ICANN’s 58th Public Meeting will be held six months after the historic IANA Stewardship Transition

Copenhagen, Denmark

Denmark’s Minister of Culture, Mette Bock, and Chairman of DIFO and DK-Hostmaster, Professor Henrik Udsen, will be speaking during the welcome ceremony of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Number (ICANN)’s 58th Public Meeting. The meeting, which is being held at the Bella Center in Copenhagen, Denmark, will take place from 11 to 16 March 2017. It is being hosted by both the Danish Business Authority and the Danish Internet Forum.

The meeting is being held six months after the IANA Stewardship Transition, which was a milestone in the history of ICANN’s multistakeholder community. Stakeholders from around the world, including people from businesses, governments, academia, and civil society, will be convening in Denmark to discuss various topics such as next steps after the IANA Stewardship Transition, enhancements to ICANN’s accountability and the new generic Top Level Domain (gTLD) program.

Göran Marby, ICANN’s President and CEO, and Board Chair, Dr. Stephen Crocker, will also be speaking to attendees during the welcome ceremony.

We encourage members of the press to join in-person or remotely, as their remarks will provide a high-level overview of what is expected to occur throughout the meeting. Those who are unable to attend the Copenhagen meeting in person are encouraged to participate remotely via a live web stream.

The details for connecting are provided below.

BACKGROUND: Held three times a year, ICANN’s public meetings convene members of the global, multistakeholder Internet community, made up of individual users, businesses, civil society, governments, research institutions and non-government organizations, to discuss issues impacting the Domain Name System (DNS) and develop relevant policies.

Welcome Ceremony & Opening Session:

WHO: Mette Bock, Danish Minister of Culture, Professor Henrik Udsen, Board Chair of DIFO and DK-Hostmaster, Göran Marby, President and CEO, Dr. Stephen Crocker, Chair of the Board of Directors

WHEN: Monday, 13 March, 09:00 A.M. – 10:30 A.M. CET (8:00 – 9:30 UTC) WHERE: Hall 1, Bella Center Copenhagen

OFF-SITE ACCESS: Journalists from around the world can participate in the Welcome Ceremony via remote access.

• A live webcast may be accessed at LINK.

DomainKing.ng: NiRA takes protective measure.

Following a press release by the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA) through the office of the Chief Operating Officer, Edith Udeagu stated that the registry had made several attempts to contact the registrar, DomainKing.ng.

It stated that since February 8th, 2017, the Indian based .ng ccTLD Accredited Registrar, DomainKing.ng, had not responded to escalated support queries and emails from its clients forwarded to it by the .ng Registry. The Registry had attempted severally since then and is still trying to contact the registrar via email, telephone, their online support system, social media platforms and postal service. NiRA COO claimed that January 24th, 2017 was the last time the Registrar responded to the Registry via email.

Failing to respond to the .ng Registry is a breach of the Registrar Agreement DomainKing.ng signed with the NiRA. Also DomainKing.ng’s failure to respond to its registrants is in breach of the obligation a Registrar owes its registrants in the NiRA policy.

We were informed that some of the complaints via emails and phone calls from the clients of DomainKing.ng borders on payments made via the DomainKing.ng website/platform without service being rendered by DomainKing.ng. Whilst considering the plight of existing DomainKing.ng clients, the .ng Registry had taken a protective measure to ensure that the DomainKing.ng platform is temporarily not available for more Nigerians to make further payments. Further sanctions will be applied against DomainKing.ng by May 2nd, 2017 should the company not reactivate/attend/respond to queries/complaints raised by the registrants.

NiRA is seeking legal advice and will continues to consult its solicitors as events unfold on the matter.

The head of the management team informed that NiRA is not a hosting company. However, efforts are on to attend to the various complaints on domain name management services rendered by Domainking.ng.