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<TITLE>Media Caucus nominations for WGIG</TITLE>
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<FONT FACE="American Typewriter"><B>Please find below the two candidates for the UN Working Group on Internet Governance that are submitted by the WSIS Civil Society Media Caucus, following a consultative process.<BR>
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Our selection has been made on the basis of people with the capacity, expertise and institutional resources to participate. Candidates from two developing contexts did not accept their nominations, based on lack of institutional resources to enable participation. <BR>
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I am pleased to be able to put forward two strong and well informed candidates to this critical process in which the principles upheld by the media caucus have a fundamental bearing on governance generally, but particularly in this instance, of the Internet. <BR>
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Because the media is a cornerstone of any concept of an information society, the Media Caucus would like to see both our candidates selected to the working group.<BR>
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Thank you.<BR>
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Submitted by Tracey Naughton<BR>
Chair, WSIS Civil Society Media Caucus<BR>
September 17th, 2004<BR>
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</B><H2>Summary of Media Caucus candidates:<BR>
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Aidan White<BR>
</B>Secretary General, <BR>
International Federation of Journalists<BR>
Based in Brussels <BR>
aidan.white@ifj.org<BR>
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<B>Ronald Koven<BR>
</B>Vice Chair, WSIS Civil Society Media Caucus<BR>
European Representative,<BR>
World Press Freedom Committee<BR>
Based in Paris<BR>
rkoven@compuserve.com<BR>
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</FONT><H2>Background of Media Caucus Candidates<BR>
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<B>Aidan White<BR>
</B><BR>
White is the General secretary of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ).<BR>
The IFJ covers journalists' groups in every part of the world. It has offices in Asia, Africa, <BR>
Latin America and Europe and speaks on behalf of the professional and social rights of journalists.<BR>
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White has specific experience, knowledge and interest arising out of representation of <BR>
the world's largest journalists' group for the last 17<BR>
years.<BR>
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White is the author of a number of texts on this subject including Pluralism and<BR>
Democracy in the Information Society (1996) and the extensive IFJ submission<BR>
to the WSIS Part One (2001). He was the chair of the European Union<BR>
Working Party on Social and Democratic Values in the Information Society,<BR>
1998-2000 and has written for and acted as a consultant for Council of<BR>
Europe and UNESCO on aspects of this subject.<BR>
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<B>Ronald Koven<BR>
</B><BR>
Ronald Koven has been the European Representative of the World Press<BR>
Freedom Committee since 1981.<BR>
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It is an umbrella organization of journalistic organizations -- 45<BR>
international, regional and national affiliated groups on five continents,<BR>
representing broadcast and print press, labor and management -- united in<BR>
the defense and promotion of press freedom.<BR>
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Koven has written and spoken widely on free speech and press freedom on the<BR>
Internet. His initial statement on the subject was in a speech at the<BR>
UNESCO General Conference in 1995. He drafted a joint statement on Internet<BR>
governance adopted for World Press Freedom Day 2004 by the Coordinating<BR>
Committee of Press Freedom Organizations, consisting of nine leading world<BR>
groups -- Commonwealth Press Union (London), Committee to Protect<BR>
Journalists (New York City), Inter American Press Association (Miami),<BR>
International Association of Broadcasting (Montevideo), International<BR>
Association of the Periodical Press (London), International Press Institute<BR>
(Vienna), North American Broadcasters Association (Toronto), World<BR>
Association of Newspapers (Paris), and World Press Freedom Committee<BR>
(Washington, DC). He would present that statement to the Working Group on<BR>
Internet Governance.<BR>
<BR>
During the 1960s, Koven was the "De Gaulle watcher" of the International<BR>
Herald Tribune. He joined The Washington Post in 1969 and was successively<BR>
its Canada Correspondent, Diplomatic Editor, Foreign Editor and Paris-based<BR>
Correspondent for Latin Europe and the Maghreb. He was the Paris<BR>
Correspondent of The Boston Globe 1981-91 and has taught at the Political<BR>
Sciences Institute of Paris.<BR>
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Starting from the fall of the Berlin Wall, he undertook for WPFC an<BR>
extensive program of aid to the emerging independent press in Eastern<BR>
Europe and the ex-Soviet Union, including organizing conferences and<BR>
seminars, publishing training manuals, legal aid projects, and providing<BR>
targeted material help to news outlets and journalists unions and<BR>
associations.<BR>
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<B>Submitted by Tracey Naughton<BR>
Chair, WSIS Civil Society Media Caucus<BR>
</B> <BR>
Nyaka - Communication & Development <BR>
Tracey Naughton<BR>
Consultant<BR>
201 Somerset Hall<BR>
239 Oxford Road<BR>
Illovo 2196<BR>
South Africa<BR>
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Phone/fax: +27 (0) 11 880 5030<BR>
cell: +27 (0) 82 821 1771<BR>
Email: tracey@traceynaughton.com<BR>
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Please note: as of 15.9.2004 I am migrating from t.naughton@iafrica.com to the above email. Mail to the iafrica address will be forwarded for some time, but please update your records.<BR>
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