[WSIS THETHA] [WSIS CS-Plenary] Cultural Diversity Workshop

[Eric Muragana]

World Electronic Media Forum
Cultural Diversity Workshop
Geneva, Palexpo - December 11, 2003
14:00 to 17:30 - Room Salle B
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Workshop Details

The projection of cultural diversity through the media has contributed to
the enrichment of the human community, and to the promotion of peace and
communal harmony amongst the diverse civilisations of the world, but in many
parts of the world there still remain significant concerns about one single
global culture expanding to dominate media content.

With the advent of the so-called 'Information Society', and the rapid
development of multi-media and convergent technology, will the cultural gap
widen along with that of the information, knowledge and digital divide?  How
will the role of television and radio broadcasters in the promotion and
preservation of cultural diversity now change?

What is likely to be the impact of new information and communication
technologies (ICTs) on the role of the traditional media?  Can they be used
to enhance the role that broadcasters have in keeping their audiences in
touch with their national or ethnic cultural values and traditions?  Or will
new media platforms usurp this role?

These are some of the key issues that the WEMF workshop on Cultural
Diversity will be examining.

Organised by the Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development (AIBD)
and the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU), the workshop will feature a
strong line-up of speakers and panelists whose backgrounds and experiences
enable them to provide authoritive views on the relationship between
broadcasting and cultural diversity in various parts of the world.

The workshop will examine how effective broadcasting has been in achieving
preservation of cultural identities, whilst still retaining the positive
influences of globalism, and will discuss how broadcasting might be linked
to an envisaged future Convention on Cultural Diversity.

It will explore in more detail some of the cultural issues raised in the
plenary sessions of the WEMF, namely:
- Do people around the world receive the information they need in their own
language and in a form that is appropriate for their culture?
- Do they find in the media an appropriate reflection of their culture and
traditions and of the themes that are most relevant to them in their
personal and professional lives?

The workshop speakers comprise both media practitioners and media academics,
and have been drawn from Asia, Africa, Europe and the Pacific Islands, to
provide a diversity of backgrounds and experiences in both television and
radio broadcasting.

Chairman
- Mr K S Sarma is Chief Executive Officer of Prasar Bharati India
(Broadcasting Corporation of India).  Between 1996 and 1998, when he was
working as Director General of Doordarshan, he also held the post of Joint
Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

Speakers
- Prof. Dr. Jong-ki Kim is the former chairman of the Korean Broadcasting
Commission, the statutory broadcast policy-making organisation in Korea.
His liberalist approach paved the way for the launch of Korea's first direct
broadcasting by satellite (DBS).

- Dr. Widiadnyana Merati is Deputy Minister for Media, Ministry of
Information and Communication, Government of the Republic of Indonesia.
Prior to his current post, Mr Merati had a long and distinguished academic
career at the Institut Teknologi Bandung.

- Dr Ihron Rensburg is Managing Director, Education, Public & Regulatory
Affairs for the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC). He joined
SABC in 2001, and was recently re-elected Chairperson of the National
Association of Broadcasters of South Africa.

- Mr Francis Herman is Chief Executive Officer, Fiji Broadcasting
Corporation Ltd (FBCL). Mr Herman leads a management team that is
responsible for the operation of Fiji's national radio broadcasting service.
The FBCL operates a network of six radio stations.

- Dr. Roza Tsagarousianou is a Senior Lecturer in Communication at the
Communication and Media Research Institute, University of Westminster,
London. Dr  Tsagarousianou has undertaken many research projects on ethnic
minority audiences in Europe, particularly people of South Asian family
origin.

For the workshop discussions, the speakers will be joined by two panelists:
Ms Verena Wiedemann, Head of European Affairs at ARD's Brussels office, and
Ms Milagros Del Corral, a UNESCO Director. Ms Wiedemann has been closely
involved in the Cancún Declaration on Cultural Diversity, which was adopted
at a side-event to the WTO Ministerial Conference in September.

Organised by

Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union
Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development
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