[governance] UNESCO Code of Ethics in the Information Society

[KovenRonald at aol.com]

In a message dated 11/5/11 5:33:42 PM, 
wolfgang.kleinwaechter at medienkomm.uni-halle.de writes:


> FYI
> 
> Who knows whether the document was adopted as proposed?
> 
> http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0021/002126/212696e.pdf
> 
> wolfgang
> _________
> 

Dear Wofgang --

It was not adopted as proposed.

The United States in particular objected. There was a long and rather 
acrimonious debate, with the sides divided along predictable lines. Germany and 
Denmark proposed alternate concluding language simply putting things off, but 
that was not acceptable to the US.

Finally, a consensus was reached in the Communciation Program Commission, 
after an extra nite session on Tuesday and a an informal early morning 
negotiating session on Wednesday.

It reads:

"Invites the Director General at the 189th session of the Executive Board 
[in about 6 months] to suggest possible ways that the Organization could 
address issues of ethical dimensions of the information society."

In other words an ethics code mandated intergovernmentally is not on the 
cards.

The resolution must still be adopted by the UNESCO General Conference 
plenary in several days, but that shouldn't be a proble since the commission 
contains representatives of all the meber states.

The Secretariat seems likely to to suggest extended discussion of the 
issues in a revived Infoethics forum. UNESCO used to organize annual Infoethics 
conferences, but gave it up several years ago. The Secretariat has already 
successfully gotten agreement of member states in the Commission to revive 
those meetings.

Best regards, Rony Koven
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