Global Internet Liberty Campaign
Date: Sat, 06 Sep 97 13:51:12 -0500
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Message-Id: <[email protected]>
To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
Subject: Global Internet Liberty Campaign
From: MINELRES moderator \ Internet: ([email protected])
Original sender: Arnis Shinka \ Internet: ([email protected])
FW: Global Internet Liberty Campaign
Global Internet Liberty Campaign
Open Society Institute/Internet Program
Press Release
For Immediate Release
With support from the Open Society Institute On-line Community is Coming
Together Around Common Goals
New York, NY -- September 2, 1997 -- The Open Society Institute (OSI)
announced today that it has awarded a major grant for funding of the Global
Internet Liberty Campaign. The Global Internet Liberty Campaign
(GILC), a coalition of organizations from around the world, works to promote
and protect free speech, privacy, equality of access, and liberty on the
global Internet. The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation (ACLU), the
Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), and the Center for Democracy
and Technology (CDT) are playing a leadership role in building GILC.
GILC's goal is to secure cyber rights around the world through a
comprehensive program of public education and outreach, policy advocacy,
dialogues between the Internet human rights community and policymakers, and
coalition building. GILC has already demonstrated the effectiveness of the
coalition approach with a major conference in Paris for delegates of the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Among the new projects GILC will be involved in, utilizing the OSI grant,
are: producing a regular on-line newsletter, featuring international human
rights issues affecting cyberspace (The GILC Alert); organizing GILC events;
promoting cyber liberties issues at international conferences; producing and
disseminating policy reports; expanding the GILC web site, to make it the
premier, one-step resource on international cyber rights issues; and
promoting on-line activist campaigns around the world. OSI's grant will also
make it possible for GILC to expand its membership in the post-Communist
countries and the developing world.
"Besides these activities, the major goal of GILC is to bring the on-line
community together around common goals to promote openness and to protect
personal freedom in the new communications world," commented Marc Rotenberg,
Director of Electronic Privacy Information Center.
"For the first time, an association has been created to unify the human
rights and civil liberties organizations of the on-line world and to speak
with a strong, unified voice," said Jonathan Peizer, Chief Information
Officer of OSI. "We are supporting GILC as it is becoming increasingly clear
that governments from around the world are taking steps that could severely
limit free expression and personal privacy -- building blocks of an open
society in the information age. Thus we see GILC's role as an information
resource for policy makers to help them make sensible and intelligent
Internet policy," he
continued.
Barry Steinhardt, Associate Director of the American Civil Liberties Union
Foundation added that "there are no borders in cyberspace. Actions by
individual governments and multi-national organizations can have a profound
effect on the rights of citizens around the world. Users of the Global
Internet must work together to protect freedom of speech and the right of
privacy. Thus the member organizations of GILC have banded together to
promote human rights and civil liberties on the net."
"As countries around the world continue to implement restrictions on
Internet use, and as multi-national groups like the OECD, G-8, and the
European Union discuss the development of international regulations, it is
imperative that citizens from around the world mobilize on behalf of cyber
liberties. Because our work has proved effective, and because we are
concerned with the long-term effects of international policies relating to
the most important communications medium of our future, the ACLU, EPIC, CDT,
now joined by OSI, have developed a strategy to build the GILC coalition and
protect liberty on the Internet," said Daniel Weitzner, Deputy Director of
the Center for Democracy and Technology.
GILC can be found on the World Wide Web at <http://www.gilc.org>. The
GILC web site will be a central clearinghouse for people all around the
world looking for information on cyber rights issues. It currently provides
extensive materials, including international agreements, legal documents,
research materials, and information useful for on-line organizers.
The Open Society Institute--New York is a private operating and
grantmaking foundation that promotes the development of open societies
around the world, both by running its own programs and by awarding
grants to others. The Open Society Institute--New York develops and
implements a variety of U.S.-based and international programs in the areas
of educational, social, and legal reform, and encourages public debate and
policy alternatives in complex and often controversial fields. The Open
Society Institute--New York is part of an informal network of more than 30
autonomous nonprofit foundations and other organizations created and funded
by philanthropist George Soros. The Open Society Institute can be found on
the World Wide Web at <http://www.soros.org>.
--
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