Citizenship, Identity, Media

Slavko Splichal

In the late 1700s Jeremy Bentham conceived the principle of publicity as a critical impulse against the injustice caused by the secrecy and partiality of state actions, and by Immanuel Kant as an enlightening momentum substantiating human freedom and making citizens equal in the public use of reason. Bentham favoured a free press as an instrument for public control of government in the interest of general happiness.1 Kant respected free public discussion as an instrument for the development and expression of the autonomous rationality of citizens. With the constitutional guarantee of a free press in parliamentary democracies, discussions of freedom of the press were largely reduced to the pursuit of freedom by/for the media, thus neglecting the idea of publicity as the basis of democratic citizenship. Yet, as this article argues, a free press embodied in the property rights of the owners of the press may well fail to achieve either Benthamite or Kantian goals. Such goals should lead to a personal right to communicate rather than to a corporate right to press freedom.

Greg Simons

State-Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) relations and how this is reflected through the mass media are the focus of this article. What is the exact role of the Church in everyday matters of society? Is the role of the Church constant or evolving? An important aspect will be the role of the Church in inducting individuals into the new social norms of contemporary Russian society.

Clemencia Rodriguez

In the form of a travel log noting the emerging global movement of citizens’ communication initiatives, the following article looks at the triangle formed by citizens’ media, policies on information and communication technologies, and social movements. The author calls for stronger links between academia and activists and argues that only with strong global networks will a global movement move forward toward a media utopia.

Ignacio Ramonet

Contre les abus des pouvoirs, la presse et les médias ont été, pendant de longues décennies, dans le cadre démocratique, un recours des citoyens. En effet, les trois pouvoirs traditionnels - législatif, exécutif et judiciaire - peuvent faillir, se méprendre et commettre des erreurs. Beaucoup plus fréquemment, bien sûr, dans les Etats autoritaires et dictatoriaux, où le pouvoir politique demeure le responsable central de toutes les violations des droits humains et de toutes les censures contre les libertés.

Anna Laura Lepschy

When I came to update my Tintoretto Observed for its Italian edition,1 it was suggested to me by Carlo Ginzburg, who was presenting the Marsilio volume Davanti a Tintoretto, that I should include Woody Allen’s Everyone says ‘I love you’ as part of Tintoretto’s modern fortuna. It was a film I had not seen, so I acquired the video and watched the protagonist, Jo Berlin (Woody Allen) passing himself off as a Tintoretto expert, in the School of San Rocco, to impress Vonnie Seidel (Julia Roberts), the art historian he had set his heart on.

Alfonso Gumucio -Dagron

When did we lose our trust in the mass media in Latin America? I cannot remember, but it was at least two decades ago, when my generation started to work on a thousand and one projects of alternative media to combat the hegemonic state-owned or private mass media. We were known as radical activists who opposed the increasing power of mainstream newspapers, television and radio stations. Many looked on us with scepticism, either because we were under-developed Quixotes fighting against the powerful windmills of media conglomerates or because our language was black and white: we were convinced that economic and political interests dominated media houses and everything that appeared in print.

José Marques de Melo

Reflexionar sobre el impacto de la globalización en América Latina, teniendo como moldura los escenarios culturales, particularmente aquellos pertenecientes al universo de la comunicación, constituye un ejercicio intelectual que exige una preliminar contextualización histórica. De esta forma es indispensable retomar la tesis que hemos defendido en otros territorios y en otras ocasiones,1 en el sentido de que el fenómeno corriente de la interacción planetaria,2 afirmado por los economistas como global neighborhood,3 que los comunicólogos prefieren llamar de comunication-monde,4 pero también ha sido rotulado como glocalización por los culturalistas,5 no puede ser considerado exclusivamente como señal de la post modernidad.6

Larbi Chouikha

Dans les années 1970, la Tunisie appuyait avec force la revendication d’un Nouvel Ordre Mondial de l’Information et de la Communication exprimée d’abord, dans le cadre du Mouvement des Non Alignés, ensuite, dans les instances de l’UNESCO. A l’instar de plusieurs gouvernements du Tiers-Monde, les raisons implicites qui sous-tendaient cette position étaient doubles : d’une part, il s’agissait de s’aligner sur les réserves exprimées à l’encontre du principe juridique de la libre circulation internationale des informations par plusieurs gouvernements autoritaires, et d’autre part, de s’allier toutes les franges progressistes nationales et internationales qui critiquaient « l’ordre impérialiste américain » de l’information. La même attitude du pouvoir tunisien se perpétue - dans une certaine mesure - aujourd’hui, à travers ses revendications technicistes et ses appels pour combler la « fracture numérique » Nord/Sud et ce, dans la perspective du Sommet Mondial de la Société de l’Information que la Tunisie abritera la seconde phase en novembre 2005.