Communications-Related Headlines for December 8, 2003

WORLD SUMMIT ON THE INFORMATION SOCIETY
Closing the Digital Divide
Internet Showdown Side-stepped in Geneva
UNESCO High-Level Symposium at WSIS Will Send Global Wake-Up Call

INTERNET
China Close to 78 Million Web Surfers

----------------------------------------------------------------------

WORLD SUMMIT ON THE INFORMATION SOCIETY

CLOSING THE DIGITAL DIVIDE
WSIS officials say that last-minute deals on human rights and managing the
Internet should allay fears that this week's summit will become a battle
between rich and poor states. There were concerns that some states, among
them China and Iran, were trying to qualify the right to freedom of
expression, which is guaranteed in the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights. But late on Saturday, negotiators representing nearly 200 countries
reached agreement on two draft texts -- a declaration of principles and an
action plan -- to be presented to their governments in Geneva. Regarding
Internet management, states agreed to ask United Nations Secretary-General
Kofi Annan to form a working party to investigate and report back by 2005,
when a second summit will be held in Tunis. The only outstanding question
concerned a special international fund to help poorer states, particularly
in Africa, finance the development of information technology networks. "All
are agreed that something needs to be done (to help poorer countries)," says
Swiss senior government official Marc Furrer. He says he is confident the
issue will be resolved in further discussions ahead of Wednesday's start of
the summit.
SOURCE: nzoom.com; AUTHOR: Reuters
http://onenews.nzoom.com/onenews_detail/0,1227,241404-1-454,00.html

INTERNET SHOWDOWN SIDE-STEPPED IN GENEVA
Following 12 intensive hours of talks in Geneva prior to the opening of the
World Summit on Information Society, the issue of who will control the
Internet has been side-stepped at the last minute. Western countries want
ICANN -- Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers -- to control
the Internet, but the rest of the world wants the International
Telecommunication Union (ITU) to take over. The two sides were deadlocked on
the issue and decided to table the decision for a year. ICANN oddly enough
has revamped its website in terms of accessibility and user friendliness.
Paul Twomey, new head of ICANN, has 12 months to make the company acceptable
to the rest of the world. The negotiators also debated the issue of free
speech and the role of media on the Internet. It was decided that the UN's
Universal Declaration of Human Rights would be used for wording instead of
what China deemed as "western wording."
SOURCE: The Register; AUTHOR: Kieren McCarthy
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/34394.html

UNESCO HIGH-LEVEL SYMPOSIUM AT WSIS WILL SEND GLOBAL WAKE-UP CALL
How can the world community move towards building open, pluralistic and
equitable knowledge societies? Political and intellectual world leaders will
debate this at the UNESCO High-Level Symposium on "Building Knowledge
Societies -- from Vision to Action" (December 9-10). The event will be
opened on Tuesday, December 9 at 3 p.m. by UNESCO's Director General
Koichiro Matsuura, with Marc Furrer, Secretary of State for WSIS of
Switzerland and Adama Samassekou, President of the WSIS Preparatory
Committee. Several heads of state are scheduled to deliver keynote speeches
for the two panels, among them Olusegun Obasanjo, President of Nigeria,
Vaira Vike-Freiberga, President of Latvia and Joaquim Alberto Chissano,
President of Mozambique and Chairman of the African Union. Other confirmed
panelists include eminent experts such as Gary Becker, Nobel Prize winner in
Economics, Monkombu S. Swaminathan, Chairman of M.S. Swaminathan Research
Foundation of India, Lawrence Lessig, Stanford Law School, Valdas Adamkus,
Former President of Lithuania, John Gage, Chief Researcher and Director of
the Science Office of Sun Microsystems and Abdul-Muyeed Chowdhury, Executive
Director of BRAC of Bangladesh. "The UNESCO symposium is a call for world
leaders to ensure that cultural, ethical and intellectual dimensions are key
parts in the summit process," says Adama Samassekou, President of the WSIS
Preparatory Committee.
SOURCE: UNESCO
http://www.unesco.org/wsis/symposium/

INTERNET

CHINA CLOSE TO 78 MILLION WEB SURFERS
By the end of 2003, the number of China's Internet users is expected to hit
78 million, writes the China Daily newspaper, citing a report by the
Internet Society of China. The article also stated that the number of
China's websites is expected to increase to 500,000, and online computers
would reach 30 million by the end of the year. Hu Qiheng, chairwoman of the
society, was quoted as saying the Internet sector in China still lagged
developed countries. The number of Internet users grew an annual 48.5
percent to 68 million people by the end of June, according to the China
Internet Network Information Center. The semi-official research center said
that China overtook Japan at the end of 2002 as the world's second-largest
group of online users, second only to the US.
SOURCE: Reuters
http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=395...