POWER OF TELEVISION SHOULD BE 'PARTNER' IN PURSUIT OF BETTER FUTURE, SAYS SECRETARY-GENERAL TO WORLD TELEVISION FORUM
Press Release
SG/SM/6401
PI/1042
POWER OF TELEVISION SHOULD BE 'PARTNER' IN PURSUIT OF BETTER FUTURE, SAYS SECRETARY-GENERAL TO WORLD TELEVISION FORUM
19971119 Following is the statement of Secretary-General Kofi Annan to the second United Nations World Television Forum, held at Headquarters on 19 November:They say that inside every diplomat there is a journalist trying to get out, and that inside every journalist there is a diplomat trying to get in. It must have been while in the latter's frame of mind that a frustrated diplomatic correspondent once described himself as "someone who stands around in corridors waiting to be lied to". I do hope journalists covering the United Nations have had happier experiences in the corridors of this house. On our side, the joke goes in the opposite direction, and it's not very far from the truth: television, we say, is the sixteenth member of the Security Council.
But before going any further, let me offer, on behalf of myself and the United Nations, my heartfelt thanks to the Government of Italy and to Minister Lamberto Dini. In addition, I would like to thank RAI Television, who have provided support since the forum started last year, and to Mediaset, who co- sponsored this event. We are pleased that to start the first session, we have among us three eminent leaders in the field of broadcasting -- Rupert Murdoch, Dan Rather and Zwelakhe Sisulu.
You have come here today as leaders who will determine the shape of the television industry the next century, but you also represent a wide range of regions and cultures. At this event, you will open channels of closer collaboration between those regions and cultures. In so doing, you will help promote greater understanding and tolerance among your audiences and peace among nations. Over the next few days you will engage in discussions about the role of television in the new multimedia environment. You will begin a global conversation that will discover new ways of making television an agent for change, a medium for widening understanding, a tool for broadening horizons.
Today, we live in an interdependent, global village. We face new realities. We must accept change as an essential condition of life. The challenges that face humankind today cut across all borders and they involve
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all aspects of human security, but human understanding has not yet grasped them. Issues before the United Nations, such as the environment, drugs, pandemics, sustainable development, are issues that carry no passports. This is the message we are trying to send to the world. Yet the public is still thinking in local terms. It is still constrained by boundaries. And this is where we need to rely on the possibilities of technology. This is where we need to work through the power of television.
We at the United Nations are convinced that information has a great democratizing power waiting to be harnessed to our global struggle for peace and development. We believe this because we are convinced that it is ignorance, not knowledge, that makes enemies of men. It is ignorance, not knowledge, that makes fighters of children. It is ignorance, not knowledge, that leads some to advocate tyranny over democracy. It is ignorance, not knowledge, that makes others say that there are many worlds, when we know that there is one. Ours.
The quantity and quality of available information is changing dramatically every day, in every country, in every corner of the world. Citizens are gaining greater access to information, too. And the spread of information is making accountability and transparency facts of life for any government. New technology that is simpler to use at a fraction of the cost holds out the possibility of a new, truly global information order. It has the potential to truly democratize television news. Developing countries, smaller news-gathering organizations and independent companies all stand to benefit. No less do the stories that have been too hard to get to, too expensive to cover, or too difficult to transmit.
More than anything, technology succeeds when it is placed in the hands of dedicated people. I want to pay tribute today to all those who have helped to keep stories of human hardship and injustice in the public mind. When attention might otherwise have flagged, the Bosnias, the Great Lakes, the Ethiopian famines of this world stayed in the consciences of citizens and governments alike in no small measure because of television. You have launched debates that other media and politicians have picked up and followed. You have kept them going in the face of what has been called compassion fatigue. Increasingly, you are not waiting for blood to start flowing to find stories and images. And I hope that, increasingly, you will not leave conflict zones once ceasefire agreements are signed.
Together, we can do more. The challenge now is to make information available to all. For too long, economic inequality and fear of freedom has prevented the large majority of men and women on this planet from taking advantage of the bounty of knowledge that the information revolution has given us.
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The United Nations is working to develop with television a relationship of openness and mutual trust. The United Nations needs the media. But we should not call on the media only when we need it. We, on our side, promise to offer transparency, honesty and access to the truth in all that we do.
With the help of television, we can shine a light into ever more pockets of intolerance. There is nothing those dark recesses fear more than light. Through television, the world can be brought alive, so that we may care about it enough to help make it a better place. With the power of television, we can help ensure that our young are the first to benefit from this knowledge, and to make it their partner in the pursuit of a better future. Help us to use your power to achieve a better world for them, and for those who come after them.
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