AUDIO

Panelists:
- Fiona Alexander, Associate Administrator, Office of International Affairs, National Telecommunications & Information Administration (NTIA) [Bio]
- Colin Crowell, Head of Global Public Policy, Twitter [Bio]
- Jamie Hedlund, Vice President, Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) [Bio]
- Andrew McLaughlin, Chairman of the Board, Access [Bio]
- Thomas O'Toole, Managing Editor, Electronic Commerce & Law Report, Bloomberg BNA [Bio] - Moderator

It remains to be seen whether Internet stakeholders have prevented the UN from seizing control of the Internet at last month's ITU World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT). Regardless, for weary negotiators it appears that the battle to keep the Internet free will be protracted. There will ne no rest in the foreseeable future. On December 13, 2012 FCC Commissioner McDowell direly predicted that while many of the "anti-freedom" WCIT proposals were turned back "the worst is yet to come." More than ever Congress must become a more involved stakeholder. Any substantive changes to the ITU treaty governing the Internet hopefully would need to be ratified by the U.S. Senate. But threats to Internet freedom could come from a variety of vectors. A panel of experts will outline the long-term prospects for the Internet freedom fight and how Congress can play a more consistent and constructive role.

*Credit: Milton Mueller, Syracuse.

The Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee hosts an annual panel at the State of the Net Conference on the general topic of "Intellectual Freedom" in honor of the late Judith F. Krug, the long-time director of the American Library Association's (ALA) Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) and executive director of the Freedom to Read Foundation. This year's panel will be held at 3:30pm on Tuesday, January 22, 2013 at the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill.

About Judith Krug

Judith Krug was a driving force in the creation of the Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee and a passionate supporter of its mission until her untimely passing on April 11, 2009. As the longtime director of the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom and executive director of the Freedom to Read Foundation, she dedicated her work to fighting censorship. In 1982 she founded Banned Books Week, an annual celebration of literary freedom. Under her leadership, the Freedom to Read Foundation raised money to further First Amendment court cases - some of which rose to the United States Supreme Court and resulted in landmark rights to free expression.

Judith was a compassionate leader and received many awards for her work, including the William J. Brennan, Jr. award from the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression for her "remarkable commitment to the marriage of open books and open minds," as well as an honorary doctorate from University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign.

We are extremely grateful to Judith for facilitating our right to freely access information in our libraries and online. It is because of her unwavering defense of the first amendment that we honor her with the Judith Krug Memorial Intellectual Freedom Panel.