Reporters Sans Frontieres, a non-governmental organisation fighting for freedom of the press, was banned from further participation in the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). According to a letter from the Executive Director of the Summit, RSF was excluded for 'administrative reasons'. The exclusion is in fact a direct result of a protest RSF staged in March, when Libya was appointed as chair of the UN Human Rights Commission. After that protest, the UN banned RSF from all meetings for a year.

Earlier, the organisation Human Rights in China was excluded from WSIS for similarly suspect administrative reasons as well. The WSIS Human Rights Caucus is very upset about these exclusions. "A summit on the information society that allows the participation of governments that systematically censor media and violate human rights but that doesn't allow the participation of some of the leading international groups defending those rights makes no sense."

Protest letter Human Right Caucus
http://www.iris.sgdg.org/actions/smsi/hr-wsis