[WSIS CS-Plenary] draft WSIS CS press statement for feedback

[Adam Jantunen]

I think it is important not to make blanket statements that will antagonize
governments friendly to human rights and some of the other issues of concern
(i.e. Canada).  I also suggest we single out governments that are opposing
human rights.  If we are blaming the north for problems with the Fund, why
can we not blame China for problems with human rights?  I'm not speaking on
behalf of any caucus, just as an independent participant.  Specifically:


> 2.	The struggle over human rights. They are not able to reach a common
> agreement on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as the basis for
> the Information Society. They are not willing to commit to basic human
> right standards, most prominent here the freedom of expression.

I suggest we state "because of the opposition of certain governments, in
particular China, there is no agreement on basic human rights standards..."

>
> 3.	Internet governance
>
> II. Old world or new vision?
>
> The old world of governments and traditional diplomacy confronting new
> challenges and realities in the 21st century:

the phrase "Old World" I think implies Western Europe (in the traditional
sense of the term) ... perhaps "old political order" or "realpolitik"?

>
> We recognize the problems governments face in trying to address a range
> of difficult, complex and politically divisive issues in two documents.
>
> This reflects power struggles that we are seeing around the world. A
> number of governments are getting nervous and stubborn, because they
> realize that a lot is at stake. They have noticed that they can not
> control media content or transborder information flows anymore, nor can
> they lock the knowledge of the world in the legal system of intellectual
> monopolies that are misleadingly called property rights.

I like this paragraph - specifically the "a number of governments" which we
all know who they are

>
> They are afraid.
> ·	fear of power of new technologies, and the way people are using them
> to network, form new forms of partnerships and collaboration, sharing
> eperiences and knowledge etc
> ·	fear and uncertainty of past few years compounds this uncertainty and
> is played out in the WSIS process

Maybe refer to freedom and empowerment that comes through access to
information, improved communications ... this is a dominant theme for civil
society, especially now.

>
> But:
> Do we want to base our vision of the information society one of fear and
> uncertainty or on curiosity and the spirit of looking forward and living
> up to the new challenges?
>
> The WSIS process has slowly but constantly been moving from
> "information" to "society". It was started as a
technocratic idea in the
> ITU and we are proud to say that we were crucial in bringing back the
> idea that in the end, the information society is about humans, the
> communication society is about social processes, or the knowledge
> society is about society's values.
>
> The whole process  shown a lack of interest in forming a common vision
> for the information society among governments.

Again, this seems to implicate all governments, which I don't think is fair
... possibly "because of the opposition of certain governments to some of
the main promises of the information society (improved information sharing,
communication rights, sharing of wealth), because of their vested interest
in oppressive political systems and inegalitarian economic policies, an
agreement has not been reached.

> to.
>
> If the governments want to agree, they can agree in 5 minutes. We have
> the feeling that there is no political will to agree on a common vision.
>
> Therefore we will now stop giving input to the intergovernmental
> documents.

You cannot speak for all civil society groups on this point.

Adam Jantunen