This past week Google hosted the first Internet at Liberty Conference in Budapest on “the promise and peril of online free expression”. The event brought together some of the smartest commentators and practitioners working on this issue around the world. Two of the participants, Jillian York and Leila Nachawati Rego, were kind enough to liveblog some of the sessions. Links to their posts are below. You can also search the Twitter back channel for the event at #IAL2010 and see some photos from participants Charles Mok and Claudio Ruiz here.

Online Free Expression and the Cat and Mouse Game Between Bloggers and Governments

Speakers

• Cynthia Wong, Center for Democracy and Technology
• Esra’a Rashid, Egyptian blogger
• Ivan Sigal, Global Voices

Are We Compromising National Security by Increasing Access to Information Online?

Speakers

• Monroe Price, Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania
• Smari McCarthy, Digital Freedoms Society
• Michael Semple, Harvard Kennedy School of Government
• Heather Brooke, freedom of information activist

Transparency and Accountability Tools

Speakers:

• Colin Maclay, Berkman Center on Internet and Society
• Matt Braithwaite, Google
• Karl Kathuria, BBC
• Jillian C York, Berkman Center for Internet and Society
• Anas Qtiesh, Technology for Transparency Network

Online Free Expression: Values, Progress and Complexities

Speakers

• Darius Cuplinskas, Open Society Institute
• Dunja Mijatovic, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Merve Alici, Turkish Young Civilians
• Eva Simon, Hungarian Civil Liberties

image: Charles Mok/Flickr