Oh well, TIG is partaking in the org fair at the international IT conference EVA 2005 in Moscow. Just like in 2005 we got a what you would call "stand" here, i.e. a table with a computer which is hooked up to the Internet (thank goodness) - and the good Internet connection-speed-wise, I would say! (surprise-surprise!) Anyways, having gotten back home after WSIS and having seen and actually LIVED the whole week at the ICT4All exhibition hall (Yay to all WSIS Youth Caucus people!) I expected to get into a somewhat similar situation here, at a conference which has a long history and high credibility. But - surprise-surprise - as you hit the third floor of the State Library of Foreign Literature, you face a small room which is just 4 times the size of the tiny office where TIG resides in Moscow, half empty, with only 6 or 7 organizations/companies represented. Yesterday (the second day of the conference) it was better (there were like 10-12 companies), and I bet the first day was just a complete success for the fair, but as the conference goers start to obstain from getting into the sessions they have registered for, they apparently get even less inclined to visit the org fair, which is just next door to the conference hall and break-out rooms... Quite a regular situation, huh?

Oh well... Still I met some people yesterday (mostly teachers and librarians) who were very excited to learn about TIG and the ways they can get young people involved through the use of IT in class and out of class. Hopefully their interest in TakingITGlobal won't dwindle away as quickly as the interest in the conference...

And welcome to Stas, TIG's new volunteer in Moscow who's now helping us with the translations and event database maintainance in Russian!

Here's yet another piece forwarded by Jocelyn... I'm crashed totally - having been just a few miles from the site and unaware of what was happening until one of the last days in Tunisia...

PRESS RELEASE
November 14, 2005
Posted to the web November 15, 2005

Article 19/IFEX
The following press release has been distributed by ARTICLE 19 on behalf of
the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Civil Society's Media
Caucus:

Civil Society's Media Caucus at WSIS expresses its indignation over a series
of incidents in which Tunisian authorities have hampered the freedom of
expression of journalists and their freedom of association as well as that
of others attending the Tunis phase of the World Summit on the Information
Society.

In addition to problems involving denial of entry to Tunisia; the following
incidents have occurred in the days preceding the summit:

Christophe Boltanski, a correspondent for the Paris daily newspaper
'Lib?ration', was beaten and stabbed and had his personal effects stolen
near his hotel in the embassy district. When he cried for help, guards
standing outside a nearby embassy did not intervene. The attack took place a
day after Lib?ration published Boltanski's report about clashes between
police and activists protesting in support of seven hunger strikers
campaigning for the release of political prisoners in Tunisia.

Representatives of Tunisian and foreign media and human rights organisations
were prevented by a large number of Tunisian plainclothes police from
entering the Goethe Institute, the cultural centre of the German Embassy in
Tunis, for a meeting to plan events parallel to the Summit.

A Belgian television cameraman approaching the Institute had his camera
seized by plainclothes police who forced themselves into the TV crew's
vehicle. The camera was only returned after the film cassette had been
confiscated. The police stated that no pictures may be taken in Tunisia
without prior official authorisation and prevented another reporter from
taking photographs of the incident. A Tunisian journalist approaching the
site was beaten by police.

Various websites which have contained criticism of Tunisia are available to
the delegates at the official WSIS venue, but remain blocked and censored in
the rest of Tunisia.

Such incidents call into question the seriousness of the Tunisian government
to allow full freedom of expression and association at the WSIS.

The incidents show that prior concerns about the observance of human rights
in Tunisia have been justified, underlining the widespread nature of
official abuses in the country.

They also illustrate that concerns about holding a United Nations Summit
dealing with communication and freedom of expression in such a country were
justified.

To correct the situation the Tunisian government and the International
Communication Union as the relevant UN authority organising the summit,
must:

- Guarantee equal right to access information via the internet both within
and outside of the summit site.

- Guarantee that all journalists have the right to freely report in Tunisia,
without fear or intimidation.

- Guarantee that the international media and summit delegates have the right
to free movement and to meet with colleagues in the Tunisian media and civil
society, outside of the official summit site, without threats or
intimidation from the police or government authorities.

- Ensure that Tunisian journalists and civil society members meeting with
the international community are not subject to retribution and that free
speech, press freedom and other human rights are respected in Tunisia after
Summit delegates have gone home.

Given the above incidents and the overall poor human rights record of
Tunisia it seems to us that the UN system has contracted a moral obligation
to follow up. It should name a special rapporteur to monitor freedom of
expression and other human rights in Tunisia.

To elaborate on the situation with human rights in Tunisia - thanks to Jocelyn for this link:

Robert Ménard prevented from attending the UN Internet summit

Okay, so welcome to the country where you don't see too many women in the streets, huh! With all the consenquences coming when you arive here...

So Elizabeth and I went souvenir shopping this morning. We were walking down the street, talking and laughing, trying to run for the rain that was just pouring down on us. :) As you may've read in these blogs already, most of the people you meet in the streets are men, and they don't get exposed to that much "female flesh" at other times than the WSIS obviously... Anyways, as we were striving to get our way through along the buildings where all the ppl were standing hiding from the rain under the sheds, you can't even imagine HOW MANY leers we got from the men!!! Seriously, I don't usually pay much attention to whether males look at me or not when I'm in Russia, but here it was so very obvious with those men breaking their necks scanning you head to feet and commenting on your appearance...

Gosh! This IS the intercultural experience. So maybe its good to be in a country which is SO much different for the sleeky westernized world I'm coming from - just to get an idea of how things can also be like...

So being here at the Summit as a TIG person, but also as a Russian citizen, I was excited to go to a roundtable discussion announced by the Russian Ministry of Communications introducing the new huge program for youth. They main goal of the roundtable was aledged to colicit possible ideas from people on youth involvement in different countries to develop their own national program. Suprisingly, there were only 6 young people out of 30 present (um, did they forget to invite more youth?). As the discission (if you can call continuous speech of the chairman interrupted by several remarks from the audience a discussion) went, none of the stated questions got answered. I don't know, probably this is just about being "Russian" and wanting to talk on like a 1000 topics at a time, but if you really need to get an impact on something, why wouldn't you stick to the questions and listen to people attentively? To make things worse, to close the discussion they just read the conclusions that they had typed on their papers even before the event!!! I couldn't believe my eyes! What's the point of hosting an event, promoting it, making a big fuss, and then just reading what you've written down yourself?