Communication rights defend, expand and create spaces for democratic discussion

‘Communication rights’ group together various elements of human rights as they relate to different aspects of society’s communication processes. They cover areas such as the production and sharing of knowledge and ideas, the media and other modes of social interaction, and the capacity to deploy these effectively and equitably for economic, political, cultural and other aims. Communication rights are of growing relevance as people in recent decades grapple with huge changes in the area of communication, knowledge and media. They are especially important to the exercise of democratic principles, since they underpin the public sphere and spaces in which people and communities from local to global level can interact and articulate their views regarding their futures.

In theory, many key aspects of communication rights are included in legally binding Treaties such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and International Covenant on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights, to which virtually every government is a signatory. The practice on the ground, however, is very different. All of these Treaties are virtually unenforceable, lacking the instruments to compel compliance by signatory states. They provide little more than moral and political guidance, too often ignored.

Key aspects of communication rights issues are now moving beyond national control, shifted up a level, their governance taking on a global dimension. Media and communications, as industries and as practice, have become globalised, with multimedia corporations spanning the world, spurred by the convergence of digital technology and of content. Yet governance structures are largely unable to follow suit. Increasingly, the quality and nature of media at national levels are determined beyond the nation state, for instance through externally based direct broadcast satellite, the Internet and imported press.

Where global governance structures do cover media and communication, they are of two kinds:

? Most have been developed in the context of asserting the primacy of trade rules, complete with powerful sanctions to ensure compliance, such as the WTO’s GATS governing telecommunications, publications and possibly in the future the audio-visual sector.
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? Other global governance instruments of relevance, from UNESCO Conventions on culture and education to the binding Treaties mentioned above, are little more than aspirational in nature, and as noted lack the instruments to secure compliance.
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The net effect is that governance of key aspects of communication rights at national level (in the first place never fully equipped to fulfil its task) are now being, on the one hand, sidestepped and rendered irrelevant by global corporations and, on the other, weakened by global, regional and bilateral trade-related agreements. Communication rights at national level are being undermined by a weakness of governance structures at the global level.

The main threat to communication rights is also shifting. While government control and manipulation of the media were of primary concern in the past, and remain so in some respects, a growing danger now is the inability of governance structures to curb the commercialisation and commodification of media and communication and hence to moderate the specific distortions and vested interests that are thereby promoted. Indeed, in some instances we see a particularly dangerous collusion of government and commercial media, in both developed and developing countries.

Alongside this is the emergence of what can be described as a global civil society, constituted by growing numbers of networks, coalitions, NGOs, communities of interest and individuals active on issues from a global perspective and in a global arena. Ironically, this has emerged partly as a result of, and in response to, the globalisation of commercial media. But, demonstrating that ICTs can also be used to strengthen communication rights, global civil society has begun to build alternative global media from a civil society perspective, the Internet being the most popular medium but also using (or in combination with) television, video, radio and traditional media. The focus of attention and sphere of influence of global civil society is also turning towards global governance structures, including those that would be relevant to communication rights globally and nationally, although this is as yet in its early stages.

The CRIS Global Governance and Communication Rights project

The focus of the Project is twofold. At national level, ‘communication rights’ are currently being eroded, or their emergence hindered, as a result of global trends in media and communication, copyright, ICTs, surveillance and other areas, with significant long-term potential to impact negatively on economic, cultural and political life. The Project will begin to articulate issues at national level, focusing on both national and global level influences, and what needs to be done about them. It will develop and offer support for advocacy tools relating to national, regional and global levels, and develop concrete proposals for participation of civil society in governance, both nationally and in how national governments relate to global governance structures.

In addition, ‘communication rights’, in common with other issues with strong global influences and outcomes, also require significant transnational action to promote the emergence of appropriate governance structures. Concerted efforts will be needed across a range of institutions and environments, and international collaboration among civil society actors will be a critical component in catalysing change.

Yet the concept of ‘communication rights’, even in its nascent form, is by no means universally recognised in a uniform manner. Not only do national and regional priorities differ, but the deployment of the concept of ‘rights’ can have very different connotations in different places.

A side meeting of the WSIS in December 2004, attending by about fifty media activists from around the world, undertook a first exploration of what ‘communication rights’ mean in different parts of the world. How does the concept resonate with different realities? Do the different realities force a rethink and refinement of the concept? Indeed is it possible for any single concept to embrace diverse challenges in media and communication around the world? A definitive answer, needless to say, was not forthcoming. But surprising convergence was evident on the main contours of the concept.

This project will continue the process of developing a common language in relation to communication rights and our understanding of them, whilst taking into account the national and regional specificities. Such a lexicon will be integrated within, and form a part of, the advocacy tools developed for use by national, regional and global civil society actors.

Project goals and outputs

The specific goals of the Project are:

? To formulate and articulate the nature and significance of communication rights in different parts of the world, in a systematic and comparable manner, and to examine in practice the blockages and promoters;
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? Through the development and deployment of an advocacy Toolkit, to raise awareness and stimulate debate, advocacy and action among wider constituencies on key national, regional and global issues relating to communication rights,
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? To develop and promote proposals for the participation of civil society in governance structures and environments, including especially at global level, as part of the Toolkit.
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The outputs will include:

1. A Generic Framework of Analysis for Communication Rights, that facilitates an assessment of the current state of communication rights in different territorial contexts. It is not a full ‘index’, but will be systematic and comparable.
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3. The documented application of this framework in four countries – Brazil, Colombia, Kenya and Philippines, and one region - the European Union - and verification of output among civil society.
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5. The development of a Communication Rights Advocacy Toolkit to assist and encourage networks, NGOs and activists to move from a partial understanding of communication rights towards a set of actions to realise specific elements of such rights, at national, regional and transnational levels.
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7. The provision of Capacity Building Workshops in the use of the Toolkit, feeding into campaigning activities around selected communication rights issues. It will include proposals for changes in governance, and the participation of civil society in governance structures.
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Key themes and governance institutions

Several issues, across a number of institutions, are explored including the following:

1. The impact on media plurality and diversity of the growing concentration of media ownership at national, regional and global levels.
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3. The implications of direct broadcast satellite which often evades both national regulation and global/regional regulation (e.g. for advertising regulation) by registering in a foreign country.
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5. The impact of the copyright regime, through e.g. the TRIPS agreement, the EU’s Database Directive and WIPO’s Internet Treaties, on education, research, ‘fair comment’ in the political domain as well as on creative expression within civil society.
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7. Trends towards decreased judicial oversight and accountability, the erosion of long standing data protection principles, legal principles, civil liberties and ‘purpose creep’ in relation to increased international collaboration, data retention, surveillance, interception and monitoring of online environments in attempts to counter ‘cybercrime’ and ‘terrorism’ through the development of instruments such as the CyberCrime Treaty.
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9. The effective withdrawal of radio spectrum from the public commons and its auctioning to the highest bidder, obstructing independent and local media, as an issue possibly for the ITU.
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11. The impact of the inclusion of media, and in some cases audio-visual media, in global and regional trade agreements, including GATS, NAFTA and the EU, and how such inclusion should be further qualified to protect communication rights.
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13. The limited enforceability of information and communication rights guaranteed under UN instruments dating back over fifty years, and how these might be addressed.
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Thus governance institutions and frameworks considered, viewed from the perspective of national and sub-national level, might include e.g. WTO, WIPO, ITU, UNESCO, ICANN, OECD, FTAA, EU, Mercosur, NAFTA, NEPAD, among others.

In relation to process, factors worthy of exploration include: The absence of a clear conception of the communication rights at global level governance; the related absence of arenas for analysis, debate and interaction about the role and impact of these global institutions – and means to address these. The limited transparency of many global and regional governance institutions, the difficulty in ascertaining the rationale behind decisions, the impact, and proposals for solutions. The lack of accountability of such institutions to the people, and the distance established through executive branch of government. The absence of opportunities for civil society participation, and proposal for remedying this.

This analysis will offer an opportunity to engage concretely with horizontal issues, such as the effects of the dispersal across institutions of this governance domain; a comparative analysis of transparency and accountability; the different forms of participation for civil society; and so forth. Some of these factors impinge most strongly on communication rights at national level; others have most impact at the level of the emergence of global civil society. What they all have in common is that as global governance instruments, they significantly influence and constrain communication rights.

Implementing the project

The first task, well underway, is to develop the generic framework for the analysis of communication rights, with a view to enabling a coherent and consistent assessment of the impact of global governance structures, positive and negative, on the health and vibrancy of communication rights.

The Framework will identify and explore key elements and characteristics of communication rights at a generic level; identify the governance contexts and institutions which are relevant to these, at national, regional and transnational level, including the current participation of civil society; formulate criteria and indicators of these elements of communication rights, to facilitate national, regional and global level assessment of their presence or absence, and their quality, as existing on the ground for people.

National and regional research teams have begun the work. Following the Framework and based on existing data and information, each team is undertaking a (comparable) assessment of the territory in terms of communication rights, indicating the most important issues and outlining how these might be influenced by advocacy or lobbying activities.

Although these focus on national (or regional) level, particular attention is devoted to how global governance structures impinge on the key areas, as well as on the positions that national/regional governments take in relation to these issues in global fora. Specific attention is also paid to current (national) civil society participation in governance fora and contexts, as well as how this might be enhanced.

The third task will be to validate the research outputs, using national Workshops that gather together NGOs, activists and experts to test the conclusions against the experience on the ground. One or two key issues will be selected for further elaboration in the advocacy Toolkit, and possible interventions/tactics explored resulting hopefully in concerted action.

A final version of each national/regional report, incorporating the validation workshop outcomes, will be prepared. These will supplement the final Generic Framework on Communication Rights, demonstrating how the process can be repeated in other territories, but also underlining the common concerns arising in very different countries and regions.

Where to next?

The project is not an end in itself. It will add to the coherence of, and reinforce, national level action on communication rights. It will contribute to the emergence of transnational links and concerted action on communication rights, based on common concepts and understandings. But it is only part of the effort by the CRIS campaign and its fellow travellers to build transnational coalitions upwards from local level concerns and actions. The possibility of constructing an effective coalition, capable not just of identifying, understanding and acting on the issues transnationally, but of responding with credible alternatives, was already evident at the World Summit on the Information Society, and more generally at the ongoing World Social Forum process. Furthermore, the pressing need for reform of the global governance structure is gaining widespread support and beginning to make its mark across a number of institutions and environments.

Communication rights, from this perspective, are just one element in the emergence of a global civil society capable of tackling the destructive dynamics and forces that hold such sway in the world today, and of forging new and better ways of running our world. But communication rights comprise a particularly important element. Defending, expanding and creating spaces for democratic and open discussion, supporting the emergence of media and communication driven by people’s needs and interests that can generate and share knowledge uncontaminated by corporate profits and the thirst for power, from local to global level, can make a unique contribution to building the wider coalitions and movements that alone can make a difference in the long term.

Seán Ó Siochrú is a writer, media consultant and activist. He is a member of the CRIS Campaign strategy working group and chairperson of Community Media Network and Dublin Community Television. Recent publications include Global Media Governance: A Beginner’s Guide (with Bruce Girard and Amy Mahan, 2001) and Communicating in the Information Society (with Bruce Girard, 2003).