[WSIS CS-Plenary] [Amarc-info2] RELEASE: AMARC participates in Canada’s consultation on WSIS (English text)

[Carmen Carvajal]

  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


      AMARC participates in Canada’s consultation on WSIS

*Montreal, May 12, 2005*.  The World Association of Community 
Broadcasters (AMARC) will participate in a consultation conference 
organized by the Canadian Commission for UNESCO in preparation for the 
second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). The 
conference is entitled /Paving the Road to Tunis - WSIS II: Canada's 
Civil Society Views on the Geneva Plan of Action and the Prospects for 
Phase II, /and will be held in Winnipeg from May 13th to 15th.

The main objective of the conference is to collect views on the Geneva 
Plan of Action from a Canadian civil society perspective. About 200 
participants representing the private sector, civil society, academia 
and all levels of government will examine the status of major elements 
included in the Plan of Action presented at the end of the first phase 
of WSIS held in Geneva in December 2003.

AMARC will be represented at the event by its Secretary General, Marcelo 
Solervicens.The organization proposes the recognition of community media 
in the WSIS texts. Community media, that is media which are independent, 
community-driven and civil-society based, have a specific and crucial 
role to play in enabling access and participation for all of the 
information society, especially the poorest and more marginalized 
communities. AMARC urges the Canadian government to support the 
Community Radio Fund in Africa, and expresses its concern and demands a 
robust position from Canada regarding freedom of expression in Tunisia 
in general and at the WSIS Summit in particular. 

The keynote speech and plenaries will be available through webcast 
provided by the Canadian Research Alliance for Community Innovation and 
Networking (CRACIN). Please visit http://www.cracin.ca  to access the 
webcast. Or go to AMARC’s community media international observatory 
http://www.obsmedia.amarc.org <http://www.obsmedia.amarc.org/> and click 
on the link WSIS and CRIS Campaign on the menu. For more information 
about the conference, please visit 
http://www.unesco.ca/en/activity/culture/wsis.aspx

The results of the conference will be presented at the second and last 
phase of WSIS to be held in Tunis from November 16th to18th, and at the 
33rd UNESCO General Conference in Paris in October 2005.

 


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