[liberationtech] Sign the Freedom of Information and Expression-Declaration!

[Jillian C. York]

On Thu, Apr 3, 2014 at 11:36 AM, Christian Fuchs <christian.fuchs at uti.at>wrote:

> Thanks for the collection.
>
> On the one hand I do not see why one should stop declaring and petitioning
> as long as the world is bad and the Internet endangered.
>

I agree with you, but given that yours is posted as an Avaaz petition, it
is obviously meant to face the public...and I think that we're far better
off working together on public education then confusing them through
multiple initiatives.

>
> On the other hand there is a qualitative difference between neoliberal
> declarations that want to fully open up the Internet to corporate
> domination (e.g. Toffler...) and others that try to save it from such
> control...
>

Well, there we agree :)

>
> Cheers, CF
>
>
> On 03/04/2014 19:27, Jillian C. York wrote:
>
>> Just out of curiosity, why another Declaration?  Don't get me wrong, I
>> don't think there's any harm here, but there are at least half a dozen
>> similar projects, most of which have been done in the past few years.
>>  See:
>>
>>
>> 1994:
>> http://www.pff.org/issues-pubs/futureinsights/fi1.2magnacarta.html
>>
>> 1996:
>> https://projects.eff.org/~barlow/Declaration-Final.html
>>
>> 2001:
>> http://www.cato.org/publications/techknowledge/
>> libertarian-vision-telecom-hightechnology
>>
>> 2009:
>> http://internetrightsandprinciples.org/site/
>>
>> 2012:
>> http://www.internetdeclaration.org/
>>
>> 2012:
>> http://declarationofinternetfreedom.org/
>>
>> 2013:
>> http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9236603/A_Declaration_of_the_
>> Interdependence_of_Cyberspace
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Apr 3, 2014 at 8:58 AM, Christian Fuchs <christian.fuchs at uti.at
>> <mailto:christian.fuchs at uti.at>> wrote:
>>
>>     The information society, the Internet and the media are today
>>     largely controlled by large corporations such as Google and Facebook
>>     and a state-industrial complex. The control mechanisms unveiled by
>>     Edward Snowden, the closure of and attack against public service
>>     media, repression against critcal journalists, online platforms and
>>     activists, and a highly centralised Internet and media economy are
>>     characteristic for this situation.
>>
>>     We live in an unfree information society with limits to expression
>>     and an unfree Internet.
>>
>>     Sign the Freedom of Information and Expression Declaration that
>>     demands a free Internet, free media and a free information society!
>>
>>     The 2014 Vienna Declaration on Freedom of Information and Expression
>>     Sign:
>>     https://secure.avaaz.org/en/__petition/The_2014_Vienna___
>> Declaration_on_Freedom_of___Information_and_Expression___Petition/
>>
>>     <https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/The_2014_Vienna_
>> Declaration_on_Freedom_of_Information_and_Expression_Petition/>
>>
>>     More information and videos of talks from the Freedom of Information
>>     Conference:
>>     http://freedom-of-information.__info/
>>     <http://freedom-of-information.info/>
>>     https://www.youtube.com/user/__transformeurope/feed
>>
>>     <https://www.youtube.com/user/transformeurope/feed>
>>
>>     -----------------------
>>
>>     The 2014 Vienna Declaration on Freedom of Information and Expression
>>
>>     This petition can be signed online at
>>     https://secure.avaaz.org/en/__petition/The_2014_Vienna___
>> Declaration_on_Freedom_of___Information_and_Expression___Petition/
>>
>>     <https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/The_2014_Vienna_
>> Declaration_on_Freedom_of_Information_and_Expression_Petition/>
>>
>>     We, the speakers of the Vienna 2014 International Conference
>>     “Freedom of Information Under Pressure. Control – Crisis – Culture”
>>     (comprised of international academics, media practitioners,
>>     librarians, experts of open culture and public space, activists,
>>     critical citizens, lawyers and policy makers), sign the following
>>     Declaration on Freedom of Information and Expression:
>>
>>     Having met in Vienna of Austria on 28 February and 1 March 2014 and
>>     having discussed the challenges of freedom of information in the
>>     light of the recent surveillance revelations and the increase in
>>     censorship and prosecutions of media, journalists and
>>     whistle-blowers in Europe and beyond, we express our deep concern
>>     and appeal for public vigilance to defend freedom of information and
>>     expression as key democratic rights.
>>
>>     We consider Edward Snowden’s revelations as a wake up call. His
>>     story is not about one man leaking classified information; rather it
>>     is about privacy, civil liberties, power and democracy. But also
>>     about the future of the Internet itself, the nature of democratic
>>     oversight - and much more.
>>
>>     We condemn the existence of a surveillance-industrial complex, in
>>     which the American, British and other European states’ intelligence
>>     services conduct mass surveillance of the Internet, social media,
>>     mobile and landline telephones, in co-operation with communications
>>     corporations such as Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, Skype,
>>     Yahoo!, Aol as well as private security firms.
>>
>>     We express our solidarity and support to whistle-blowers,
>>     journalists and organisations, including Julian Assange, Edward
>>     Snowden, Chelsea Manning, Laura Poitras, Glenn Greenwald, the
>>     Guardian and others, for their efforts towards fostering
>>     transparency and public accountability. We denounce their oppression
>>     and prosecution that we consider as a major threat to freedom of
>>     information.
>>
>>     We observe a great paradox of the media in the 21st century:
>>     although more people than ever have the means to express themselves
>>     freely, there are huge power asymmetries that favour corporate and
>>     state control of the media: journalists in Europe and many other
>>     regions face an alarming increase in violent attacks, intimidation,
>>     legal threats and other restrictions on their work. Among the
>>     important factors of this paradox are the growth of anti-terrorism
>>     laws and new nationalisms, the fusion of political, economic and
>>     media power, and the weakening of the authority of critical and
>>     high-quality media, including independent media, investigative
>>     journalism and public service media. Furthermore, the Internet and
>>     social media are largely controlled by corporations and there is not
>>     enough material support for alternative Internet and media projects.
>>     This mix seems to represent an existential challenge to critical
>>     media, independent journalism and to the established framework of
>>     international laws and safeguards for press freedom and the freedoms
>>     of expression, speech, information and opinion.
>>
>>     We point out that the current crisis and austerity policies have a
>>     serious negative effect on important democratic freedoms. The
>>     official political reactions to the crisis have given grounds for
>>     the further centralisation of corporate, state and media power that
>>     undermine the freedom of information and further the prosecutions of
>>     citizens, activists, journalists and the media. We particularly
>>     condemn attempts to limit or close down critical, independent and
>>     public service media. The Greek government’s closure of the public
>>     service broadcaster ERT is in this respect a particularly alarming
>>     development.
>>
>>     We stress that under the conditions of corporatisation and
>>     bureaucratisation, the potentials created by access to information
>>     and public knowledge are hampered. In many countries and at a
>>     transnational level we lack adequate laws for the transparency of
>>     corporate and state power and citizens’ access to information about
>>     it in order to hold those in power accountable.
>>
>>     A particularly alarming development of the limitation of freedom of
>>     information can be found in the world of libraries: large corporate
>>     publishers tend to license access to academic and literary works
>>     only in expensive bundles and make the access to easy-to-use e-books
>>     difficult and expensive. The result is a limit of public access to
>>     cultural works so that people have more and more to rely on
>>     purchasing books and articles, which is a matter of purchasing power
>>     that disadvantages many citizens. The corporate power of publishing
>>     houses thereby limits the public’s right to inform itself.
>>
>>     We consider that the right of access to information can promote
>>     citizens’ civic and political participation by raising their levels
>>     of trust in political and policy-making institutions, while it can
>>     fight phenomena such as lobbying and corruption. Open access to
>>     public and digitised knowledge and scholarly research is also
>>     crucial for the continuous education of the broader public and
>>     professionals, the promotion of cultural production and diversity
>>     and the preservation of the historic and collective memory. New
>>     social media, libraries and archives can and should play an
>>     important role in this field.
>>
>>     We are convinced that freedom of information is a value worth
>>     struggling for and that the current framework and developments
>>     strongly threaten freedom, democracy and basic civil liberties.
>>
>>     A free culture, a free economy of information and a free polity of
>>     information are possible!
>>
>>     First signees:
>>     Antonis Broumas (Attorney at law, Digital Liberation Network, Greece)
>>     Arne Hintz (Lecturer, University of Cardiff, UK)
>>     Augustine Zenakos (Journalist, UNFOLLOW magazine, Greece)
>>     Barbara Trionfi (Press Freedom Manager, International Press Institute)
>>     Christian Fuchs (Professor of Social Media, University of
>>     Westminster, UK)
>>     Dimitris Tsapogas (Researcher, University of Vienna, Austria)
>>     Gerfried Sperl (Journalist, PHOENIX, Austria)
>>     Gill Phillips (Director of Editorial Legal Service, The Guardian,
>>     United Kingdom)
>>     Joachim Losehand (Scholar, VIBE!at, Austria)
>>     Kostas Arvanitis (Journalist and Director, Sto Kokkino Radio, Greece)
>>     Kostas Efimeros (Publisher, The Press Project, Greece)
>>     Lisa Schilhan (VÖB, University of Graz, Austria)
>>     Mariniki Alevizopoulou (Journalist, UNFOLLOW magazine, Greece)
>>     Minas Samatas (Professor, University of Crete, Greece)
>>     Miyase Christensen (Professor, Stockholm University, Royal Institute
>>     of Technology, Sweden, London School of Economics, UK)
>>     Nikolaus Hamann (Vienna Public Libraries, KRIBIBI, Austria)
>>     Paloma Fernández de la Hoz (Catholic Social Academy, Austria)
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> "We must not be afraid of dreaming the seemingly impossible if we want
>> the seemingly impossible to become a reality" - /Vaclav Havel/
>>
>
>


-- 
"We must not be afraid of dreaming the seemingly impossible if we want the
seemingly impossible to become a reality" - *Vaclav Havel*
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