[WSIS CS-Plenary] [WSIS THETHA] Freedom of Expression Crucial for Information SocietySays UNESCO Director-General

[Eric Muragana]

Freedom of Expression Crucial for Information Society Says UNESCO
Director-General

24-11-2003 (UNESCO):
http://portal.unesco.org/ci/ev.php?URL_ID=13681&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=
201&reload=1069798262

The Director-General of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura, on Friday, 21 November,
convened the Permanent Delegates of Member States to UNESCO for a second
briefing session on the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS),
which will be held in Geneva, Switzerland, from 10 to 12 December 2003 and
then in Tunis, Tunisia, in 2005.

One of the main reasons for convening the World Summit was to find ways of
harnessing the potential of knowledge and technology to promote
international development goals.

For the Director-General it is essential that the Summit also include
“ethical and intellectual considerations, which embrace such matters as
social inclusion, youth, gender, cultural diversity, human rights and
inter-cultural dialogue”. It is for this reason that UNESCO has stressed in
the preparatory debates that “the Summit needs to address, first and
foremost, the social, political, cultural and institutional dimensions of
change”. That is why UNESCO has strongly “emphasized the concept of
knowledge societies as being preferable to the information society as it
goes beyond issues of connectivity and technological development to
encompass a broader and more empowering vision that is based on the
potential of ICT to enhance human development”

Mr Matsuura noted with satisfaction that many of UNESCO’s principles,
namely: equal access to education; universal access to information and the
preservation and promotion of cultural diversity including multilingualism,
are included in the present drafts of the Declaration of Principles and the
Plan of Action of the WSIS. “ Nevertheless, the headway made so far can be
considered a success only if there is an unambiguous assurance that freedom
of expression is recognized as the fundamental principle underlying and
informing the development of the information society”, he added.

Mr Matsuura expressed his concern that the reference to Article 19 of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights is still under negotiation in the
present drafts. “It is my firm position that it is important to retain in
the Declaration and the Plan of Action an explicit reference to Article 19”,
he said. Rejecting the idea “that this was a North-South confrontation”, as
some had said during the preparatory debates, Mr Matsuura stated clearly,
“What is at stake is the very foundation of a democratic society and this
has nothing to do with any divide between North and South. Freedom of
expression is not the monopoly of one geographic region, one culture, one
civilization. It is about the raison d’être of our Organization and the very
foundation of our Constitution”. In conclusion, he urged the Representatives
of Member States to obtain from their governments the inclusion of “an
explicit reference to freedom of expression”. “Its deletion from the text
would severely undermine internationally recognized values and previously
accepted universal principles and thus impair the international treaty
system. There can be little argument that access to information and freedom
must go together”, he said.

In the same vein, the Director-General urged delegations to “refrain from
including any language (
) that could be interpreted as limiting the
universality of the principle of freedom of expression”. Mr Matsuura also
expressed his concern about “the continuing absence of any reference to the
role that media play in the development of knowledge societies”. “Explicit
references to the role of media, including the role of traditional media, in
the information society in general and to their independence, pluralism and
freedom, in particular, need to be retained in the Summit texts”, he said.

(Source Flash Info n°257)

Best regards,
Eric Muragana
SANGONeT Media Coordinator
Tel: (+27- 11)- 838 6943/4; Fax: (+27- 11)- 492 1058
E-mail: mediatec at sangonet.org.za
www.sangonet.org.za
Postal Address:
Southern African Non-Governmental Organisation Network
(SANGONeT)
P O Box 31, Johannesburg, 2000

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