Last month, Brazil hosted an important multilateral event
that debated the future of the Internet, the Net Mundial, in São Paulo.
Representatives of 90 countries attended, but even though it was the
first time that an international meeting produced a text and a roadmap
for international legislation on the rights and regulations for the
Internet, the document is seen as weak and was severely criticized by
civil society for not taking a tougher stance against massive
surveillance and espionage by the NSA.
But this is only one aspect
of the flawed conduction of the Net Mundial -- and more widely of a
global debate about governance on the Internet -- by the Brazilian
government.
The meeting was called after it was revealed that the
NSA had been spying on our President Dilma Rouseff's communications,
thanks to documents leaked by Edward Snowden. But if Dilma wants to lead
the debate about surveillance and espionage, she needs to recognize the
moral obligation of intervening in favor of the seven journalists and
whistleblowers without whom the conference would not have happened:
Julian Assange, Chelsea Manning, Sarah Harrison, Edward Snowden, Glenn
Greenwald, Laura Poitras and David Miranda.
The Brazilian
government left without an answer to Edward Snowden's request for
asylum, and Snowden has repeated more than once that he wished to be
exiled in Brazil. Sources from the Foreign Ministry have told media that
Brazil will not grant him asylum. Brazil, at the same time, never took a
strong stance about the situation of Julian Assange, who has been under
de facto arrest without charge for 1260 days, and has lived in the
Ecuadorean embassy in London for two years.
The diplomatic
impasse between Ecuador and the United Kingdom -- which denies Assange
the safe pass that would allow him to enjoy the exile that he has been
granted by Ecuador -- urgently needs mediators so it can advance. I see
Brazil as a natural and necessary candidate due to its experience and
efficiency in international diplomatic negotiations.
If Brazil
wants to be a world leader in the debate about Internet governance, it
will have to be more assertive. A debate about the Internet, freedom,
digital privacy, rights and surveillance is not possible without seeking
a solution to the criminalization of the journalistic work that was
done by this group of people.
To pretend that this issue --
which is at the core of today's digital geopolitics and of the American
upper hand over the Internet -- does not exist is like not seeing the
white elephant in the living room. Any attempt to advance the debate
without addressing their situation will be a farce.
That's why I,
like thousands of Brazilians, ask: President Dilma, do offer asylum for
Edward Snowden and offer Brazilian diplomacy to mediate the
negotiations between the U.K. and Ecuador, so that Julian Assange can
enjoy the asylum he has been granted by our neighboring country at last.
Source:http://www.huffingtonpost.com
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