The Social Role of the Communications and the Strengthening of the Freedom of Expression Panel - "Cultural Diversity and Freedom of Expression"

The experience of Internet as a global network has generated paradoxes in relation to the nationally established values and those practiced by companies providers of applications. In general, the challenge lies in fundamental civil rights balance such as freedom of expression and the personality's rights.

Although the 2005 UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions enables the countries to adopt national policies directed to the protection of their cultural diversity, terms of use and codes of conduct are globally uniform and establish common rules to users around the world, which may affect cultural diversity.

In order to address these issues the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Communications, Brazil are organizing this event at IGF 2015.

About IGF 2015

Internet Governance Forum (IGF) is a multistakeholder, democratic and transparent forum which facilitates discussions on public policy issues related to key elements of Internet governance. IGF provides enabling platform for discussions among all stakeholders in the Internet governance ecosystem, including all entities accredited by the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), as well as other institutions and individuals with proven expertise and experience in all matters related to Internet governance.

After consulting the wider Internet community and discussing the overarching theme of the 2015 IGF meeting, the Multistakeholder Advisory Group decided to retain the title “Evolution of Internet Governance: Empowering Sustainable Development”. This theme will be supported by eight sub-themes that will frame the discussions at the João Pessoa meeting