The Community Media demand 'universal access’ to the traditional and new communication technologies’

Geneva, 9 December 2003

The slogan “universal access” sounds empty to the community media participating in the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). Together with other social organizations meeting in Geneva, they are rejecting the official declaration and action plan to be negotiated at this meeting, sponsored by the United Nations. Throughout the two years prior to the Summit, civil society organizations have been struggling for recognition and support. Community media groups such as AMARC and ALER and Deep Dish TV network have proposed that the governments open up their wavelengths and grant frequencies and channels to civil society and community organizations to deliver an alternative to the public information network and to private media. .

New forms of community media and alternatives are flourishing in all the continents around the world. Their true histories will be present throughout all the exhibitions, seminars and other WSIS events. However, in spite of the official rhetoric of “universal access”, the community media are not to be found in the official texts of the WSIS. This is why the community media working groups, together with other social organizations represented at WSIS do not support the official declaration and action plan. They have produced their own vision for a world where information and communication are increasingly central. This ‘Civil Society Declaration’ recognizes that the community media “play a special role in enabling access and participation to all information societies, particularly the poorest and most underprivileged ones.”
“The fact that we have been excluded from the official documents of WSIS shows the lack of true commitment towards civil society on the part of the governments in WSIS,” said Steve Buckly in the Working Groups of Com Media and president of AMARC. We have been creating local content, promoting human rights, promoting gender equality, and supporting sustainable development. The community and alternative media have been very successful in showing that another type of information society is possible. We will continue our struggle, at local, national and international levels, to remove the political, regulatory and economic barriers towards community media.