 Welcome to the World Summit on the Information Society 2016 in Geneva, Switzerland. And I'm delighted to be joined by Cyril Ritchie, who's President of the Conference of NGOs. Cyril, Civil Society has a big role here at the WSIS Forum. It prides itself on being a bottom-up organisation. How important is WSIS for you? Well, that principle you just mentioned is extremely important. This dates back, of course, to the original two events in 2003 and 2005, where there was an attempt, a successful attempt, by the preparatory committee to involve civil society really in the preparatory meetings and then at the conferences themselves, much more than one than the other because of geographic considerations. And that has continued the whole way through. The WSIS process is a very good example within the UN system of the partnership between governments, civil society, business, academia, and that's one of the reasons for its success and one of the reasons why one sees so many people coming to the forum each year. And you indeed, in your opening remarks yesterday, you said that you welcome this open constitution, was the watchword at WSIS, but you were also concerned that there were some disturbing trends that were happening, threats to civil society? Well, I made the distinction, of course, between what's happening at the international level, which is reasonably satisfactory, one can always do more, and what's happening in a number of countries around the world with national legislation on civil society, on NGOs, on human rights activists, on limiting freedom of expression, freedom of opinion, freedom of assembly, all the fundamental freedoms that are underwritten in the various international covenants. And the fact that a rather large number of countries have over the last five, ten years introduced legislation restricting freedom of association in one form or another, at the finance level, at the freedom of assembly level, the registration procedures and all that, that has a very deleterious effect on the development of civil society, which is citizens expressing their opinions through organised associations and other types of structures. Those limitations will ultimately are already having consequences at the international level. What sort of response did you get from people in the audience yesterday when you made that very strong call for NGOs not to have these limitations placed around them? Well, the NGOs, the civil society people were generally rather welcoming. That you were championing their cause. They were enthusiastic because most of them, not necessarily at their international offices, but through their national affiliates, are feeling the consequences. If you have affiliates in these countries, then it hampers the connection, the interaction between the affiliate and the international body, and limits that those national NGOs or civil society groupings, it limits their participation in the international process, because we mustn't only be the international headquarters who come here, we must also hear voices from the field, and with financial restrictions, harassment in a number of countries, name calling by government spokesmen against NGOs, there is a very deleterious claimant that interacts with the international processes, which are, as I say, quite satisfactory. We can always improve, but quite satisfactory. And business, as I repeat, is a very good example of that openness, and ITU has taken a real lead in helping to keep that process as in conformity with freedom of opinion and freedom of expression. Here at WISIS, one of the big themes, of course, is how information and communication technology can accelerate the sustainable development goals. What is the voice like of the civil society in shaping the sustainable development goals? Do you think their voice is being heard enough? Well, not enough, but it certainly is being heard. We do, and I would include here the non-civil society sector, the business sector. The business sector and the civil society sector are the people who know the needs of people. Some want to say things to them, and others want to give them a voice. But the ultimate goal is to help implant ICTs more widely in numbers and in extent, and therefore influence development as such. And that's the link with the SDGs, that they will not be achieved, certainly not in time, unless one maximises the use of ICTs, one incorporates ICTs at every level, from now on, not from now on, already in the past, but increasingly, I mean, it's a, what could one call it, a mechanism and a technique for involving people and giving greater access to people. It increases freedom of opinion and freedom of expression, and that itself is one of the major goals inherent in the SDGs. Cyril Ritchie, President of the Conference of NGOs, thank you very much for joining us today. Thank you. And do please tune in to the ITU YouTube channel where you can watch videos from experts like Cyril Ritchie from the civil society, experts from government, private and public sector.