The following joint statement has been issued by seven
international broadcasters, including the BBC.
We, the representatives of Audiovisuel Extérieur de la France (AEF),
Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) [Australia], British
Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) [United Kingdom], Broadcasting Board of
Governors (BBG) [US], Deutsche Welle (DW) [Germany], Nippon Hoso
Kyokai (NHK) [Japan] and Radio Netherlands Worldwide (RNW), have met
in Berlin to discuss common concerns.
We find international journalism is facing unprecedented challenges
from countries that seek to deny their own citizens access to
information from outside their borders in violation of Article 19 of
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states:
"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."
We call upon the world's nations to strengthen their commitment to
Article 19 and to support expanded opportunities to share information
across borders through digital and mobile technologies.
Yet we note with dismay that certain governments continue to control
the flow of information. For example, China routinely blocks the Web
and social media sites of our broadcasters and jams our shortwave
signals, or Iran and Syria interfere with the satellite signals that
carry our programs. Governments in Eurasia, Africa, the Middle East
and Latin America also seek to control what their own citizens can
see, hear and read.
Many of these actions, including intentional jamming of satellites,
violate international regulations. We condemn them without
reservation.
We also call attention to troubling new challenges to free expression.
Some governments are seeking to enact far-reaching telecommunications
regulations to stymie free speech.
At the World Conference on International Telecommunication (WICT) in
Dubai, representatives of the world's nations have considered
telecommunications rules that might explicitly apply to the Internet
for the first time.
We cast a wary eye on such efforts to control the Internet, and we
denounce efforts to identify and track Internet users in order to
stifle free expression, inquiry and political activity.
We have agreed to increase, whenever possible, our support for efforts
to circumvent Web censorship through the use of new and innovative
hardware and software tools. We also agreed to increase our advocacy
for Internet freedom.
(BBC Media Release)
