The second round table of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)
this morning addressed the theme of diversity in cyberspace and also examined
the opportunities and challenges before the world’s users and providers of
Internet services.
The Moderator of the discussion was Nik Gowing of BBC World, and the Chair was
Vaira Vike Freiberga, the President of Latvia.
The discussion revolved around three topics: cultural and linguistic diversity,
including the preservation of ancient culture; freedom of expression and media
ownership; and law and ethics on the Internet, including the question of
censorship, the use of cyber space in politics and how to agree on fundamental
standards.
Regarding cultural diversity, participants highlighted this issue as fundamental
to the information society and for the promotion of a dialogue between
civilizations. The question arose on how to create content in local languages,
digitize and disseminate it. Information and communication technologies (ICTs)
could play a vital role in the preservation of culture. Some speakers noted that
the information superhighway was posing the threat of making information
uniform. This “homogenization” of culture was contributing to the extinction of
“intangible cultural heritage”.
Chile said that since 85 per cent of Internet users knew English whereas the
vast majority of the world’s people did not, therefore, only an elite group
could avail itself of the Internet. Benin went further by saying that since
intangible heritage could not be easily recorded, society was pushing people to
adopt the culture of economically stronger powers, risking “losing our soul”.
Nik Gowing observed that “the race was on to beat the disappearance of
languages”. The world was concerned about the disappearance of animals and
plants, but not cultures. This was a true dilemma. A non-governmental
organization (NGO) added that the world’s 67,000 languages were threatened in
much the same way as biodiversity extinction, since 75 per cent of content was
driven by English. The Council of Europe said that we must first agree on the
principle of diversity to avoid a clash of visions. Society had to overcome the
mental divide before overcoming the digital divide. The NGO Isis International
lamented the image peddled of non-Western cultures as anthropologically
different from the mainstream.
Speakers said that public-private partnerships were crucial for fostering the
development of local content. Extending broadband access to rural communities
was one area where business was a key actor. Egypt stressed that the costs of
creating e-culture content were prohibitively expensive. Market forces were not
enough to ensure diversity of content. Nowadays, physical infrastructure was
becoming more affordable; however, the specific skills required to customize
content required not only huge financial investments but also the commitment
from governments and civil society. New Zealand and Egypt said that communities,
but especially children, should be involved in determining content and should
become active owners of their heritage. This would ensure a sustainable
preservation of heritage.
Highlighted too were the need to expand search engines in local languages and
develop the capacity for translation of content. Also raised was the question of
universalizing access to public domain information.
Turning to the theme of freedom of expression and media ownership, the
representative from the International Federation of Journalists stated that
governments had a critical role in removing obstacles to achieving those
principles. Media independence, pluralism and freedom of expression required
strong national legislation to guard against media monopolies and intrusion.
Journalists were responsible and accountable, but what exactly was
responsibility? He preferred the term professionalism, which meant
self-regulation and the maintenance of professional independence. Other speakers
contended that external checks and balances were necessary.
Finally, on the question of law and ethics on the Internet, participants stated
that all stakeholders should increase their awareness of the ethical dimensions
of the issue and should do their utmost to promote respect for peace, equality
and shared responsibility. They accorded special importance to upholding human
rights and fundamental freedoms.
Specific recommendations arising from the debate included the elaboration of a
convention for protection against spam and on establishing another convention to
enable users to build on existing content without breaching existing copyright
laws.
Participating in the round table, among others, were the Prime Minister of
Uganda, as well as the Ministers from Pakistan, Morocco, Nepal, Mauritius,
Egypt, New Zealand, Algeria, Rwanda, Lithuania, Argentina, and Chile.
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