Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe yesterday told delegates, to
much applause, that there was too much free speech on the Internet. Is
this symptomatic of the WSIS summit?
I don't think it translated on the practical level. This is only fluff.
It's rhetoric. It's to be expected. That wasn't followed up with
specific action.
What's the mood been like here for civil liberties groups?
There have been incidents inside and outside (WSIS). Probably the most
important thing is the long-held plans for the Citizens' Summit outside
the primary WSIS area — we couldn't go forward with it. The venues were
disrupted by the security forces.
How?
First a hotel couldn't be found, then one was booked and money was
paid. Then it was cancelled and the money won't be returned. It's since
emerged that it was the security forces.
The second point was that the organising committee on Monday of this week at the Goethe Institute was blocked. It's affiliated with the German embassy. The German ambassador himself was prevented from entering. He was furious at being blocked physically from the institute. At that point it had reached a fever pitch — and that made it impossible for us to find an alternate venue.
We had scheduled only one session on Tunisia. The rest was on other topics, including communication issues and open source software. It was never intended to provoke the Tunisian authorities.
Isn't that a little short-sighted of the Tunisian government, especially when hundreds of foreign journalists are visiting?
It's worked for them up until now. I honestly believe that they would
have come out a lot better by making some small concessions.
Now let me say that since then it's clear that the government has become a little more sensitive (in the last few days). They've allowed a press conference.
Tell me about the hunger strike?
The hunger strike has been going on since 18 October. It's quite a
distinct issue. They're hunger striking over freedom of expression and
release of political prisoners. (Nobel Laureate) Shirin Ebadi visited
them and urged them to cease their fast. It was literally a plate of
dates she gave them.
Is the United Nations' choice to hold a world Internet summit here symbolic?
Tunis was the first country to suggest hosting the summit. There's not
a huge amount of thought going into the location. It's supposed to be
an honour to hold it. Tunisia wanted to show off its best face, show
that it's a modern country. This is why I don't understand why they
decided to crack down.
