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<h1 style="margin-left: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;"><span
style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-CA">FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE<o:p></o:p></span></h1>
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<h3><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><span lang="EN-CA">AMARC
participates in Canada’s consultation on WSIS</span></font></h3>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><b
style=""><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"
lang="EN-US">Montreal,
May 12, 2005</span></b><span
style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-US">.<span
style=""> </span>The World Association of Community Broadcasters
(AMARC) will participate in a
consultation conference organized by the Canadian Commission for UNESCO
in preparation
for the second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society
(WSIS). The
conference is entitled <i>Paving the Road to Tunis - WSIS II: Canada's
Civil
Society Views on the Geneva Plan of Action and the Prospects for Phase
II, </i>and
will be held in Winnipeg from May 13th to 15th. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class="MsoBodyText"><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><span
style="font-size: 11pt;" lang="EN-US">The main objective of the
conference is to collect views on the Geneva
Plan of Action from a Canadian civil society perspective. About 200
participants representing the private sector, civil society, academia
and all levels
of government will examine the status of major elements included in the
Plan of
Action presented at the end of the first phase of WSIS held in Geneva
in
December 2003.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<div align="left"><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><span
style="font-size: 11pt;" lang="EN-US">AMARC will be represented at the
event by its Secretary General, Marcelo
Solervicens.</span></font><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><span
style="font-size: 11pt;" lang="EN-US">The organization proposes the
recognition of community media in the WSIS
texts. Community media, that is media which are independent,
community-driven
and civil-society based, have a specific and crucial role to play in
enabling
access and participation for all of the information society, especially
the
poorest and more marginalized communities. AMARC urges the Canadian
government
to support the Community Radio Fund in Africa, and expresses its
concern and
demands a robust position from Canada regarding freedom of expression
in
Tunisia in general and at the WSIS Summit in particular. <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></font></div>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><span
style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-US">The keynote
speech and plenaries will be available
through webcast provided by the Canadian Research Alliance for
Community
Innovation and Networking (CRACIN). Please visit <a
href="http://www.cracin.ca"><span style="">http://www.cracin.ca</span></a><span
style=""> </span>to access the webcast. Or go to AMARC’s
community media international observatory <a
href="http://www.obsmedia.amarc.org/">http://www.obsmedia.amarc.org</a>
and
click on the link WSIS and CRIS Campaign on the menu. For more
information
about the conference, please visit <a
href="http://www.unesco.ca/en/activity/culture/wsis.aspx">http://www.unesco.ca/en/activity/culture/wsis.aspx</a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><font
face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><span
style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;" lang="EN-US">The results
of the conference will be presented at
the second and last phase of WSIS to be held in Tunis from November
16th
to18th, and at the 33rd UNESCO General Conference in Paris in October
2005.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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