FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Alan Davidson Tel: 202-637-9800 Email: abd@cdt.org Rob Courtney Tel: 202-637-9800 Email: rob@cdt.org

CDT, Bertelsmann, Common Cause Unveil Education Resource for ICANN Election

Tuesday, September 19, 2000 -- Leading policy organizations promoting democracy online have set up a voter education web site where candidates for the board overseeing domain names management can state their positions on leading domain names policy issues. The effort comes as the Internet Corporation on Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) prepares to elect next month at-large board members in the world's first-ever global Internet-based election. The Center for Democracy and Technology has partnered with Germany's Bertelsmann Foundation and American election experts Common Cause to create a web site that will post candidates' positions and serve as a resource for Internet users voting in the upcoming election.

On Monday, candidates received a comprehensive questionnaire from CDT and its partners (available at http://www.cdt.org/dns/icann/election/questionnaire.html) seeking their views on a number of critical domain names policy issues. Candidates' responses will be posted at http://www.cdt.org/dns/icann/elections/ and on Bertelsmann's web site (http://www.democratic-internet.de/) for review by ICANN's 76,000-plus registered voters.

The project is the latest step in CDT's project to promote democratic processes for ICANN. CDT has played significant roles in several major debates about public representation in ICANN. In March of this year, CDT successfully pressed for these direct democratic elections, and in June CDT staved off an attempt to limit the amount of public representation on the ICANN Board of Directors.

"The voter resource demonstrates once again our commitment to transparency, democracy, and full representation in ICANN," said Jerry Berman, CDT Executive Director. "By giving the ICANN candidates a space in which they can respond to critical issues, and by giving voters a space to inform themselves about the election, we and our partners are bringing ICANN closer to the ideals of real online democracy. And we're helping voters make the best decisions for ICANN's important future."

Back to Press Releases

Free Speech | Data Privacy | Government Surveillance | Cryptography | Domain Names | International | Bandwidth | Security | Internet Standards, Technology and Policy Project | Terrorism | Authentication | Right to Know | Spam

Our Mission / Get Involved / Staff / Publications / Links / Search CDT / Jobs / Action! Previous Headlines | Legislative Tracking | CDT's Privacy Policy