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CRIS lobbies UNESCO on cultural diversity convention
The Platform for Communication Rights, a group of NGO's involved in media and communication projects around the world, has launched a campaign to ensure communication rights are central to UNESCO's drafting of a convention on the cultural diversity. The CRIS campaign (Communications Rights in the Information Society), asserts that some governments have proposed 'dangerous' revisions to the convention in progress - amendments that would potentially 'transform the draft Convention into an instrument that expands corporate ownership of culture.' Arguing that the convention was originally to protect culture from being reduced to a commodity, CRIS is calling on civil society organisations to join the Platform in promoting what they see as the true intent of the document - to allow each country to implement cultural, media, and communications policies that foster cultural diversity. Specifically, they are asking for assurances that the Convention will not be made subordinate to existing or future trade agreements; that it should be designed to protect the cultural diversity and the communication rights of all peoples, not just national and regional cultural industries; and that it balance any references to the protection of intellectual property rights with reference to protection of the cultural commons. The CRIS campaign has submitted these points to UNESCO for consideration. To download the CRIS comments as a PDF, CLICK HERE. To read more about the campaign for Communication Rights in the Information Society, visit www.crisinfo.org
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