Internet Press Freedom Conference

Press Freedom Issues at the World Summit on the Information Society
A Worthy Democratic Initiative or a Worldwide Effort to Bring Back Old Forms 
of Censorship and Government Intrusion?

By M. Kalyanaraman

New York City, June 30, 2003 -- A panel discussion on "Press Freedom Issues at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)" brought out the conflicting pulls on agenda of this UN-sponsored initiative during a press freedom on the Internet conference.

The civil society groups and the media were against the WSIS attempts to codify rights saying it would limit them and instead wanted the summit resolution to enforce, not just recognize, Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

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 conference also exposed the various cross currents within the UN regarding the summit, which will be held in December of this year and in 2005.

Drawing on the past experience of UNESCO, Henrikas Yushkiavitshus, adviser to UNESCO Director General Koichiro Matsuura, and Mogens Schmidt, Assistant Director of UNESCO’s Press Freedom and Democracy Unit, said the draft resolution shares many features of the 1982 New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO) in which the UNESCO played an important part.

They pointed that the WSIS Bucharest declaration legitimized press censorship in countries like the former Soviet Union and lead to Great Britain and the United States leaving UNESCO.

They expressed their peeve that the UNESCO, which has learned important lessons from the last summit, has been marginalized this time and instead the International Telecommunication Union has been given the responsibility of organizing the summit.

But Guy-Olivier Segond, Special Ambassador to the WSIS, said the media and other groups, including the UNESCO, have been given a place at summit conferences, though the governments of the 191 UN member states will ultimately have the last word.

James Ottaway (left), WPFC's Chairman, and Guy-Oliver Segond, Special Ambassador to the WSIS, discussed their opposing views about the merits and the dangers of the summit's agenda and objectives.

Segond insisted the goals of the summit are legitimate and refused the contention that this is an attempt to bring back to life the NWICO principles.

James H. Ottaway Jr., chairman of World Press Freedom Committee (WPFC) and Senior Vice-President of Dow Jones & Co., said he is happy that Article 19 has been given central priority in the draft resolution. And that it has been opened up to civil society and media voices. But, he pointed out that 60 percent of the 191 countries that will decide the outcome have no free press.

"We are distinctively worried about this," he said.

Ronald Koven, the European representative of WPFC, said in NWICO countries tried to define a "right to communicate," beyond Article 19, as a collective right of groups and nations.

"This meant the right of governments like the Soviet Union to claim time or space in other people's broadcast or printed press to put across their propaganda," said Koven.

Koven said there are similarities to the draft papers for this summit. He added that just as the previous summit added baggage to rights only to allow governments to restrict them, this summit’s draft paper describes the information society as a new world order which also deals with economic and social development.

Andrés García Lavín, former President of the Inter American Press Association and International Association of Broadcasting, said some nostalgic people were bringing in old ideas and sophisticated rhetoric into the summit draft.

"Press, radio and television are not services but means of freedom,” he said. “And they should not be clubbed with other economic and social goals.”

UNESCO’s Schmidt said that WSIS’s goal of cultural diversity was a NWICO buzzword also, while the actual issue should be just Article 19.

Segond rejected the WPFC charge that the world summit was a threat to press freedom, indicating that since more than 91 percent of Internet users live in countries that have only 19 percent of the total population, the WSIS has to deal with policy issues relating to these realities.

Segond, a Swiss and former President of the State Council of the Canton of Geneva, Switzerland, insisted he was well aware of the principles of press freedom and democracy, indicating he comes from the world’s oldest democracy. He added Article 19 will be a priority at the summit.

Giving a positive view of NWICO, Segond said the right to communicate was a new concept for many countries. And they tried to tackle it at that conference.

“One of the aims of this summit was to contribute to preserving identities without diminishing positive aspects of internationalism," he said.

Regarding the complaint about the power given to governments, he said he agreed that they were not perfect institutions but they will decide many issues.

He also said the World Electronic Media Forum, one of the WSIS’s five preparatory meetings, was intended for media representatives, who along with other civil society groups, will have a role in the outcome of the summit.

Yushkiavitshus, a Lithuanian and former Soviet-era official, suggested former Warsaw Pact member states like the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland as examples of the kind of censorship and unintended consequences initiatives like WSIS can bring about.

“These countries have a better memory of what the lack of freedom of expression in society means. Among their leaders are personalities who themselves fought and made sacrifices for human rights and fighting spirit is still alive there,” he said.