UNITED NATIONS TELEVISION FORUM 2000 OPENS AT HEADQUARTERS

Press Release
PI/1306

UNITED NATIONS TELEVISION FORUM 2000 OPENS AT HEADQUARTERS

Statements Made by Secretary-General, General Assembly President and Top Media Industry Leaders

The fifth annual United Nations World Television Forum on the theme “TV@Globe//adding values in the digital era” opened this morning at Headquarters, bringing together top media industry leaders and experts from around the world.

Discussions at the two-day event, which will be attended by senior representatives of traditional and new media, academia, civil society and governments from every region, will address issues of bandwidth, digital content and innovative television programming. The primary goal is to engage the broadest range of stakeholders to address the fundamental challenges facing television in the digital age –- including its role in bridging the divide separating the digital “haves” from the “have-nots”.

In his keynote address, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said that those in the audio-visual media could make their industry an agent of change and a partner for progress. Radio and television were, in a sense, the advance guard of the knowledge revolution. Once certain basic conditions were in place, new information technology had enormous potential to promote economic growth and to help eradicate poverty. It could improve the chances for poor countries to leapfrog some long and painful stages in the development process.

General Assembly President Harri Holkeri (Finland) said that technology had not yet benefited everyone and could become yet another issue that created fences between rich and poor nations. His own country had more Internet hosts than all of Africa and, despite the ubiquitous cell phone, half of the world's population had yet to use a telephone. Coming from one of the world's most wired nations, he understood the impact that education had on the technological prospects of a country. Education was crucial if people were to be able to take advantage of technological opportunities.

Gerhard Pfanzelter (Austria), Vice-President of the Economic and Social Council, said that given the pervasive influence of television, the question was what media representatives, industry leaders and ordinary citizens could do to use that medium as an active tool for development. That called for industry to ensure that technological progress did not mean additional benefits for a few and further marginalization for many.

Speaking on behalf of Italian Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini, Sergio Vento (Italy), said his Government had made information technology a top priority.

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There were no easy recipes for closing the digital divide. While at the global level, the international community did share common goals, it was important to take into account the cultural, economic and social differences of individual societies.

In his opening remarks, Kensaku Hogen, Under Secretary-General for Communication and Public Information, said the Forum had found inspiration in the Millennium Report of the Secretary-General. In his report, the Secretary-General had identified the need to build “digital bridges”. This Forum was an excellent venue for a discussion of the relevant issues as it brought together a diverse group of actors from all regions of the world.

Addresses were also made by Greg Dyke, Director-General, BBC/United Kingdom; Fernando F. Espuelas, Chairman and CEO, StarMedia Network/Uruguay; Jon DeVaan, Senior Vice-President, TV Division, Microsoft Corp./USA; and Jennifer Sibanda, Executive Director, Federation of African Media Women, Southern African Development Community/Zimbabwe.

Statements were also made by Roberto Zaccaria, Chairman, RAI- Radiotelevisione Italiana/Italy; Fedele Confalonieri, Chairman, Mediaset Group/Italy; Albert Scharf, President, EBU and Director-General, ARD, on behalf of World Broadcasting Unions/Germany; Yoshi Imai, on behalf of Katsuji Ebisawa, President, Nippon Hosa Kyokai/Japan; and Giuliano Berreta, Director-General, European Telecommunications Satellite Organization-EUTELSAT/France.

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Forum Work Programme

The fifth annual United Nations World Television Forum was convened at Headquarters this morning. The convergence between television, digital technology and the Internet was expected to be the focus of the event.

The Forum is entitled “TV@Globe//adding values in the digital era”. It will bring together some 1,000 industry leaders and experts from every part of the world to examine the challenges facing the television industry in the digital age -- especially its role in bridging the “digital divide”.

Opening Statements

KENSAKU HOGEN, Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, said that it was nice to see such a large number of participants at today’s Forum. This year’s Forum would focus on the revolution shaped by the convergence of television, technology and the Internet. That revolution would be linked to the issue of bridging the digital divide.

The Forum had found inspiration in the Millennium Report of the Secretary- General, he said. In his report, the Secretary-General had identified the need for building digital bridges. This Forum was an excellent venue for a discussion of those issues, as it brought together a diverse group of actors from all regions of the world. Each year, the Forum had grown in size and scope, and, this year, the number of registered participants exceeded 1,000. He thanked all of the participants for their sustained support.

HARRI HOLKERI (Finland), President of the General Assembly, said that the information and technology revolution that the world had undergone in the last few years offered unprecedented possibilities. Unfortunately, for the majority of the world, the digital divide remained huge. Technology had not yet benefited everyone and could become yet another issue that created fences between rich and poor nations.

His own country, he said, had more Internet hosts than all of Africa, and, despite the ubiquitous cellphone, half of the world’s population had yet to use a telephone. Coming from one of the world's most wired nations, he understood the impact that education had on the technological prospects of a country. Education was crucial if people were to be able to take advantage of technological opportunities. Since he was elected President of the General Assembly, he had continued to emphasize the interlinked issues of information technology and education.

Technology could improve knowledge, he said. In Africa, where one in four adults was HIV-positive and 40 per cent could not read or write, technology could spread knowledge about the AIDS virus and ultimately help to reduce illness or death. In that regard, today’s Forum was very timely. It offered a possibility of exploring ways that the television industry could help ensure that technology would not speed further divergence between the rich and poor of the world.

GERHARD PFANZELTER (Austria), Vice-President of the Economic and Social Council, said that the information technology revolution had captured the imagination of citizens and policy makers around the world. Given the pervasive influence of television, the question was what media representatives, industry leaders and ordinary citizens could do to use that medium as an active tool for development. That challenge was particularly acute at a time when technology was changing the use of television in ways unimaginable a few years ago. It called for industry to ensure that technological progress did not mean additional benefits for a few and further marginalization for many.

Television, he said, had to contribute to closing the digital divide, which was a responsibility of not just one group of stakeholders. The Economic and Social Council had worked to address the issues of overarching importance to common development goals, particularly poverty eradication. Its two-day ministerial session in July was the first time that an intergovernmental forum at the United Nations had given in-depth attention to the promise of information and communication technology to the emerging global economy. Information and communication technology was the driving force of globalization and the key to competitiveness in the knowledge-based economy.

And yet, he continued, it bypassed many people and countries, creating new divides between the “haves” and the “have-nots”. Developing countries ran the risk of being excluded in that new scenario. The Ministerial Declaration adopted in July had reaffirmed the key role of the United Nations in ensuring that information and communication technology would work for the benefit of all, and it had decided to establish an information and communication technology task force.

SERGIO VENTO (Italy), speaking on behalf of the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Italy, Lamberto Dini, said that, at the dawn of the new millennium, the international community was focusing on a crucial issue to which the United Nations had dedicated increasing commitment and energy. That issue was the relationship between television and the new digital and information technologies, and the contribution that television could make towards closing the digital divide.

The Italian Government, he said, had made information technology a top priority to take clear action for a more democratic and open information society. Much work needed to be done in every country to achieve results in that vital sector. There were no easy recipes for closing the digital divide. While, at the global level, the international community did share common goals, it was also important to take into account the cultural, economic and social differences of individual societies.

The United Nations was the ideal location for continuing that complex research and for launching concrete initiatives, he said. The active involvement of all the information society protagonists, public and private, was essential. At the same time that the United Nations was opening the Fifth World Television Forum, consultations were under way in various regions to create a United Nations Task Force on information and communication technologies. Because Italy was both at the crossroads of continental Europe and home to a number of United Nations bodies, it could play a major role toward promoting the initiatives of the future task force.

Keynote Segment

JENNIFER SIBANDA, Moderator for the Segment and Executive Director, Federation of African Media Women, Southern African Development Community (SADC), said that the conversion of information and communication technology had brought to the floor the emergence of a global phenomenon. She hoped that this Forum could add to the global dialogue. The potential of television was still as potent today in the new digital society.

The international community, she said, had continually heard about the world being a “global village”. She had often wondered what the definition of that village was. In Africa, a village was based on shared resources, a shared vision and shared knowledge. In the global village, there were gross disparities. The issue of the digital divide was a real concern everywhere, but particularly in Africa. The rural communities and the urban poor were at the greatest risk of being marginalized. The ultimate goal should be a people-centred approach to closing the divide.

In his keynote address, KOFI ANNAN, United Nations Secretary-General, said that throughout history, there had been an essential link between knowledge and the growth of civilizations. No civilization had ever flourished by keeping its knowledge to itself. On the contrary, civilizations were based on an exchange of knowledge and nurtured by mutual influence.

Yet the paradox, he said, was that, in the age of globalization, it sometimes seemed as if only knowledge was not being globalized. Indeed, the knowledge gap between the North and the South was getting wider and wider. In every society, education was the premise of progress. Alas, millions in the developing world were still deprived of that crucial tool for prosperity.

It need not be so, he continued. Those in the audio-visual media could help make knowledge and information accessible for all. They could make their industry an agent of change and a partner for progress. Radio and television were, in a sense, the advance guard of the knowledge revolution.

Once certain basic conditions were in place, he said, new information technology did have enormous potential to promote economic growth and to help eradicate poverty. It had already brought extraordinary benefits to the developed world, and it could improve the chances for poor countries to leapfrog some long and painful stages in the development process that others had to go through. Countries where most people did not have access to that technology could not play a full part in the new global economy.

He said that bridging the digital divide was not going to be easy. Overcoming the obstacles would require concerted measures from a whole range of actors. That was why he had asked his newly appointed Special Representative on Information and Communication Technologies, former Costa Rican President José Figueres, to work with him in establishing the United Nations Digital Task Force, which would bring together governments, multilateral development institutions, private industry and foundations. The Task Force would provide overall leadership and help devise a strategy for information technology development.

GREG DYKE, Director-General, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)/United Kingdom, said that in the developed world, with the onset of the digital era, people were faced with more choices. The growth in digital choices meant that some people questioned the role of public service broadcasters. Some asked why they were needed. Some asked what the justification was for taxpayers to have to pay for broadcasters. The BBC could not exist without some form of public funding. The market would not have paid for what the BBC had done in the past, and would not pay for what it would do in the digital future.

Increased technology would make the lives of public service broadcasters even harder, he continued. Pressure was also coming from international competitors, who believed that public funding undermined their business models. Since much of public service output was indigenous programming intended largely for the domestic market, it did not pose such a great threat to international media companies.

In a digital world, he said, public service broadcasters were needed more than ever. First, it was essential that television, radio and now online broadcasters reflect the culture, concerns and interests of their nations. In a digital world, that would only be possible through public funding. Also, public service broadcasters could and must play a role in the emergence of the digital divide. By being universal, public service broadcasting served everyone and not just those who could afford to pay.

That the world was globalizing was only partially true, he said. It was, in fact, “Americanizing”. It was important that the world did not disproportionately reflect one set of cultures and values. Everyone needed and benefited from a plurality of voices. Public service broadcasting was vitally important to all, even more so as digitalization spread across nations.

FERNANDO F. ESPUELAS, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, StarMedia Network/Uruguay, said it was a pleasure to share some of his ideas on the issue of information and communication technology. The international community was at an historical crossroads. The Internet represented an opportunity to empower people, and for people to define their own future and their own vision of the world. It was not an overstatement to say that the Internet was a change as profound as the French Revolution. There was a moral impetus to bringing this powerful new wave to people everywhere. If that was not achieved in the next two years, the divisions between the North and South might become permanent.

The economy of ideas, rather than the economy of producing, was the way to bring people out of poverty, he said. How this was done was the big question. The answer lay in building a partnership between governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). There were mechanisms in place to shrink the divide, but more were needed. The good news was that the governments in Latin America were tuned in to those opportunities and to achieving those goals. There were many private enterprise activities to help bring people out of poverty. He remained very optimistic and believed that such forums as this put a laser beam on the problems and led towards finding solutions. He hoped that the next few days could be used to make an active plan in order to shrink the divide.

JON DEVAAN, Senior Vice-President, TV Division, Microsoft Corporation/USA, related some of the ways in which Microsoft saw itself bridging the digital divide. For those who were connected, the Internet was indispensable for their business and personal lives; it was the source of information that made their daily lives easier. But many did not have access to or could not afford a personal computer. For them, television might provide an answer.

Television provided a powerful conduit for accessing information, he said. Microsoft supported almost 100 community computer projects in over 60 countries around the world. Also, it had developed low-cost solutions that took advantage of televisions to increase access to the Internet.

An example was the Venus Computer introduced in China last year, which connected the average television to the Internet, he continued. By doing so, a whole world of information and communications was opened up to people who could not otherwise afford it. Helping people gain affordable access to the Internet was among the most important things that could be done to bridge the digital divide. Enabling people to access the Internet with the television ensured that one more barrier to participating in the global information revolution would come down.

In closing remarks, the Secretary-General said that partnerships were the only way to bring the benefits of information and communication technology to the developing world. The United Nations had worked with “WebMD” to set up stations in many countries to increase access to the best doctors. In addition, the United Nations Volunteer Services had been set up to bring technology-savvy young people to the developing world. Such examples showed how crucial partnerships were.

Mr. Dyke had raised the issue of maintaining cultural diversity, he said. However, given the development of the private sector, could they be relied on to maintain cultures? he asked. Could the market develop the products that people needed?

With regard to access, he said that each person must have access to the Internet, the telephone and the information which could make a difference in their lives. Information technology could help improve the lives of the poor. Access to information would become easier, especially as satellite technology was further developed.

Statements by Partners

ROBERTO ZACCARIA, Chairman, Radiotelevisione Italiana (RAI)/Italy, said that, during the previous century, the information society had taken on an important dimension. The increase in access to information created a crisis for authoritarian regimes. Information also showed its limits when it was subjected to the hegemony of large media conglomerates. Towards the end of the twentieth century, thanks to the new digital language, communication had been enhanced and the common society was a global society. Technological characteristics had increased and had created new prospects for development. Every word of our vocabulary had now been conjugated with the letter “e”.

Within two years there would be 200 million personal computers linked to the Internet, and by other estimates it might even reach 1 billion. In some countries, particularly in Africa, the figure dropped below 10 per cent of the population. The hegemonic capacity of the big players, particularly the large software producers and telecommunication companies, was crucial. It was the task of nations to facilitate conditions to encourage computer literacy. In 2003, the number of televisions would be four times greater than the number of computers. It was unthinkable for four-fifths of the world population to be excluded from this revolution in information technology. Bridging the digital divide had to be of primary importance to the global community.

ALBERT SCHARF, President, European Broadcasting Union (EBU), on behalf of the World Broadcasting Unions (WBU)/Germany, said that broadcasters knew their social responsibilities. Public broadcasters, in particular, worked to integrate all parts of society into a community of citizens. They were well experienced to avoid division and separation of society. They had mastered the digital revolution of information and communication technology and used it to make their work more interactive and useful. The tradition of broadcasters was to use any technical means at any time to bring people together. That tradition was not outdated.

Despite all the new and complimentary tools for more individual communications, the need for mass communications was just as great, he said. Any free, open and democratic society needed a forum for public disputes. To provide that forum was the function of broadcasting as a means of mass communications, which could not be replaced by the individual communications structures. He hoped the two-day Forum would encourage the media to be even more conscious of their social and cultural responsibilities to their audiences. It would be detrimental to humanity and a fatal mistake to see audiences merely as a business market.

YOSHI IMAI, speaking on behalf of Katsuji Ebisawa, President, Nippon Hosa Kyoka (NHK), Japan, said that the world of broadcast and information was undergoing a rapid transformation. The emerging divide was depriving many people of the opportunity to join in this transformation.

The NHK would officially launch digital satellite broadcasts in December and had focused much of its energy on promoting high vision technology, which was being used today at the Forum, he said. Some 300 high vision screens had been used in the General Assembly Hall during the Millennium Summit to project world leader’s speeches live. This technology had also been used in the "Group of Eight" Summit in Okinawa, the United States’ presidential race, and at the Olympic Games in Sydney. His company was ready to join hands with the international community to bridge the digital divide.

GIULIANO BERRETTA, Director-General, European Telecommunications Satellite Organization -- EUTELSAT/France, said that bridging the digital divide was a challenging task. Today, it was very difficult for developing countries to connect to the Internet. Also, it was difficult to bring the Internet everywhere due to a lack of infrastructure. In that regard, satellite technology could provide assistance. The EUTELSAT now covered 60 per cent of the world. Television was one of the ways to increase access to the Internet. The EUTELSAT distributed over 800 television channels, out of which 70 channels were dedicated to culture and education.

It was an illusion, he said, to think that the digital divide could be closed with the Internet alone. It was necessary first to address the lack of infrastructure and in that regard, partnerships between those that could provide satellite transmission and the computer manufacturers were crucial. He appealed to the United Nations to launch its television channel, for which EUTELSAT was ready to provide transmission.

FEDELE CONFALONIERI, Chairman, Mediaset Group/Italy, joining the Forum via video link, said that the United Nations was the ideal place to discuss the social and ethical dimensions of information and communication technology. The central

themes proposed by the Secretary-General were of particular relevance. The digital divide constituted a new divide between the haves and have-nots.

Although there were more televisions in Manhattan than in all of sub-Saharan Africa, the digital divide also affected the developed world. He believed that television could do a great deal to promote the Internet. Television could do a lot to familiarize its audience with the benefits of the Internet. For the time being, there was a rich flow of information available on the Internet, but it remained rare to find substantial content. So far, the Internet was thought of as bridging the digital divide in terms of content, but knowledge was also important. The facts and the interpretation of facts had to go hand in hand.

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