Democratization of
Information
Freedom of communication and information
signifies the free flow of ideas, opinions, and knowledge. It is imperative for
the free development of the personality of each person and for the cultural,
social, scientific en economic development of humanity. It is a Human right
( Art.19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights ).
The classic freedom of the press does not comply with this principle. Though it
gives the operators of state, economic and religious communication companies
the right to publish without restrictions, it is hierarchical, biased, and
non-interactive. It does not allow anyone to freely express ideas, opinions and
knowledge, and to make them accessible to anyone else. And its products are
territorially and linguistically limited and not available worldwide.
The electronic tool Internet presents the opportunity to overcome these impediments for
free communication. It signifies the historical chance, to advance from freedom
of the press to freedom of communication
and to democratize information: Any citizen is entitled to publish information
worldwide himself, and any other citizen has the right to receive, to judge,
and to use it himself, under his own responsibility.
The democratization
of information makes it possible, that ideas, opinions, cultural diversity,
knowledge, and education will be accessible anywhere, anytime, and to
everybody. The position of the citizen and his rights will be strengthened.
Cultural, state, religious and economic guardianship and manipulation will be
obvious. Corruption, injustice, abuse of power, and any form of terrorism will be exposed. Ignorance
and the human disasters caused by it will decrease. Universal values and ethics of peaceful living together will become possible.
But, unfortunately, it is still a long way
to a free Internet. Ignorance of the
method, cost and speak a different language constitute serious barriers.
Even more grave are censorship and guardianship, -- in the form of ethical, religious, legal, financial,
and technical restrictions of access common also in allegedly
civilized and democratic countries.
I therefore appeal to the Community of
Nations and UNESCO to
1. develop a Charter of Freedom of Communication.
2. overcome linguistic barriers and promote polyglotism
in all countries and in the Internet by concrete measures. This includes that
the so far deficient translation engines
have to be developed further linguistically – for example by UNESCO – and be made available gratis
in Internet.
3. eliminate knowledge-dependent, financial,
and technical limitation of access within the frame of international cooperation.
4. guarantee that all contributions existing
in the Internet can actually be found. At present censorship occurs in the
first place by that way that search
engines do not register undesired or competing contributions, or do so
incorrectly or with a disadvantage, thus making them untraceable for the
citizen. In order to solve this problem I like to propose to UNESCO the development of an Universal and Multilingual Search Engine,
to be directed by UNESCO.
By these measures the Community of Nations
and UNESCO could promote truth,
knowledge and diversity substantially all over the world. And make a more
important contribution to education, human rights and peace than with any other
method.
E.W. 09/11/2003