[WSIS CS-Plenary] UN Changes Goal post for Tunis Phase for Media, etc

[editor at it-telecomdigest.com]

Is everyone, particularly civil society members, NGOs, etc, aware that the UN
system, in particular the media accreditation unit, has made things
practically impossible for many journalists in many African countries to be
accredited to attend the Tunis Phase of the WSIS?

That they suddenly changed the system - or moved the goal posts - regarding
requirements for accreditation from what obtained in Geneva, as against what
they want for Tunis? And many African journalists, frustrated by the change
simply labelled the UN system as having preconceived plans to thwart the WSIS
process, originally initiated by Tunisia.

So, civil society groups, you have a problem on your hands.




Bertrand de La Chapelle <bdelachapelle at gmail.com> wrote:

> Adina, please find a bio below.
>  Best. Bertrand
>   *Bertrand de LA CHAPELLE*
> *Co-coordinator*
> *CS Working Group on WSIS implementation and follow-up*
>    Bertrand de La Chapelle is a specialist and promoter of multi-stakeholder
> processes with a rare multiple experience as a diplomat, an entrepreneur and
> a civil society actor.
>  A french diplomat by training (as Head of the Mission for New Information
> Technologies of the French Foreign Ministry from 1998 to 2001, he was a
> member of the G8 DOT Force), he also enjoys nine years of private sector
> experience, particularly between 1994 and 1998 as a founder and President of
> Virtools ( www.virtools.com <http://www.virtools.com/>), a company providing
> the world's leading development environment for 3D interactive content. The
> company, now selling in 22 countries, has been recently acquired by Dassault
> Systemes. Bertrand de La Chapelle is a member of the Board of the NGO Bridge
> Initiative International and a regular partner of the Charles Leopold Mayer
> Foundation, and as such participated in several panels, including most
> recently in Brazil, Canada, Italy and China.
>  Previous assignments included Advisor to the French Minister for European
> Affairs (1987-1988). Bertrand de La Chapelle also conducted personal
> research in 2002 on multi-stakeholder governance mechanisms in his position
> as Special Advisor to the Director of Institut Français des Relations
> Internationales, the leading french think-tank on international relations.
>   Bertrand de La Chapelle has been actively involved in the WSIS process
> since its inception, leveraging the diversity of his experiences to promote
> dialogue between civil society, private sector and governmental
> representatives during the last four years. He is the co-coordinator of the
> Civil Society Working Group on WSIS Follow-up and the Director of
> wsis-online.net <http://wsis-online.net/>, the community platform for WSIS.
>  Bertrand de La Chapelle is a graduate of Ecole Polytechnique (1981), the
> Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris (1983) and the Ecole Nationale
> d'Administration (1986).
>   Bertrand de La Chapelle
> Tel : +33 (0)6 11 88 33 32
> email : bdelachapelle at gmail.com
>