19-04-2004 (Paris) UNESCO Launches New Website to Celebrate World Press Freedom Day 2004
For the celebration of World Press Freedom Day on 3 May, UNESCO launched a new website providing background information on the events that are organized worldwide to celebrate the Day, including the main event entitled" Support to Media in Violent Conflict and in Countries in Transition" that takes place in Belgrade, Serbia Montenegro.
16-04-2004 (Paris) Promoting Citizens’ Participation in Broadcasting
A regional workshop on citizens’ media entitled "Promoting Citizens’ Participation in Broadcasting" will be organized by UNESCO, in cooperation with the Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development (AIBD), the World Radio and Television Council (WRTVC), and the South Asia Free Media Association, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 18 April.
15-04-2004 (Almaty) Rural Libraries Development on Agenda of Meeting of Kazakh Librarians
A one-day UNESCO sponsored workshop on strategic planning, initiated and funded by the National Library of Kazakhstan was last week organized in Almaty. The main themes of the brain-storming session for managers of leading libraries in the country was the development of the rural libraries network and the improvement of services for readers.
14-04-2004 (Paris) Fritz Lang's Metropolis Gets New Lease on Life
A new, digitally re-mastered version of Fritz Lang’s futuristic film Metropolis was screened at UNESCO Headquarters on Tuesday, April 13, on the eve of its re-release by French film company MK2 in France. The “new” version of the spectacular 1927 German masterpiece, the first film to be inscribed on UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register, features, for the first time the soundtrack especially composed by Gottfried Huppertz for the film.
07-04-2004 (Paris) Workshop of Conflict-Sensitive Reporting for Women Journalists Starts in Nepal
Today starts in Nepal's capital Kathmandu a three-day workshop on "Conflict-sensitive reporting: a gender perspective” for women journalists in South Asia. The objectives of the workshop that is organized by the Nepal Press Institute, in cooperation with UNESCO, are to develop a professional critique on preventing of, and reporting on conflict, ethnic and religious controversies.
06-04-2004 (Geneva) ITU Launches Global WSIS-2005 Fundraising Campaign
The Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Yoshio Utsumi, yesterday launched a global fundraising campaign to support activities for the Tunis phase of the World Summit on the Information Society. Appealing to the international community, he called on all stakeholders to help make the WSIS-2005 Fundraising Campaign and the Summit in Tunis a success.
05-04-2004 (Paris) UNESCO Programme Grants Funding To 62 New Media Projects In Developing Countries
UNESCO’s International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC) granted more than US$1.5 million to 62 media projects in developing countries and countries in transition at its meeting at Headquarters, (March 29 – April 2). It also awarded the 2003 IPDC-UNESCO Prize for Rural Communication to Radio Toco, the first and only community-based radio station in Trinidad and Tobago.
Internet Governance System Working But Needs to be More Inclusive, UN Forum Told
The current system of Internet governance seems to be working well, but the question was how to better coordinate the work of specialized bodies and ensure the involvement of all stakeholders, participants told the two-day Global Forum on Internet Governance last week in New York.
01-04-2004 (Bangkok) Five Asian Countries Start Using ICT for Community Empowerment
The use of ICT in non formal education programmes to foster participation of disadvantaged people in literacy, basic education and continuing education activities is at the centre of projects in Indonesia, Lao PDR, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Uzbekistan that UNESCO's Asia-Pacific Programme of Education for All (APPEAL) has launched with funds from Japan.
31-03-2004 (Paris) UNESCO's Programme for the Development of Communication Reviews Support for 86 New Media Projects in Developing Countries
UNESCO's Intergovernmental Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC) is studying 86 media projects in developing countries and countries in transition during its current session at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, March 29 - April 2. The Programme provides financial assistance for the development of electronic, print and broadcast media.
30-03-2004 (Kingston) Cuba's Cocodrilo Community Multimedia Centre Hosts ICT Training Course
Just over two years ago UNESCO established "Cocodrilo", a community multimedia centre in a remote community on the Isle of Youth in Cuba within the framework of the project "Multimedia for Caribbean Communities". Community members now completed a workshop in ICT applications, as the UNESCO Bureau in Kingston reports.
29-03-2004 (Nairobi) Africa Animated! - UNESCO Launches Initiative for Cartoons Production
Despite efforts by regional broadcasters and the audiovisual community in Africa, children’s programmes in Africa and in particular computer-animated cartoons are mostly imported from abroad. In order to address this lack of local content production, UNESCO launched Africa Animated!, an initiative that assembles resources and expertise for the production of children’s animated cartoons in Africa.
26-03-2004 (Paris) Openness Key Principle of Internet Governance Says UNESCO
As discussions on Internet Governance continue today in New York at the Global Forum organized by the UN ICT Task Force, UNESCO stresses that Internet governance mechanisms should be based on the principle of “openness”, encompassing interoperability, freedom of expression and measures to resist any attempt to censor content.
25-03-2004 (Paris) Collection of National Copyright Laws Now Online
Full texts of national copyright and related rights legislation of UNESCO Member States can now be accessed on the website of UNESCO's Culture Sector. The collection currently comprises about 100 laws and is constantly being updated and completed.
24-03-2004 (UNESCO/Antwerp) CDS/ISIS Selected as Library Software at University of Mekelle, Ethiopia
Software based on UNESCO's CDS/ISIS standard was chosen to develop the library automation system, at the University of Mekelle, situated in the regional capital of Tigray (northern part of Ethiopia) as it has suitable qualities as a ‘documentary database’ system and strong capabilities also to run as a library system.
23-03-2004 (Montevideo) UNESCO Supports E-Governance Seminar in Brazil End of March
A UNESCO supported international seminar on the use of ICT to improve local governance and to help enhancing public services, transparency and the participation of citizens in decision making related to their communities will be held from 29 to 31 March 2004 in Curitiba, Brazil.
22-03-2004 (Paris) UNESCO Director-General Expresses Deep Concern for Safety of Journalists In Iraq
UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura today voiced deep concern about the safety of journalists in Iraq following two separate incidents on March 18 which led to the death of members of television crews from coalition-backed local broadcaster Diyala TV, and Dubai-based Al-Arabiya
22-03-2004 (Paris) Virtual Exhibition "Lest we forget. The Triumph over Slavery" Launched
On the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which was celebrated yesterday, a virtual exhibition entitled "Lest we forget. The Triumph over Slavery" to mark "2004, International Year to Commemorate the Struggle against Slavery and its Abolition" was launched at UNESCO Headquarters.
19-03-2004 (Montevideo) Electronic Theses and Dissertations Project in Latin America Concluded
“Towards Digital Libraries – Production of Electronic Theses in XML” was the title of a workshop organized with UNESCO's support in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on 8 and 9 March 2004 marking the end of UNESCO's “Electronic Thesis and Dissertation” project in Latin America after a duration of more than two years.
18-03-2004 (New Delhi) Nabanna – Networking Rural Women and Knowledge
In a quiet wing of the Office of the Municipal Counsellors building in off-the-beaten-track Baduria, between Calcutta and India’s border with Bangladesh, a group of eight young women are watching their teacher use a strand of waxed thread to pluck eyebrow hairs off the face of one of the students.
17-03-2004 (Paris) ICTs to Help Fighting HIV/AIDS
Within the framework of UNESCO's project "ICTs helping to fight HIV/AIDS: changing young people’s behavior through preventive education schemes" and with the support of the INFOYOUTH Programme, HIV/AIDS information centres for youth will be established in Mozambique, Tanzania and Bulgaria.
16-03-2004 (Paris/Quito) Training course "CDS/ISIS Avanzado" in Panama
Panama’s National Library Ernest J. Castillero R. hosted a training course in the use of CDS/ISIS, UNESCO's information retrieval and storage software, in Panama City in the first week of March. The event, organized under the auspices of UNESCO and the Panama National Library Foundation brought together more than 30 participants from 20 institutions of Panama, Belize and Nicaragua.
15-03-2004 (Kabul) Afghan Public Media Moves Ahead
The shape of Afghanistan’s future media environment took a step towards clarification this week with the preparation of a Position Plan on the corporatization of the State-funded national broadcaster, Radio-Television Afghanistan (RTA), and the country’s national news service, the Bakhtar Information Agency (BIA).
12-03-2004 (Paris) UNESCO Publishes Series of Articles on Multilingualism on the Internet
“Multilingualism on the Internet” is the title of the latest issue of UNESCO’s International Journal on Multicultural Societies (IJMS) that was commissioned by UNESCO's Initiative B@bel. Edited by Sue Wright, the issue contains articles by Mathias König, David Block, Helen Kelly Holmes, Safari Mafu, Richard Peel, Helen Gerrard and Sachiko Nakamura.
11-03-2004 (Paris/Vienna) Atlas Blaeu-Van der Hem To Be Officially Included in Memory of the World Register
The Atlas Blaeu-Van der Hem, a 17th century treasure held at the Austrian National Library, will be officially part of UNESCO's Memory of the World Register when the Memory of the World Certificate will be handed over by UNESCO's Elisabeth Longworth to National Library Director Johanna Rachinger in a ceremony this evening in Vienna.
10-03-2004 (Paris) UNESCO Director-General Voices Concern over Safety of Journalists in Haiti
UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura today deplored the killing of Spanish Antena 3 television reporter Ricardo Ortega in Haiti on March 7, and expressed the wish that journalists be enabled to carry out their work in conditions of safety.
10-03-2004 (Paris) Online Forum on Internet Governance Launched on wsis-online.net
An Online Forum on Internet Governance organized on wsis-online.net, the community platform of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), is open for contributions from all interested stakeholders since last Friday, 5 March. It is accessible at www.wsis-online.net/igov-forum.
09-03-2004 (New Delhi) ICT Centres in India: Fostering Social Networks
Though clearly bright and inventive, 24-year-old Deoki is a young woman with few prospects for employment. Getting involved in the local information and communication centre in her town in Darjeeling, a district in the West Bengal state of India famous introduced her to other young people in similar situations.
08-03-2004 (Djakarta) UNESCO Supports Seminar for Radio Journalists to Cover Elections in Indonesia
More than 40 owners and senior reporters of local radio stations across Indonesia attended a three-day seminar entitled "Preparation of the Media to Cover the General Elections 2004” that was organized by UNESCO Jakarta in Djakarta last week, with support from the Danish Embassy in Indonesia.
05-03-2004 (Paris) UNESCO Condemns Assassination of Palestinian Journalist Khalil Al-Zaben
UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura today condemned the assassination in Gaza, on the night of March 1 to 2, of journalist Khalil al-Zaben, publisher of a magazine - An-Nashra - funded by the Palestinian Authority, and an advisor to Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat.
