Building Participative Democracy

"Freedom of Expression in Knowledge Societies: Opportunities"
World Press Freedom Day
May 3, 2003
Kingston, Jamaica

It is an honor to participate in the celebration of World Press Freedom Day in Kingston. I am here on behalf of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, which is based in Washington D.C. EPIC is a public interest research center that strives to ensure that new technologies promote privacy and civil liberties. We coordinate the Public Voice, a coalition of international NGOs that aims to bring civil society to the table in global policymaking forums such as the OECD. EPIC is also a member of the Global Internet Liberty Coalition (GILC) and the Internet Free Expression Alliance.

Normally I might be here talking on the next panel about the significant risks to free expression, privacy and civil liberties. I am happy that for a change I have the opportunity to talk about the other side of the equation. The Public Voice is organized around the principle that communications technologies can promote democratic society by respecting individualÌÄå¢Ì¢‰ÞùåÂÌ¢‰Þžå¢s rights and encouraging free expression.

My talk today is about building participative democracy. I will discuss why we need to build global civil society and why free expression is central to achieving that goal. I will then talk about some examples of technologies that can promote participative democracy and what are some of the key challenges ahead.

We live in an increasingly interconnected world: markets, governments, and peoples can interact with unprecedented ease and swiftness. As we become stakeholders in the global society there is a growing problem that the institutions and the people that make the rules for our society are not as accountable. There is a democratic deficit.

This is a problem even in regions of the world with extensive communication infrastructure and free press. Individuals feel alienated from their government and risk losing voice in society because those with vested interests make key policy decisions. The World Summit on Information Society in December this year and in 2005 presents an opportunity to address this issue and to discuss ways we might correct this trend by articulating shared goals for a more inclusive knowledge society.

The key principles for participative democracy are quite straightforward. All stakeholders must be involved. There must be a free flow of information and opinions along with accountable, transparent institutions. These institutions must respect individual rights and as far as possible devolve decision-making power to local democratic institutions. This type of democracy is particularly significant for cross border issues, which require coordination, but cannot just be addressed by those representing electoral democracies or international corporate interests.

Free Expression is vital for building participative democracy. It both enables the free flow of information and holds institutions accountable. The Santiago Declaration of 1993 stated as its first principle that, "Freedom of Expression is the cornerstone of our democracies." It is fitting that the World Press Freedom Day prize was also mooted at that conference. UNESCO is uniquely situated to assist in this project with its mandate to promote, "mutual knowledge and understanding of peoples." And of course Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that we have the "Right to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers."

New communication technologies can play an important role in enabling free expression. These technologies of freedom operate by decentralizing sources of information. The aim is to promote pluralism of expression rather than the dissemination of preferred ideas. New communication technologies, which emphasis peer-to-peer distribution, must be afforded the same protections by governments that were granted to the press and broadcast mediums.

The Internet for instance significantly lowers the cost of publication and opens a potentially worldwide audience. In practice of course its not that simple, but for example at EPIC we obtained US Justice department documents through open government laws that showed the US government was buying voter registration databases and driver license databases of Central and Latin American countries from a private information broker for law enforcement purposes. We made the documents accessible through our website so that citizens of those countries could become aware of the problem. There are now investigations in Mexico, Nicaragua, and other countries in the region to put an end to this practice. In India the news portal Tehelka.com exposed corruption at the high levels in the Indian defense department and made its findings widely available on the Internet for all to reach their own conclusions. The recent SARS outbreak in China similarly has show the power of free expression and the free flow of information to encourage good governance.

Peer-to-peer networks have had a long history. Ham radio enthusiasts continue to share information and opinions in a unique and strong community. And community radio continues to be an important medium for developing civil society as can been at the multimedia exhibit. Today, wireless networks or Wi-Fi present unique opportunities for peer-to-peer production and dissemination of information and opinions.

On a larger scale direct satellite broadcasting is becoming more democratized and more accessible so that channels such as Al Jazeera can pose a credible challenge to the dominance of other networks for Arab viewers. This pluralism is welcome and is forcing news networks to address their broadcasts to a previously underserved audience. This is a powerful illustration of the value of free expression and why any attempt to shut down avenues of expression must be strongly resisted.

On the Internet the recent phenomenon of Web logs (Blogs) - essentially Internet diaries and publications - have had a significant impact in how people access information. These peer networks of information and editorial commentary is a fine example of the power of free expression and the public thirst for this type of communication.

A number of new ICTs (information and communication technologies) were used to the fullest in the recent Anti-War demonstrations that took place across the globe. There was remarkable worldwide coordination with news and opinions easily and quickly shared across borders and time zones. War blogs received unprecedented traffic; demonstrators used cell phones, emails, web sites such as move.org, and news groups to coordinate their opposition. In the face of this decentralized communication structure it is difficult for governments to control free expression. Perhaps this might be an example of nascent world civil society in development?

This vision of global civil society is possible, but technology is not deterministic and there are several significant challenges ahead. The next panel will no doubt discuss these in more detail. Very quickly the challenges can be divided into three sources: Business, Governments, and Civil Society. Under Business, market concentration and intellectual property issues are potential impediments to the free flow of information. In the government arena, as earlier panels discussed, censorship, and regulation of free expression remain important issues. The new communication technologies might be harder for governments to control, but they are much easier to monitor. Surveillance is key challenge and requires both policy and technological responses such as encryption.

Civil society too has a responsibility in bridging digital divides and preventing linguistic and cultural barriers from disrupting the free flow of information. Government plays a key partnership role in this mission, but civil society must also accept the responsibility to make local content accessible and to prevent ICTs from just serving the interests of a society's elite. A particular concern is that ICTs might enable self-segregation, where individuals and institutions avoid the need to address all their peers in society and justify their actions only to a narrow audience of likeminded persons. This would be to the detriment of all.

World Press Freedom Day celebrates courageous journalists and institutions of the Press. The Press has always played a very significant role in developing civil society. The challenge ahead is to ensure that our national and international laws protect the smaller, often individual publishers. Technology again is not deterministic and we must make choices to ensure that the values such as freedom of expression and human rights are fully protected. UNESCO and institutions of the press have a particularly important role ensuring that the benefits of these new communication technologies of freedom are fully realized.

Mihir Kshirsagar
Public Voice Coordinator