Rebecca MacKinnon Keynotes WPFC's Lecture on Global Communications Issues

Rebecca MacKinnon during her WPFC Lecture (WPFC photo)

Washington, USA, Dec. 4, 2009 — The World Press Freedom Committee today held its 21st Annual Andersen-Ottaway Lecture on Global Communications Issues at the National Press Club, where Rebecca MacKinnon, noted authority on freedom on the Internet and China, addressed the question, “Can authoritarianism survive the Internet?” Her response was that it can.

In her speech, "Cybertarianism: China and the Future of the Internet," she called China “Exhibit A” for how authoritarianism can survive, and even thrive, in the Internet age.

She said this new kind of Internet-age authoritarianism has dangerous implications for democratic movements around the world, and even for mature democracies. 

“Unfortunately,” she said,”outdated policy-making and activism strategies are proving inadequate and sometimes counterproductive in addressing the fundamental threats to human rights and civil liberties on a globally interconnected network.

"It's time to upgrade our understanding of the relationship between technology and political change. New approaches to global Internet governance are also needed so that global netizens can assert stewardship over the Internet as a shared global resource.”

MacKinnon, a 2009 Open Society Fellow, is writing a book on China and the Internet, with the working title “Cybertarianism: The Future of Freedom in the Internet Age.”

She is co-founder of Global Voices, a global citizen media network.

She is a former CNN bureau chief in Beijing and Tokyo and a founding member of the Global Network Initiative, a multi-stakeholder group dedicated to insuring that corporate conduct respects freedom of expression and privacy in cyberspace.

Queries about the WPFC lecture may be addressed to Ronald Koven at KovenRonald@aol.com.