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Subject: VIDEAZIMUT DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES
From: Michael Eisenmenger <eisenmen@rci.rutgers.edu>
Date: Tue, 15 Jul 1997 19:25:34 +0000

* * * * *

VIDEAZIMUT DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES

Communication is a right of peoples, of communities and of individuals.
Communication is a fundamental activity of human beings, individually
and
in society. It is essential to democratic life at all levels, as it is
to
any process of development. The right to communicate is seriously
undermined by the workings as well as the structures and dominant models
of
communications systems. Inequality of access to the means of production
and dissemination exist between the North and the South but also within
each country, in the North as well as in the South.

The International Coalition for Democratic Communication known as
Videazimut is composed of organizations and individuals using video and
television as a means to the democratisation of communications. The
Coalition is dedicated to defending and broadening access to voice and
image for all those who are presently marginalised from them, in the
South
and in the North.

In an age when new communications technologies, in particular video and
television, lend themselves to democratisation on a technical level, the
Coalition aims to promote:

* greater access to these means on the part of marginalised communities;

* liberty of expression in the production of images and messages;

* greater access to the means of dissemination of voice and images on
the
national and international levels.

The right to communicate includes the right of communities and
organisations to project an expression they consider to be faithful to
their own identity and ideas; it also includes the right of those who
are
generally excluded from the means of communication to speak and to show
themselves publicly. The Coalition believes that the low level of
participation of the majority of the world's population is a serious
hindrance to the development of communities and nations. A plurality of
voices is necessary to democracy. The Coalition commits itself to
promoting the defence of the right to transmit as well as to receive
information, and the right to meaningful information. The Coalition aims
to promote the practice as well as the recognition of the right to
communicate, through the development of new strategies for communication
and the creation of international networks (south-south, north-south,
south-north) to facilitate production, distribution, training and access
to
communications technology.

The Coalition carries out its activities internationally with the
following
goals:

* to defend democracy in communication as a fundamental human right
through
the transformation of communications practices in video and television
at
the local, national and international levels;

* to promote the democratic practice of communication through public
awareness campaigns, training, production, co-production, exchange and
distribution of video works;

* to facilitate individual and collective access to the mediums of video
and television and to communication for development;

* to promote endogenous production in all countries as well as the
international recognition and dissemination of those productions;

* to carry out policy analysis and advocacy and to organise campaigns to
effect concrete changes to further the democratisation of communication.

The Coalition understands communication to be a vehicle for the
expression
of the social project of a collectivity, and a vehicle for developing
solidarity and mutual respect between and amongst those collectivities.
The Coalition considers itself to be part of an international movement
towards the creation of a pluralist network of self-determined voices.

**********************************************************
Videazimut
3680, rue Jeanne-Mance, bureau 430
Montreal, Quebec
Canada H2X 2K5
telephone 1 514 982 6660 fax 1 514 982 6122
email: videaz@web.net
**********************************************************
forwarded by Paper Tiger TV