Vol 3, No 1
Cape Town Report
The Conference Report from the INCD’s third annual meeting Fostering Cultural Diversity and Development: Local, national and global strategies is now available at www.incd.net - go to Conference 2002.
The final version of the INCD’s Convention on Cultural Diversity is now available on the INCD’s web site. This revision takes into account the discussions from the Cape Town Conference about the Convention and includes a greatly expanded preamble which explains both the international context of the drive to establish a permanent legal basis for the protection of cultural diversity and the INCD’s proposed text.
The ministers of the International Network on Cultural Policy (INCP) will be meeting in Paris on February 5 and 6 to discuss their own final version of the text which they will bring to the Director General of UNESCO. The INCD Steering Committee will be meeting in parallel to the INCP to discuss the various proposals.
Zagreb, Croatia, 22 January - 28 May 2003
The French Institute in Zagreb and the Culturelink Network/IMO are coorganizing a Discussion Series on Cultural Diversity, to be held between 22 January 2003 and 28 May 2003 in Zagreb, Croatia
As part of this event, four discussions will be held, based on lectures by Croatian and international experts such as Catherine Lalumiere, Member of the European Parliament and former Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Yvon Thiec, Secretary General of Eurocinema and Member of INCD Steering Committee, and Garry Neil, Coordinator of the International Network for Cultural Diversity (INCD).
For further information, please contact: Nina Obuljen, Culturelink/IMO, Lj.F. Vukotinovića 2, P.O. Box 303, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia; tel. +385-1-4826522; fax: +385-1-4828361; e-mail: nina@irmo.hr
The Australian Coalition for Cultural Diversity, of which INCD Steering Committee representative Richard Letts is a member, has prepared a submission to the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs on the eve of US-Australia free trade negotiations. The document is a very useful overview of the possible impact of these negotiations on Australian culture, and of the effects of trade on cultural policy generally. INCD members whose countries are contemplating bilateral agreements may find it a helpful guide in formulating their policy positions. The Music Council of Australia is also preparing a specific look at the music industry in the coming negotiations which will be available shortly.
www.mca.org.au. Click on Resources, then on Advocacy
Negotiations on the General Agreement on Trade in Services, which is one of the WTO’s key agreements, continue. Member countries were to have filed their “requests” of other countries by 30 June 2002, and the response to these requests is to be tabled in the form of “offers” by 31 March 2003. For more information on the process, please see the analysis of GATS and Culture on the INCD website.
As expected, the United States and a number of other countries have tabled significant “requests” for inclusion of audiovisual services in the GATS.
According to the European Commission Trade Directorate, fully half of the 20 requests tabled with European governments address audiovisual services. Two of these requested “full commitments in Market Access and National Treatment,” meaning that they seek the elimination of virtually all of the support measures used to promote domestic film and television production and distribution, including content quotas. Interestingly, the United States did not table an official request by the 30 June deadline. This merely highlights that this timetable is a flexible one and additional “requests” will be received as the negotiations pick up speed.
Canada has also received requests relating to its audiovisual support measures, including one from the United States. While there is no public information about the extent of the requests, they are likely as comprehensive as those received by European governments.
There are also “requests” that have been tabled in relation to the GATS category of “Recreational, Cultural and Sporting Services.” The European Commission Trade Directorate for example, reports requests on entertainment services; news agency services; and libraries, archives, museums and other cultural services. The Directorate did not release information about the extent of those requests, other than to state that they seek to remove certain “existing restrictions.” In this context, a “restriction” likely translates into a cultural policy designed to support domestic artists and cultural producers.
In order to analyze properly the full extent of the threat that the GATS negotiations poses to cultural policies, it is important that governments be pushed to release publicly any “offers” they table in the next few months. As information becomes available it will be circulated by the INCD.
The World Social Forum (WSF), one of the world’s largest gatherings of civil society, has occurred in Brazil for the last two years, bringing together activists, academics, politicians and cultural workers to find strategies for a better world. The Forum is a democratic grassroots response to the World Economic Forum (also known as the Davos Forum) and its policies. The WSF just keeps getting bigger – organizers anticipate close to 100,000 people will come to Porto Alegre this year.
It has spawned a number of regional forums, including the European Social Forum and the Asian Social Forum, which took place in Florence this past November. The ESF held a seminar entitled “Culture is not for sale”; please contact lcastellina@mclink.it to obtain a copy of the final declaration. In 2004, the WSF will move to India.
A delegation of INCD members attended the Asian Social Forum in Hyderabad, India, January 2-7. Funding difficulties unfortunately forced the cancellation of the INCD’s seminar; however, the INCP delegates made the most of their time. Atul Kumar, Artistic Director of The Company Theatre and member of the INCD’s Steering Committee reported that there were over 5000 participants from all aspects of the NGO sector at the Forum, which included conferences, workshops and a variety of events.
The ASF looked at the broad agenda of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and its implications for all manner of public policy as well as the impact of corporate globalization. For the INCD delegates, it was an interesting opportunity to compare not only issues but tactics. At this point, cultural policy, while under threat from multilateral and bilateral trade negotiations, has not yet been as devastated as agricultural, health and water policies. The growing understanding of the breadth of the WTO’s reach is pushing cultural workers and artists in Asia to mobilize while time remains.
Curiously, the ASF coincided with a large corporate-government gathering entitled “The Partnership Summit – Networking Businesses: Linking Nations”. Representatives included the Director General of the WTO, Supachai Panitchpakdi, and the Deputy Prime Minister of India among political and business leaders. There was no official linkage between these two large meetings, which seem to be opposing sides of the same coin. The Summit’s web site states that it “will share, articulate, debate how businesses, institutions and governments can mutually benefit and prosper in a collaborative environment, through networks and partnerships”, echoing the ethos of the WSF but to different ends.
INCD members will be present in force in Porto Alegre – a report will be included in the next newsletter.
Links:
World Social Forum: http://www.forumsocialmundial.org.br/home.asp
Asian Social Forum: http://www.wsfindia.org/
European Social Forum: www.fse-esf.org/
The Partnership Summit: http://www.partnershipsummit.com
A recent flurry of articles bemoan the demise of US cultural imperialism – strange though that may seem.
The New York Times has reported on the decline of American television programming around the world, with a corresponding rise in local programs. This has long been the case in Latin America where “telenovellas” are hugely popular but is now also being seen in countries such as Germany and Korea. Part of this decline can be attributed to cost as American TV shows are now more expensive than local programming due to bidding wars. That’s not to say that the US has been cut out of the market – it still controls an overwhelming percentage of prime time viewing.
Meanwhile, in the belly of the giant, the language of cultural diversity is being adopted by some major players to counteract media consolidation. The Coalition for Program Diversity has brought together the advertising agency MediaCom, Sony Pictures Television, the Directors Guild of America, the Screen Actors Guild of America and other entertainment organizations. The Coalition submitted a paper to the Federal Communications Committee, urging tighter regulation of media ownership. Jon Mandel, CEO of Media Com, said in the e-journal Electronic Media Online “One of the main charges of the FCC is to promote localism, competition and diversity, which doesn’t just refer to people of colour. It refers to many different types of programming.”
They claim that the growing consolidation of media is limiting the range of programming available to consumers and leading to homogenization – which will sound somewhat familiar to INCD members… We will continue to watch developments with curiosity.
If we have missed your organization’s event, please contact the Secretariat at incd@ccarts.ca for inclusion in the next newsletter.
Globalisation and the English Language
2-5 February 2003
Windsor, UK
Contact: International Networking Events
T +44 1865
302 713
F +44 1865
557 368
yellowteam.seminars@britishcouncil.org
www.britishcouncil.org/networkevents/2000/0202p.htm
Information policy and the European Union
BOBCATSSS 2003
3-5 February 2003
Torun, Poland
Contact:
Culture: from Information to Knowledge
The role of culture in the knowledge based society
7-9 April 2003
Moscow, Russia
Contact:
Languages, Cultures, Ideologies and Identities in the Andes
51st
International Congress of Americanists
14-18 July 2003
Santiago, Chile
Contact: S.
Coronel-Molina
F +1 716 836 9375
www2.canisius.edu/~grabner
The World Summit on the Information Society
UNESCO
10-12 December 2003
Geneva, Switzerland
Contact: Secretary of the Executive Director
T +41 22 730 6317
F +41 22 730 6393
The Third International Congress of Culture and Development
9-12 June
2003
La Habana,
Cuba
Contact:
Ms. Mirtha Padrón, Executive Secretary, Centro Nacional de Superación para la
Cultura, Calle 15, #754, entre Paseo y 2, Vedado, Cuidad de La Habana, Cuba CP
1040
T (537)
55369/ 552300/ 552299
F(537) 552301/ 662283