[governance] Fwd: [ICTs-and-Society] Sign the Freedom of Information and Expression-Declaration!

Suresh Ramasubramanian suresh at hserus.net
Thu Apr 3 20:08:25 EDT 2014 

The language right at the beginning starts making a set of assumptions that make me reject wanting to sign any part of it without reading further.

The fact that you endorse it - with a very similar description that, again, rejects multistakeholderism that involves industry - makes it conclusive.  No, I won't touch this "declaration" (or rather vaguely worded rant) with a twenty foot pole, sorry.

--srs (iPad)

> On 03-Apr-2014, at 22:11, parminder <parminder at itforchange.net> wrote:
> 
> 
> Some real freedom of information work, which is not merely fronting for economic and political expansionism through the Internet and informational control route...  parminder 
> 
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject:	[ICTs-and-Society] Sign the Freedom of Information and Expression-Declaration!
> Date:	Thu, 03 Apr 2014 16:45:20 +0100
> From:	Christian Fuchs <christian.fuchs at uti.at>
> Reply-To:	christian.fuchs at uti.at
> To:	discussion at lists.icts-and-society.net
> 
> The information society, the Internet and the media are today largely 
> controlled by large corporations such as Google and Facebook and a 
> state-industrial complex. The control mechanisms unveiled by Edward 
> Snowden, the closure of and attack against public service media, 
> repression against critcal journalists, online platforms and activists, 
> and a highly centralised Internet and media economy are characteristic 
> for this situation.
> 
> We live in an unfree information society with limits to expression and 
> an unfree Internet.
> 
> Sign the Freedom of Information and Expression Declaration that demands 
> a free Internet, free media and a free information society!
> 
> The 2014 Vienna Declaration on Freedom of Information and Expression
> Sign:
> https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/The_2014_Vienna_Declaration_on_Freedom_of_Information_and_Expression_Petition/
> 
> More information and videos of talks from the Freedom of Information 
> Conference:
> http://freedom-of-information.info/
> https://www.youtube.com/user/transformeurope/feed
> 
> -----------------------
> 
> The 2014 Vienna Declaration on Freedom of Information and Expression
> 
> This petition can be signed online at
> https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/The_2014_Vienna_Declaration_on_Freedom_of_Information_and_Expression_Petition/ 
> 
> 
> We, the speakers of the Vienna 2014 International Conference “Freedom of 
> Information Under Pressure. Control – Crisis – Culture” (comprised of 
> international academics, media practitioners, librarians, experts of 
> open culture and public space, activists, critical citizens, lawyers and 
> policy makers), sign the following Declaration on Freedom of Information 
> and Expression:
> 
> Having met in Vienna of Austria on 28 February and 1 March 2014 and 
> having discussed the challenges of freedom of information in the light 
> of the recent surveillance revelations and the increase in censorship 
> and prosecutions of media, journalists and whistle-blowers in Europe and 
> beyond, we express our deep concern and appeal for public vigilance to 
> defend freedom of information and expression as key democratic rights.
> 
> We consider Edward Snowden’s revelations as a wake up call. His story is 
> not about one man leaking classified information; rather it is about 
> privacy, civil liberties, power and democracy. But also about the future 
> of the Internet itself, the nature of democratic oversight - and much more.
> 
> We condemn the existence of a surveillance-industrial complex, in which 
> the American, British and other European states’ intelligence services 
> conduct mass surveillance of the Internet, social media, mobile and 
> landline telephones, in co-operation with communications corporations 
> such as Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, Skype, Yahoo!, Aol as well 
> as private security firms.
> 
> We express our solidarity and support to whistle-blowers, journalists 
> and organisations, including Julian Assange, Edward Snowden, Chelsea 
> Manning, Laura Poitras, Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian and others, for 
> their efforts towards fostering transparency and public accountability. 
> We denounce their oppression and prosecution that we consider as a major 
> threat to freedom of information.
> 
> We observe a great paradox of the media in the 21st century: although 
> more people than ever have the means to express themselves freely, there 
> are huge power asymmetries that favour corporate and state control of 
> the media: journalists in Europe and many other regions face an alarming 
> increase in violent attacks, intimidation, legal threats and other 
> restrictions on their work. Among the important factors of this paradox 
> are the growth of anti-terrorism laws and new nationalisms, the fusion 
> of political, economic and media power, and the weakening of the 
> authority of critical and high-quality media, including independent 
> media, investigative journalism and public service media. Furthermore, 
> the Internet and social media are largely controlled by corporations and 
> there is not enough material support for alternative Internet and media 
> projects. This mix seems to represent an existential challenge to 
> critical media, independent journalism and to the established framework 
> of international laws and safeguards for press freedom and the freedoms 
> of expression, speech, information and opinion.
> 
> We point out that the current crisis and austerity policies have a 
> serious negative effect on important democratic freedoms. The official 
> political reactions to the crisis have given grounds for the further 
> centralisation of corporate, state and media power that undermine the 
> freedom of information and further the prosecutions of citizens, 
> activists, journalists and the media. We particularly condemn attempts 
> to limit or close down critical, independent and public service media. 
> The Greek government’s closure of the public service broadcaster ERT is 
> in this respect a particularly alarming development.
> 
> We stress that under the conditions of corporatisation and 
> bureaucratisation, the potentials created by access to information and 
> public knowledge are hampered. In many countries and at a transnational 
> level we lack adequate laws for the transparency of corporate and state 
> power and citizens’ access to information about it in order to hold 
> those in power accountable.
> 
> A particularly alarming development of the limitation of freedom of 
> information can be found in the world of libraries: large corporate 
> publishers tend to license access to academic and literary works only in 
> expensive bundles and make the access to easy-to-use e-books difficult 
> and expensive. The result is a limit of public access to cultural works 
> so that people have more and more to rely on purchasing books and 
> articles, which is a matter of purchasing power that disadvantages many 
> citizens. The corporate power of publishing houses thereby limits the 
> public’s right to inform itself.
> 
> We consider that the right of access to information can promote 
> citizens’ civic and political participation by raising their levels of 
> trust in political and policy-making institutions, while it can fight 
> phenomena such as lobbying and corruption. Open access to public and 
> digitised knowledge and scholarly research is also crucial for the 
> continuous education of the broader public and professionals, the 
> promotion of cultural production and diversity and the preservation of 
> the historic and collective memory. New social media, libraries and 
> archives can and should play an important role in this field.
> 
> We are convinced that freedom of information is a value worth struggling 
> for and that the current framework and developments strongly threaten 
> freedom, democracy and basic civil liberties.
> 
> A free culture, a free economy of information and a free polity of 
> information are possible!
> 
> First signees:
> Antonis Broumas (Attorney at law, Digital Liberation Network, Greece)
> Arne Hintz (Lecturer, University of Cardiff, UK)
> Augustine Zenakos (Journalist, UNFOLLOW magazine, Greece)
> Barbara Trionfi (Press Freedom Manager, International Press Institute)
> Christian Fuchs (Professor of Social Media, University of Westminster, UK)
> Dimitris Tsapogas (Researcher, University of Vienna, Austria)
> Gerfried Sperl (Journalist, PHOENIX, Austria)
> Gill Phillips (Director of Editorial Legal Service, The Guardian, United 
> Kingdom)
> Joachim Losehand (Scholar, VIBE!at, Austria)
> Kostas Arvanitis (Journalist and Director, Sto Kokkino Radio, Greece)
> Kostas Efimeros (Publisher, The Press Project, Greece)
> Lisa Schilhan (VÖB, University of Graz, Austria)
> Mariniki Alevizopoulou (Journalist, UNFOLLOW magazine, Greece)
> Minas Samatas (Professor, University of Crete, Greece)
> Miyase Christensen (Professor, Stockholm University, Royal Institute of 
> Technology, Sweden, London School of Economics, UK)
> Nikolaus Hamann (Vienna Public Libraries, KRIBIBI, Austria)
> Paloma Fernández de la Hoz (Catholic Social Academy, Austria)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Discussion mailing list
> Discussion at lists.icts-and-society.net
> http://lists.icts-and-society.net/listinfo.cgi/discussion-icts-and-society.net
> 
> 
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