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NEW YORK: Once again, a United Nations conference has
aroused concern about press freedom. This time it’s the
first World Summit on the Information Society, or WSIS,
which will be held in Geneva later this year. Many media
watchers fear that some countries will use the “cyber summit”,
as it has been dubbed, to place restrictions on the Internet
and other information technologies. Others fear a resurrection
of the ideologically charged debates of the 1970’s and 1980’s
on a new world information order.
The summit meeting organized by a UN agency,
the International Telecommunication Union, or ITU, has an
ambitious agenda to come to grips with the profound changes
wrought by the information revolution and its impact on
all aspects of human activity. It will search for ways of
putting this revolution, and the technology that generated
it, at the service of poor countries.
It will also be the first time that issues
such as the role of communications in promoting development,
and the challenges of cyber security, spam, Internet governance
and freedom of expression in the information age will be
raised for global discussion and action at the highest governmental
levels, with the participation of all those who have a stake
in the outcome.
Press freedom, including its application to
new technologies, will be in the spotlight. The UN secretary
general, Kofi Annan, has no doubt that the summit meeting
will reaffirm the universality of press freedom through
all media, as envisioned in Article 19 of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights.
But does press freedom, some governments ask,
give carte blanche to produce and promote any and every
idea, product or cause? In all democracies, the law imposes
certain limits in order to protect the right to privacy
and prevent abuse of the Web by organized crime and terrorist
groups. Isn’t it only natural that these boundaries, already
in place for traditional media, be extended to the Internet?
Action has been taken by some governments to
shut down Internet sites that peddle child pornography,
or that promote anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and racial hatred.
These measures fall under national penal law, and are not
viewed as a threat to freedom of speech.
At the same time, there is a risk in sanctioning
the extension of such restrictions. National security or
crime control can easily serve as a pretext for repressive
governments to muzzle press freedom.
It is clear however, that the free flow of
information is in the interests of all countries. Restraints
on the flow of information directly undermine economic well-being.
Global interdependence means that those who receive and
disseminate information freely have an edge over those who
do not. The ability to exchange information through electronic
networks has become crucial to the health of economics and
civil societies.
There is little argument that information and
freedom go together. The information revolution is inconceivable
without political democracy. Already, the spread of information
has had a direct impact on the degree of accountability
and transparency of governments around the world
– and thus on their effectiveness.
Consequently, countries need to open up to
the outside world, liberalize the mass media, and resist
government control and censorship of information. Prosperous
countries can play an additional supportive role – by promoting
greater, freer and fairer access to information for developing
countries, helping them improve their infrastructure, and
sharing technological advances with them.
Though some have rung alarm bells during preparations
for the summit meeting, there have been positive signs.
While the main players at the meeting will be governments,
there has been strong involvement and input from civil society,
the private sector and the news media during the preparatory
phase. Appropriately enough, reports on the most important
subjects for debate have been posted on the summit meeting’s
Web site, increasing the transparency of the negotiations
and providing fuel for debate by non-government organizations.
International news media organizations and
journalist unions are keeping a watchful eye on the summit
meeting, and are calling for a strong reference to press
freedom in the conference’s final documents. It is clear
that further efforts are needed to involve the news media
and their organizations in summit preparations.
One way of involving the media is through a
parallel event organized by the United Nations, the European
Broadcasting Union and Switzerland. The World Electronic
Media Forum will bring together media executives from developed
and developing countries with policymakers to discuss the
role of the electronic media in the information society.
The event will provide another platform for defenders of
press freedom to state their case loud and clear.
The world is heading inexorably toward an information
society, and all governments need to see not the writing
on the wall, but the pulsing cursor on the screen. The summit
meeting will provide a major opportunity to ensure that
the “information revolution” does not leave any of the world’s
citizens behind.
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