Publisher's Synopsis
The fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights coincides with the phenomenon of information technology spreading out to the masses of people. Does this phenomenon represent a threat to freedom of expression, and to individual and collective rights? Or does it represent a tool for freeing speech and democratising behaviour? With the support of UNESCO, Orbicom -- the international network of UNESCO chairs in communication, linking representatives from the worlds of university and business, and professionals in information and communication, on all the continents -- put these questions to twenty-one experts and associations. Their answers, published in this book, extend the debate on freedom of expression beyond its geographical and national dimensions, and on to cultural, ethical, ideological, and legal ones. Their answers leave little room for neutrality or submission. They directly challenge the reader to take one of two paths: the one leading to a new universal, practical, real-time democracy, or the one leading, through new forms of ownership, to control of how technology is used and of how information circulates.
