Forum documents
Opening Session
Moderators: Christine Ockrent and Riz Khan
9 December, 2003.
Content
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Summary
 The first World Electronic Media Forum (WEMF) - organized within the World Summit on the
Information Society ( WSIS) as a gathering for high-level media and broadcast professionals -
was officially opened on 9 December 2003 in Geneva by lead moderators and media professionals
CHRISTINE OCKRENT and RIZ KHAN.
The moderators raised some of the key issues to be addressed by the WEMF over the next several
days with regard to the role of the electronic media as begins the new millennium. Likely to
remain a principal source of credible and independent information for a long time to come, today
’s media are affected by three major divides: the inequitable access to information in many
parts of the world; the digital divide between haves and have-nots; and the crucial matter of
media freedom being prevented in many countries.
Both OCKRENT and KHAN stressed the impact of television and radio in a fast-developing age
of information to a capacity audience of broadcasters, journalists, government officials and civil
society representatives. The WEMF would provide a clear signal to governments and other WSIS
delegates of the inevitable role of radio and television in the development of society, in
particular as a means of helping to bridge the gap between the haves and have-nots when it
comes to access to new communications tools. At the same time, both they and other participants
made it clear that the crux of the matter is not technology per se, but rather the availability,
appropriateness and dissemination of information itself. As the session’s regional
representative from Africa, PETER MATLARE later observed: “Clearly, the secret is in the c
ontent – the information that validates, that brings to life the technology, and not the
other way round.”
As an international Forum, the WEMF should seek to explore how the media should ensure appropriate access to relevant information for all people, in particular credible content, regardless of where and in which circumstances they live. It should also seek the most effective means of bridging the digital, or technological divide, so that all could benefit from radio, television, the Internet and other forms of communication. It would also seek ways of resolving or otherwise accommodating the legitimate needs of governments whilst respecting the editorial requirements of an independent media. As part of this last challenge, the moderators placed particular emphasis on the need for both governments and media to respect Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Another point stressed by participants was the need for the media to serve as a critical and open forum in which ALL people could express themselves freely. Every individual needs to have access to information on issues that affect their lives, but also have their voices heard, the moderators and other participants noted. The worrying global trend, however, is that mainstream media is moving away from effective pluralism as the result of government control, corporate monopolies and more narrow commercial and political interests. “Freedom of expression and pluralism of ideas and opinions depend on the existence of different forms of media. None of them should be subject to censorship or coercion,” maintained JOSE ROBERTO MARINHO, the regional representative for Latin America and the Caribbean.
SHASHI THAROOR further developed the broad concepts of the Forum by noting that the Information Society could not exist without the ever-increasing presence of broadcasting, notably television. The WEMF, he explained, offered a unique platform for media leaders from throughout the world to discuss openly the growing importance of audio-visual media in today’s society. It also provided an opportunity for a dialogue between media leaders and the general public, that would lead to a better understanding of their mutual needs and roles.
Whereas this opening session of the WEMF served primarily as a curtain raiser for the WSIS, Tharoor observed, the overall Forum was more than that. It was the first time that broadcast leaders had agreed on a joint declaration that would be submitted through the United Nations Secretary-General KOFI ANNAN to the intergovernmental Summit. Equally crucial, the conclusions of the plenaries and twelve workshops of the WEMF would form an «action plan» for the Information Society of tomorrow, a theme that could be expanded at the second phase of the WSIS in Tunisia in 2005. He saluted the presence in the audience of two leading figures of the WSIS, Yoshio Utsumi, ITU Secretary-General and Adama Samassekou, President of the WSIS preparatory committee.
The moderators then introduced several television reports from different parts of the world to illustrate the impact of the electronic media as well as the nature of the three divides that need to be bridged globally. The first segment illustrated how most people in the North – in this particular case Finland - have access to a plethora of media, including the Internet, while local populations in the South, such as Honduras, only enjoy extremely limited access. The so-called digital divide, Ockrent said, is not only of a technical nature, but also one of restriction with regard to access to information in many places.
Nevertheless, even in countries like Honduras, most people have access to radio as their principal source of information. This fact was reinforced by a second report, this time from Niger, one of the world’s poorest countries; it highlighted the crucial role of radio in numerous parts of the world, with the liberalization of the airwaves enabling the operation of broadcasters ranging from commercial to community stations. The moderators called on participants via satellite hook-ups in Russia and Algeria to comment on the reports and the issues raised. (A link from Caracas failed for technical reasons). A third segment focused on outside satellite television: how a United States-based but independent Iranian-language station, NI-TV, has managed to affect attitudes inside the Islamic Republic of Iran. Mohammed Honardoost, Vice-president of Iran’s IRIB, later strongly denied the purported influence of NI-TV on his country’s audiences, saying that this was an outside broadcaster of only limited impact.
As part of his keynote address, KOFI ANNAN, Secretary-General of the United Nations, stressed the power and paradoxes facing all involved in the electronic media, whether producers or consumers. The electronic media, he said, represented one of the most important vehicles for peace, progress and solidarity. At the same time, he added, “electronic media may seem to be everywhere, but there are many millions of people in the world whom they still do not reach.” He further warned that media have been used to disseminate hatred through stereotyping and propaganda.
The United Nations Secretary-General further expressed concern with regard to the growing lack of pluralism within the electronic media, as control was being consolidated in the hands of a few. “The goal is not more information in more places, but an information society – open and inclusive – in which knowledge empowers all people, and serves the cause of improving the human condition,” he said. He also criticized those governments who have sought to impose censorship and harass, noting that freedom of the press is essential to the development of a wider role of the media. Mr. Annan concluded by calling on the Summit leaders to reaffirm this fundamental freedom.
From Berne, via video, PASCAL COUCHEPIN, President of the Swiss Confederation, welcomed the WEMF participants and reminded them that one of the primary objectives of the Summit was to promote and guarantee the freedom of media and information. “Bridging the information gap,” he said, “gives men and women a further opportunity to control their destinies.”
Representatives of the eight World Broadcasting Unions, plus ACT, then presented their collective views in the form of the WSIS Broadcasters' Declaration to the United Nations Secretary-General. This was articulated by ARNE WESSBERG. “Free and independent media are essential to democratic principles and practices,” Wessberg said. “Broadcasting open to pluralism of opinion and cultural diversity offers the widest public access to the knowledge, education and information required by an active citizenry.”
Speakers representing the world’s six main regions - Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe, North America, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Arab world - were then asked to comment on the five principles of the Declaration. Several speakers emphasized the importance of content over technology, a recurrent theme throughout much of the WEMF. “The more people become experts in one small area of human knowledge the less capacity they have to follow other developments – the more they depend on trusted agents that will provide this information to them in a reliable and easily understandable manner,” said FRITZ PLEITGEN as representative of Europe and public service broadcasting.
The issue of quality content and diversity was also taken up by FRED COHEN as representative of the North American region and commercial broadcasting. “A healthy and respectful diet of diversity of news, information, education and entertainment helps to ensure the future growth of the information society,” he said. “For without that diversity from all sources on the international, national and local level, we will have failed our public responsibility as broadcasters.” KATSUJI EBISAWA, representative of the Asia-Pacific region, emphasised the vital role of broadcasting in advancing regional culture and public welfare. “I believe there is a rising moment now for the creation of a world in which mankind will appreciate different cultures and respect different values through broadcasting,” he said.
HASSAN MOHAMED HAMED representing the Arab world accentuated the problems facing accessibility and affordability. Government and private sectors should forge ahead by expanding public access and thus “encouraging free flow of information and a wider and better balanced dissemination of information,” he said. “Every effort should be made to narrow the dividing gap between the haves and have nots in the media domain.”
To conclude the session, moderator Riz Khan interviewed a correspondent for Japan’s NHK through a live satellite link from Antarctica, featuring ice, penguins and beautiful landscapes. The NHK correspondent explained how this extremely remote part of the world was now connected 24 hours a day to the global information networks. The moderators then concluded the session and invited all the participants to take part in the forthcoming plenaries and workshops of the Forum.
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Notes for a Broadcaster's Action plan
The opening session sets the stage for the Forum, highlighting the WSIS Broadcasters’ Declaration as well as the media dimension of the WSIS, namely that the information divide and the media freedom divide are just as important to overcome as the digital or technological divide, on which all emphasis had been put at the outset of the WSIS process.
Throughout organizing the WEMF, I had in mind the possibility of a Broadcasters’ Action Plan as part of the implementation process of the WSIS Declaration and Plan of Action, in other words a broadcasters’ Information Society roadmap to be presented during the second phase of the WSIS in Tunis.
After each of these report segments, I shall summarize elements from the WEMF statements, discussions and website contributions from viewers/listeners which outline the content of a WSIS Broadcasters’ Action Plan to be discussed and drafted between now and November 2005.
Guillaume Chenevière, Executive Director of the WEMF
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Keynote address
by Kofi Annan, United Nations Secretary-General
We have just seen, in voices and reports from around the world, the power and paradox facing all of us, as producers and consumers of electronic media in the information age. The power is clear:
to educate and entertain
to inspire and inform
to sound the alarm and arouse
the conscience
to bring people and places closer together
to shine a light on injustice.
In the information age, electronic media are among our most important vehicles of peace, progress and solidarity. And yet, there is a paradox. Electronic media may seem to be everywhere, but there are many millions of people in the world whom they still do not reach. Many do not have electricity, let alone electronic media. Others are too poor to buy television, radios or satellite dishes.
The barriers are not only technical. Signals are broadcast in a limited number of languages. In some countries, it is not legal to receive signals from abroad. Some programming can make people in rich counties more sensitive to the plight of the less fortunate. But other shows provoke envy and resentment on the part of the deprived.
Media have also been used in Nazi Germany, Rwanda and elsewhere to disseminate hatred, vile stereotyping and propaganda. And the consolidation of media ownership has sparked concern about lack of pluralism.
The digital divide is not just digital; it reflects disparities in freedom, in wealth, in power, and ultimately in hope for a better future.
We are here together in Geneva to put power and the paradox together, and come up with a plan as partners. The goal is not more information in more places, but an information society – open and inclusive – in which knowledge empowers all people, and serves the cause of improving the human condition.
The media are fellow stakeholders in that effort. And freedom of the press is essential if you are to fulfill your vital role. It is one thing for governments to establish regulatory and policy frameworks. But when they go further down the slope towards censorship and harassment, all of us – and potentially all our rights – are imperilled. The summit must reaffirm this fundamental freedom.
Information technologies have brought us into a new age, but also to a threshold. With the explosion in knowledge and capacity, we have, more than ever before, the ability to reach development goals we have sought for many, many years. Like those who witnessed the dawn of the industrial age, people around the world have been given their first glimpses of exciting new achievements ahead. All over the developing world, as antennas and satellite dishes sprout across the landscape – some of them placed there in defiance of the authorities – we can see an immense thirst for connection. Let us show that we are listening.
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Keynote Address
by Pascal Couchepin, President of the Swiss Confederation, President of the first phase of the World Summit on the Information Society
Je me réjouis de vous saluer, au nom du Gouvernement suisse, à l’occasion de l’ouverture du Forum mondial des médias électroniques. Je vous souhaite une cordiale bienvenue à Genève. Mesdames et Messieurs les représentants des radios et télévisions, vous disposez d’un pouvoir très important. Les médias électroniques ont l’avantage d’être facilement accessibles. Même les populations les plus périphériques et les plus défavorisées ont la chance de regarder la télévision ou d’écouter la radio.
Combler le fossé de l’information, c’est offrir une chance supplémentaire aux hommes et aux femmes de maîtriser leur destin. C’est un objectif noble que doit se fixer la communauté internationale. La diversité de la presse et des médias a favorisé la démocratie libérale. Aujourd’hui, le Sommet a pour but de renforcer une société de l’information qui garantisse des médias indépendants et pluralistes. Lors de vos débats, vous examinerez les exemples de divers pays. Permettez-moi d’aborder le cas de la Suisse.
Ce pays multilingue et multiculturel est confronté aux images et aux sons de l’étranger. Chaque foyer reçoit dans sa langue la totalité des chaînes de radios et de télévisions des pays voisins. D’Allemagne et d’Autriche en Suisse alémanique, de France en Suisse romande, d’Italie en Suisse italienne.
Cette situation est un défi permanent pour une radiotélévision nationale de service public. Celle-ci nourrit bien sûr l’identité helvétique en s’appuyant sur nos spécificités nationales et régionales, mais elle permet aussi l’ouverture de nos concitoyens aux valeurs et aux cultures étrangères.
La télévision suisse jouit d’une indépendance complète. C’est parfois une source d’agacement pour le mondepolitique, mais nous savons que cette autonomie renforce la crédibilité du service public. Notre radio-télévision nationale a une autre caractéristique, très originale: le partage solidaire des ressources nationales. Chaque région linguistique, chaque culture, a une voix forte indépendamment de sa taille. La diversité culturelle fait partie du projet audiovisuel helvétique au service de la cohésion nationale.
Le philosophe français Michel Serre dit que la technique, c’est ce qu’un père apprend à ses enfants, alors que les technologies, c’est ce que les enfants apprennent à leur père. Avec la révolution des nouvelles technologies de l’information, nous avons multiplié la diffusion de l’information. Mais l’information est une matière première. Il ne suffit pas d’échanger des informations pour se comprendre et rapprocher les hommes. L’enjeu est moins la transmission technique de l’information que les conditions de sa réception, son traitement en fonction des differences culturelles. Elle n’a pas le même sens partout. Elle est liée à des valeurs, à des intérêts, à des rapports de pouvoirs.
Il s’agit en effet d’inventer de nouvelles manières de communiquer. Non seulement entre les générations, mais entre les cultures, entre les religions, entre le Nord et le Sud, entre les villes et les campagnes, entre les favorisés et les défavorisés. J’espère que le Forum mondial des médias électroniques sera une source de propositions et d’idées neuves. Le Sommet a besoin de vos expériences pour contribuer à une société plus ouverte et plus tolérante.
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