WSIS Prepcom II Intervention by the CRIS Campaign (Communication Rights in the Information Society)
on the draft Political Chapeau and Implementation Plan
Delivered on behalf of the CRIS Campaign by Claudia Padovani.
"Communication is a fundamental social process, a basic human
need and the foundation of all social organization. It is central
to the information society." If these words sound familiar
it is because they are taken from the WSIS Geneva Declaration.
The CRIS Campaign takes these to heart. We believe that communication,
and communication rights, are at the heart
of the Information Society. This point is very relevant to the
issue of financing, and I want to
focus on a few dimensions of this.
First, people's right to communicate, and to engage with the communication
structures of society, should not be dependent on the ability
to pay. Since the market works on ability to pay, where it fails
(and the Task Force report acknowledges that it sometimes does)
governance structures must
find the resources to make up the short fall and ensure people
have at least a minimum of communication rights. Thus governments,
individually and collectively, must create the environment in
which the communication needs of development are realised in all
its dimensions. An environment to attract private investment might
be one aspect of it - but this is a means not
an end, and cannot fulfil all the needs. The centrality of public
expenditure, directed at the public good, must be recognised.
This may in turn require the redistribution of some of the considerable
profits generated in the communication sector towards the needs
of poor communities. Such redistribution may, in part, be most
equitably and efficiently done at the global level. In short,
inability to pay for a basic need implies redistribution of resources:
governments of the north, as well as the south, cannot shirk their
responsibilities here. It is also clear that the scale of the
problem, especially among poor rural communities, demands some
new thinking.
Second, it stands to reason that the mechanisms that are put into
place for financing, the follow-up mechanisms for the WSIS, or
indeed national policies through which they are implemented, must
have the active participation of all parties, and this must include
any Digital Solidarity Fund. Of course, civil society is accepted
on paper as a partner in the process- but we need to translate
this into reality, and I include here the onus on civil society
to understand the issues and come up with workable realistic solutions.
Third, the structures into which finances are directed, especially
where the goal is explicitly to support development and enhance
communication of the poor, must be tailored specifically to those
needs. The most effective financing, ownership and management
structures must be facilitated - and this may mean community ownership
of networks infrastructure, local SME ownership, local authority
ownership - and not just large corporate ownership. Examples of
community-driven networks can be found everywhere -from the USA
(where about 1,000 rural cooperative exist) to Poland, to Argentina,
Peru and India. These have often emerged against
the odds. We need an environment that will encourage them, enable
community
and local entrepreneurship, and reap the development and empowering
benefits.
Fourth, in relation to spending finances most wisely, we must
observe technology neutrality - the most appropriate technology
must be used. I refer of course to realising the potential of
new and emerging technologies, from VOIP to WiFi to WiMAX, and
to regulating to maximise their
contribution to solving the problem of exclusion. But appropriate
technology also applies to old technologies. As we have heard
community and local radio can often hugely contribute to the capacity
to communicate, and is still hugely neglected - and for that matter
television, increasingly controlled by corporate and commercial
interests, must also be re-imagined as a tool
for communication, not profit generation.
These comments are somewhat general in nature, still at the level
of principles. Over the coming days, weeks and months, the CRIS
campaign and its partners will be developing innovative, practical
and workable ideas to put these principles into action, and we
look forward to collaborating with everyone here in the time ahead.
The Civil Society Working Group on Financing, too, will be developing
its own ideas to be conveyed to the assembly.
Thank you
Draft of Political Chapeau and Implementation Plan »
February 2005
