[Chapter-delegates] The Internet Society on the Wikileaks issue

[Zaid Ali]

This is a great message. Thanks for putting it out there quickly.

Zaid


On 12/7/10 11:35 AM, "Anya Chambers" <chambers at isoc.org> wrote:

> Dear all
> 
> Recognizing that there has been vigorous discussion of the wikileaks.org
> issue, we wanted to draw your attention to the Internet Society's position on
> the matter.  As always, we are drawing on the long-established principles on
> which the Internet Society is founded.
> 
> It has also been posted on the internetsociety.org website
> http://isoc.org/wp/newsletter/?p=2706.
> 
> Regards
> 
> Anya
> Recently, we have witnessed the effective disappearance from the Internet of a
> website made infamous through international press coverage and political
> intrigue.
> 
> The Internet Society is founded upon key principles of free expression and non
> discrimination that are essential to preserve the openness and utility of the
> Internet. We believe that this incident dramatically illustrates that those
> principles are currently at risk.
> 
> Recognizing the content of the wikileaks.org website is the subject of concern
> to a variety of individuals and nations, we nevertheless believe it must be
> subject to the same laws and policies of availability as all Internet sites.
> Free expression should not be restricted by governmental or private controls
> over computer hardware or software, telecommunications infrastructure, or
> other essential components of the Internet.
> 
> Resilience and cooperation are built into the Internet as a design principle.
> The cooperation among several  organizations has ensured that the impact on
> the Wikileaks organizational website has not prevented all access to Wikileaks
> material.  This further underscores that removal of a domain is an ineffective
> tool to suppress communication, merely serving to undermine the integrity of
> the global Internet and its operation.
> 
> Unless and until appropriate laws are brought to bear to take the
> wikileaks.org domain down legally, technical solutions should be sought to
> reestablish its proper presence, and appropriate actions taken to pursue and
> prosecute entities (if any) that acted maliciously to take it off the air.
> 
> 
> Anya Chambers
> Internet Society
> 
> mobile: +1 224 321 0378
> web: www.InternetSociety.org
> twitter: InternetSociety
> 
> 
> 
> 
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