"United Nations officials removed criticisms of the Saudi government from the ...

Miguel Afonso Caetano /

npub1pwu…95z7

2025-02-09 15:06:08

"United Nations officials removed criticisms of the Saudi government from the official record of a UN-organized internet governance conference in Riyadh in December 2024, and retaliated against civil society organizations, Human Rights Watch said today. The events at the 19th annual UN Internet Governance Forum (IGF) were the latest example of repressive government hosting a major UN conference censoring and intimidating civil society representatives.

The IGF secretariat censored criticism of Saudi Arabia by a well-known Saudi human rights defender at a Human Rights Watch workshop, threatened to eject Human Rights Watch’s Saudi Arabia researcher, and confiscated materials highlighting the cases of human rights defenders.

“The UN and its member states should put an end to a climate of intimidation and censorship toward diplomats, journalists, human rights advocates, and other civil society representatives at UN conferences,” said Deborah Brown, deputy technology, rights, and investigations director at Human Rights Watch. “Restricting participants ability to speak freely about internet policy issues, including issues relevant in the host country, undermines the IGF’s purpose.”"

https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/02/06/un-censors-criticism-saudi-arabia-internet-conference

#UN #SaudiArabia #Censorship #IGF #InternetGovernance

Author Public Key

npub1pwuvltfvfme0d987k6rs3an6jnv9k2w32zqdlqt5hpy9u3cmv6ps2r95z7

Show more details

Published at

2025-02-09 15:06:08

Kind type

1 Short Text Note

Event JSON

{ "id": "51faed1c134f739eca58e215b98a0a976ac06e910245ea93b0b11a72809a24c9", "pubkey": "0bb8cfad2c4ef2f694feb68708f67a94d85b29d15080df8174b8485e471b6683", "created_at": 1739113568, "kind": 1, "tags": [ [ "t", "un" ], [ "t", "saudiarabia" ], [ "t", "Censorship" ], [ "t", "IGF" ], [ "t", "internetgovernance" ], [ "proxy", "https://tldr.nettime.org/users/remixtures/statuses/113974546849076288", "activitypub" ] ], "content": "\"United Nations officials removed criticisms of the Saudi government from the official record of a UN-organized internet governance conference in Riyadh in December 2024, and retaliated against civil society organizations, Human Rights Watch said today. The events at the 19th annual UN Internet Governance Forum (IGF) were the latest example of repressive government hosting a major UN conference censoring and intimidating civil society representatives.\n\nThe IGF secretariat censored criticism of Saudi Arabia by a well-known Saudi human rights defender at a Human Rights Watch workshop, threatened to eject Human Rights Watch’s Saudi Arabia researcher, and confiscated materials highlighting the cases of human rights defenders.\n\n“The UN and its member states should put an end to a climate of intimidation and censorship toward diplomats, journalists, human rights advocates, and other civil society representatives at UN conferences,” said Deborah Brown, deputy technology, rights, and investigations director at Human Rights Watch. “Restricting participants ability to speak freely about internet policy issues, including issues relevant in the host country, undermines the IGF’s purpose.”\"\n\nhttps://www.hrw.org/news/2025/02/06/un-censors-criticism-saudi-arabia-internet-conference\n\n#UN #SaudiArabia #Censorship #IGF #InternetGovernance", "sig": "80020761a5feeda435bfcd3fea833fe1df1edf08123bf9b09402b2abdb4dda83828032927aaf5666f9d6fb041ed3e7aec19f0603316345ca7823808266292317" }