Message-ID: <0098EB8E94BCBC20.00002B9D@tmar.com> Date: Tue, 11 Apr 1995 12:16:47 EST From: "Chuck B. at Ext. 214" <mailto:chuckb@TMAR.COM> Subject: More postings worth forwarding To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L
Here is the second, which concerns
Subj: Telecom in the Service of Development
c.b.
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Date: Sat, 8 Apr 1995 09:23:22 EDT
Comments: Originally-From: Don Richardson <mailto:drichard@uoguelph.ca>
Subject: Africa net access - McBride Rpt
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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.
------------------------------
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
------------------------------
End of CPSR-GLOBAL Digest 123
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