DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL, AT TELEVISION FORUM, WARNS OF 'INFORMATION GAP', URGES MEDIA TO HELP BUILD WORLD IN WHICH 'NO ONE IS LEFT BEHIND'
Press Release
DSG/SM/33
PI/1099
DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL, AT TELEVISION FORUM, WARNS OF 'INFORMATION GAP', URGES MEDIA TO HELP BUILD WORLD IN WHICH 'NO ONE IS LEFT BEHIND'
19981120 Following are the remarks of Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette to the close of the World Television Forum at Headquarters on 20 November:Over the past two days you have engaged in a vital debate about global knowledge, about the role and power of information. It has been a fascinating exploration, guided by some of the leading voices in your industry, of the vast range of possibilities offered by new information technology.
Those possibilities are indeed almost endless, for your industry is constantly renewing itself. In the last 20 years or so, technological change has transformed your work in ways few could have anticipated, enormously increasing your reach and the speed with which you flash news and images around the world.
From our point of view, here at the United Nations, this round-the- clock, "real time" news coverage is a mixed blessing. Sometimes it gives us an extra few hours warning of an impending crisis. But, by the same token, it gives us less time for reflection before we react. And the glare of publicity often encourages the parties in a crisis to adopt public postures which render subsequent compromise more difficult. Technical change has greatly increased your collective power. I hope your deliberations during these two days have helped you think how to use that power responsibly.
We are all in some danger, these days, of suffocating under a deluge of information. Our chance of emerging from that deluge as better informed citizens and decision makers depends in large measure on the service you give us. That applies not only in the area of peace and security. Better communications can also help us alleviate poverty.
They can promote global solidarity by bringing the plight of the poorest into our living rooms. They make possible exciting new approaches to education and learning at all levels. Improved communications infrastructure can help link developing countries to the global economy. Advanced media enterprises like yours can also help these countries acquire the know-how and experience they need to be contributors, not passive spectators, in the
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"information age". And that, in turn, puts you in a strong position to take a stand for freedom of communication, against censorship.
We all know that information is the lifeblood of democracy. But, in the mid-twentieth century, when radio and television were usually state monopolies, they could be used by totalitarian regimes to control and manipulate public opinion. Happily, the age of the cassette, the fax, the satellite and the Internet has proved much less friendly to dictators.
These new technologies have a built-in individualism and pluralism, which in the long run favour freedom. They have helped produce a new era, in which the United Nations can openly promote democracy and human rights, without being accused of overriding national sovereignty or of favouring one geopolitical camp against another. And we do promote them, by spreading information in our turn, notably in the form of training and technical assistance.
The challenge now is to make information available to all. For too long, ordinary people in many countries were kept in ignorance, prisoners of poverty and fear. Even today, as the poverty gap widens, the information gap is becoming yet another line between the haves and the have-nots; between those forging new paths to development and those left behind. With your help, ladies and gentlemen of the media, we can build a planet on which no one is left behind. We count on your support.
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