Freedom of Expression Crucial for Information Society Says UNESCO Director-General

This piece details the comments of Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO, on the eve of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), which was held on December 10-12 2003 and then in Tunis, Tunisia in 2005. The occasion of these comments was a second WSIS briefing session for the Permanent Delegates of Member States to UNESCO on November 21 2003.

Matsuura explained that the purpose of the WSIS is not solely to strategise about how to draw on the potential of knowledge and technology to promote international development goals. In addition, he said, WSIS also needs to address "ethical and intellectual considerations, which embrace such matters as social inclusion, youth, gender, cultural diversity, human rights and inter-cultural dialogue". It is for this reason that UNESCO has stressed in preparatory debates that "the Summit needs to address, first and foremost, the social, political, cultural and institutional dimensions of change". Matsuura explained that this is also why UNESCO has "emphasized the concept of knowledge societies as being preferable to the information society as it goes beyond issues of connectivity and technological development to encompass a broader and more empowering vision that is based on the potential of ICT to enhance human development."

Matsuura urged that this broad vision of change relies heavily on the recognition that freedom of expression is at the core of new knowledge societies. For this reason, he is concerned drafts of the Declaration of Principles and the Plan of Action of the WSIS do not at this time include explicit reference to Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Rejecting the idea that debate about this reference is reflective of a "North-South" divide, Matsuura urged the Representatives of Member States to advocate that their governments explicitly recognise freedom of expression as fundamental to the development of the information society. In the same vein, the Director-General urged delegations to refrain from using any language that might be interpreted as limiting the universality of this principle.

Matsuura also lamented that the drafts do not recognise the media's role in the development of the information society. "Explicit references to the role of media, including the role of traditional media, in the information society in general and to their independence, pluralism and freedom, in particular, need to be retained in the Summit texts", he said.

Click here for the full article on the UNESCO site.