Internet Society The Internet Society at the 2012 Internet Governance Forum, 14 Nov 2012

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From YouTube: A Place For All Voices

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Mr. Emin Milli (Azerbaijan) talks about how the Internet Governance Forum is one of the key places where everyone, no matter who they are or what they do, can have their voice heard on issues of Internet Freedom and human rights

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My name is emin milli,, I'm a writer, from azerbaijan, I'm also a former prisoner of conscience.

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interviewer:, and is this your first igf?.

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Yes,, this is my first igf and, to be honest with you, I was quite confused.

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Because it's such a huge event,, but it's very good that it is now held in azerbaijan,.

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And I hope I will participate in future igfs and use it to attract attention.

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To concerns of civil society in azerbaijan.

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Interviewer: so then, why is the igf, an important event,.

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Why is it important to you, your nation, or for any individuals?.

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You know, I've read the concerns expressed by amnesty international,.

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If is it a good idea at all to hold events like igf in authoritarian countries.

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And I think, as someone who lives, here,, who struggles with this autocracy to push the borders.

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Of freedom,, I think the benefit of igf, holding it here, is great for our civil society.

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Because it's one of these rare moments of attention,, of leading companies like google, twitter,.

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Or other organisations like internet society, and global media coming to azerbaijan,.

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It creates for civil society in this country... we're very marginalised and quite weak after 15 years.

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Repressions. to get a platform,, a global platform where we can talk about issues of.

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Internet freedom, of freedom of expression, of media freedom in azerbaijan.

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It depends, I think, how you use it.. I wrote, I used this igf, for example, to address the president.

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In an open letter which was published in the independent,, a british newspaper,.

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In gazeta wyborcza,, the biggest polish newspaper,in tagesspiegel,, one of the biggest newspapers.

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In germany, and in various other online global media plaforms., so I think that our civil society.

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Or activists, or journalists wouldn't have anything without having this event, here.

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I've made a lot of contacts,. My friends are working hard to create new contacts.

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To convince global policy makers of the issues of internet freedom and human rights,.

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To pay more attention to azerbaijan., I was trying here, for example, to make my case,.

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To make azerbaijan a study case for a new phenomenon, which I call autocracy, 2.0.

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Where, basically, the president of a country says the internet is free,, but I question as.

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A former prisoner of conscience and someone who was basically punished for writing my thoughts.

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On the internet, mostly how free it is. technically it is free, right,. So I can go now and write whatever.

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I want, there is no blockage. but..., then later I'm punished and not officially, because.

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I was writing something on the internet: no,. They can find drugs in my pocket,. They can do things like this.

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So I think it's very good to have igf, to use this platform, and I really would urge actually.

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Igf organisers in the future to hold igf only in authoritarian countries.. Of course, there are countries where.

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You cannot do it, where they kill people, hundreds of them,, but I think this is extreme cases and.

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There are a lot of autocracies which allow for some space and I think it's better to come,, to engage,.

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To take that space and expand, it. and "engage" is for me not to come and smile and be silent,.

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It's to come, to engage and tell them everything to their face, to tell to autocrats the truth to.

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Their face., that's what I call engagement and I hope igf will continue. Holding these events only in.

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Authoritarian countries.

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Interviewer: very good. now, one last question for you.: could you maybe list or tell us.

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The top two challenges in internet human rights- and what do you think they are?.

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Well,, to be honest with you,, I think that, first of all, it's really hard to talk just about internet.

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Because again, I'm talking about azerbaijan. If there is fear, if people live in fear, ok,, even if.

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The internet is technically free, as in azerbaijan,, but people are afraid to like, to share,. They are losing.

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Jobs and so-and-so,: that's not internet freedom,. That cannot be accepted in a country where.

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Internet is "free", because it's not free, and that has to do, of course, with internet with freedom which.

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You cannot really distinguish offline and online, it is together,, it cannot be separated.

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There were some discussions about this,. I think it cannot be separated and it's very important that.

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When we talk about internet freedom, we don't forget that there are human rights offline,, but.

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They are inseparable from human rights online.. This is a first,, so a complex approach is needed.

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And second,, I think that very important is to think about the spread of internet and the.

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Quality, because there are still billions of people on the planet who don't have access.

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To internet- and I hope that actually, we can come at some point in the future, with technologies.

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Which would enable all these billions of people who currently don't have access to the internet.

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To have access, and those who, let's say, have access like in azerbaijan. The government says.

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More than 65% of people have access to the internet,, but recent research has shown that.

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Only 7% of people daily use the internet,, so there's a huge difference between. If you touch the mouse.

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Once a month and go online or if you daily use it., if you don't really daily use it,, then it means you.

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Cannot really be empowered. (interviewer:, take fully advantage of it).

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Exactly., so I think this is the second challenge that we, the whole internet community have to look at.

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Interviewer: great, well, thank you very much for your time,. We greatly appreciate it.

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Thank you very much.,.