A chance to expand the information society
The 'Cyber Summit'

By Shashi Tharoor
Friday, October 17, 2003

NEW YORK: Once again, a United Nations conference has aroused concerns about press freedom. This time it's the first World Summit on the Information Society, or WSIS, which will be held in Geneva later this year. Many media watchers fear that some countries will use the "cyber summit," as it has been dubbed, to place restrictions on the Internet and other information technologies. Others fear a resurrection of the ideologically charged debates of the 1970's and 1980's on a new world information order.

The summit meeting, organized by a UN agency, the International Telecommunication Union, or ITU, has an ambitious agenda: to come to grips with the profound changes wrought by the information revolution and its impact on all aspects of human activity. It will search for ways of putting this revolution, and the technology that generated it, at the service of poor countries.

It will also be the first time that issues such as the role of communications in promoting development, and the challenges of cybersecurity, spam, Internet governance and freedom of expression in the information age will be raised for global discussion and action at the highest governmental levels, with the participation of all those who have a stake in the outcome.

Press freedom, including its application to new technologies, will be in the spotlight. The UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, has no doubt that the summit meeting will reaffirm the universality of press freedom through all media, as envisioned in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

But does press freedom, some governments ask, give carte blanche to produce and promote any and every idea, product or cause? In all democracies, the law imposes certain limits in order to protect the right to privacy and prevent abuse of the Web by organized crime and terrorist groups. Isn't it only natural that these boundaries, already in place for traditional media, be extended to the Internet?

Action has been taken by some governments to shut down Internet sites that peddle child pornography, or that promote anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and racial hatred. These measures fall under national penal law, and are not viewed as a threat to freedom of speech.

At the same time, there is a risk in sanctioning the extension of such restrictions. National security or crime control can easily serve as a pretext for repressive governments to curtail press freedom.

It is clear, however, that the free flow of information is in the interests of all countries. Restraints on the flow of information directly undermine economic well-being. Global interdependence means that those who receive and disseminate information freely have an edge over those who do not. The ability to exchange information through electronic networks has become crucial to the health of economies and civil societies.

There is little argument that information and freedom go together. The information revolution is inconceivable without political democracy. Already, the spread of information has had a direct impact on the degree of accountability and transparency of governments around the world - and thus on their effectiveness.

Consequently, countries need to open up to the outside world, liberalize the mass media, and resist government control and censorship of information. Prosperous countries can play an additional supportive role - by promoting greater, freer and fairer access to information for developing countries, helping them improve their infrastructure, and sharing technological advances with them.

Though some have rung alarm bells during preparations for the summit meeting, there have been positive signs. While the main players at the meeting will be governments, there has been strong involvement and input from civil society, the private sector and the news media during the preparatory phase. Appropriately enough, reports on the most important subjects for debate have been posted on the summit meeting's Web site, increasing the transparency of the negotiations and providing fuel for debate by nongovernment organizations.

International news media organizations and journalist unions are keeping a watchful eye on the summit meeting, and are calling for a strong reference to press freedom in the conference's final documents. It is clear that further efforts are needed to involve the news media and their organizations in summit preparations.

One way of involving the media is through a parallel event organized by the United Nations, the European Broadcasting Union and Switzerland. The World Electronic Media Forum will bring together media executives from developed and developing countries with policymakers to discuss the role of the electronic media in the information society. The event will provide another platform for defenders of press freedom to state their case loud and clear.

The world is heading inexorably toward an information society, and all governments need to see not the writing on the wall, but the pulsing cursor on the screen. The summit meeting will provide a major opportunity to ensure that the "information revolution" does not leave any of the world's citizens behind.

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The writer is UN under secretary general for communications and public information.

Copyright © 2003 The International Herald Tribune