Issue of online free expression overshadowed by debate about US control over Internet

Reporters Without Borders today appealed to the countries taking party in the four-day Internet Governance Forum (IGF) that began yesterday in Rio not to allow the issue of online free expression to be eclipsed by the debate about the United States' dominant role in Internet governance. Website domain names are managed by ICANN, a California-based non-profit organisation which could in theory eliminate the domain names of certain countries from the Internet - something that would have major political repercussions. In the first of these UN-organised Internet Governance Forums last year in Athens, some countries regretted that this monopoly had not been challenged more often in the debates. The Brazilian minister in charge of strategic affairs, Mangabeira Unger, said: “Internet governance should be based on two fundamental principles, the anti-hegemonic principle - no country should have a hegemonic role - and the principle of limitation of state influence.” “This forum should not be used solely to oppose the United States' dominant role,” Reporters Without Borders said today. “It is not normal that the United States should have sole control of Internet regulation. But transferring its management to governments that censor the Internet and jail Internet users would be a catastrophic solution. Instead, those bodies that regulate the Internet should be given the legal means to defend free expression.” Several “governance models” were proposed last year in Athens. The only clearly defined alternative model comes from the Internet's most repressive countries, who want to transfer control to the UN. The position taken by the European Union was to propose that ICANN's functions that have direct political consequences should be entrusted to a “multilateral collegiate structure.” Since then, this proposal has not been spelled out. The Council of Europe and the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) today proposed a new model inspired by the Aarhus Convention, signed in 1998 in Denmark, which brings together access to information, public participation in decision-making and environmental rights. This new proposal, still in a draft form, would treat the Internet as a public service and would try to ensure that citizens participate in its regulation. The holding of Internet Governance Forums is envisaged by the Tunis agenda, which was adopted at the World Summit on the Information Society in 2005.