Agenda Lacking As U.N. Info Society Summit Looms

Negotiators were resigned to scheduling a final three days of talks immediately before the Dec. 10-12 U.N. World Summit on the Information Society, said Gary Fowlie, spokesman for the International Telecommunication Union, the U.N. agency hosting the meeting.

"I am a bit disappointed in the lack of progress that we've had this week," said Pierre Gagne, executive director of the summit's secretariat.

Negotiators made some progress but remained far apart on three key issues Friday evening as talks were drawing to a close: how richer nations should subsidize Internet growth in poorer countries; whether news media freedoms should be protected; and whether and how governments should regulate the Internet.

The negotiators, meeting for the fourth round of talks already this year, have been trying to draft two documents for the nearly 60 heads of state or government planning to attend.

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin and Cuban President Fidel Castro are among some of the leaders who plan to attend. Many of the leaders will be coming from developing countries.

Media organizations, including the European Broadcasting Union and the U.S.-based World Press Freedom Committee, complained that government negotiators had so far failed to reaffirm principles of free expression and free press.

Gagne, a Canadian, said he had the impression that the right to freedom of expression "will not be resolved until the very end, until everybody sees what the total package looks like."

Another issue that remained unresolved was how to deal with junk e-mail, privacy and protection of personal data, Gagne said.

"Do you rely first and foremost on a national approach to solve this problem or do you throw this into an international setting in order to find international solutions?" he said. "These are very difficult issues."

Some developing countries want a U.N. body to regulate the Internet, but some industrialized countries reject international agencies playing a significant control, Gagne said. Many decisions related to the Internet's addressing system are now with the U.S. government and a private, U.S.-based organization of technical and business experts.

African countries support the creation of a special fund to pay for extending the Internet into remote villages, but some wealthier countries are in "in very strong disagreement," Gagne said. He declined to name the countries.

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