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| Nii Narku Quaynor, one of the fathers of Internet in Africa |
The agitation to stop some
governments determination to use backdoor to obtain more powers to censor and
regulate the Internet has continued to gain momentum as Google has join the
force to demand for free and open web. This is coming as the battle over the
dot Africa goes dirty.
Google, the global leader in search
engine on the web says that “A free and open world depends on a free and open
web.”
They also noted that the internet
has connected more than two billion people around the world, so, the global
internet community must add their voices to stop some government shoddy deals
in order to gain more regulatory powers over the internet.
“Join together to keep the Internet
free and open. Make your voice heard.” Google urged, insisting, “It is ours and
it is free. A free and open world depends on a free and open web. And a free
and open web depends on me,” part of Google quote read.
This is coming as over 881,762
subscribers have joined the Google campaign globally as at the time of filing
this report, while the views has continue to grow against the alleged plans to
hold closed door meeting at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to
discuss the future of the Internet.
Meanwhile, the battle over whose
voice must be heard on proposed dot Africa has increasingly gotten dirtier as
young dudes insult elders in the name of agitation over who should take charge
of dot Africa.
This has become worrisome in the
face of the fact that the global Internet administrator, the Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has processes and procedures
for granting domain names.
Despite this fact, some Africans,
especially the young ones have decided to humiliate the elders against
commercial value of dot Africa.
This culminated in some elements
calling names and referring to an elderly with Ph.D as Dr. Nonsense etc. This
level of dirty agitation to most people in the African list of ICANN is
unAfrican and is uncalled for, based on the rules of the game.
This battle intensifies as the ITU
convened World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) in Dubai,
United Arab Emirates, holds between December 3 and14, 2012, is expected to
review the current International Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs), which
serve as the binding global treaty designed to facilitate international
interconnection and interoperability of information and communication services,
as well as ensuring their efficiency and widespread public usefulness and
availability.
But in his message ahead of the
11-day meeting, the ITU Secretary-General, Dr Hamadoun I. Touré urged
governments to engage their stakeholders to ensure all voices are heard before
the WCIT week-long session in Dubai.
According to him, engagement of a
broad range of stakeholders from across industry and civil society would ensure
all voices are heard at the forthcoming World Conference on International
Telecommunications (WCIT-12) which takes place in Dubai, United Arab Emirates
(UAE).
The ITRs treaty, he said, sets out
general principles for ensuring the free flow of information around the world
and promoting affordable and equitable access for all. “ITU Member States are
entirely free to determine the size and composition of their national
delegations. We are delighted to see some governments taking a broad
multi-stakeholder approach by including key private sector players and civil
society groups as part of their national representation to the conference – a
trend ITU applauds and encourages,” said Dr Touré.
Toure pointed out that during the
two-week WCIT-12 conference, delegations from ITU’s 193 Member States will
debate revisions to the current treaty to ensure it better meets the needs of
21st century networks and users. Proposals to the conference include ways to
accelerate the global roll-out of broadband (with an increased focus on energy
efficiency and cutting e-waste); initiatives to further promote accessibility
of technology to persons with disabilities; support for continuing investment
in networks, services and applications; strategies to address high cost of
mobile roaming and taxation of international telecommunications services; and
the need for a harmonious and conducive international environment that drives
future innovation.
As a member of the United Nations
family, he said, ITU maintains its commitment to upholding the fundamental
principles of freedom of expression as outlined in Article 19 of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights, and in Article 33 of the ITU’s own Constitution, which takes legal
precedence over the ITR treaty. Stressing, “Tunisia, crucible of the Arab
Spring, has put forward a proposal to explicitly include such text in the
revised ITRs. This proposal is supported by many,” he said.
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| Bekele, Executive Director, Dot Connect Africa |
In response to a recent open letter
to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon jointly signed by the International Trade
Union Confederation (ITUC) and Greenpeace expressing concern over some
proposals, Dr Touré was pleased to reply in writing, as well as to meet with
ITUC General Secretary, Sharan Burrow and her team in Geneva on November 15, to
clarify the WCIT process.
During the discussions, he was
reportedly able to dispel some widespread misunderstandings, most notably
regarding the nature of the full compendium of proposals that constitute the
output of the WCIT-12 preparatory process.
Within ITU, he said, there is a key
principle giving any Member State the sovereign right to make any proposal to
the conference, whereas these members will then discuss whether each proposal
falls within the conference’s purview.
Dr Touré pointed the ITUC to the
full compilation of proposals on the ITU website; some informally distributed
versions prepared by external bodies currently in circulation have been found
to be inaccurate.
He also emphasized the fact that
ITU is organizing the WCIT-12 conference at the behest of its members, which
include 193 countries worldwide.
DigitalSENSE
Business News recalls that during the course of the meeting, Dr Touré
extended an invitation to ITUC to become a Sector Member of ITU. Even as the current
ITRs were last negotiated in Melbourne, Australia in 1988, and bind 178
countries.
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