The opening ceremony of the fourth UN Forum on Internet Governance (IGF 09) was held on Sunday in Sharm El Sheikh at the kind invitation of the Egyptian government, with ERTU as host broadcaster. 

The opening session was attended by Mr. Tarek Kamel, Egyptian Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Mr. Sha Zukang, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Economic & Social Affairs and Mr. Hamadoun Touré, Secretary General of ITU international Telecommunication Union, who opened the door to UIT-ICANN cooperation for the management of internet resources.

Keynote speakers included politicians and Internet personalities including European Commissioner for the Information Society Viviane Reding, French Minister Nathalie Kosciuzsko, Swiss Minister Moritz Leuenberger, and State Secretary Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology of Slovenia Jozsef Györöks. 

All politicians supported the extension of the IGF’s initial 5-year mandate due to come to an end in 2010, but with greater power and a more active role in the field of the organisation of internet governance. The Slovenian Minister was also in favour of creating a public service area on the internet. 

Sir Tim Berners Lee, father of the world wide web and Jerry Yang Director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) also participated in the opening ceremony. 

The report of the EuroDIG meeting (September) - to which the EBU also contributed - was presented, including guides for the protection of children online. On Monday and Tuesday, two workshops were organised by the EBU and the ITU on accessibility of the disabled to online services.