ICANN announced a minor postponement of the meeting in Panama. This is happening for the second time already: initially, it was the 56th ICANN meeting that was supposed to take place in the capital of this Central American country in the summer of 2016. However, due to the outbreak of Zika virus in Central and South America the meeting was moved to Helsinki. Panama was subsequently chosen as the venue for 62nd meeting in the summer of 2018.
The new change only affects the date and reason, fortunately, is less alarming. The meeting was supposed to start on June 18th. However, Eid al-Fitr in 2018 will take place on 14-15th of June. It is one o the most important and obligatory holidays for all Muslims, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan. This means that many representatives of Muslim states might simply not make it for the meeting in Panama. Taking this into the consideration, ICANN management decided to change the dates a little bit. Domain Incite reports that the new opening date will be June 25th.
