Message-ID: <Pine.SUN.3.90.950406080530.8475C-100000@nywork2.undp.org> Date: Thu, 6 Apr 1995 08:09:58 -0400 From: Mike Gurstein <mailto:mikeg@NYWORK2.UNDP.ORG> Subject: CPSR-GLOBAL digest 123 (fwd) To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L
This is a rather long report from the meeting of the McBride Commission presenting some of the "Info Highway and Africa" issues.Mike Gurstein
---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 6 Apr 1995 02:24:43 -0700 From: mailto:cpsr-global@Sunnyside.COM To: Multiple recipients of list <mailto:cpsr-global@cpsr.org> Subject: CPSR-GLOBAL digest 123
CPSR-GLOBAL Digest 123
Date: Wed, 5 Apr 1995 20:48:51 -0500 From: Richard Vincent <mailto:rvincent@UHUNIX.UHCC.HAWAII.EDU> (by way of marsha-w@uiuc.edu To: mailto:cpsr-global@cpsr.org Subject: AFRICA access (mailto:@) Message-ID: <mailto:aba8afb4bb02100496dd@[128.174.91.166]>
GROUP URGES BETTER INFORMATION HIGHWAY ACCESS FOR AFRICA (edited by the moderator)
TUNIS, TUNISIA (March 18, 1995). The MacBride Round Table on Communication has released its 1995 statement regarding national and international communication equity. The communication rights advocacy group met 16-18 March in Tunis, where the meeting theme was "Africa Faces the Information Highways."
In its report the Round Table cautioned that "Africa may have lost its 'strategic' significance for the West since the end of superpower rivalry." Conference organizer Mustapha Masmoudi, President of Association Tunisia de la Communication (ATUCOM) and MASSMEDIA institute, concludes that "Africa has the right to hope for more participation and democracy, better education by teleteaching, better public health via telemedicine, and greater export of services by way of telework." The group recommended that "now would be the time to show honest and active solidarity with the hard pressed peoples of the continent, starting from their real needs and not from the global strategic needs of the corporate-driven North."
"Today over half the world's population has not yet made a telephone call, and many African nations enjoy less than one percent ownership of this century-old communication technology," says MacBride Round Table chairperson, Dr. Richard Vincent of the University of Hawaii and Dublin City University (Ireland). He adds that "the gap still remains between the world's information rich and information poor. The introduction of an information super highway may only magnify this problem if left unchecked."
Providing a key note address at the meeting was Pekka Tarjanne, Secretary General of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), based in Geneva. Some 74 participants from 20 countries met in Tunis.
STATEMENT OF THE 7TH MACBRIDE ROUND TABLE ON COMMUNICATION.=20
The 7th MacBride Roundtable, held in Tunis, was in many ways a journey home to Africa for a movement that owes a great debt to this region. It is to the Algiers Non-Aligned Summit in 1973 that many look for the origins of the struggle for a new and more equitable communication order. Tunisia also was one of the Non-Aligned countries to spearhead the struggle for a new international order in the fields of culture and communication. It was here, twenty years ago, that the first concrete instrument was established, Non-Aligned News Agencies Pool.=20 And it was here that the Non-Aligned Symposium on Information in 1976 articulated its aspirations toward more equitable and fair global communication structures and flows. The venue of the 7th MacBride Round Table therefore offered welcome reminders of the cultural and political movement which led to the UNESCO commissioned report "Many Voices, One World", popularly known as the MacBride Report, and indeed of the contribution of the diverse cultures of Africa. Over seventy participants from twenty countries at the 7th MacBride Round Table, meeting from 16 to 18 March 1995, were the guests of the Tunisian Association of Communication (ATUCOM). Its president, Mustapha Masmoudi, was one of the MacBride commissioners, and participants greatly benefited from his extensive experience and wise leadership.
Africa Faces the Information Highway
The main theme of the meeting was Africa and the Information Superhighway, or the implications of the next generation of information technology for this vast continent. The point of departure for discussion was obvious: as put recently by an African diplomat to the UN General Assembly, "While industrialised countries are already talking about an Information Superhighway, in most of the developing countries that highway has not been paved".[1] There is a strong possibility that much of the African coastline will be ringed by glass fibre cables. But, except for some large cities, the land mass of Africa is likely be untouched by an information highway for a long time to come. More than 70 per cent of Africa=FEs population live in villages with no electricity and no telephone connections, nor are they likely to have them in the foreseeable future.= Besides, these villagers have so little spending power that they are of lit= tle interest to the big players of the information highway. The highway planners are interested only in Africa=FEs affluent city dwellers who are already in possession of a telecommunication infrastructure, thereby further widening the gap between the rich and poor. ........ For the Third World and Africa particularly, the Information Superhighway must have a public lane that integrates the various media, including traditional channels, in a way that promotes Africa's development. Thus the communication agenda for Africa that emerged at the MacBride Round Table contrasts sharply with high-level debates and promises emanating from Washington, Brussels and Tokyo.
- Radio, the only affordable mass medium for most people, must be extended, improved in quality and diversified in content, particularly in its educational programmes;
- A more reliable and less expensive telephone network should be established as a matter of urgency and gradually extended to rural areas; an inter-African telecommunication system needs to be developed under the auspices and with the support of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU);
- The current problems caused by the steep increase in paper prices need to be addressed, lest the effects on African education and book production be catastrophic;
- An independent press committed to democratic accountability needs to be strengthened;
- The training and education of journalists in all parts of Africa remain an urgent and ongoing task.
The Role of the Information Superhighway
The Information Society comes into perspective when viewed against these basic communication needs. Yet it would be a mistake for Africa to ignore the possibilities, and risks, of the new global networks. The challenge is to push debate beyond the question of simply gaining access to the Superhighway; to that of defining an Information Society that is relevant to real African needs and building it up from that base. There are ways in which it can complement and reinforce the impact of more traditional communication initiatives addressing basic needs; and it can offer entirely new instruments to many struggling with the many demands of African economic and social development. For instance, existing Internet African services could form a mutual organisation to share information, coordinate services, and collaborate on service extension. Or information networks could be used to gather and distribution international market and trading information, to support local cooperatives and reduce the slice of the commercial intermediaries based usually in the North.
The rural dimension of African society, encompassing 70% of the population, must also be to the forefront. Reaching out to rural communities to enhance dialogue and favour access to information, using appropriate techniques and technologies (not necessarily the most advanced), must be a goal of development projects, whether sponsored by international organisations, NGOs, governments or the private sector, ....... If laudable words are to translate into positive action that seriously addresses shortcomings in the proposed implementation of the Global Information Society, then much work remains to be done. If such promises are left unfulfilled, if powerful countries are not forced to honour their commitments, then calls for universal access and development priorities are likely to diminish to inaudible whispers under the din of 'market realities=FE and 'trickle-down' benefits. A leader article in the Economist magazine recently offered an offhand dismissal of those calling for a more equitable interpretation of t= he Information Society: "There is already a clamour to turn access to cyberspace into another 'entitlement'".[2] When that clamour becomes too loud to ignore, then maybe some of the promissory notes will be called in and paid up.
Women Must be Heard ....... Women's organisations in particular must make themselves heard by pressuring the mass media and/or by finding a voice of their own in alternative media.
The recent Social Summit in Copenhagen heard that 70% of the world's poor are women,[3] and the central role of women in struggling to survive poverty and nurture new generations is finally receiving some recognition. In relation to the empowerment of women in the communication field, the Round Table emphasised the need to strengthen efforts already underway and to expand their role, inter alia, through access to the media and through participation in the management and operation of newspapers and radio stations in both urban and rural areas. In the sphere of traditional communication, attention was drawn to the importance of folk theatre, story tellers, choirs: their role is pivotal in promoting active communication centred on cultural values.
A new agenda is also being constructed by women on the vital issue of communication technology, covering such topics as the possibility of gender discrimination built into the very conceptualisation of communication technology; the hierarchical structure and binary logic of informatics, laden with gender specific values; and a critique of information technology built upon a larger epistemological critique of enlightenment notions of progress and rationality embodied in science and technology. ...... The Tunis Round Table referred to one of the oldest documents on international communication, namely the UNESCO Declaration of 1978 on Fundamental Principles concerning the contribution of the Mass Media in strengthening Peace and International Understanding, to the Promotion of Human Rights, and to countering Racialism, Apartheid and Incitement to War. While Apartheid has now officially been abolished, thanks to the biggest social movement of the last two decades, all other issues of the UNESCO Declaration remain unresolved. They remain a responsibility of the mass media for years to come.=09
Notes
1. Statement by Ngoni Sengwe, Deputy Permanent Representative Permanent Mission of Zimbabwe to the UN, in the Special Political and Decolonisation Committee, 24th October 1994. 2. "The Economist", 25th February 1995. 3. Reported in the "New York Times," March 6, 1994.
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Date: Wed, 5 Apr 1995 21:31:31 -0500 From: "Dave Banisar" <mailto:banisar@epic.org> (by way of marsha-w@uiuc.edu (Marsha-W)) To: mailto:cpsr-global@cpsr.org Subject: PI Conference Announcement (mailto:@) Message-ID: <mailto:aba8bad7be0210043435@[128.174.91.166]>
PI Conference Announcement Preliminary Program Outline Advanced Surveillance Technologies 4 September 1995 Sponsored by Privacy International Electronic Privacy Information Center
Copenhagen, Denmark
This conference will bring together experts on information technology, privacy and data protection to discuss the threats to privacy created by leading-edge technologies. The first session will assess new dimensions in current surveillance technologies. The remainder of the day will be devoted to exploring technologies which are in the formative stage of development.
Preliminary List of Topics:
o Advanced Satellite Surveillance o Microchip Implants o Nanotechnology o Biometrics and perfect identity o Advanced Geodemographic Systems o Data Havens and Rogue Data States o Information Warfare o Cryptography
This one day conference will focus on advanced technologies that have not yet been addressed by law or public policy. The conference will be interactive, and will extensively involve the audience.
Number of participants : approximately sixty to one hundred
Costs: US $75 - Individuals/non-profit organizations $175 - Commercial organizations
For more information, contact:
Privacy International Washington Office 666 Pennsylvania Ave, SE, Suite 301 Washington, DC 20003 USA 1-202-544-9240 (phone) 1-202-547-5482 (fax) mailto:pi@privacy.org (email) ------------------------------------------------------------- David Banisar (mailto:Banisar@epic.org) * 202-544-9240 (tel) Electronic Privacy Information Center * 202-547-5482 (fax) 666 Pennsylvania Ave, SE, Suite 301 * ftp/gopher/wais cpsr.org Washington, DC 20003 * HTTP://epic.digicash.com/epic
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End of CPSR-GLOBAL Digest 123 *****************************