No one has come to takeover ICANN’s role – Annan

Following pressures to know the fate of the Internet after the on-going three-day summit on Information Society in Tunis, the secretary general of United Nations (UN), Mr. Kofi Annan, has made it clear that no one has come to the second phase with intension to take-over the role of ICANN.

In a press conference Wednesday at the Kram PalExpo, Mr. Annan said that he did not envisage anyone has come to the summit with such notion in mind, especially the management of the internet.

“I don’t think that no one came to this summit to takeover the role of management of the Internet or that of the ICANN” he said.

Mr. Annan also thinks that the role of managing the technical aspect of the Internet root servers should be left to technical institutions.

“Lets assume that it is another country other than US, lets assume that it is Germany, do you think US would fold its hands. But what we are saying is that there should be a multi stakeholders’ participation,” he explained.

As for the likelihood of the Internet Governance coming up in the global summit, he said, that he would not give any definite answer to that, but “I think it should be given an opportunity to succeed”.

”As for the issue to come up again, I would not give you any answer but think it should be given an opportunity to succeed” he said.

On Internet access restriction in the host country of the second phase, Mr. Annan pointed out that the opportunity to host this event is an added advantage, because there is no longer doubts if Internet access is restricted in some countries, hence the summit is opening up this access via discussions.

“As I said earlier, that internet access is limited is of concern to every one here to discuss the issue because we are interested in internet access opening up” he said.

He maintained that since 2003, there has been some achievement in the area of deployment of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), which he listed to include improved number of access to internet, mobile telephone, tele-medicine and many others.

He did not foresee another summit on Information Society, at least, for now but there could be some review mechanism to be put in place, probably after five years.

“What is important is that your ideas and views are taken into consideration and it is the responsibility of those in government to fashion this views, otherwise there would be additional pressures,” he asserted.