[eccr] WSIS: A vessel adrift

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From: "Bruce Girard" <(bgirard /at/ comunica.org)>
Date: Tue, 31 Dec 2002 14:00:10 +0100
To: (crisinfo /at/ comunica.org)
Subject: [CRIS Info] WSIS: A vessel adrift



Below is an interesting article by Michel Egger about the WSIS. It is from
the Swiss
Coalition of Development Organisations' Newsletter available online in
English at
http://www.swisscoalition.ch/english/pagesnav/H.htm and in French at
http://www.swisscoalition.ch/francais/pagesnav/H.htm

bg
---------------------------

Swiss Coalition News, Nr. 33, December 2002

World Summit on the Information Society: A vessel adrift


For lack of leadership, clear vision and real political will, preparations
for the World
Summit on the Information Society are off to a difficult start. Although
frustrated, civil
society is getting organized. In Switzerland, a platform has just been
created bringing
together media professionals and NGOs.

The countdown has started. The first phase of the World Summit on the
Information
Society (WSIS) will take place on 1012 December 2003 in Geneva and the
second is
scheduled for 2005 in Tunis. An important topic: information and
communication
technologies (ICTs)  the Internet first and foremost  are not only the
drivers of
economic and financial globalisation, but also powerful vehicles for ideas
and images that
are shaping our vision of the world and our consumption patterns. Hence the
substantial
stakes involved, in terms of access (digital divide), power (concentration
of the media),
democracy (freedom of expression), and cultural diversity
(macdonaldisation). These
issues become even more crucial considering the great chasm between the
info-rich and
the info-poor, and that information as a commodity most often wins out over
information
as a human right or a public good.

Yet, one year before the Summit, the mix still seems all wrong. States are
lacking in
political will, enterprises are just beginning to wake up, civil society is
struggling to
mobilize beyond specialized circles, and media professionals on the whole
are
spectacularly indifferent or apathetic. It is as if the Summit were coming
too early or too
late. Too early because the political terrain is still lying fallow and
public awareness is
almost nonexistent. Too late, because the sector is in the grip of an
economic downturn
and the positions of strength of certain groups and countries  such as
Microsoft and the
United States  well established.

Three questions now arise concerning the Summit. First, will Geneva 2003 be
anything
other than a major curtain-raiser for the Tunis Summit in 2005? The Swiss
and Geneva
authorities, which have been keen to hold this high mass and plan to invest
SFr. 20
million in it, are obsessed by the fear that it could turn out to be just
that. Yet the risk is
real, for there is no true leadership, no strong emblematic organization or
figure capable
of galvanizing energies and embodying a forward-looking vision. The United
Nations
agency responsible, the very technically-oriented International
Telecommunication Union
(ITU) has neither the requisite stature nor capabilities. The upshot is that
in the absence
of a real brain, the Summit looks like a many-headed hydra  the ITU, the
host country
secretariat and the Summits executive secretariat  each with its own
perspectives and
agenda. The result is a somewhat paralysing strategic vagueness and
institutional
complexity.

Alarmed by the situation, Switzerland finally spoke out at the European
Preparatory
Conference held in Bucharest from 7 to 9 November. The head of the
delegation and
Director of the Federal Communications Office (OFCOM), Marc Furrer, shook
things up
somewhat, at the same time berating the «scepticism or even sarcasm» of some
European countries. Is this a sign of stronger and more courageous
commitment? So far,
Switzerland has not really dared or been capable of seizing the opportunity
offered by this
Summit to raise its international profile and play a pioneering role in a
field where much
remains to be invented.

Second question: what will the Summit to be discussing? According to the
official
discourse, it should focus more on content rather than channels. The reality
is much less
clear. Bearing the marked imprint of the ITU, the official documents thus
far published
place more emphasis on infrastructure development (for the South) and
potential markets
(for the North) than on the rights and real needs of human beings. Most
often reduced to
ICTs, the vision of the information society strangely overlooks the media.
As States are
on the whole poorly prepared, much more substantive work will have to be
done if the
Final Declaration and Plan of Action are to be any different. Switzerland,
precisely, has
decided to concentrate on some topics that are yet to be determined amongst
the federal
offices, which do not always speak the same language. The OFCOM specifically
mentions access, cultural diversity and freedom of expression, the Swiss
Agency for
Development and Cooperation (SDC) speaks of the fight against poverty, and
empowerment. By comparison the United States is interested primarily in the
growth of
telecommunications, IT training and security on Internet (fight against
terrorism).

Third question: Will the Summit be of a «new kind»  as has been trumpeted
for the last
year  in other words open to greater civil society participation, amongst
other things?
The answer is almost certain: no. To quote Daniel Stauffacher, the delegate
for the
Federal Council, «NGO hopes have been raised too high and some governments
have
been made overly fearful.» In fact, it is only the large enterprises that
could gain influence
thanks to their privileged links with ITU. This is not preventing civil
society from organizing
and putting up a fight, having been galvanised by the CRIS (Communication
Rights in the
Information Society) international campaign and strongly supported by
UNESCO. A
platform for the information society was just created in Switzerland,
bringing together
NGOs and media around a vision and some shared claims. The objectives? To
mobilize
and coordinate forces so that the Swiss Government will better take account
of the
interests of civil society. The Swiss Coalition and Bread for All are
participating in this
initiative, which strives to be open. This is worth keeping an eye on.

Contact: Michel Egger

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