DIFFERENCES REMAIN ON ITU PROJECT FUNDING AS WSIS DRAWS NEAR

Attendance still could increase before the conference begins, Tharoor said. But in response to an audience questioner, he attributed the current low level of planned attendance to political leaders being “slightly intimidated by what they may see only inaccurately as the technological nature of the challenges of the Information Society.” As a result, some political leaders decided to allow technology or communications ministers to represent them, “seeing the Information Society as essentially an exercise in the use of technology… We think it would be a pity if the meeting were seen purely in a narrow technical sense. It is very much meant to be a meeting of policy makers, of policy leaders.” For heads of state who send communications ministers, Tharoor said he hoped they would be empowered to interact at a policy level at the conference.

Because of political and security considerations, Utsumi said Fri. he couldn’t name the 50 heads of state who had committed to attend. But in response to a question that attendance from both G8 and developing G20 countries was expected to be low, Utsumi said he had received assurances from “all regions of the world, including G8 countries, about participating in the summit.” He said he would have a better picture Nov. 3, when lots were drawn for the order in which leaders would speak. “At that time, I hope that who is coming will become clearer.”

International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Secy. Gen. Maria Livanos Cattaui said important changes had been made in the draft documents leading up to the Geneva cybersummit, although she said “disparities” remained in areas such as Internet management, Internet charging, software choice and financing. Key issues for the U.S. have been media freedom, intellectual property, network and cybersecurity, open source software and Internet governance.

The summit marks the first time issues involving information and communications technology (ICT), including penetration, have been discussed at such a meeting at the level of presidents and prime ministers, said Yuri Grin, dir. gen. of the Dept. for International Cooperation in Russia’s Ministry for Communications & Information. The summit, focused largely on the digital divide, will discuss issues including cybersecurity, spam, Internet governance, funding for new technology and press freedom. Audience members -- including some broadcasters -- pressed the final panel at the ITU show particularly hard on how govts. would handle press freedom, enshrined in the U.N.’s Article 19 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights.

Drafts of the 2 main documents to be debated at the summit, the declaration of principles and the action plan, are coming along, although more work needs to be done to remove “square brackets,” Utsumi said, referring to language on which agreement hadn’t yet been reached. He said the summit would address “the long-standing injustice of the digital divide.” The draft plan includes a commitment to connect all the world’s villages with ICT by 2015. Utsumi said a summit was needed “to alert world leaders to the challenges that lie ahead in the Information Society and to build confidence in it.”

One proposal earlier in the preparatory process that sparked alarm from some in the U.S. and elsewhere would require telcos operating in different countries to pay into national “solidarity funds” to help underwrite universal access. The ICC had balked at that idea, saying it would erase choice at the national level on how to provide universal access to ICT because it would control how businesses used profits.

The U.S. also has expressed concern about a separate, independent telecom fund that would constitute a tax on providers. With 6 weeks before WSIS begins, participants said Fri. that that issue still must be resolved. “We shouldn’t be too strict concerning a fund,” said Marc Furrer, dir.-gen. of the Swiss Federal Office of Communication and state secy. for WSIS. He acknowledged the divergent positions of those who supported the fund and others who saw it as a tax: “I think it’s true [that] we do need new money. But there’s a lot of funds already and there’s a lot of money in the funds. But people from Africa tell me they get access to only 20% of the money they would have the right to because somehow there is too much bureaucracy in dealing with these funds.”

A Senegal official said a key to the success of the summit would involve how decisions were made on that funding mechanism. Existing funding tools are limited in their applicability and are bureaucratic, he said: “This is what prompted developing countries to state we would like a new mechanism for implementation of plans. The summit will fail if you don’t have a list that goes beyond pious wishes.” Furrer agreed a mechanism must be found that didn’t rely on top-heavy bureaucracy. “We do have to find something which doesn’t constitute empty promises for you.”

Other important Internet-related issues included spam regulations, Furrer said. He said Microsoft Chmn. Bill Gates told a small group at the ITU show that spam was a technical problem that probably could be solved within 2 years. “We have to have a good representation of heads of states,” Furrer said. “To stay behind in the capitol doesn’t bring anything.”

The ICC’s Cattaui said that among the summit outcomes the business community hoped for were investments in information and communications technology, promotion of the “actual use” of information that such technology made available and national strategies that implemented the decisions. Among areas that await resolution before the summit is Internet governance. “Some countries want to see a governmental organization assume the current role of ICANN,” she said. “Others want a more formulaic approach to replace the current commercially negotiated contracts for connection to the backbone of the Internet.”

The ICC “knows perfectly well” that a group of countries has been pushing for an internationally managed mandatory fund to finance projects that emerge from the action plan the summit will approve, Cattaui said. “Others, however, by the way are wary of certain international mechanisms -- some might be voluntary, some mandatory,” she said. Cattaui said the business community that she represented would like to see coordination of existing funds. “Before we go on any further, it is a shame that existing funding mechanisms are not better coordinated and are not fully utilized,” she said.

Another major issue that emerged during the preparatory meetings is freedom of expression and the role of the media. The U.N.’s Tharoor said a World Electronic Media Forum would be held in conjunction with WSIS. Organizers include the European Broadcasting Union, the U.N. and Switzerland, with Annan scheduled to speak. Organizers said sessions would cover world violence and violence on media, “media freedom in the information society,” quality certification in broadcasting, radio-TV and the new media and public service and commercial broadcasting. They said the forum would adopt a “radio-TV action plan for the Information Society.” A joint declaration adopted by key broadcasting organizations around the world is to be given to Annan.

On Article 19 media freedom issues, Tharoor said he met Thurs. with a group of ambassadors who had been working on the WSIS declaration of principles, urging them to uphold the universality of press freedom that the U.N. had always backed under that article. “Some governments also wish to link it to Article 29, which refers to national legislation and national restrictions,” he said. “I urged them to separate the 2, that there should be no attempt to undermine Article 19 by linking it to anything else.”

Tharoor said one question had been whether boundaries in place for traditional media should be extended to the Internet. “Action has been taken by some governments to shut down Internet sites that peddle child pornography, or that promote anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and racial hatred. These measures fall under national penal law and are not viewed as a threat to freedom of speech,” he said. But he said that at the same time “national security or crime control can easily serve as a pretext for repressive governments to curtail press freedom.”