U.N. internet summit in Tunis marred by attacks

The U.N. World Summit on the Information Society opened Wednesday in the Tunisian capital Tunis overshadowed by several attacks on foreign journalists.

The opening of the second international summit on the management and control of the internet took place in the presence of Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan.

In his opening address, Annan said the U.N. was not authorized to assure the regulation of the internet and recommended that it continue to be managed by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), an American not-for-profit corporation created in 1998.

However, Annan also said it was necessary to continue negotiations on the issue. The European Union as well as developing countries are actively pursuing a new internet “world order”, with control over the internet shared among them.

However, the three-day summit is being overshadowed by criticism of the human rights situation in Tunisia and several attacks on foreign journalists reporting on this issue.

On Tuesday, the French government called on Tunisia to guarantee the freedom of information after a French reporter was beaten by unknown assailants.

A reporter for the left-wing daily Liberation, Christophe Boltanski, was assaulted by several men and stabbed on Friday while working on a story concerning the human rights situation in Tunisia.

The Paris-based watchdog group Reporters Without Borders said that it believed that the attack on Boltanski was carried out by members of the Tunisian security services.

On Monday, a Belgian television crew working on a similar story said it was also assaulted and its videotapes seized by plain-clothes policemen, Reporters Without Borders said. (dpa)