The contributions of the Civil Society are included in the Observers' contribution ( Section II ). Official drafts (21 March version ) of the Declaration of Principles and Action Plan are available in six languages (arabic, chinese, english, french, russian, spanish in word and pdf formats ) We have highlighted some items of specific interest to the IPR Working Group and the Scientific Information(SI) Working Group. For procedural reasons, the IPR & SI Working Group contributions related to the Principles were not available in time to be included in the Observers' contribution.

Specific interest

[Draft declaration of Principles

Based on discussions in the Working Group of Sub-Committee 2

(DT-2 revised)

[NOTE: the whole text of this Draft Declaration is in square brackets]

Section I

1. Building the Information Society: a new global challenge in the new Millennium

1. We the representatives of the peoples of the world, assembled at Geneva from 10-12 December 2003 for the first phase of the World Summit on the Information Society, declare our common desire and commitment to build a new kind of society, the Information Society, premised on the principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in which new technologies, in particular information and communications technologies (ICTs) become an essential tool, accessible to all, for the attainment of a more peaceful, prosperous and just world based upon our common humanity in all its diversity.

2. We recognize that knowledge, information and communication are at the core of human progress, endeavour, and well-being and that, although the dramatic increase in the volume, speed and ubiquity of information flows, which has been made possible through new information and communication technologies, have already brought about profound changes in peoples lives, and are creating enormous new opportunities, they have yet to benefit the vast majority of the peoples of the world.

3. We recall our common resolve as reflected in the Millennium Declaration to promote democracy and respect for all internationally recognized human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the right to development and re-iterate our commitment to sustainable development.

4. We are convinced that the information and communication revolution is still in its infancy, and the untapped potential of ICTs to improve productivity and quality of life is a serious issue for all of us, particularly for the majority of the peoples of the world who live in developing countries and countries with economies in transition who risk being left behind and further marginalized.

5. We are fully aware that our individual and collective ability to create and share knowledge has become a driving force in shaping our future, and that concrete action and global commitment are now required; to ensure that these new technologies accelerate the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals that we set for ourselves at the Millennium Summit.

6. Faced with complex and ever-evolving challenges, all of us; governments, the private sector and civil society, have challenges that require new forms of solidarity and cooperation and new or increased roles and responsibilities.

2. We declare our Common Vision of the Information Society:

7. The Information Society that we seek to build is one which is inclusive, where all persons, without distinction of any kind, are empowered freely to create, receive, share and utilize information and knowledge, in any media and regardless of frontiers.

8. The Information Society should be people-centered, with citizens and communities at its core, and be at the service of humankind. It should be an environment where information and knowledge are disseminated and utilized by all sectors of the population, for their economic, social, cultural and political development.

9. The Information Society is a new and higher form of social organization, where highly-developed ICT networks, equitable and ubiquitous access to information, appropriate content in accessible formats and effective communication must enable all the people to achieve their full potential, promote sustainable economic and social development, improve quality of life and alleviate poverty and hunger.

10. The essential requirements for the development of an equitable Information Society include:

• The respect for all internationally recognized human rights and fundamental freedoms. Notably the right to freedom of opinion and expression, including the right to hold opinions without interference and seek to, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers in accordance with article 19 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights and to unhindered access by individuals to communication media and information sources,

• The commitment to democracy and good governance as well as the existence, in accordance with the legal system of each country, of independent, pluralistic and free mass and other communication media in their various forms, as an important means of fostering public information, societal development and social cohesion.

• The adherence to international undertakings with respect to peace and security, sustainable development, equality, solidarity, tolerance, human dignity, economic progress, and the protection of the environment and building of new values, trust and norms with respect to the use of ICTs.

• The building of an environment that inspires confidence and trust in using ICTs, and ensures security of networks and information, in particular the protection of privacy.

• Ensuring the adequate development of human capacity in order to be able to fully exploit the benefits that ICTs and building public awareness on the capabilities of ICTs to improve the lives of people by circumventing traditional obstacles like distance and time.

• The nurturing of creativity and support for the flourishing of free flow of a multiplicity of ideas from a diversity of sources, recognizing cultural identity in all its variety, linguistic diversity, and multilingualism as well as the creating favorable conditions for the production, processing, dissemination and protection of local content.

11. The Information Society must respond to the additional development challenges posed by the digital divide and help to achieve the Millennium Development Goals of combating poverty and hunger, , eliminating illiteracy, reducing infant mortality, improving the status of women, improving maternal health, combating disease and promoting environmental sustainability.

3. An information Society for all: key principles

12. The Information Society must serve the interests of all nations, in a manner that secures the fair, balanced and harmonious development of all the people of the world. Most particularly, the interests of the developing and least developed countries (LDCs), Smaller Islands Developing States (SIDS), economies in transitions and post-conflict countries, should be addressed, taking into account the unique geographic features and demographic diversity of nations and regions.

13. The Information Society must be oriented towards eliminating existing socio-economic differences in our societies, averting the emergence of new forms of exclusion and becoming a positive force for all of the world’s people by helping to reduce the disparities between and within countries.

14. Empowerment and inclusion are fundamental characteristics and objectives of the Information Society. Accordingly, special attention must be paid to:

• The marginalized, including migrants and refugees, unemployed, underprivileged and disenfranchised peoples.

• The vulnerable, including children and the elderly, the disabled, and those with special needs.

• Indigenous peoples and communities.

15. Unequal power relations and other social and cultural aspects have contributed to differential access, participation and status for men and women. More attention must be given to overcoming these constraints and ensuring that women can equally benefit from the increased use of ICTs for empowering themselves by full participation in shaping political, economic and social development and improving their lives.

16. Young people constitute the majority of the world’s population, and are leading creators and adopters of ICTs. Yet too many of them, especially those in developing countries, remain disadvantaged and disconnected. More and special attention must be given to empower young people as learners, the future workforce, and citizens with special needs.

1) Information and communication infrastructure

17. Universal, ubiquitous and affordable access to ICTs must be an objective of all stakeholders involved in building the Information Society.

18. Building the infrastructure: A well-developed and easily-accessed and affordable information and communication network infrastructure is essential for the social and economic progress of countries, and the well-being of all citizens and communities. The improvement of connectivity is of special importance in this respect.

19. Community access points: Public access from community centres such as post offices, libraries, and schools, provides an effective means for promoting universal access in particular in rural and remote areas and poor urban areas.

20. Measuring and mapping the Information Society: Indicators are essential to measure the evolution of the Information Society, more particularly the needs and performance of developing countries and their particular conditions. Targets should also be set to benchmark the penetration of ICTs services within communities at urban and rural levels.

2) Access to information and knowledge

21. The right to communicate and the right for citizens to access information are fundamental to the Information Society.

22. Access to knowledge: Individuals and organisations should benefit from access to information, knowledge and ideas. The sharing and strengthening of global knowledge for development can be enhanced by ensuring equitable access to information for educational, scientific, economic, social, political and cultural activities.

23. Access to public domain information: A vibrant and rich public domain is an essential element for the growth of the Information Society. Information in the public domain must be easily accessible.

24. Open standards and open source: Open standards and open source software are basic elements in the development of a more affordable access to ICTs.

25. Barriers: Barriers to equitable access result from differences in education and literacy levels, gender, age, income and connectivity, as well as from a lack of user training and cultural and linguistic constraints and particular conditions of access to the relevant technology. ICTs can also be used in order to overcome these and other barriers in society.

26. Information flows: A better balance of the information flows should be sought in building the Information Society.

3) The role of governments, the business sector and civil society in the promotion of ICTs for development

27. All partners—public, private sector and civil society organizations—have a stake in the development of information and communications and should be fully involved in decision making at the local, national, regional and international levels. Governments should work in close coordination with private enterprise and civil society.

28. ICTs manufacturing capabilities: It is essential for governments to encourage technology transfer and investment, including venture capital, in the creation of national and regional ICT production facilities, research and development (R&D), incubation schemes and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Most developing countries are lagging behind in this respect.

29. Demand-driven applications: Growth in the demand for applications (such as e-government, e-learning, e-health and e-business) will create a favourable environment for the private sector to invest in the development of new services.

4) Capacity building

30. All people must be enabled to acquire the necessary skills in order to participate actively in, and understand, the Information Society and knowledge economy thus benefiting fully from the possibilities it offers. Special attention must be paid to training of trainers as well as building the institutional capacities to collect, organize, store and share information and knowledge.

31. ICTs for education: The use of ICTs for education and human resource development, including ICT literacy, should be promoted, with special reference to the requirements of people with disabilities.

32. Capacity building to enable people to benefit from the opportunities provided by ICTs: Individuals should be engaged in defining their own needs and in the development of programmes to meet those needs. Technological change requires life-long learning and continuous training by all. Public policy should take into account inequalities in access to quality education and training, particularly in the case of vulnerable groups and underserved or remote areas.

33. Training ICT specialists: The increasing demand for a wide range of ICTs specialists at all levels must be addressed.

5) Building confidence and security in the use of ICTs

34. An adequately developed infrastructure is a precondition for secure and reliable access to information by all stakeholders, and for the upgrading of relevant services.

35. Secure and reliable infrastructure: To realise the full benefits of ICTs, networks and information systems must be sufficiently robust to prevent, detect and to respond appropriately to security incidents. However, effective security of information systems is not merely a matter of government and law enforcement practices, nor of technology. A global culture of cyber-security needs to be developed (UNGA Resolution 57/295, of 20 December 2002).

36. Role of stakeholders: Governments must promote awareness in their societies of cyber security risks and seek to strengthen co-operation with the private sector and civil society to prevent the use of information resources or technologies for criminal or terrorist purposes, so as to build confidence and trust in the use of ICTs and the Information Society. The community and the family also have a special role to play in this regard.

37. International cooperation: International, regional and national efforts to improve ICT security, in both civil and military fields, must be coordinated, taking into consideration the importance of secure infrastructure and data flow, in concordance with international standards and guidelines.

6) Enabling environment

38. The existence of a supportive and predictable policy, legal and regulatory framework is an important prerequisite for enhancing trust in the development of the Information Society.

39. Good governance: The Information Society must support participative democracy, transparency, and accountability, at all times upholding the principle of legality. Information is the basis of a well-functioning and transparent decision-making process for both global society and local communities. ICTs can be an important and very effective tool not only for good governance but also for more accessible government.

40. Market environment: To maximise the economic and social benefits of the Information Society, governments need to create a trustworthy, transparent, and non-discriminatory legal, regulatory and policy environment, capable of promoting technological innovation and competition, thus favouring investment in the deployment of infrastructures and development of new services.

41. Policy-making and national strategies: Strengthening the policy-making capacity in the area of ICTs to enhance national and regional ICT policy-making processes and institutions is of utmost importance. ICTs will advance development if related efforts and programmes are integrated in national development strategies.

42. Standardization: Standardization is one of the essential building blocks of the Information Society. International policy dialogue at global, regional and sub-regional levels should promote the identification and application of interoperable standards, the transfer of know-how and the provision of technical assistance. The development and use of open standards are particularly important for developing countries. In this regard the increased use of open-source software can contribute greatly to increasing access and to adding to the diversity of choice of software for consumers.

43. Spectrum management: The radio frequency spectrum must be managed in the public and general interest and in accordance with the basic principle of legality, with full observance of national laws and regulation and international agreements governing the management of frequencies.

44. Management of Internet names and addresses: Internet governance must be multilateral, democratic and transparent, taking into account the needs of the public and private sectors as well as those of the civil society, and respecting multilingualism. The coordination responsibility for root servers, domain names, and Internet Protocol (IP) address assignment should rest with a suitable international, inter-governmental organization. The policy authority for country code top-level-domain names (ccTLDs) should be the sovereign right of countries.

45. Access to information and communication technologies shall be secured in accordance with international law, bearing in mind that some countries are affected by unilateral measures which are not compatible with it and which create obstacles for international trade¹.

7) ICT-Applications

46. The usage and deployment of ICTs create benefits in all aspects of our daily life including government, health care, education and business.

47. Appropriate applications: Cooperation and collaboration are enhanced through the development of applications and content suited to local needs that encourage social and economic development, with particular emphasis on serving rural and remote areas, through supporting projects ensuring the sharing of information.

8) Cultural identity and linguistic diversity, local content and media development

48. The Information Society is founded on respect for, and enjoyment of, cultural expression. ICTs should stimulate cultural diversity and multilingualism and governments should develop active policies to that end.

49. Cultural and linguistic diversity: Cultural identity, linguistic diversity, multilingualism and local languages are driving forces for the process of developing content for local and international use (UNESCO, Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity, 2001).

50. Content: The creation of local content must be accorded high priority. Creativity and the creation, processing, dissemination and conservation of local content can best be stimulated through an adequate balance between intellectual property rights and the needs of the users of information.

51. Media: ICTs strengthen the role of traditional media such as broadcasting and print, which will continue to have an important role in disseminating content in the Information Society.

9) Ethical dimensions of the Information Society

52. Cyberspace must be subject to universally held ethical values such as truth, justice, solidarity, tolerance, human dignity, shared responsibility and accountability. All actors in the Information Society must seek to promote the common good and to prevent abusive uses of ICTs.

10) International and regional co-operation

53. The Information Society is intrinsically global in nature. Thus, a policy dialogue based on global trends in the Information Society must take place at global, regional and sub-regional levels in order to facilitate:

• The provision of technical assistance aimed at national and regional capacity-building for the maintenance and reinforcement of regional and international cooperation;

• Technology transfer;

• The sharing of experiences;

• The sharing of knowledge; and

• The development of compatible regulations and standards that respect national characteristics and concerns.

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Section II

Observers’ contributions to the Declaration of Principles ^

1. Preamble

[2] The media are central to any conception of an Information Society. For the political and cultural potential of the Information Society to be realized, citizens require access to full information for democratic participation at all levels, including unbiased information and a plurality of opinions, as well as access to a wide range of content, including material reflecting national and regional cultures and content relevant to local communities

[4] By harnessing and developing the potential of information and communication technologies, including the traditional mass media of radio and television, we can now provide new and better responses to vital and longstanding issues in all areas of human life, including poverty reduction and wealth creation, as well as equity and social justice.

2. Common Vision of the Information Society

[7] The global Information Society represents the social and human construction which is progressively built by all the vital forces of the world since they have started few decades ago. Looking at the fantastic, quick and continuous progresses made by the ICT industry and understanding the enormous possibilities that these progresses would allow in terms of networking infrastructures and services, it is necessary to consider and deal with ICTs not only as a particular economic activity among others but mainly as an economic and technological platform to be used for all human activities, involving stakeholders as well as individuals.

[8] By nature, the global Information Society is the society where all peoples of the world shall appear as representing together a unique community and where each individual shall be able, looking beyond their particular identity, to feel that they are part of this unique community. Building the global Information Society represents the first opportunity given to the international community to imagine and prepare as a whole its own future, which should help at least to narrow those imperfections, contradictions, and divides.

[9] ICTs should therefore be regarded as a tool and not as an end in themselves. They are useful only to the extent that they enrich and empower individuals through the information and capabilities they offer.

[10] The essential requirements for an equitable development of the Information Society include:

• A secure infrastructure.

• A sound and equitable education and health care system.

• A recognition of the benefits of ICT applications, such as e-learning, e-health and e-government.

• Adoption of national legal frameworks and regulatory policies that should be pro-competitive with the aim to attract investments in all the various segments that comprise the Information Society and identification and elimination of all obstacles that delay or halt economic growth.

• Adoption of good-governance procedures at all levels which supposes transparency, accountability, sustainability, predictability and generalization of administrative reforms aiming to bring governments being e-Model Users.

• Adoption of national ICT strategies involving at all levels the development partners, in particular business entities.

• Recognition of the multi-stakeholders partnerships framework as being the key-framework for the launching of ICT-development programs and recognition of the leading role of the business sector, in particular local SMEs with respect to the management of these programmes.

[10] There is a need to build the global Information Society under a Human Rights perspective, meaning a global Information Society that would develop while respecting, preserving and enforcing fundamental human rights. This would be possible only when all the stakeholders (governments, business entities, international organisations and entities of civil society), as well as the individuals, shall be committed to promoting the development and use of ICTs and services:

• In a manner that secures the fair, balanced and harmonious development of all the peoples of the world with particular attention to the needs and expectations of the developing countries and in each country, to those of the most disadvantaged communities such as: women, youth, inhabitants of remote, rural or desert areas, disabled, indigenous peoples.

• While respecting, preserving and enforcing by all possible legal, technical and regulatory means the religious, cultural and linguistic identities and patrimonies of the various peoples of the world, accepting their diversity with a spirit of tolerance.

• While adopting at the national level, laws, rules and regulation that enforce the individual freedom and that punish all kinds of action, activity or behaviour that would represent an attempt to this individual freedom.

• While adopting a framework for international cooperation based on a spirit of real and sincere solidarity aiming to enable developing countries to benefit from adequate means to achieve an harmonious social integration and economic development noting that such a result is the most important factor that could ensure to all peoples of the world security, peace and stability.

• Safe and healthy, secure and fair working conditions.

• Human dignity, human rights and world peace.

• Global solidarity to redress social and geographic inequities.

• Transparent and accountable government structures at local, national and international levels.

• Respect for and enforcement of universal human rights standards.

• Preserve and actively foster cultural development, linguistic diversity, cultural identity and local content.

• The supply of a diversity of creative works and content is an essential engine for social, cultural, political and economic development. Creators, publishers and producers of content thus play a crucial role in promoting knowledge, creativity and science. As such, they are fully involved in the Information Society, which offers enhanced means of communication, dissemination and transmission of knowledge.

• The right to participate in the communication and information process in conformity with article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and without any obstacle to freedom of expression, and press freedom, as well as the right to access, create and disseminate information, without any kind of censorship, should be considered basic human right.

[11] Health should not be seen as a narrowly-defined ICT application, but as a part of a comprehensive health system. In the same way that education is understood as fundamental to development, health also plays a crucial role in development. Further, health-related investment can spur economic development, as highlighted in the 2001 report released by the Commission on Macroeconomics and Health, which specifically mentions ICTs.

[11 A] One of the priorities of the Information Society must be to drastically diminish information poverty, drawing from all available resources (including from volunteer resources). Volunteers, by actively helping people to combat this dimension of poverty, are already playing an important role in the creation and evolution of a fair and equitable Information Society. As the Information Society spreads, their participation as information agents and enablers will extend proportionately. Volunteers are instrumental in creating and energizing community and citizen networks.

3. Key Principles

[12] ICT as a tool for Development: Being a horizontal platform for economic development and a tool for social integration, information and communication infrastructures and services must be, without delay, extensively deployed and used in all developing countries in order to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG) in particular to help in promoting a sustainable development and in eradicating poverty.

[12 A] Knowledge is the heritage of all humanity.

[12 B] In a democratic society, information and communications are the foundation for transparency, debate and decision-making and for informed choice of an active citizenry.

[12 C] The traditional media of radio and television will long remain the major providers of information to the large majority of the world's population, particularly in the developing world. As such, they must be developed and exploited to the full as basic foundations of the information society and as providers of content to newer media made possible by ICTs.

[13] The Information Society shall be oriented towards eliminating existing socio-economic differences in our societies, promoting job creation, averting the emergence of new forms of exclusion and becoming a positive force for all of the world’s people by helping to reduce the disparity between developed and developing countries, as well as within countries.

[14] The Information Society is one where every citizen has the opportunity not only to access information but also to produce it and exercise their creativity.

[14] The knowledge and experience of citizens should be harnessed as the driving force behind the Information Society.

[15] Womens empowerment and their full participation on the basis or equality in all spheres of society, including participation in the decision-making process and access to power, are fundamental for the achievement of equality, development and peace (art. 13, Beijing Declaration).

[15] Gender Perspective: Building the Global Information Society shall not be possible if all stakeholders (governments, business entities, NGOs and Civil Society, international organizations) fail in incorporating a gender perspective at all levels of actions they have the responsibility to undertake and manage.

[17] Universal access to information and communication technologies, including radio and television, shall be an objective of all the stakeholders involved in building the information society, in accordance with the legal framework in force in each country.

1) Information and communication infrastructure

2) Access to information and knowledge

[20] The availability of power sources is a prerequisite in bridging the digital divide. It is therefore essential to elaborate an active policy in terms of renewable energy resources; this policy defined by public authorities is to be secured by all partners involved in ICT deployment, to warrant an adequate quality and a permanent availability for all users, particularly those in rural and isolated areas.

[21 A] Right to Information and Right to Communicate: The right to information and knowledge as well as the right to communicate are recognized as being fundamental human rights and should be so added to the list of Fundamental Human Rights (UN Charter-Human Rights Charter). There is no global Information Society unless everyone, everywhere is granted the opportunity and the capacity to access an information or a communication network. This is what is meant by universal access.

[22 A] Access to information is a fundamental human right. The media—both new and traditional—have a major role to play in bringing about an Information Society in which all citizens are included and can participate.

• For this purpose, the media need to be accessible and affordable for all citizens. Free-to-air broadcasting, and especially broadcasting with universal coverage, is an important means of achieving this objective; universal coverage needs to be improved, particularly in developing countries. The new opportunities offered by the information age should also be at the service of the whole range of communities.

• To fulfill their role, the media must have unhindered access to events of interest to the public, including the right to make recordings and to establish contribution links without any interference by the public authorities.

[23] Global knowledge commons and the public domain of information constitute resources that are cornerstones of a global public interest. They should be protected, expanded and promoted, in particular, via open-source and free software.

[26 A] Volunteers can be seen as the human and dynamic “last-miles” of connectivity and access, often as part of civil society organizations. They extend the products and benefits of access to many more people who do not have the means for direct access - most of whom are “information poor”. In this regard, these “last-mile” volunteers can be effective in the advancement towards the ultimate goal of “information and communication services for all”.

3) The role of governments, the business sector and civil society in the promotion of ICTs for development

[27] Need to develop public-private partnerships to promote capacity building and human resource development.

4) Capacity building

[32] Human Resources Development: Developing countries cannot enter the Global Information Society without strengthening their human, institutional and organizational capacities and without increasing awareness for production of local ICT contents and use of local languages for ICT through:

• Capacity-building and training programmes;

• Knowledge and expertise transfer.

[32] Meaningful access to information via ICT channels requires the capacity to use those technology tools. Volunteers have a natural niche in helping people and institutions acquire the skills and capacity to make good use of these technologies, as evidenced by initiatives like UNITeS, NetCorps Canada, Volunteers in Technical Assistance, and many others.

5) Building confidence and security in the use of ICTs

[35] Confidence, trust and robust technical reliability are essential to the full functioning of the Information Society, and should underpin measures taken to protect users of media, communication and information networks against any misuse and the violation of privacy and confidentiality.

[35] Efforts to achieve secure networks and information systems must ensure that human rights and civil liberties such as privacy and legal protection are guaranteed.

[36] Governments should promote awareness in their societies of cyber security risks and seek to strengthen international co-operation, including with the private sector and civil society so as to build confidence and trust in the Information Society, by respecting privacy and the free flow of information.

6) Enabling environment

[39] Adoption of pro-competitive, transparent and predictable policies that promote investment in ICT infrastructure and applications.

[39] Policy action should aim at establishing a transparent and enabling regulatory framework.

[40] Development of national ICT strategies that create an opportunity for measurable targets to assess progress toward their implementation.

[40] Commitment to an open policy-making process where all stakeholders can contribute equally, recognizing their unique contribution to policy dialogues.

[45 A] Transfer of ICTs: Building the global Information Society shall not be possible while unilateral regulatory decisions, based on political considerations and aiming to prevent countries from access to ICT technologies, would prevail.

7) ICT-Applications

[46] Life-long learning.

[47] Enhanced possibilities for more community-level participation in governance issues.

[47] The vision for the Information Society is for open, equitable and unrestricted access to reliable (or evidence based) information for health, a global public good, by making full use of ICT in health system development.

[47 A] Volunteers can participate in the development and spread of ICTs application, and contribute to raising awareness among decision-makers as well as the population in general on the opportunities that ICT brings to development.

8) Cultural and linguistic diversity, local content and media development

[49] Work on a global convention on cultural diversity.

[51] In this regard, mass media, independent and pluralistic – in their various forms – are recognized as important means of fostering public information, societal development and social cohesion.

• Limit, through legislation, excessive media concentration that undermines pluralism and free expression and sees information only as a commodity.

• Commit [all participants, especially national delegations] to a tripartite effort to support media both of developing countries and media serving vulnerable sectors in every country. Such efforts require professional training, respect for professional independence, security and protection of journalists, support to local content and community media, durability of materials and software, easier access to now technologies.

• National and global media concentration is contrary to diversity of information.

• To ensure diversity and pluralism in the Information society, monopolies and excessive concentration in the media, including those in new communication and information technologies should be subject to general anti-monopoly laws. Such general laws should be enacted where they do not already exist and strengthened where necessary.

• The existence of independent and free communication media, including community media.

• All forms of media and new ICTs should stimulate cultural diversity and multilingualism.

[51] ICTs can strengthen traditional media such as broadcasting and print, which will continue to have an important role in disseminating content in the Information Society. Digital broadcasting, with its interactive enhancements, will be an essential tool for making the services of the information society widely available, thus contributing to bridging the digital divide. Transition to digital therefore needs to be actively promoted.

9) Ethical dimensions of the Information Society

[52] An inclusive and sustainable society can only develop when knowledge is clearly considered a common good and when the principle of access to and the free flow of information can come to reality.

[52 A] Due to the heterogeneity of the interests of the different parties involved in the development of the Information Society and due to the diversity of the underlying cultures and values it is almost unavoidable that conflicts, even clashes will permanently occur. Information societies will have to live with it. These conflicts should not be solved on the basis of political power or economic dominance but solutions to these conflicts need to rely and should be based on an ethical-based discourse. Any ethical discourse must respect heterogeneous interests and cultures and must build reliable partnership between governments, private sector, and civil society.

[52 B] Uses of health and medical information, which can preserve as well as take away life, require application of the highest ethical standards.

[52 C] Ethical dimensions of ICTs include the need to guarantee the respect of personal privacy and of human dignity, particularly in the context of growing invasive information technologies, surveillance systems and “information awareness”.

10) International and regional co-operation

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