[HCDX]: United Nations Radio

[Don Moore <mooredxer@xxxxxxxxx>]

An interesting item from the DEVMEDIA mailing list on UN
Radio and interest in expanding its broadcasts.

Don Moore    mooredxer@xxxxxxxxx

--- Bruce Girard <boa@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Date:         Tue, 4 May 1999 12:12:53 +100
> Reply-to: Media for Development in Democracy
> <DEVMEDIA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> From: Bruce Girard <boa@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Organization: Comunica.Org
> Subject:      MEDIA: Third World Favours Radio Over
> Internet
> To: DEVMEDIA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> 
> By Thalif Deen
> UNITED NATIONS, May 4 (IPS) - A coalition of 133
> developing countries wants
> the United Nations to keep radio, and other traditional
> media outlets, as a
> means of disseminating information rather than relying
> only on the internet.
> The switch to the global information super highway would
> give an unfair
> advantage to rich nations over the poor, say the
> developing nations..
> 
> Ambassador Samuel Insanally of Guyana, chairman of the
> Group of 77, says
> that the introduction of modern information technology
> increasingly has
> favoured rich nations and is detrimental to the peoples
> of the developing
> world ''who are clearly disadvantaged by their lack of
> access to such
> advanced technologies.''
> 
> ''The gap in information technology is likely to affect
> inter State
> cooperation in a number of areas, including commercial
> and economic
> relations,'' Insanally told the UN Committee on
> Information Monday.
> 
> ''The United Nations must ensure that developing nations
> are more equitably
> served,'' he added.
> 
> Insanally said that Secretary-General Kofi Annan has
> admitted that about 90
> percent of all access to the UN web site (www.un.org)
> comes from industrial
> countries.
> 
> As a result, Annan assured the Group of 77 that the UN's
> Department of
> Public Information will continue to maintain and expand
> the use of
> traditional means of information - including radio and
> printed material -
> because of the constraints faced by developing countries
> in an age of
> computers and the global information superhighway.
> 
> Insanally says that despite these assurances, there seems
> to be little or no
> progress in a proposed pilot project for the
> establishment of a UN
> broadcasting facility.
> 
> ''The radio remains for most of our countries, the major
> medium for the
> dissemination of information,'' he says.
> 
> ''Our Group would therefore expect that, as attempts are
> made to introduce
> costly, high-tech changes within the United Nations, such
> as digital
> television technology, similar diligent efforts will be
> made to strengthen
> the UN Radio...''
> 
> Insanally says there is a need to proceed with the
> proposed broadcasting
> facility in order to reach a world wide audience and thus
> redress, to some
> degree, the imbalances and inequalities between developed
> and developing
> countries in the field of information and communication.
> 
> Kensaku Hogen, UN Under-Secretary-General for
> Communications and Public
> Information, told the Committee that the United Nations
> has tested the
> viability of an international radio broadcasting
> facility. But the
> development of the long-term project depends on the
> availability of
> substantial extra-budgetary resources.
> 
> So far, he says, there have been no concrete financial
> offers either from
> member states or private Organisations which will lead to
> the establishment
> of the pilot project.
> 
> ''In the circumstances, we have no choice but to await
> such offers, before
> commencing with concrete measures on any aspects of the
> proposal,'' he adds.
> 
> Hogen says the UN web site has attracted strong interest
> by UN member
> states. Accesses to the web site have grown exponentially
> over the past
> year.
> 
> As of last week, the UN recorded some 45.8 million
> ''hits'' for this year
> compared with 25 million during the corresponding period
> last year. ''Even
> more encouraging is the fact that the UN web site is
> becoming known around
> the world,'' Hogen says.
> 
> This year, some 150 countries have gained access to the
> web site. ''While
> the bulk is still from the industrialised countries,
> current growth
> indicators suggest a very rapid and encouraging expansion
> of accesses from
> the developing countries,'' Hogen says.
> 
> He also points out that the capacity of the Internet to
> carry messages
> instantaneously around the world has enabled the
> Department of Public
> Information to place a great variety of information
> materials on it.
> 
> Such material included statements by the
> Secretary-General, reports of major
> inter-governmental bodies, daily news highlights,
> promotional materials on
> major UN themes and priorities, and information about
> major world
> conferences and special sessions of the General Assembly.
> 
> Hogen says his Department also plans to introduce digital
> technology which
> is expected to replace analog technology in the near
> future. ''New
> technology is indeed a key factor in expanding outreach
> and in getting
> messages to target audiences on time.''
> 
> With assistance from UN Information Centres worldwide,
> the Department's News
> Service will transmit breaking news via electronic mail
> and facsimile
> directly to news desks of key media and other
> opinion-influencing audiences.
> 
> The Department also will continue to place planned and
> coordinated op-ed
> articles by senior UN officals in newspapers and other
> journals around the
> world.
> 
> ''The central focus of the new service will be to ensure
> that media
> everywhere will be able to receive the latest news
> material from the United
> Nations in a redily useable format almost immediately as
> it is issued at
> Headquarters,'' Hogen says. (END/IPS/td/mk/99)
> 

===
Don Moore     mooredxer@xxxxxxxxx
Radio: http://www.swl.net/patepluma   
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