[CS Bureau] Media Caucus text

[Tracey Naughton]

To follow is the Media Caucus text, in English. This text will be the 
basis for interventions on Financing, Internet Governance and the 
Political Chapeaux.

Statement to WSIS II PrepCom 2 on behalf of the Media Caucus
February 21, 2005

The members of the Media Caucus, including Northern and Southern 
journalists of both the industrialized and developing worlds, have 
expressed their deep concern that the texts currently under 
consideration for the second phase of the World Summit on the 
Information Society make only a passing and ambiguous reference to the 
central place of the media in that information society.

We hold strongly that Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human 
Rights must be reaffirmed. Not only that, we concur in the statement by 
African and Arab and international journalists groups in their recent 
Declaration of Marrakech - held under the aegis of ORBICOM, the 
international network of UNESCO Chairs in Communication, and the 
Kingdom of Morocco, with the support of UNESCO -- that "The time has 
come to move from the promise of Article 19 to its universal 
implementation."

We recall that Article 19 states, "Everyone has the right to freedom of 
opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions 
without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and 
ideas through any media, and regardless of frontiers."

The member states of the United Nations are all committed to those fine 
words. They must all now honour those commitments. If they do not, then 
tomorrow's Information Society will prove to be an empty shell.

This December's catastrophic tsunami illustrated that, to be effective, 
international solidarity requires an immediate and truly free flow of 
information.  The same principle applies to longer term development. 
There can be information without development, but there cannot be 
effective development without full and free information.

Journalists and their outlets in the North and the South must have the 
same opportunities to transmit their news and comments. That is a large 
part of what overcoming the digital divide is all about.

It is also important that there be no legal bars for anyone to practice 
journalism freely, on or offline. Access to publicly held information 
must be provided to all on an equal basis. Any exceptions to the 
general rule that such information is publicly available must be 
precise, narrow and clearly legitimate in the public interest.

And the world of journalism must be given its rightful place at the 
table to discuss the future information society. It is both bizarre and 
unjust that the Working Group on Internet Governance does not number a 
single journalist. Consideration of communication without communicators 
is like talking about farming without consulting farmers. In the words 
of the Marrakech Declaration, "Representatives of the media must be 
involved as full partners in any future Internet governance system."

The term "governance" must not be allowed to become a code word for 
government regulation of Internet content. The system must not be 
reorganized to permit this internationally nor to encourage it 
nationally. Any changes to the Internet governance system should not 
involve controls over content, nor modifications of the Internet's 
technical "architecture" that facilitate or permit censorship of news 
or opinion. Nor should "self-regulation" be allowed to become a 
surrogate for governmental regulation of content on the Internet.

Security concerns must not serve as pretexts to limit freedom of 
expression in cyberspace. Nor should considerations of "ethics" be 
allowed to become a veiled way to justify censorship.  To quote the 
Marrakech Declaration again, "The creation of ethical norms is the sole 
responsibility of media professionals themselves."

On a practical note, Internet Service Providers should not be held 
liable for the content of the messages they carry. The installation of 
filtering systems must be an individual choice, not something imposed 
by authorities.

The determination of what constitutes illegal content subject to 
punishment must be left in the hands of independent courts 
administering laws that derive their legitimacy from universally 
accepted norms.

Any alleged offense committed on the Internet should normally be tried 
under the laws of and in the country where it originated, except for 
very clear and well-defined special circumstances, like explicit and 
credible calls for violence elsewhere.

Public and private aid providers and grantors should insist that there 
be freedom of expression and press freedom when they fund programs and 
projects to help media and to overcome the digital divide.

And, finally the general principle applied to cyberspace should be that 
the Internet and other new media forms should be afforded the same 
freedom of expression protections as traditional media. #



Tracey Naughton
NYAKA
Communication for Development Consultant
201 Somerset hall
239 Oxford Road
Illovo     2196
South Africa

landline & fax:	+27 (0) 11 880 5030
cell / mobile:	+27 (0) 82 821 1771
email:		tracey at traceynaughton.com
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