Maurice Ali
Joined: 14 Nov 2003 Posts: 7911 Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2012 5:09 pm Post subject: IAIJ to Participate at WSIS Review Meeting! |
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IAIJ to Participate at WSIS Review Meeting!
By Maurice Ali, President and CEO: International Association of Independent Journalists Inc.
Maurice Ali
The International Association of Independent Journalists Inc. (IAIJ) is excited to announce that its participation at the WSIS+10 Review Meeting held at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France (February 25-28, 2013) has been confirmed by UNESCO! IAIJ is a "not-for-profit" NGO as acknowledged by UNESCO/U.N. and on behalf of myself, Maurice Ali, President and CEO, the Board of Directors and the membership of IAIJ we thank UNESCO for allowing us to participate at the World Summit on the Information Society Review Meeting!
UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France!
UNESCO stands for the "United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization" and UNESCO activities derive from their headquarters in Paris, France and also through commissions such as the Canadian Commission for UNESCO located in Ottawa, Canada of which we are currently an Institutional Member. Our original interest in UNESCO came from their support of journalist rights and freedoms as set forth in the United Nations's Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 19) which states:
"Article 19.
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. "
UNESCO's main meeting room!
Since IAIJ primarily represents "citizen journalists" we were very interested and excited to have the opportunity of involving ourselves with the WSIS agenda. WSIS was the result of U.N. Resolution 56/183 approved on December 21, 2001 as an attempt to deal with the new digital age and its effect on society. Recommendations from this WSIS event will eventually become part of ongoing collaborations of many different stakeholders for the betterment of human society as a whole. From the UNESCO website:
"Marking the 10th anniversary of the adoption of the Plan of Action of the World Summit on the Information Society, UNESCO, in cooperation with ITU, UNDP and UNCTAD, hosts in 2013 the first WSIS+10 Review meeting, in which world leaders, along with high-level participants from governments, the private sector, NGOs and other groups, to assess progress made and future ICT trends, which will impact all spheres of societies. It is also envisaged that the Conference will result in post-2015 recommendations. "
More on WSIS from the UNESCO website:
"In 2015, the WSIS outcomes implementation will be reviewed by UN General Assembly in pursuance of the Resolution 60/252. In this regard, the UN Group on the Information Society was tasked by the UN Chief Executive Board (CEB), at its 2011 Spring session in Nairobi, to prepare, in cooperation with stakeholders, an action plan defining the preparatory process towards the 2015 review. The Action Plan foresees a series of events to be hosted by UNESCO in 2013, by ITU in 2014 and UNGA in 2015.
The 2013 Event will produce a series of recommendations, which will serve as a foundation for a possible forward looking document (e.g. Post-2015 Action Plan)."
UNESCO meeting in progress!
Our involvement at this WSIS event will be to educate, inform and lobby on behalf of citizen journalists and journalist's rights and freedoms with special emphasis on how the digital age has impacted journalists and journalism. The World Summit on the Information Society Review Meeting is still months away but we at IAIJ plan to have a report on citizen journalists in 2012 ready for the event and available to participants. There may be more involvement as preparations continue. We will continue to update our membership and all interested parties on our involvement at WSIS as we get closer to the actual event.
http://iaij.org
IAIJ: JOURNALISTS IN ACTION AROUND THE WORLD! |
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