The European Commission’s Vice-President responsible for the digital agenda has told a parliamentary committee that the EU recognises “the values and virtues of openness … are not just economic, but also for freedom of expression and democracy”, reports IP Watch.

The UN Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression, in a statement about the 2012 WCIT, has underlined the importance of civil society in discussions about the future of the Internet, IP Watch reports.

A mere resolution, not part of the future International Telecommunication Regulations (ITR), led to yet another escalation at the ongoing World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) in Dubai, reports IP Watch.

The internet is not completely out of the first consolidated draft proposal for the future International Telecommunication Regulations that was introduced late on 11 December at the World Conference on International Telecommunications in Dubai, reports IP Watch.

Internet policy and governance monitor .nxt has published all documents related to the World Conference on International Telecommunication (WCIT) that will take place in Dubai in early December 2012.

According to .nxt, the WCIT documents contain a number of proposals that “have far greater impact and import than the system was ever designed to handle … and would have a significant impact on the internet”.

The .nxt publication of the WCIT documents can be accessed here.

In the lead up to the December World Conference on International Telecommunication (WCIT) in Dubai, Google has launched a campaign rallying against what it says are attempts by some countries to “further regulate the internet” and potentially limit free speech through censorship.

According to Google, there is a growing backlash on Internet freedom: 42 countries filter and censor content, and in just the last two years governments have enacted 19 new laws threatening online free expression. Google claims that the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is bringing together regulators from around the world to re-negotiate a decades-old communications treaty, which could permit governments to censor legitimate speech — or even allow them to cut off Internet access.

IP watch reports that despite speeches by ITU Secretary General Hamadoun Touré making assurances that WCIT is not about internet governance, the most recent proposal tabled by Russia is about this very subject. The Russian WCIT contribution asks for a new chapter on internet in the International Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs), to address the longstanding complaints by governments like Russia, China and the Arab States – and even some European voices – that all governments should be equal with regard to the assigning of names and numbers and the operation and development of basic infrastructure.

The recent UN-led Internet Governance Forum in Baku, Azerbaijan was used as a stage for some very targeted messages on the upcoming World Conference on International Telecommunication, it saw yet another round of exchanges on some of the tough questions of digital society from privacy and security to future copyright, and had the most intensive discussions on human rights in cyberspace so far, reports IP Watch.

Amelia Andersdotter, member of the European Parliament for the Swedish Pirate Party, in no polite words told the participants of the 7th Internet Governance Forum in Baku what she thought about the lack of progress in adapting copyright to the digital age, reports IP Watch.

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), in a 17 September press briefing, tried to dispel what it is describing as “myths and misinformation” about the upcoming World Conference on International Communication, IP Watch reports.

“Although there are many important issues before the conference, unfortunately they are not receiving the media attention they deserve due to a paranoia created by claims that ITU wants to take over the internet,” Standardization Bureau Director Malcolm Johnson said tonight.

Another area of misinformation, according to ITU officials, is the suggestion “of increased censorship.” Member states already had secured themselves the right to block private telecommunication in Article 34 of the ITU constitution, which can be changed only by the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference.

One contribution to the WCIT did ask for due process with regard to the blocking, and therefore the limitations to the human right to communication. Only nobody would write about it.