FOEonline Coalition presented in Geneva – New Coalition founded

The ‘Dynamic Coalition on Freedom of Expression and Freedom of the Media on the Internet (FOEonline)’ has been presented today by Christian Möller at the IGF stock-taking event in Geneva:

‘I would very briefly like to introduce the “Dynamic Coalition on Freedom of Expression and Freedom of the Media on the Internet”.

Already, the 2003 Geneva Declaration reaffirms Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – which is the right of freedom of expression – as an “essential foundation of the information society”. At the same time, experience shows that this freedom is endangered worldwide. A number of workshops in Athens addressed this topic, and as an outcome, the Freedom of Expression Online Coalition has been set up.

This coalition will prepare background documents, discuss principles of free expression online, and feed into the IGF process, as well as provide input to the next IGF meeting in Rio.

At the moment, the coalition already has more than ten partners from different sectors, including, for example, the Office of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, UNESCO, Reporters sans frontières, or Amnesty International. And, of course, it’s open for more supporters. Contact details and a mailing list of the coalition can be found on the IGF Web site.

And there is also a first preliminary coalition Web site that can be found at foeonline.wordpress.com. This is an open platform that can be used for contributions by all of the coalition partners.

Concluding, let me assure you that there is also cooperation with other coalitions, for example, with those on privacy or access on information, to avoid duplications of activities and to be more focused and efficient in our work.

I’m very much looking forward to continue the work within the dynamic coalitions which I think are very interesting and useful concepts for the IGF process.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.’

During this meeting a number of other Dynamic Coalitions have been presented. In addition, a new Dynamic Coalition on Online Collaboration has been announced, which aims at at providing other coalitions with online collaboration tools in order to help them carry out their tasks in the most efficient and effective way possible.

The whole transcript of the morning session can be found at http://www.intgovforum.org/Feb_igf_meeting/IGF-13.02.07-morning.txt.