOPPSI law (which introduced Internet content filtering as a way to combat online porn and paedophilia) and the HADOPI law (under which illegal downloaders can be deprived of an Internet connection), Sarkozy also called for “responsibility” from the forum’s participants.

“Don’t let the technology you created be used to attack children (…) spread evil, undermine security (…) and intellectual property rights,” he said.

France was added to the list of “countries under surveillance” in the report on “Enemies of the Internet” that Reporters Without Borders released on 11 March.

 

 

 

 

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