Rising Tide of Governance Debates Said Responsible for New Internet Evolution

The EuroDig talks resulted in no agreement or decisions, participants said. Andrew McIntosh, chairman of the media subcommittee at the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly will urge the assembly to support the request for secretariat services for future dialogs on Internet governance (WID Sept 15 p3).

The human rights focus of the discussions was surprising, participants said. Human rights debates are sometimes used to slow things or to hinder dialog among ISPs, government and others, said Malcolm Hutty of the European ISP Association. Participants had “a real passionate belief” that it needs to be at the forefront of Internet governance discussions, Hutty said. New human rights standards and changes to existing norms need to be examined to fit the reality of the Internet, said Jan Malinowski, head of the media and information society division at the Council of Europe. Better implementation of standards also is needed, Malinowski said.

A new stage of Internet evolution has been reached, said Garegin Chugaszyan, representing Armenia in the Council of Europe. Future EuroDig meetings should have a light and flexible structure because that could fuel innovation, participants said.

A strong need was expressed for a European voice in the Internet Governance Forum, ICANN and other institutions dealing with the issues, Malinowski said. Discussion wasn’t passionate about ICANN’s post-Joint Project Agreement phase, participants said. Not all future problems can be solved with domain name procedures, said Jean Reveillon, director general of the European Broadcasting Union.

Governments must be kept involved in governance dialogs, said William Dee of the EC. Many in Internet governance debates see government as the enemy, Dee said, and participants expect governments to protect their rights. Fear of regulation misleads, an Austrian government official said. The European perspective to support standard setting activities without a discussion of regulation lacks substance, the Austrian official said. Regulation should be avoided, but regulators can help spur public/private partnerships to expand the benefits of the Internet, said Anders Johanson of the Swedish Post and Telecom Agency

Reliability and quality of information on the Internet is a goal that needs to be reached despite shrinking resources, Reveillon said. Many news bureaus, especially those in developing countries and in conflict zones, have closed because of the economic crisis, Reveillon said. Frequently only public service TV is left standing, he said. The tendency by some governments and regulatory authorities to apply audiovisual sector rules to the Internet implies heavy-handed regulation, said Frederic Riehl, deputy director of Swiss Ofcom. Others say the Internet is more like print media, which is handled with light, flexible regulation, Riehl said.

More business users may need to be involved in the European Internet governance discussions, Hutty said. The private sector has to be more engaged, said Bertrand de la Chapelle of the French foreign ministry. “Certain actors that have a very large position in the market … are not only subjects of governance, they're also actors of governance,” de la Chapelle said, referring to social networking and in other areas.

One challenge for EuroDig is to avoid situations where the same people travel to different places to make the same statements, Dee said. A broader public participation is needed, Dee said. “We need to avoid [becoming] a traveling clique of vocal and opinionated individuals,” Dee said. The Internet Governance Forum USA happens Oct. 2 in Washington. - - Scott Billquist