Our ONI reception was rattled by IGF security, who objected to a poster advertising "Access Controlled", the book to be introduced at this event. The poster was thrown on the floor and we were told to remove it because of the reference to China and Tibet. We refused, and security guards came and removed it. The incident was witnessed by many.

The poster promoting ONI new forthcoming book "Access Controlled" was removed by the IGF's organizers because a sentence in the poster violated UN's policy. The sentence in question reads, "The first generation of Internet controls consisted largely of building firewalls at key Internet gateways; China's famous "Great Firewall of China" is one of the first national Internet filtering systems."

"If we cannot discuss topics about Internet censorship and surveillance policy at a forum about Internet governance then what is the point of something like the IGF," said Ron Deibert Director of the Citizen Lab, Munk
Centre for International Studies,and one of ONI's principal investigators.

According to Ron Deibert of The Citizen Lab and Open Net Initiatives (ONI) Principal, one of the organizers of the reception event, he will file a complaint against the`censorship' of their event and send it to the United Nations Human Rights Commission.

"We condemn this undemocratic act of censoring our event just because someone is trying to impress or be in the good graces of the Chinese government. It is ironic that while people are allowed to gather here to discuss freedom of expression online, censorship and surveillance practices on the Internet, we are being restricted in expressing our views," said Al Alegre of the Foundation for Media Alternatives, a member of the ONI Network.

We the members of ONI Network protest on this censorship at IGF, and ask the question that What IGF is for, if we can not discuss Internet Governance
issues at this forum.

Best wishes and regards

Shahzad Ahmad
Bytesforall, Pakistan