During their recent meeting in Berlin, representatives of seven
international broadcasters issued a joint statement in support of the
right to freedom of information.
We, the representatives of Audiovisuel Extérieur de la France (AEF),
Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) [Australia], British
Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) [United Kingdom], Broadcasting Board of
Governors (BBG) [US], Deutsche Welle (DW) [Germany], Nippon Hoso Kyokai
(NHK) [Japan] and Radio Netherlands Worldwide (RNW), have met in Berlin
to discuss common concerns.
We find international journalism is facing unprecedented challenges from
countries that seek to deny their own citizens access to information
from outside their borders in violation of Article 19 of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, which states:
"Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right
includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek,
receive and impart information and ideas through any media and
regardless of frontiers."
We call upon the world’s nations to strengthen their commitment to
Article 19 and to support expanded opportunities to share information
across borders through digital and mobile technologies.
Yet we note with dismay that certain governments continue to control the
flow of information. For example, China routinely blocks the Web and
social media sites of our broadcasters and jams our shortwave signals,
or Iran and Syria interfere with the satellite signals that carry our
programs. Governments in Eurasia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin
America also seek to control what their own citizens can see, hear and
read.
Many of these actions, including intentional jamming of satellites,
violate international regulations. We condemn them without reservation.
We also call attention to troubling new challenges to free expression.
Some governments are seeking to enact far-reaching telecommunications
regulations to stymie free speech.
At the World Conference on International Telecommunication (WICT) in
Dubai, representatives of the world's nations have considered
telecommunications rules that might explicitly apply to the Internet for
the first time.
We cast a wary eye on such efforts to control the Internet, and we
denounce efforts to identify and track Internet users in order to stifle
free expression, inquiry and political activity.
We have agreed to increase, whenever possible, our support for efforts
to circumvent Web censorship through the use of new and innovative
hardware and software tools. We also agreed to increase our advocacy for
Internet freedom.
(Source : Deutsche Welle)
