A steep climb to the Information Society Summit

source: Inter Press Service

14.Nov.03 - Everyone wants to bridge the information and telecommunications divide - governments, the private sector and civil society - but with less than four weeks to go before the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), agreement on how to tackle the issue remains elusive. The final effort, a special session of the preparatory committee for the United Nations-sponsored summit, ended in failure this week in Geneva.

Regardless, heads of state are to gather Dec. 10-12 in this Swiss city to tackle the challenges created by the rapid development and expansion of information and communications technologies (ICTs). But the documents they are to discuss and put their signatures to have yet to be finalised. Dissent afflicts issues that are included throughout the texts of the declaration of principles and the plan of action that the WSIS is to adopt, says Mark Furrer, Switzerland's communications minister. Among the matters of discord are the creation of a fund for reversing the digital divide, a demand of developing countries, and the inclusion of references to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the WSIS final documents, which some governments oppose. The differences grow deeper when it comes to the role of the communications media, Internet governance, limits to intellectual property rights, copyright and free software, says Wolfgang Kleinwaechter, an ICT expert and activist from Denmark's Aarhus University.

As for human rights, the Chinese delegation objected to the draft of the summit declaration because it includes binding provisions, beyond the standards of the United Nations Charter, said an observer of the sessions who spoke on condition of anonymity. The WSIS civil society media group issued a statement of regret that the reaffirmation of freedoms of expression and of the press had not been included in the drafts of the declaration and action plan.

Nor did the delegates on the preparatory committee agree on including mention of the communications media as acknowledged actors of the information society. Failure to include the media would be like convening a conference on agriculture without farmers, says Tracey Naughton, head of the communications media group. The drafts of the proposals referring to the media included a call to promote pluralism of information and diversity in ownership. Such a policy would prevent the concentration of the news media in the hands of the few, according to Karen Banks, a coordinator of the civil society "content and themes group" in the WSIS process.

Civil society wants governmental information services to be able to communicate their messages, but the state-controlled media should be transformed into organisations in the public interest with editorial independence, or they should be privatised, said Banks. Activists say they are frustrated by the difficulties that the governments in the WSIS preparatory process are having in hammering out agreements. There are some that lack political will, commented Kleinwaechter.

But the failures of the summit preparatory committee have not cooled the enthusiasm of the civil society representatives involved. For the first time in U.N. history, non-governmental organisations are participating alongside governments and private sector delegates in preparations for a meeting of this type. "We remain totally committed" to the objectives of the summit, Renate Bloem, president of the Conference of Non-Governmental Organisations (CONGO) that hold consultative status with the United Nations, told IPS.

Kleinwaechter says that civil society has adopted a two-pronged strategy. The activists will remain involved in the WSIS, but if the governments are not committed to the process, "we are willing to take on the responsibility" with other sectors, he said. A special session of high-level officials from the participating countries will be needed in order to resolve the pending issues, said Pierre Gagne, executive director of the WSIS secretariat, designated by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), which is sponsoring the summit in representation of the U.N. The meeting is slated for Dec. 7-8, just prior to the summit, he announced.

Meanwhile, the Swiss government, as host of the international event, will promote bilateral meetings between the parties that continue to hold opposing views in a bid to reach some agreement, said Adolfo Ogi, former president of Switzerland, designated by Bern as facilitator for the WSIS. Ogi agreed with the activists in identifying human rights, the communications media and Internet governance as being the issues that have triggered greatest disagreement. Another critical matter is financing for ICT infrastructure in developing countries. A proposal from Senegal, calling for creating a fund for that purpose, has the backing of delegations from the developing world. But the United States, European Union, Canada and Japan challenged the initiative.