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Press
Release..............................
UNESCAP News Services
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Date 21
April 2004
Press Release No: L/13/2004 (SG/SM/9265)
UN SECRETARY-GENERAL, IN MESSAGE TO ASIA MEDIA
SUMMIT, SAYS FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION IS INDISPENSABLE FOR ECONOMIC,
SOCIAL PROGRESS
Calls on Communicators, Regulators to Ensure
New Technologies Serve Development of All Humankind
Following is the text of Secretary-General Kofi
Annan’s message to the Asia Media Summit in Kuala Lumpur
on 19-21 April 2004, delivered by Shashi Tharoor, Under-Secretary-General
for Communications and Public Information:
The world recently celebrated the centennial of
the first powered flight by the Wright Brothers. That anniversary
gave us an occasion to reflect on how, in just 100 years, the
invention of the airplane has transformed the way we travel
in a way that no one at the time could have foreseen.
Today our world is in the midst of another revolution,
one with equally far-reaching consequences. I refer, of course,
to the dramatic impact technology is having on how we communicate
with each other. The Internet, and its ability to bring together
traditional media and make them universally accessible, holds
enormous promise -– for health, trade, education, governance
and much else.
But we must do more than stand back and admire
this potential; we must make something of it. At the World Electronic
Media Forum in Geneva last December, the expression “content
is king” rang through all the discussions. That phrase
is not merely a slogan. It is a call to action –- a call
on communicators and regulators to ensure that the new technologies
serve the cause of development and the well-being of all humankind.
Technology is not an end in itself; ultimately, “what”
is communicated is far more important than “how” something
is communicated.
All across Asia, old and new technologies are
combining to empower new voices, enhance existing ones and make
information available more widely than ever before. But as we
all know, there is much work to be done to bring this revolution
into the hands and homes of ordinary people everywhere. Moreover,
we are all stakeholders in an equally important effort: to ensure
that the communications revolution opens doors instead of closing
them, and nurtures tolerance rather than promoting division.
None of this will come about by accident. “Content
providers” need the support of policy makers. They need
an environment in which freedom of expression is assured. After
all, that freedom is not only a human right; it is also an indispensable
condition for economic and social progress. You yourselves have
a role to play, and I hope you will add your voices to the discussions
leading to the second phase of the World Summit on the Information
Society, which is scheduled to be held in Tunisia in 2005.
In the global debate about new media, we are more
fortunate than our forebears in the era of the Wright Brothers,
in that we can glimpse the future shape of our information society
and the challenges it poses for us all. I look forward to working
with you in our common quest to build an open information society
that benefits and empowers all the world’s people. Let
us seize this opportunity. And let us remember that while technology
shapes the future, it is people who shape technology. In that
spirit, let me thank you again for the close attention you are
paying to these important issues.
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