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Beijing Olympics 2008: Winning Press Freedom
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decisions affecting their ccTLDs, need to be respected, upheld and addressed via a flexible and
improved framework and mechanisms.” 40
That assurance, that China has legitimate sovereignty rights under international law eased the way
for the Chinese to join the compromise on the Internet Governance Forum and the process of
enhanced cooperation. In practice, it is a de facto recognition of ICANN and the principle of private
sector leadership for management of critical Internet resources. 41
The Internet Governance Forum (IGF)
In the public consultations on the Internet Governance Forum, the Chinese representative
proposed to include also the issues of critical Internet resources as a subject of discussion, a
proposal which was broadly accepted. The Forum is, however, is not a negotiating body and has
no decision-making powers. Its concept is to promote multi-stakeholder debate, to exchange
ideas, information and arguments and to send “inspirational messages” to specialized bodies that
may make decisions.
Within the Forum, which first met in Athens in October 2006, China gave the issue of “cybersecurity”
highest priority. During the Forum’s following sessio, in Rio de Janeiro in November 2007,
the Internet Society of China and the China Association for Science & Technology organized a
workshop on the “new culture of cyber-security.” There, Sihan Qing, Director General of the
Engineering Research Center for Information Security Technology under the Chinese Academy of
Sciences proposed a document called a “Framework on World Norm of Internet (Version 2.0).”
That document is drafted like an international treaty, with rights and duties for various
stakeholders. The author says he does not intend to present it as a draft convention. It is “neither
a legislative regulation, nor a technical standard, it is rather a self-disciplinary agreement,” Sihan
Qing said. Among its proposed principles are:
• It is requested that all information created for, and contributed to, the Internet be
trustworthy and valuable for the evolution of human being and world prosperity.
• The contents created for, and contributed to, the Internet should be trustworthy and
valuable for maintaining human ethics and morality, for the protection of privacy and
human rights, for the protection of all people, particularly women and children, disabled
people and weak groups of people.
• The contents created for, and contributed to, the Internet should be trustworthy and
valuable to all nations and people, regardless of race or creed.
• It is requested that network operators take on responsibility to keep the high reliability and
high quality of services.
• It is requested that the users of Internet strictly observe the related regulations when
accessing and utilizing the Internet.
• All nations and individuals should go along shoulder-to-shoulder to take all measures to
defeat various attacks and cyber-crimes, such as Trojans, viruses, worms, spyware, spam
and phishing.
The document calls for a new international Internet authority to monitor the quality of services,
diagnose operational faults and arbitrate disputes. 42
The proposed “Framework on World Norm Internet 2.0” has not so far received formal backing of
the Chinese government. As noted above, the Internet Governance Forum is not a decisionmaking
body and formal proposals such as the framework are not subjects of negotiation. But the
drafters have said they hope it will eventually be adopted - where and by whom being left open. It