What Would ITU Management Of The Internet Mean for Ukraine?
The internet is "the last remaining outpost of independent media" in Ukraine, a non-democratic country. Most of the press is tightly controlled by "fervent devotees of the practice of self-censorship, and toe the government line by presenting only the politically correct view of events; promoting individuals who are tied to the ruling establishment, and ignoring those who are out of favor." In contrast to the rest of the country's media, the internet provides "a virtual world in which freedom and happy chaos abound" including "truly independent Ukrainian news coverage." However, freedom of speech through the internet in Ukraine is under threat by proposed legislation and by an attempt by the Ukrainian Secret Service (the successor to the KGB) to take control of the country's .ua top level domain. So far, the key factor blocking de facto government take over of the .ua domain is ICANN. ICANN awarded administration of .ua domain to "two individuals, who created a company, Hostmaster, to manage the technical aspects of administering the domain." In a court suit, Hostmaster noted that "the Ukrainian government cannot do anything to change decisions adopted by ICANN, the international body charged with delegating the administration of Internet domain names." As an article on the Czech media explains, "As things stand, Hostmaster remains in charge of the domain, and it would probably be technically impossible for the government to take control of the domain without the ICANN's approval. The chances of ICANN passing control over to the Ukrainian government are practically zero." Would the ITU protect press freedom in Ukraine by refusing to turn administration of the .ua domain over to their member government?