Media rights group Reporters Without Borders has issued a statement urging member states of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) agency of the United Nations to protect freedom of information as they begin a plenipotentiary conference in Geneva yesterday.

Reporters Without Borders has called upon the agency to sanction any countries that use censorship (image: stock.xchng)

Reporters Without Borders has called upon the agency to sanction any countries that use censorship or violate the freedom of information.

Observers expect ITU member states to adopt a series of important decisions about the agency’s future and the protection of freedom of information globally.

Meanwhile, Iranian media personnel and activists have organized a demonstration outside of the ITS Geneva headquarters to call upon the agency to hold the Iranian government accountable.

The Iranian government has announced plans to establish a system whereby telecommunications in the entire country would be entirely filtered and cut off from international networks.

According to Reporters Without Borders, instances of Internet censorship took place in a total of 68 countries in 2011, including China, Cuba and Libya, who all stand as ITU member states.

“We call on the ITU, during this decisive conference, to firmly condemn countries that do not respect the fundamental principles of the free flow of information,” Reporters Without Borders said.

“We also call on the ITU, as part of its work, to set up a commission to monitor freedom of information violations by member states. The development of ICTs throughout the world should be vehicle of democracy. The ITU must not be the accomplice of regimes that obstruct the flow of news and information on their telecommunications networks,” they continued in a press release published Tuesday.

Freedom of information has been a point of global debate in recent weeks as United States legislators debated two bills that would have severely limited Internet freedoms. After an international campaign was launched against the bills, they were side-lined by legislators.

Sarah Sheffer