Information cultures and information interests:
European Perspectives on the Information Society,
Report on UNESCO's Regional Pre-Conference for the WSIS,
Mainz, 27-29 June 2002

Three days before the first WSIS Prep-Com, a gathering of 150 representatives of National Commission for UNESCO gave strong support to UNESCO's objectives for WSIS from a European perspective. With its long tradition of recognising and balancing the interests of different cultures and languages, the network did not shy away from addressing some hot issues:

It is time to face the democratic deficit of the digital age: examples from different parts of the globe show emerging practice to design technologies for democracy instead of vice versa. A clear distinction was made between e-government (government-to-consumer) and e-democracy: the digital communication routines need to be re-examined. Regulation through norms, law, code and market are heavily and often invisibly influenced by these daily patterns.

The conference subscribed to the need to find a balance, which pays equal respect to both intellectual property and public interest. Generally acknowledged commercial interests should not compromise the primacy of public interest. The work of the conference was guided by the vision that the sustainable development of information society is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, particular in its articles 19 and 27.

In this perspective, national Government representatives identified the clear necessity for the international community to complement national laws and EU-regulation by international recommendations on the ethics of information society, the protection of users and to facilitating access to information and knowledge where endangered by market processes.

The gathering can be considered highly representative, as it assembled participants from 46 of the 50 Member States of UNESCO's Europe Region.

The conference was organised by the German Commission for UNESCO on behalf of UNESCO in co-operation with the Federal Government Commissioner for Cultural Affairs and the Media, the Office of the Prime Minister of Rhineland-Palatinate and the ZDF-German Television.

See also www.unesco.org/wsis-mainz-2002