From http://www.ipsnews.net/focus/mtc/

WSIS: Spotlight on the Media

Brian Thomson*

GENEVA, Aug 26 (IPS) - The international media community would be right to feel somewhat confused over the role it should play at the upcoming World Summit on the Information Society. Should journalists be there as reporters, or are they ready to take a seat at the conference table?

The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) to be held in Geneva between Dec.10 and 12 is presenting itself as something new on the summit scene. It is attempting to recognise the impact of information technology on diverse groups, and to seek a consensus on a global strategy. But questions have been raised whether the government is ready to listen to media.

The international media advocacy group, Reporters Without Borders has expressed concern that the United Nations (UN) is not inviting enough media participation. Governments harshest on the media have shown little interest in discussing such matters as freedom of _expression with press freedom organisations, the group says in a report.

The official aim of the WSIS is to narrow the ”digital divide” between rich and poor nations. But with so much energy going into technical and economic investment to bridge this divide, many critics say vital issues facing journalists and media organisations are being overlooked.

Most press freedom organisations want the final declaration at the summit to call for freedom of _expression, protection for journalists, and for at least a reiteration of Article 19 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. This declaration upholds an aim to ”seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media, and regardless of frontiers.”

Michel Bührer from the Swiss Federation of Journalists has been campaigning to push media issues onto the WSIS agenda. The WSIS is developing into a forum that is more about technology than content, he says, because ”most of the governments in developing as well as developed countries have interests in technology; some to sell technology, others to get money to buy this infrastructure.”

The concept of the information society is itself not clear. At first sight many journalists might even consider the event more appropriate for engineers than media groups, considering that the event is organised by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), an organisation associated with technical and commercial concerns.

That perception has led to the setting up of the World Electronic Media Forum (WEMF), to take place in Geneva parallel to the WSIS. Governments participating in the WSIS have wanted to move media out of the way, leading media groups to seek their own forum, says WEMF executive director Guillaume Chenevière.

”They don't want to consider the media actors in the information society probably because many of them consider the media a pure and simple mouthpiece for government propaganda,” Chenevière says. ”Or because they have problems with the media when it is free.”

It is significant that this big media event is taking place on the sidelines of the WSIS. But WEMF organisers hope that they can force governments and business stakeholders to take media concerns into account. A declaration at this side summit will be presented to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan at the opening ceremony, to be taken to the WSIS for discussion.

The WSIS has set up its own Civil Society Bureau to facilitate contribution from civil society, including the media. But many media managers say that with so many issues relating to the information society affecting media, it needs its own separate platform to discuss them.

Journalists may need assistance when moving into this particular forum for debate, says Bührer. ”Our problem as journalists is that we have no experience as lobbyists or as actors at a UN conference. Many governments are not at all eager to include the media in the summit; they find it sufficient to mention that the media are important.”

Whatever the outcome of the first ever WSIS, it is clear that organisers as well as media participants are feeling their way forward in uncharted territory.

*Brian Thomson is also correspondent for the InfoSud News Agency. (END/2003)

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