Monday, November 16, 2009
Kareem Amer, an Egyptian blogger serving a prison term for insulting Islam and President Hosni Mubarak (photo: Aljazeera)
Free press and human rights advocates have been astonished by the United Nations’ decision to allow Egypt, a country that routinely cracks down on human expression, to host a conference about the Internet. The Internet Governance Forum, consisting of representatives of national governments, international organizations, universities and ICANN (Internet Cooperation for Assigned Names and Numbers), began meeting on Sunday for three days to discuss security, access and the growth of social networks. The group Reporters Without Borders was especially appalled by the selection of the Egyptian resort city of Sharm El-Sheikh to host the conference.
“Egypt’s legitimacy to host such a meeting is questionable as it has repeatedly been guilty of violations of online free expression,” Reporters Without Borders declared on its website. “It is astonishing that a government that is openly hostile to Internet users is assigned the organization of an international meeting on the Internet’s future.”
The organization pointed out that in just the past two weeks Egyptian officials have arrested and beaten bloggers because of their online postings.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
UN Slated for Stifling Net Debate (by Jonathan Fildes, BBC News)
Violator of Online Free Expression to Host International Internet Meeting (Reporters Without Borders)
Net Talking Shop Kicks Off Debate (BBC News)
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