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World Summit on the Information Society - WSIS
Tracking reprints two pieces below to bring readers
up to date on the preparations for the Final Declarations of the World
Summit on the Information Society.
UNECSO has organised an online Forum currently
ongoing until January 2003, see their press release below.
CRIS - meaning Communication Rights for
the Information Society, is a campaign formed to create a civil society
input to the WSIS - World Summit on the Information Society, the different
groups involved and their contact details are given below.
UNESCO, 5/12/2002
Online Forum for Civil Society's Preparation of World
Summit on the Information Society
An online discussion forum for non-governmental organizations
and civil society to discuss their input in the Final Declarations of
the World Summit of the Information Society (WSIS; Geneva 2003, Tunis
2005) will be held on UNESCO's website at http://wsisforum.unesco.org
from 9 December 2002 to 15 January 2003.
The Forum that will be chaired by Monique Fouilhoux, President of the
NGO-UNESCO Liaison Committee, will discuss eight themes: General Discussion,
Access, Development and Empowerment, Content Issues, Education, Training
and Research, Rights, Future Developments of Information Technologies,
Civil Society in WSIS and Beyond. The forum is open for all members of
non-governmental organizations and civil society.
Proposals to be included in the drafts of the WSIS Declaration of Principles
and Plan of Action that result from the Forum will be transmitted to the
WSIS Executive Secretariat for submission at Prepcom II (17-28 February
2003).
The decision to organize the Forum was taken by representatives of non-governmental
organizations and civil society at a preparatory meeting at UNESCO Headquarters,
Paris, France, on 27 and 28 November 2002.
At the meeting, Adama Samassékou, President of
the WSIS Preparatory Committee, highlighted the essential contributions
that non-governmental organizations and civil society can make to the
Summit and its follow-up.
Speaking at the Opening of the meeting, UNESCO Director-General
Koïchiro Matsuura said that UNESCO is well-positioned to bring quite
diverse constituencies into the Summit process and, indeed, to act as
a bridge linking civil society, governments, professional groups and users.
UNESCO, he stated, wishes to ensure that the Summit
addresses questions that go beyond 'access' in technical or infrastructural
terms: "After all, the access in question is really about full access
to society; more than this, it is about the capacity to influence the
kind of society being generated by large-scale technological and economic
forces". The desire to enlarge the Summit's agenda to take account
of important issues of intellectual and ethical debate is something that
UNESCO shares with civil society. "The narrowing of cultural as well
as technological divides is something we must all strive for", said
the Director-General.
A banner of the Discussion forum for placing on your
website can be downloaded at
<http://wsisforum.unesco.org/6/ubb.x?a=tpc&s=5536002961&f=1526093371&m=22160
73371>
Related Links
* World Summit on the Information Society
http://www.itu.int/wsis/index.htm
* UNESCO and the World Summit on the Information Society
<http://www.unesco.org/wsis>
Contact
Jean Gabriel Mastrangelo, UNESCO, Information Society
Division,
Tel: 01.45.68.44.13
E-mail: jg.mastrangelo@unesco.org
WSIS (World Summit on the Information Society)
"CIVIL SOCIETY PLENARY GROUP"
An Invitation to Work Together
Civil Society is beginning the process of organising
itself around the WSIS. The Civil Society Plenary Group is one of several
groups that brings together interested NGOs and civil society organisations
for cooperation. It neither claims, nor aspires to be, the only group
- there may be many - but it is open to all forms of interaction and co-operation
with others.
Its origins are found in the first WSIS PrepCom in July
2002. Many of the NGOs present organised themselves through a series of
Civil Society Plenary Meetings. During these meetings a number of Sub-Committees
and other Groups were constituted or proposed. At the final Plenary meeting,
it was decided that this Civil Society Plenary Group would continue to
develop and evolve. Members of the emerging Sub-Committees, Caucuses and
Working Groups have also loosely formed a Civil Society Plenary Coordinating
Group (CSCG), for coordination between them. CONGO was also asked to sit
on the CSCG, and as new groups emerge they can nominate a contact point.
The various groups forming under this umbrella are outlined
below, and this is an invitation to become involved in one or more of
them - or indeed to propose work in an area not covered. All Groups, like
the Plenary Group itself, are open ended, welcoming new members with common
interests. The sole criterion for associating is that contained in the
UN's ECOSOC guidelines (Resolution 1996/31) i.e. that an organisation's
"aims and purposes … shall be in conformity with the spirit,
purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations." This
is flexibly interpreted in terms of 'organisation', to allow maximum participation
from civil society.
The following Sub-Committees, Working Groups and Caucuses
have been formed:
Sub Committees formed during PrepCom 1:
1. Sub-Committee on Participation: Contact: Seán Ó
Siochrú sean@nexus.ie
Goal: To monitor and develop proposals for how civil society can participate
effectively in the WSIS process
2. Sub-Committee on Substance and Content: Contact: Sally Burch
sburch@alainet.org or William
J. McIver, Jr. mciver@albany.edu
Goal: To monitor and to present proposals on relevant content and themes
into the intergovernmental WSIS process
3. Sub-Committee on Funding and Supporting NGO Participation: Contact:
Steve Buckley: steve@commedia.org.uk
Goal: To brief, interact with and secure commitments from donors to support
NGO participation in the WSIS process.
Regional Caucuses:
4. Asia Caucus: Contact: Gaurab Raj Upadhaya, gaurab@lahai.com
Aim: To assert the Asian presence at the WSIS, by raising issues relevant
to the Asian Region.
5. African Caucus: Contact: Emanuel Njenga africa.rights@apc.org
Aim: To strengthen and contribute to the effective participation of civil
society organizations from Africa to the WSIS.
6. European (and North American) Caucus: Contact: Valerie Peugot,
vpeugeot@vecam.org, Claire Shearman
claire.shearman@mcr1.poptel.org.uk
Aim: To enhance the effective participation of civil society organisations
in Europe and North America in the WSIS.
7. Latin American Caucus: Contact: Olinca Marino (In Formation)
Issue Groups:
8. Gender Issues Strategies Group: Contact: Susanna George susanna@isiswomen.org
Aim: develop strategies for gender advocacy within the WSIS context and
in for a that deal with related issues.
9. WSIS Youth Caucus: Contact Nick Moraitis nick@youthlink.org
or Sasha Costanza-Chock, schock@asc.upenn.edu
Aim: to mainstream youth perspectives into civil society, private sector,
and government input throughout the WSIS process.
10. Human Rights Caucus: Contact: Meryem Marzouki meryem.marzouki@dial.oleane.com
Aim: To put Human Rights on the agenda of the WSIS
11. Technical/scientific sub-group: Contact: Robert Guerra rguerra@privaterra.org
Aim: to help WSIS actors understand scientific and technical issues of
the information society.
12. Communications Rights Caucus: Contact: Bruce Girard bgirard@comunica.org
Aim: To ensure that communication rights are central to the WSIS, both
in the official proceedings and in related civil society initiatives.
13. Environment and ICT Working Group: Contact: Thomas Ruddy, Thomas.Ruddy@empa.ch
Aim: To emphasize the combination ICT and the Environment meeting on the
WSIS agenda, and to draw linkages between the WSSD and the WSIS.
14. Indigenous Peoples Caucus: Contact: Robyn Kamira kamira@ihug.co.nz
Aim: To ensure that Indigenous Peoples are included explicitly, separately
and permanently in the WSIS consultation, participation and implementation
processes
15. Universities and Research Institutions Working Group: Contact:.
Artur Serra artur@ac.upc.es
Aim: To develop proposals and projects to WSIS in relation to research
and education and to o promote the participation of the academic research
and education community in the WSIS process.
A number of other groups are in formation.
If you wish to become involved, please contact any of
the above according to your interest.
See: http://www.cris.comunica.org/documents/cscg/member_summary.doc
for more information on the groups; and for more on civil society at PrepCom1
see http://www.wsis.info.
COMMUNICATION ISSUES
Wednesday, October 2, 2002
When the Net goes dark and silent
BENJAMIN EDELMAN
Late in August, Internet users in China suddenly found themselves unable
to access google.com. No government official had publicly announced a
ban, nor had Google taken any sudden action to provoke China's wrath.
Nonetheless, on August 29, millions of Chinese computer users could no
longer access the world's most popular search engine.
China's filtering efforts are far from unique. For example, Saudi Arabia,
Singapore and Vietnam also filter sites they deem offensive. In the US,
the state of Pennsylvania requires Internet service providers to prevent
access to state-identified child pornography, with other states reportedly
considering following suit.
But Chinese filtering goes further than efforts elsewhere, in part by
keeping secret the very fact that authorities are blocking controversial
sites. Compare China's filtering efforts with the corresponding practice
in Saudi Arabia: when an Internet user in the kingdom tries to access
a site prohibited there, the browser gives an error message, in Arabic
and English, explicitly stating that access has been prohibited. It also
names the government agency responsible.
The Saudi ''access denied'' page also lets the user read more about the
blocking policy. It even provides a form allowing the user to ask the
administration to reconsider its block on the site. In contrast, a Chinese
user requesting a prohibited site gets no explicit report that the site
has been blocked.
Instead, the user receives only a ''host not found'' error message - but
this message could also be the result of a malfunctioning Web server or
a damaged network link. As a result, a user is uncertain that a site is
actually blocked - it could simply be broken or unreachable. A user can
only assume that a site has been blocked through correspondence with foreign
colleagues or through repeated testing over time.
As if prior filtering efforts were not secretive enough, new changes make
Chinese filtering even less transparent. Last month, China's filtering
apparently extended to restrictions on certain key words, regardless of
site or context. In some parts of China, users' Web searches must not
mention any in a list of prohibited terms; elsewhere, the network checks
for prohibited terms in Web-page results, blocking any page that includes
those terms.
Finally, such filtering sometimes extends also to e-mail, when messages
with even a single prohibited word or phrase are discarded. Such crude
filtering often fails to accomplish the goals of administrators. A key-word
block on the name of a sensitive organisation might restrict access to
negative news about the group rather than merely preventing communication
with its members. In addition, like China's earlier filtering systems,
these new developments are secret; users come to anticipate the subjects
deemed off-limits, but there is no known authority to propagate such rules
or receive complaints.
Admittedly, filtering secrecy pales in comparison with the more pressing
problems of filtering restrictions themselves, and of the associated enforcement
efforts. But taking as given China's desire to restrict
the flow of information, an increase in the transparency of filtering
might bring about surprisingly extensive progress on the practical problems
with the policy.
For example, if filtering was open to public scrutiny, the aggrieved operators
and users of filtered sites could complain to the relevant Chinese authority,
expressing their outrage at both intentional and accidental prohibitions.
The accidental blocks and those that were too wide-ranging would probably
be reversed - a clear improvement over the errors caused by the current
lack of formal review or reconsideration.
But China's intentional blocks would remain, and might become increasingly
controversial. If Beijing admitted filtering, it would surely face objections
under the United Nations' Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, a General Assembly proclamation explicitly
prohibiting government restrictions on any form of media. China has already
faced numerous similar challenges. Indeed, there is little practical difference
between admitting to filtering and continuing to deny the practice half-heartedly.
China clearly thinks it is entitled to filter the Internet, UN resolutions
notwithstanding, and with the practice already so well known, China arguably
need not even deny it.
Realistically, it is hard to imagine China coming to see increased transparency
as the sensible way forward, at least in the near future. But the Internet
itself may produce and enforce such transparency. Thanks in large part
to updates received by e-mail from users across China, the South China
Morning Post and others have published scores of reports of restrictions
around the country - despite official denials. Reporters and researchers
worldwide are increasingly discussing the subject - in frequent BBC despatches
and a comprehensive report from the US-based think-tank Rand Corporation,
among others.
My own contribution, with Professor Jonathan Zittrain
of the Harvard Law School, is a Web-based system that allows a remote
verification of any given site's accessibility from China. We are also
testing many hundreds of thousands of sites, yielding an increasingly
rigorous sense of what is blocked and where. We are planning to publish
our full results online.
Research aside, some have watched the situation evolve and have decided
to do more than write about it. Taking matters into their own hands, public-spirited
programmers calling themselves Peak-a-booty are designing software to
circumvent filtering systems established by China and others. Though not
yet complete, their software already reflects an arms race and we will
surely see China striving to render it ineffective.
China's recent implementation of key-word based filtering shows all too
clearly the country's apparent commitment to Internet restrictions. China
will not easily give up the filtering arms race, recent developments suggest,
and facilitation of the free flow of information will yet require renewed
effort on all fronts - reporting, analysis, circumvention and lobbying.
Meanwhile, after two weeks in absentia,
Google is back in China - for those users who avoid topics deemed off-limits.
But the interested public ought not rest until key-word restrictions are
lifted - or, at the very least, until Chinese officials admit they are
tampering.
Benjamin Edelman is a student at the Harvard Law School
and a researcher at its Berkman Centre for Internet & Society. (cyber.law.harvard.edu/edelman.html)
Multinationals making a mint from China's Great Firewall
DAVID LEE
During much of the 1990s, the debate in the West over whether to trade
with China, given the government's record of human rights abuses, usually
focused on which approach would most likely lead to the country's liberalisation:
engagement and trade, or isolation and sanctions?
Proponents of free trade argued that the flow of goods and Information
would lead to a freer, more open society. The clincher, they often said,
would be the blossoming of the Internet, which was then seen as the one
thing the Chinese government would not be able to control as the country
sped into the future. In fact, it was assumed that no authoritarian regime
was safe from the liberating power of the Net.
Fast-forward to the present day. In China, many Web sites are blocked.
So are certain pages, and sometimes e-mails cannot be accessed. Western
and Chinese portals, together with local Internet service-providers, have
signed self-censorship pledges. Internet cafes monitor and, if necessary,
report the surfing habits of their patrons. A recent study by the Rand
Corporation said at least 25 dissidents have been arrested in the past
two years because of their online activities. In short, the government
has largely succeeded in doing what so many thought impossible: controlling
the Internet within its borders.
How did this come about? In myriad ways, really. Through the use of cutting-edge
technology, the powerful lure of the largest telecom market in the near
future and, at the local level, good old-fashioned intimidation. But technology
experts and human rights officials say it could not have happened without
the help of Western firms, especially telecommunications technology makers,
which they say have traded
equipment for market share.
''The dotcom boom in China was knowingly built on the repression of its
people,'' said Greg Walton, a researcher for the Montreal-based International
Centre for Human Rights and Democracy and an expert ontelecom technology
and Internet censorship in China. ''[The technology companies'] image
in the 1990s was kind of anarchic and freewheeling but in reality they
were after huge profit margins.''
Mr Walton and others say Beijing itself probably developed the more sophisticated
Net filtering technology employed in recent weeks. But he said it would
have been impossible for it to do so as quickly without the help of Western
technology suppliers in years gone by.
The names of those companies are the biggest in the business.
Cisco Systems, Nortel Networks, Microsoft, Websense and Sun Microsystems
have
all played a part, experts claim.
According to Mr Walton and others, Cisco's Internet routers and firewalls
first helped the Chinese government monitor e-mail and other packets of
data; Microsoft proxy servers have been used to block
Web pages; Sun has helped the government compile a nationwide fingerprint
database; and Websense has contributed to sophisticated Internet monitoring
and filtering techniques.
Meanwhile, Western portals such as Yahoo! have agreed not to post any
information that might be offensive to the government. These companies'
contributions to China's security infrastructure have not been limited
to blocking Web sites either.
According to a Rights and Democracy report, the Chinese government's goal
is a ''database-driven remote surveillance system'' encompassing the Internet
and a nationwide closed-circuit television (CCTV) network. Nortel, the
report said, has played a ''key role'' towards that end, developing a
system whereby surveillance data can be transferre from CCTV cameras along
the country's railway network to a centralised point run by the Ministry
of Public Security.
Over last year's National Day holiday week, in a trial run, more than
39 ''suspected criminals'' were arrested at the main Beijing railway station
after their faces were matched with an electronic book of mugshots, said
Agence France-Presse.
Rights and Democracy also reported that Nortel has worked with Tsinghua
University to develop speech-recognition software, and has developed a
prototype fibre-optic network in Shanghai with firewalls that will enable
the government to track the surfing habits of Net users. Nortel spokeswoman
Jolia Kua denied these charges but confirmed China Railcom was a Nortel
customer. Ms Kua said Nortel had sold its Shasta firewall products - which
have the ability to track users' movements - in Shanghai. However, she
said theories that the government used the technology to track its citizens'
surfing habits was speculative. ''I will only say that we sell the same
Shasta products that we sell everywhere else. We have not
engaged in any customisation on behalf of the Chinese government.''
She added that holding Nortel responsible would be like blaming Boeing
for al-Qaeda flying its planes into the World Trade Centre and that Nortel
was not concerned about how products were used after they
were bought. That may change if Rights and Democracy's allegations of
Nortel's involvement in surveillance technology in China are true. There
is a growing trend towards holding multinational corporations accountable
for any degree of complicity with repressive governments in human- rights
abuses.
Carol Samdup, co-ordinator of Rights and Democracy's Globalisation programme,
said there has been increased discussion in recent years about the creation
of international legislation and an international
court to handle such cases. The United Nations, meanwhile, is exploring
ways to bring corporations under the same umbrella of human-rights laws
that apply to states.
And in a major development last month, a US federal appeals court in San
Francisco upheld US legislation that enables victims of alleged human-rights
abuse to sue US-based corporations in US courts. The ruling came after
Myanmar residents sued California-based energy conglomerate Unocal, charging
the company in connection with alleged slavery, murder and rape carried
out by the Myanmar military during the construction of an oil pipeline
there.
Ralph Steinhardt, a professor at the George Washington University Law
School in Washington and an expert on multinational corporations and human-rights
laws, says the ruling should have a significant impacton ''boardroom consciousness''.
''Multinationals would need to make sure they are not giving
Assistance to governments violating human rights,'' he said.
Even if the technology companies' actions in China do not legally amount
to rights violations, their role in choking the free flow of information
is less than admirable, said Mickey Spiegel, senior Asia researcher for
New York-based Human Rights Watch. ''You don't want information blocked,''
she said. ''You certainly don't want any group of people not to have access
to information. You want citizens who are knowledgeable. That's the issue
- people should have information, that information should cross borders
and be available.''
Community Media Look for Ways to be Heard
By Marwaan Macan-Markar
BANGKOK, Nov 25 (IPS) - Satien Chantorn, a fruit farmer,
has become the symbol of defiance of an information revolution that is
gradually spreading across Thailand.
In mid-November, the police were ordered to arrest the
52-year-old Satien for a programme he broadcast from a community radio
station in Ang Thon province, central Thailand. Earlier, the local police
had
seized the radio station's transmitter.
Satien's act, according to officials at the post and
telegraph department, was a violation of the rules governing the airwaves
in this South-east Asian country.
Communities cannot set up such stations and take to
the airwaves because parliament has not yet passed laws overturning feudal
arrangements that give government authorities control over them. This
is
despite the 1997 constitution that recognises a community sector -- separate
from the government and commercial ones.
However, the outpouring of support for Satien from some
academics and media reform activists has given him a reprieve. The police
have still to act on the arrest order.
But the most significant backing has come from the over
150 local communities who for about a year now have turned away from the
diet of information served by the mainstream media to set up their own
radio stations.
The first such station to go on air was in Kanchanaburi,
in western Thailand, in December 2001.
''This is to be expected,'' says Supinya Klangnarong
of the Campaign for Popular Media Reform, a Bangkok-based non-governmental
organisation (NGO). ''Communities want a medium to express their voice,
their views and to gain information that matters to them, and the government
is denying them that.''
''The growth of so many community stations this year
is also a challenge to the mainstream media, which does not serve local
community needs,'' adds Ubonrat Siriyuvasak of the faculty of communication
arts at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University. ''There is a heavy Bangkok
focus in the mainstream media.''
Satien's case -- one that will determine if the Thai
authorities will stick to their threat to silence the community radio
revolution or recognise communities' right to their own media - is emblematic
of a drama
being enacted in a few other countries across Asia.
An increasing number of communities in the region are
struggling to assert their right to gain space, a voice and recognition
by establishing their own media, be it via radio or on the Internet.
''Community radio stations and other forms of community
media are still at a pilot stage and are struggling to assert themselves
in Asia,'' says Pradip Thomas, editor of 'Media Development', a quarterly
journal
published by the London-based World Association for Christian Communication.
''In some places it reflects the political realities
of the countries, where civil society groups and communities are involved
in pushing for more space to establish community media,'' he adds. ''In
spite of good things that have happened, it is always a one-step-forward-two-steps-back
situation.''
A seminar held here over the weekend provided snapshots
of the struggles of community media as well as the inroads they have made
so far.
In South Korea, gay and lesbian communities have had
to endure government pressure. A popular gay and lesbian website was shut
down by the country's Information Communication Ethics Committee.
In India, communities aspiring to set up radio stations
cannot do so due to laws that give the government control over the airwaves.
This has continued, says Thomas, despite a Supreme Court decision in
the mid-1990s declaring that the airwaves are owned by the public.
The rest of South Asia has little to offer by way of
community radio stations thanks to its political climate, say experts
at the seminar. The few community stations that exist include one in Sri
Lanka and two
in Nepal.
As a result, many in India are turning to small newspapers,
Internet sites and videos to ''create space for their voices to be heard,''
says Gargi Sen of the Magic Lantern Foundation, a New Delhi-based NGO
supportive of local communities creating their own media outlets.
''Through such efforts communities are trying to fight
for their right to communicate,'' she adds, pointing to examples in places
like Goa and Madurai.
The Philippines ''is a special case in Asia'' where
communities have turned to their own media outlets to assert their rights
and identity, says Alan Alegre of the Foundation for Media Alternatives,
a Quezon
City-based NGO. ''There is the free media tradition that has helped, and
the law.''
A typical example is that of the farmers in Negros Occidental
province in central Philippines, where they used community media to help
get land back from the region's landlords.
But on the whole, Asian communities have still to chalk
up the impressive achievements of their counterparts in regions such as
Latin America, says Bruce Girard of the Campaign for Communication Rights
in the Information Society Campaign (CRIS Campaign).
Community media ''is widespread in Latin America'',
he says, but there is growing interest in some Asian countries about its
significance.
The best example is war-ravaged Afghanistan, where President
Hamid Karzai backs the introduction of community radio stations, Girard
reveals. ''There are only two community radio stations now, but with
plans to promote growth of local communities, the stations could grow.''
But those like Girard and Thomas do not expect community
media to dent the monopoly on information held by the mainstream media.
''These are little drops in the ocean,'' says Thomas.
So activists are looking to the World Summit on the
Information Society (WSIS), to be held in Geneva, Switzerland in December
2003, to gain recognition of communities' right to have their own media.
''The WSIS will be the ideal place for this issue to
gain legitimacy,'' Sen asserts. ''A community's right to communicate must
be recognised as part of the human rights language.''
(END/IPS/AP/IC/HD/DV/MMM/AAG/JS/02)
To: chinese internet research
From: Gerry Groot <gerry.groot@adelaide.edu.au>
Date sent: Wed, 27 Nov 2002 11:56:25 +1030
Subject: [chineseinternetresearch] Chinese Internet users were
executed
Send reply to: chineseinternetresearch@yahoogroups.com
Amnesty says two Chinese Internet users were executed
US firms "colluding" in State clamp down claim
By Mike Magee: Tuesday 26 November 2002, 19:05
HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANISATION Amnesty International issued a warning today
on its Web site that Internet users in mainland China could be killed
by
the State for expressing their opinion online.
Thirty three people were named as "prisoners of
conscience" today, for
apparently doing little more than expressing their opinions online.
Two "subversives" have already died in custody,
it claimed.
And the statement, which it released today, also warns
that overseas
companies were colluding in a crack down we first reported last August.
The report asked China â?" avowedly a police
state â?" to release anyone
detained or jailed for using the Internet to express their views or to
share information.
American companies are helping China track down people
that the
government wants to detain for "online subversion".
It has designated 33 people detained for using the Internet
as
"prisoners of conscience".
Two people have already died in custody, the report
said. AI says that
anyone surfing the Internet in China could be at risk of "arbitrary
detention and imprisonment".
There are around 60 million Internet users in mainland
China, with the
numbers rising steadily. µ
Women launch India's first community radio
------------------------------------------
India's first community radio has been launched at Orvakallu in Kurnool
district of Andhra Pradesh on Friday. The woman members of the Mandal
Ikya Sangham, who spent over Rs 25,000, to set up the radio station, named
Mana Radio, formally launched the broadcast in October. The radio station
is located in a small room in this village about 30 Km from Kurnool town.
The Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP) provided technical
support and gave training to the women in running the station. It will
broadcast 45 minutes of programming every Monday from 6.00 to 6.45 pm.
The recorded speeches of employment generation minister B Gopalakrishna
Reddy and SERP chief executive officer K Raju were broadcasted during
the launch function.
The station's locally-generated programmes, including a play and a News
bulletin, have received good response from the villagers. The bulletin
was prepared by reporters Nagaraju, Laxmi Prasanna, Jayaram and Prakash.
Nagaraju and Laxmi Prasanna read the bulletin, which included local and
national news.
According to SERP advisor Meera Shenoi, the content includes songs, documentaries,
stories, jokes, interviews with officials, and talks on agriculture, animal
husbandry and literature. She said 30 young men were given training for
three days in producing programmes at Orvakallu.
Technical support came from a technician, Anshuman, who helped the sangham
in establishing the radio station. He said the radio signals are being
broadcasted at FM 900 mhz and the radius would be increased to 5 km from
the present 1 km in the next phase.
SERP local officer Vijaya Bharathi said 'Mana Radio' would help promote
a feeling of pride in the community. She added that radio also serves
as a platform for local artistes and activists.
Reporter Laxmi Prasanna felt that women of the village are now confident
of doing anything as they are running a radio station by recording and
also editing programmes. Laxmi said even illiterate women were coming
forward to prepare programmes.
NEWS BITES
Date sent: Sat, 30 Nov 2002 18:56:04 -0600
Organization: http://mediamentor.ca
Subject: ONE HUNDRED SIXTY INDIAN ISPS SURRENDER LICENCES
To: DEVMEDIA@LISTSERV.UOGUELPH.CA
ONE HUNDRED SIXTY INDIAN ISPS SURRENDER LICENCES
More than 160 Indian ISPs out of 566 licence holders have
surrendered their licences, due to "excessive competition".
One of the main reasons for the surrender of the ISP
licences is that the field has become overcrowded, while the
demand is not growing as per expectations.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com
**************************
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Irish Internet Market
According to IrelandOffline Newsletter, these are interesting
times in the development of the Irish Internet market, although we still
have a long way to go there are signs of improvement. The past three months
have seen the introduction of a partial (off-peak) flat rate dial up and
ISDN products by EsatBT and UTV Internet, and anannouncement by EsatBT
that they are hoping to introduce full flat rate (allowing off peak and
on peak Internet access for a flat monthly fee) early in the new year.
EsatBT and Nevada Tele.com are both currently in negotiations with Eircom
to finalise the terms and conditions of such an offering.
Most recently the Minister for Communications, Dermot
Ahern announced that when the Commission for Communications Regulation,
the replacement body for the ODTR takes over from the ODTR they will be
issued with a Ministerial directive to make the availability of a flat
rate product in the Irish market an absolute priority. EsatBT have announced
that they intend to launch a 256k ADSL product in the run up to Christmas,
and EsatBT and Eircom are adding to the list of exchanges enabled for
ADSL.
Send reply to: "David Long" <cdlong@indigo.ie>
or contact the IrelandOffline committee (chairman@irelandoffline.org)
IO-Announce mailing list
IO-Announce@irelandoffline.taint.org
http://irelandoffline.taint.org/mailman/listinfo/io-announce
Right to Know Initiative - UNICEF
The Right to Know Initiative (RTK) is a global communication
and outreach initiative focusing on HIV/AIDS and related issues among
young people. RTK is a UNICEF response to the following facts:
HIV/AIDS has become a disease of young people, with young adults in the
15-24 age group accounting for half of all new infections worldwide.
The 14 countries currently participating in the RTK Initiative are: Bosnia
& Herzegovina, Côte d'Ivoire, FR Yugoslavia, FYR Macedonia,
Ghana, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria,
Thailand, and Zambia.http://www.comminit.com/pdsRTK/sld-6769.html
Contact Jude-Marie Alexis jmalexis@unicef.org
The Death Of The Internet
How Industry Intends To Kill The 'Net As We Know It
Jeff Chester is executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy
http://www.democraticmedia.org/
The Internet's promise as a new medium -- where text,
audio, video and data can be freely exchanged is under attack by the corporations
that control the public's access to the 'Net, as they see opportunities
to monitor and charge for the content people seek and send. The industry's
vision is the online equivalent of seizing the taxpayer-owned airways,
as radio and television conglomerates did over the course of the 20th
century.
Communication rights on the web
Sean Hawkey sent us a list of new and extensive Media
Development journal archive on WACC's website: It is free for everyone
to use and there are many more links on the website. The address is http://www.wacc.org,
please tell others about it.
This is a selection from the archive for tasters:
Communication and the globalisation of poverty
Issue 1, 2000
http://www.wacc.org.uk/publications/md/md2000-1/contents.html
The Right to Communicate
http://www.wacc.org.uk/publications/md/md1999-4/contents.html
Key issues in Global Communications
http://www.wacc.org.uk/publications/md/md1999-2/contents.html
Migrants, Refugees and the Right to Communicate
http://www.wacc.org.uk/publications/md/md1998-3/contents.html
Alternative Communication Networks
http://www.wacc.org.uk/publications/md/md1996-3/contents.html
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