The WTO press office just informed me that policy toward Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs) hasn’t changed in light of today’s outburst at the WTO inaugural session in which about 30 NGO members stood up and shouted for about 10 minutes during WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy’s opening remarks.

This is the first WTO ministerial conference at which members of NGOs like Oxfam and Greenpeace have been accredited to attend. Security is so tight at these events it is impossible to even get near them unless you have an accreditation badge. This year, NGOs have been given access similar to that given to members of the press. It is an experiment in bringing the more serious groups that are usually outside protesting inside so they can advocate their causes more constructively.

Today at the inaugural session, a bunch of idiots took advantage of the WTO’s good-faith effort and disrupted the ministerial. Based on remarks made by WTO spokesperson Keith Rockwell about NGOs causing disturbances, I speculated as to whether today’s antics would jeopardize NGOs access. The WTO press office has now told me that Rockwell’s remarks referred to disturbances at press conferences, not the ministerial events.

Personally, I’m glad that a bunch of kooks didn’t screw it up for the serious NGOs this time. I think the solution is a more careful screening of NGOs at the next ministerial.