Closing the Summit on IT

The UN summit on expanding global Internet access opportunities held in Tunisia has just ended. At the conference, delegates debated the issue of censorship and management of the Internet.

The World Summit on Information Society also discusses how to bridge the technology gap between rich and poor countries but has little discussion about funding for poor countries.

At the conference, debates on monitoring Internet governance were held. This conference is also marked by disagreements over freedom of expression. Representing more than 170 countries with about 17,000 people attended this unprecedented grand conference held by the United Nations in Tunisia, called the ' Conference of Solutions '.

The conference concluded with the Declaration ' Tunis Commitment ' and ' Tunis Agenda for Information Society '.

These documents reaffirmed the commitments made at the last summit in Geneva two years ago to increase efforts to help poor countries use information and communication technologies. But while all countries acknowledge that funding is not enough, this conference still does not discuss this issue much.

The conference affirmed that technologies and knowledge will drive countries to agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals. Participants also supported the organization of a similar conference in the next few years to consider resolving the issues raised.

Attending this information technology summit are world leaders, human rights organizations, NGOs, representatives from the world's leading technology companies, journalists and internet users.

But at the conference, the most notable is the tension in the activities of social organizations, with action calls to ensure the equal rights of all citizens of the global information society in freedom of speech.

In a statement, the US delegate expressed frustration that the Tunisian government did not take advantage of this important opportunity to demonstrate its commitment to freedom of expression and assembly in Tunisia.

For his part, Chinese Deputy Prime Minister Huang Ju told delegates that some restrictions on the Internet were needed to protect the state, although China wanted to " ensure freedom of speech". He said: For the internet, we need effective measures to combat criminal acts using this technology as well as criminals of economic fraud, violence, terrorism and what's harmful to security. nation.

"Freedom on the Internet is a prerequisite for an information society," said Yoshio Utsumi, secretary general of the International Telecommunication Union, which oversees the conference. He said: ' Our goal is to share information. Only with freedom of information can we create an information society '.

He said, people must be able to create and share information. Only with these activities can we look forward to an information society for people. In terms of network security, he said there are many forums discussing how to solve this problem, the problem that ITU plays in it, but there is no specific international standard.

Most during the conference there were debates on choosing Tunisia as the host country. A concessional solution for future network management has been adopted in a last-minute meeting.

Accordingly, the US ICANN organization will continue to manage Internet technology, but a new network management forum will be established. In the closing remarks, Mr. Utsumi said, a new page in network management was opened with the decision to set up this forum.

He said everyone acknowledged that all governments should be equally responsible for managing the internet. But the forum will not have the authority to monitor the technical operation of the network, but will handle network problems. But, Mr. Utsumi stressed, it is not only the beginning of a long process for the internet, but will be very different in the next five years because of the rapid development of information technology.

US officials called the agreement on network management an outcome of the victory, while ICANN's chief executive and chief executive, Paul Twomey, cautiously said the basic dispute in governance. The network is not over yet.

Prominent results include a plan to release a laptop model for under $ 100, a tool in the campaign to ensure every child has a laptop.