AFRINIC How much research did Le Mauricien do in the AFRINIC vs "Resource members" case?
The legal battle involving AFRINIC and its Resource members has been on-going since 2020. I've followed that closely and very sadly the local press did not follow it the same way. Today, it made me sad again to read a poorly researched subject by one local newspaper.
An article appeared in Le Mauricien newspaper today. The headline reads as follows:
L'immunité diplomatique et judiciare refusée à Afrinic
The article was also published on lemauricien.com at 18h30.
I read the article. Then, I read it again. Something was ticking and seemed off about the article. Actually, a few days ago, five days ago to be precise, an article was published on a website called NewsAnyway with a similar title in English.
Mauritius rejects AFRINIC’s demands for diplomatic immunity
I read that article from NewsAnyway again and compared it with the one published on lemauricien.com. The content of both articles are way too similar. It felt like either Le Mauricien reproduced the news content from NewsAnyway or maybe the same source, without investigating the subject further.
The other thing that ticks is that Le Mauricien refers to an entity calling itself Number Resource Society as "la Number Resource Society, qui est reconnue comme l’organisation mondiale à but non lucratif qui plaide pour un Internet mondial illimité, stable et uni." 😳
We are not talking about an organisation like the Electronic Frontier Foundation here but an entity whose existence seems only to reflect an issue that pertains between AFRINIC and a Resource member.
The Number Resource Society did not utter a word on the ICT Authority's technical proposal to break the internet in 2021. Neither it is fighting real internet freedom fights like maybe standing up against Hong Kong authorities who are considering to block Telegram.
Le Mauricien did not quote anyone from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Attorney General's office, nor did they publish any document or letter that could shed some light to this subject. It mentions things that Number Resource Society claims, which is similar to what is reported on NewsAnyway. Yet, it did not quote anyone from the Number Resource Society. Are there any Mauritians involved in that?
A few weeks ago, I published a post after a communique by AFRINIC appeared in the l'express newspaper. I only referred to the communique, what was AFRINIC's complaint against its Resource member and what are the allegations that the latter has brought against AFRINIC.
Shortly after, I was contacted by the legal representative of that Resource member and they sent me a cease and desist letter for having mentioned the AFRINIC communique. They also asked for a right of reply which I published verbatim.
What is AFRINIC?
I advise people to do some research on the subject. Learn about AFRINIC, its governing principles, its bottom-up approach and have a look at its Registration Service Agreement which is the source of the legal tension, before drawing up any conclusion.