The 1st Conference of
the Ministers on
Information & Broadcasting
in the Asia-Pacific Region
May 27 28, 2003 Bangkok, Thailand
Introduction The 1st Conference of the Ministers on Information and Broadcasting in Asia and the Pacific region was held in Bangkok from 27-28 May 2003 and was hosted by the Government of the Royal Kingdom of Thailand. This was in the form of a Thematic Debate and a regional preparatory meeting for the World Summit on Information Society to be held in Geneva in 2003. The Ministers of Information and Broadcasting from various countries in the Asia-Pacific region as well as heads of radio and television organizations, policy makers, decision makers, scholars, and representatives of international organizations attended this unique Conference in Bangkok to discuss pressing matters related to the Information and Broadcasting sectors. The Deputy Prime Minister of the Royal Kingdom of Thailand hosted the Conference, which was organized by the Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development (AIBD) and actively support e d by the International Telecommunication Union,UNESCO,United Nations, the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) and the French Government. The objective of the meeting was to discuss in depth the experiences and challenges being faced by public service broadcasters in the region and to arrive at a better understanding a n d closer cooperation in responding to the challenges. The Conference adopted constructive recommendations for further consideration by all stakeholders in Information and Broadcasting as the first regional attempt of its kind. Preamble RECOMMENDATIONS Recommendation 1 Media and Globalization Media, in public and private domains, are encouraged and need to be facilitated to: 1.1 Be impartial and sensitive in reporting while being independent. 1.2 Become fora for public dialogue,knowledge sharing,promotion of diversity mutual , understanding and tolerance. 1.3 Create rich and high quality local content to meet social expectations. Recommendation 2: Cultural Diversity 2.1 The participants considered that, unlike ordinary goods, cultural and audiovisual works do not lend themselves to governance by general rules of free exchange for goods and services.They subscribe to the concept of cultural diversityincluding multicultural, and multi-ethnic societies, in order to prevent the global risk of standardization. All concerned parties, governments, civil societies, public and private broadcasters are encouraged to preserve and promote cultural diversity in their respective countries and to develop dialogue among various cultures internationally. 2.2 Authorities are encouraged to: 2.3 The participants consider UNESCO to be the appropriate international institution to develop an international normative instrument to protect and promote cultural diversity. Recommendation 3: Public Service Broadcasting 3.1 Public Service Broadcasters are encouraged to: 3.2 Authorities are encouraged to: Recommendation 4: Information Divide 4.1 Authorities are requested to make efforts to: Recommendation 5: Human Resource Development (HRD) 5.1 All broadcasters are encouraged, in cooperation with international institutions to: The Conference took note of the emerging concerns on the impact of content on national, regional and international happenings and mandated AIBD to work for: