Round table on discussing Internet Universality indicators was held at the Lomonosov Moscow State University in the framework of the annual European Journalism Training Association conference on 19 October 2017. The Moscow meeting is part of global consultations organised within UNESCO’s project aimed to help governments and other stakeholders assess the extent, to which Internet Universality principles govern their national Internet environments according to five categories of indicators concerned with: human rights, openness, accessibility, multistakeholder participation and crosscutting issues.
The event was moderated by Xianhong Hu representing UNESCO Communication and Information Sector, who presented the UNESCO project to define Internet Universality indicators. Tao Zhan, Director of the UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education (UNESCO IITE), opened the consultation by asking a key question: “what is the future of education?” According to him, all answers lead to the Internet, hence the relevance of developing a safer and more sustainable Internet environment. He shared that the mission of the UNESCO IITE is the promotion of the technologies in this sphere along with ensuring reaching Sustainable Development Goals and improving the level of ICT competencies and media and information literacy of the audience.
“Modern Internet technologies should be used to prevent the Internet from compromising social relations by supporting preservation of language diversity, and ensure digital vitality of languages and their equal possibilities” stated Tatyana Murovana, UNESCO IITE programme specialist. She stressed “media and information literacy for the well-being and progress of individuals, communities and nations” as an integral component for accessibility indicators.
The round table gathered representatives of the Russian and international journalism communities and academia, including Elena Vartanova, Dean of the Faculty of Journalism at Lomonosov Moscow State University; Pál Tamás (Hungarian Academy of Science); Elena Sherstoboeva (Higher School of Economics); Nadezhda Azhgikhina (Lomonosov Moscow State University).
UNESCO’s project to define Internet universality indicators also provides for online contributions, which can be made in any of the six UN languages (EN, FR, ES, RU, AR, CH) on the online platform https://en.unesco.org/internetuniversality. The project is supported by Sweden and the Internet Society, and the elaboration of the indicators will be finalized by June 2018 in partnership with the Association for Progressive Communications.
Photo: © Igor Anisimov