DPI/NGO CONFERENCE CONSIDERS NEW COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES
Press Release
NGO/298
PI/1031
DPI/NGO CONFERENCE CONSIDERS NEW COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES
19970911 New communications technologies, many inexpensively acquired, were contributing to processes of democratization in poor countries, the fiftieth annual NGO Conference organized by the Department of Public Information (DPI) was told this afternoon.Participants also heard that those technologies were not easily accessed by the majority of the world's population and that information exchanges favoured wealthy nations. One panellist stressed the need for gender equity in global information flows.
In response to a participant's question about poor countries' access to new technologies, Carlos Afonso, Chairman of the Board for the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), said such communities must demonstrate initiative in obtaining them. The space that countries allowed for such initiative was also critical.
The theme of the afternoon session was "Emphasis on Communications: Technology Leading to Partnerships". It comprised two panel discussions, on partnering in CyberSpace and global information flow.
The Conference will meet again at 10 a.m. tomorrow, 12 September, to continue its discussions.
Partnering in CyberSpace
The Panel's Moderator was ZEHRA AYDIN-SIPOS, Focal Point for Major Groups in the Division for Sustainable Development, United Nations. She said that all participants had worked in CyberSpace at some point, whether by reading mail or undertaking research. The medium of CyberSpace produced great expectations in its users, including the hope that it would make societies more democratic. That hope traced to faith in the benefit of sharing information. Yet there existed a gap in access to electronic media, which might either decrease or increase economic inequities globally.
CARLOS AFONSO, Chairman of the Board, Association for Progressive Communications (APC), said that networking meant the sharing of information. The APC was the culmination of several initiatives begun in the 1980s,
including a project to share information through electronic mail. The APC provided means for users to access technology networks in various countries, from national access points. It provided access particularly to countries which lacked advanced technologies, including some in Africa and Asia. Democratizing access to information was its primary goal.
The APC contributed importantly to the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Rio de Janeiro, 1992), he said. It had proposed extensive use of the Internet for persons unable to attend the Rio Conference. The Brazilian Government endorsed the proposal, the first of its kind. The APC provided similar service to subsequent United Nations Conferences in Vienna, Cairo and Beijing; its contribution to the latter was particularly important, because Beijing had previously lacked such technology. The APC now had consultative status with the Economic and Social Council.
JOHN PAVLIK, Executive Director of the Center for New Media at the School of Journalism, Columbia University, New York, said the Center had been founded in 1994 to advance journalism in the new media. The Center's strategic plan was to work with academics, the private sector and others from the non-governmental organization community to look at ways journalism could be or was being transformed. The Center had formed a number of partnerships in industry and the public sector in its research activities, such as looking at how journalists gather and report the news and how new information technologies were changing relations between the media and its audience. He also referred to a mobile journalism terminal which was being developed by the Center for information transmission to help journalists communicate with their offices. The centre was looking for ways to use new technologies in other CyberSpace activities.
OMAR WASOW, Founder, New York Online, said the company which he started with a $100 computer helped organizations meet their information transmission needs. The world was witnessing a change in the meaning of mass media, he said, and added that the cost of computer chip production was dropping rapidly as was the cost of information transmission. In a way, the media was being democratized by its accessibility. Everyone could now establish his or her own media. It was now possible for educated people to do well financially with information technology.
Ms. AYDIN-SIPOS asked the panellists how the work of the United Nations might be better covered by the media. Mr. PAVLIK said definitions of "journalist" and "news" now varied greatly because of the Internet. There must be an open flow of information, to be exchanged in a fair and frank way. Mr. WASOW agreed that with new technological tools, nearly everyone had the potential to act as a journalist.
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Responding to a participant's question about protecting users' privacy on the Internet, Mr. WASOW said the media had exaggerated the problem. The matter was now a regulatory problem, not a technological one.
To a participant's question about regions of the world which lacked technological capacity, Mr. AFONSO said they faced a major problem. The initiative of those communities was critical, for inexpensive technologies existed which would enable them to access technological networks. The space that countries allowed for such initiatives was also important. Mr. PAVLIK said the situation was changing rapidly; Malaysia, for example, was racing ahead of industrialized countries in terms of number of Internet hosts. Mr. WASOW said that books remained the technology which could most transmit information; illiteracy was still a major problem.
To a question about the empowerment of worldwide citizens, Mr. PAVLIK said that young people saw new media as ways to express themselves and implement social change. Mr. AFONSO said the establishment of community radio was far more difficult than creating a community Internet. Mr. ROSOW said that poorly educated people did not do as well with technology as those educated; if they were educated, enormous possibilities existed.
Asked about diversifying the use of the Internet, Mr. ROSOW said the Internet was increasingly used by women and older persons. Mr. PAVLIK said technology was traditionally slow to diversify. Asked about specific means to partnership, Mr. AFONSO noted that the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) had addressed that issue.
A conference participant asked whether democratization of information sources would overwhelm the public and create chaos and confusion. Replying, Mr. WASOW said more information was better. There would be more and more
people who would help the public filter information generated. The public would have to make decisions as to what information to select, he added.
Another participant commented that the media could be misused. He said that one of the benefits of the new information technologies was that information from obscure places in the world, ignored by the established media, could be made available to the public.
Global Information Flow
The Panel's Moderator was RAGHIDA DERGHAM, President, United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA), United Nations Correspondent for Al-Hayat.
ALVIN ADAMS, President, United Nations Association of the United States (UNA/USA), said the United States' troubled relations with the United Nations
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traced to American public's misperceptions about the work of the Organization. United Nations and NGOs needed to address the relationship, using new instruments of communication. The Internet was "the people's voice", and was free and readily available. Internet conferences about world issues could prove beneficial, as could the distribution of newsletters on the Internet, with attention to various constituencies not covered by the media. Public access television could also be utilized by the Organization. Many Americans saw the world as threatening, particularly in terms of employment issues. The NGOs could work toward allaying such fears.
ROBERTO BISSIO, Director, Third World Institute, said the good news about new technologies was that new equipment was inexpensive, which resulted in positive impacts on human rights issues and democratic participation. People in far-flung places now had the capacity to be "global". The Department of Public Information (DPI) must be recognized for its contribution to the process of decentralization of information. Southern NGOs had pushed hard for that change.
The World Trade Organization (WTO) had hailed such positive changes last year by lowering tariffs on computer chips, he said. Yet the WTO was also forcing companies to pay patent fees for new technologies, which produced a burden on poorer countries. There was an assumption that information produced by the poor was free, whereas information produced by the wealthy was costly. That tendency should be looked at closely, and alignments were being created to combat it. For people in the South, access to the Internet was not free. People faced high fees to receive information which was often useless.
EVELYN LEOPOLD, Bureau Chief of Reuters Information Services at the United Nations, said it was no secret that the dissemination of foreign news in the United States and some other countries was dwindling. The Internet was changing the way journalists work. Journalists had to be brief in what they write as they had to fight for space. She urged NGOs, as bodies out in the field, to be more forthcoming with information on events happening in their areas.
JIM OTTAWAY, Senior Vice-President, Dow Jones, and Chairman of Ottaway Newspaper Inc., said there was need for partnerships between NGOs and the United Nations to promote democracy. He urged NGOs to press for a free flow of information without private or government censorship. He said article 19 provisions, concerning right to information, embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights should be enforced. Mr. Ottaway, who is also Chairman of the World Press Freedom Committee based in the United States, said it was helping developing countries develop their own media. He paid tribute to Secretary-General Kofi Annan for his recent pronouncements on the need for free and uncontrolled access to information and the importance of knowledge.
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VIVIENNE WEE, Executive Director of EGENDER, said there was a widening and gender gap in the global information flow. Women who constituted a majority of the illiterate in the world had no access to information. The majority of the world's population lacked access to a telephone. A minority owned those new information technologies. She announced a new initiative with the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) to establish a website to put together information of significance to women in the area of trade, food security, textile production and other commercial activity. She also stressed the importance of "human connectivity" to bring together those who need information across media barriers.
Asked by a participant to explain the media's hostile coverage of NGOs, Mr. OTTAWAY said that interest in international news in the United States was quite small. That was due to the physical isolation of the United States and citizen's individual economic interests. National newspapers covered NGO news only as part of larger stories.
To a question about making the Internet a taxed medium, Mr. BISSIO said that much information on the Internet was indeed copyrighted, and was often costly to produce. People from the North should understand how difficult it was for people from the South to provide information.
Asked how UNIFEM could better disseminate information to women, Ms. WEE said there must be a global network of "notes of human connectivity". That process required that new technologies complement older technologies.
Asked about negative Western attitudes to the East, Mr. ADAMS said that those who provided the news controlled its content. They should not slavishly follow the interest of their advertisers. A small number of Americans held informed opinions, and they must be mobilized. Ms. LEOPOLD said the cultural background of media representatives determined the content of news coverage. Money also figured prominently in news coverage; most news agencies were largely subsidized by their governments.
Responding to a question about how free flows of capital through communications technology could harm economies, Mr. OTTAWAY said investors relied on a free flow of information about investment opportunities. Mr. BISSIO said the transfer of money in Mexico's recent financial crisis was not an issue of technology, but of laws which allowed such transfer. The Tobin Tax proposal had the support of the majority of Member States in the United Nations, but was opposed by the United States Congress.
Mr. ADAMS said the Tobin Tax was a response to the United States' failure to pay its United Nations dues. Mr. OTTAWAY said Americans should be shown that they had an economic interest in other countries' activities. Ms. WEE said 80 per cent of Internet content was provided in English, reflecting domination by a particular socio-economic class. That fact produced a distorted world view.
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