Call for greater commitment to pluralist media environment

The call came as the third preparatory committee meeting on World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) is going to finalise the draft plan of action.

The WSIS is scheduled to be held in Geneva in December.

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In the draft plan of action, the media community also demanded specific commitments to the development of community media for the poorest communities.

Regarding media, the draft declaration said the existence of free and independent communication media, in accordance with the legal system of each country, is an essential requirement for freedom of expression and a guarantee of the plurality of information.

Media community suggested deleting the sentence "in accordance with the legal system of each country" from the draft declaration, saying that local interpretation can be the cause of the violation of article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which ensure the freedom of expression of every citizen.

However, most of the countries are not interested to pay heed to the proposals of the media community for changing the sentence, as any government cannot take any risk in this regard.

The delegations of different countries and regions are very active regarding the final draft declaration, which will be signed by the governments next December.

Terming the WSIS declaration as the world agenda for development of the world and the world ICT policy, the discussants expected more attention of the world people on WSIS.

Around 50 heads of government, including Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, already gave their consent to attend the December meeting in Geneva.

Meanwhile, a four-member delegation of the Bangladesh government, led by Ashabur Rahman, additional secretary of the Ministry of Science and Information and Communication Technology (ICT), attended the meeting.

Reza Salim, member secretary of Bangladesh working group on WSIS, also attended the meeting as civil society representative.

The delegation also includes MA Hakim of BTRC and Hafizur Rahman of BTTB. Bangladesh Ambassador to Switzerland Toufiq Ali is also attending the crucial meeting. The 10-day meeting began on September 15.

Media organisations from different countries who got united here also impressed upon the preparatory committee of WSIS that a just and equitable information society strategy must be people-centred, inclusive, built on fundamental human rights and focused primarily on the reduction of poverty.

Some media groups, especially of the developing countries, said free and universal access to basic education and affordable access to electricity are required before the world's poorest people can benefit from new ICTs. They mentioned that nearly one-third of the world's population still do not have reliable access to electricity.

However, the draft Action Plan sets specific targets for access to the information society with a commitment to Internet access in every village by 2010 and in every school across the country by 2015.