Deep Divide on Internet : UN Leaders Aim for Cyberspace
10 Dec 2003Global leaders who had gathered in Geneva in advance of the first-ever United Nations summit meeting on the Internet, could agree only on compromises on Tuesday, illustrating the deep divisions around the world on issues such as: freedom of expression, how to fund communications for the world's poor and the role governments should play in cyberspace.
Despite their broad differences, however, the governments agreed in their preparatory meetings on some broad principles — including developing domestic legislation that guarantees the independence of the media — and on an action plan that includes ensuring that by 2015 all of the world's population has access to television and radio services and that more than half has access to some form of information and communications technologies.
The principles and the action plan will be presented to the summit meeting's plenary session, with adoption expected Friday evening.
Security was tight on the eve of the summit meeting, which on Wednesday brings together some 5,000 national representatives, plus a host of NGOs. On Tuesday, delegates dressed in ponchos and colorful African dresses rubbed shoulders with armed soldiers who patrolled the PalExpo congress center.
Notably, absent were the heads of state of most western countries, including the United States. Many western powers, did, though, send lower-level delegations that agreed to the principles and the action plan.
The action plan, unanimously adopted, aims over the next 12 years to:
* Connect the world's villages with different types of technologies and establish community access points.
* Connect universities and schools; scientific and research centers; public libraries, cultural centers, museums and post offices; and health centers and hospitals.
* Connect all local and central government departments and establish Web sites and e-mail addresses.
* Adapt school curricula "to meet the challenges of the Information Society.”
* Ensure the development of content and put in place the technical conditions to facilitate the use of all world languages on the Internet.
In the run-up to the summit meeting, one of the most contentious issues was how to fund the estimated $6.3 billion it will cost to connect everyone in the world to the Internet.
Senegal and a number of African countries pushed hard for a special fund to be set up to help developing countries but this was fought by a number of other countries, including Japan and European countries, said Mark Furrer, Swiss communications minister and chief negotiator on the declaration of principles.
After four hours of intense debate, Tuesday, governments agreed to set up a task force to study the issue.
Yoshio Utsumi, Secretary General of the International Telecommunication Union, a Geneva-based agency of the UN, said the incentive for private sector investment is rich. If $1.1 billion were invested in giving everyone in the world a telephone, he said, global telecommunications revenue would triple.
Jean-Philippe Courtois, Chief Executive of Microsoft's Europe, Middle East and Africa division, said companies like his — which has already pledged $1 billion toward digital divide projects — would be willing to invest even more if governments can convince them that the money will be put to good use.
"The key for all of us is how much rigor and discipline is going to be applied in the implementation of the action plan," he said.
Courtois took part in a private meeting Tuesday that included heads of state from Europe, the Middle East and Africa as well as business leaders and high-profile Internet figures. The private meeting addressed the topics of connectivity, finding appropriate technologies, the use of excess bandwidth to help development, and Internet governance.
As expected, Internet governance was the thorniest.
Governments participating in a preparatory meeting agreed, Sunday, that a working group should be set up under UN auspices to examine Internet governance issues, including whether governmental oversight of groups like the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a private company under contract to the U.S. government, is necessary.
It was clear, on Tuesday, though, that the resolution was being interpreted very differently.
"Just the recognition that government has a role to play is a major shift," said Tim Kelly, head of the ITU's strategy policy unit. "This is a big step towards the internationalization of the Internet."
But Nicholas Negroponte, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and author of "Being Digital," said that such a group needs to be composed of people who do not represent any constituency. Another roundtable participant, Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, Vice Chairman of the UN Information and Communications Technologies Task Force (UN ICT TF), said he would like all Internet governance issues — not just ICANN — to fall under the mandate of the UN ICT Task Force.
ICANN's president, Paul Twomey, who received a last-minute invitation to participate on the Internet governance meeting, said the summit meeting's resolution recognized that governments have a voice — but only as one of many voices representing the Internet's stakeholders.
Rather than rely on the UN, said Negroponte, Chairman of the governance session, "Maybe it is time to develop an entirely different organization."
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