World leaders have endorsed a plan under which modern communication technologies will be extended to the poor, and other efforts undertaken to bridge the digital divide between poor and rich countries.
A Plan of Action (POA) and Declaration from the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) tasks governments and donors with injecting more funds in making Information and Communication Technologies more accessible and affordable to the poor people particularly in developing countries.
The summit, which was hosted by the International Telecommunications Union and opened by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, was called to review the challenges posed by the information society and draw up mechanisms to make ICTs aid the development of world economies.
Organisers said the summit was the first UN event ever at which civil society organisations played an active role in drafting and debating the documents which were presented to heads of state for endorsement.
Business Interests
Business was also represented at the summit and the preparatory events leading up to the WSIS. The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) led the formation of the Coordinating Committee of Business Interlocutors (CCBI), which was voice of the business at WSIS.
Richard McCormick, the Honorary Chair of ICC, said at the end of the summit that business was ready to make investments in creativity and innovation to enhance the information society. But to do so governments had to create the necessary conditions for investment.
‘Among those conditions are intellectual property rights protection, stable and predictable legal systems, trade liberalisation, technology neutrality, and a regulatory framework which promotes competition and fosters entrepreneurship,” he said.
Business also agreed that cables had to be laid, satellites used and computers distributed in order to raise access to ICTs. ‘As technologies spread and become more widely available, we are seeing the emergence of a younger generation who have ICTs and the Internet in their DNA,” said McCormick. ‘It is our responsibility to ensure that this genetic streak becomes common to young people no matter where they are born in the world.”
Internet Governance
McCormick said they were happy with the way the Internet is loosely governed through a loose collaboration of various technical bodies. They therefore opposed proposals by civil society organisations (CSOs) that its governance be made more democratic by involving government bodies, service providers and users around the world.
Opinion remained strongly divided on the issue. In the end the UN Secretary General was asked by the summit declaration committee to set up a working group on Internet governance, ‘in an open and inclusive process” that ensures a mechanism for the full and active participation of governments, the private sector and civil society from both developing and developed countries.
The group should include relevant intergovernmental and international organisations and forums, to investigate and make proposals for action on the governance of Internet by 2005.
The group should develop a working definition of Internet governance, identify the public policy issues that are relevant to Internet governance, and develop a common understanding of the respective roles and responsibilities of governments.
Consensus
The ITU said in a statement that through long and fraught negotiations involving governments, civil society and the private sector, consensus had been reached on several issues including Internet governance, intellectual property rights, the media, security, traditional knowledge, labour standards, and political issues.
It added that resolution of some issues remained sticky until the very end though. Such issues involved Internet governance and financing the final Draft Plan of Action. Work on those issues will continue next year and it is expected that they will be resolved at the second of WSIS in Tunisia in 2005.
Digital Solidarity Fund
Bates Namuyamba, Zambia’s Communications Minister, said Africa was particularly affected by the digital divide, and called for a Digital Solidarity Fund to fund ICT development on the continent. Senegalese president Abdoulaye Wade was also an ardent supporter of the fund, but developed nations did not endorse it.
Open software
No consensus was reached on the issue of open software as an alternative to proprietary software. Civil society had wanted the summit to encourage adoption of soft software but business representatives strongly rooted for proprietary software. Civil society argued that open software is cheap and can boost ICT use in developing countries.
Ultimately, the summit said access to information and knowledge can be promoted by increasing awareness among all stakeholders of the possibilities offered by different software models, including proprietary, open-source and free software, in order to increase competition, access by users, diversity of choice, and to enable all users to develop solutions which best meet their requirements. It added that affordable access to software should be considered as an important component of a truly inclusive Information Society.
Media
The declaration affirms the leaders’ commitment to ‘the principles of freedom of the press and freedom of information, as well as those of the independence, pluralism and diversity of media, which are essential to the Information Society”.
It adds: ‘Freedom to seek, receive, impart and use information for the creation, accumulation and dissemination of knowledge are important to the Information Society. We call for the responsible use and treatment of information by the media in accordance with the highest ethical and professional standards”.
The declaration also says, ‘Nothing in this declaration shall be construed as impairing, contradicting, restricting or derogating from the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, any other international instrument or national laws adopted in furtherance of these instruments”.
The Plan encourages the media to continue to play an important role in the Information Society; and the development of domestic legislation that guarantees the independence and plurality of the media. It says, however, that appropriate steps consistent with freedom of expression should be taken to combat illegal and harmful content in the media. — Hana