Switzerland: sharing” “communication

If the inhabitants of the industrialized countries are swamped by the means of communication, some 50% of the world’s population have never used a telephone in their life, due to the lack of infrastructures. One other indicative statistic: in the nations of black Africa, only 0.4% of the population have access to the Internet. Launched by the Christian Churches in Switzerland for Lent, the ecumenical campaign “Sharing communication” is dedicated to the technology gap. Promoted by the Swiss aid organization “Pain pour le prochain”, “Action de Carême” and “Etre partenaires”, its aim is to foster a fairer, more equitable world society of information. The access of the poorer countries to the new technologies is in fact considered by the last world Report of the United Nations on development one of the major objectives for the campaign against poverty and hunger. A forum for discussion. “In the age of the Internet boom – explain the promoters of the campaign – information is an essential dimension of development and the control of the mass media represents one of the most important issues at stake in the process of globalization”. By clicking on www.geneva2003.org, navigators on the web may access a discussion Forum and express their hopes and fears which these new technologies arouse. The Forum will end with a round table in Geneva, on Thursday 14 March, where those who have participated in the discussions, will be invited to recount their experiences and exchange their own views with experts, journalists and politicians. An appeal. The campaign is especially aimed at politicians, since they are the ones responsible for international policies and development programmes; at private telecommunications companies, since it is they who develop the infrastructures; and at media personnel, since it is they who transmit the contents of communication. The public is invited to send messages to the federal authorities, to the telecommunications companies (Swisscom, Sunrise or Orange), to the press and to local radio stations, urging them to take steps to ensure a better coverage of the countries of the southern hemisphere and to allocate bigger investments to equip them. The right to information. Today, just over 5% of the world’s population use the Internet and 88% of them live in the industrialized countries. During the last ten years, the new technologies, such as the Internet and mobile phones, have only been developed in some limited parts of the world. In the USA, for example, half of all families are already connected to the web, whereas the percentage in Europe is just under a third. In these countries the mobile phone has become a standard accessory. But while the industrialized states and the affluent elites in the developing countries enjoy these facilities, a large part of the population in the southern hemisphere continues to remain excluded from the networks of communication: not only the new ones (Internet), but also the old ones (TV, radio and telephones). “If we want to prevent this gap between North and South in the field of information from growing – explains Michel Egger, in charge of the campaign – and thus also increasing in this way the more global gap in development, we need to take appropriate steps in terms of infrastructures, technology and financial transfers, training, the adaptation of technologies to local conditions, and the creation of contents in forms and languages that respect socio-cultural diversities”. The organizations that have promoted the campaign have also decided to promote a “Popular Charter of Communication”: drafted by the international network “Voices 21”, the Charter stresses that the right to information is a fundamental human right.