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Following is the declaration of the recent Videazimut
international seminar which took place in Brazil in early July.


DECLARATION OF CAJAMAR
Cajamar, July1996

WE, the participants, of the International Seminar "Media for
Citizenship in the Electronic Age:  Community Television and New
Technologies"

        convened by Videazimut in Cajamar, Brasil on July 3-5,
        1996,

        who have come from Asia, the Pacific, Europe, the Middle
        East, North America, Latin America and Africa

        who work in all fields and aspects of communication for
        development and democracy at the local, regional and
        international levels

        aiming to bring about permanent changes that would
        guarantee access for all to the means of communication

        in the same spirit of the four symposia held by Videazimut
        in Montreal (1990), Maputo (1991), Lima (1992) and New
        Delhi (1994)

        and in solidarity with Videazimut's role as an
        international coalition for the democratisation of
        communication to promote active participation and
        development:

REITERATE our support for the principles stated in the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights and the UN Declaration on the right to
development;

AFFIRM that, in the spirit of Article 19 of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights and the recommendations in the
MacBride Commission and Maitland Commission Reports, the right to
expression - including the right to communicate - must be
recognised and defended as inalienable for individuals and peoples
and as indispensable to the democratization of societies;

RECOGNISE and support the efforts and actions taken by
multilateral organisations like UNESCO, the UNDP and the ITU for
encouraging initiatives by civil society in the field of
communication.  In particular, we note the series of conferences
organised by UNESCO since Winhoek (1991) to support independent
media, and the recent UNESCO commissioned report, ROur Creative
DiversityS, which officially recognises the alternative sector and
makes recommendations encouraging it to evolve along side the
commercial and state sectors;

SUPPORT the decisions taken during the 4th Conference on Women
held in Beijing and, in particular, the Chapter J of the Plan of
Action dealing with the rights of women to communicate;

RECOGNISE that communications as the driving force behind today`s
globalization process, is also the focal point for the supporters
of progressive change. The industrial and commercial logic that
underlies this change is appropriating technology for the purpose
of the commodification of information and communication. If access
to information is determined by the ability to pay, the impact of
this will be the exclusion of certain social actors, of certain
peoples, of certain cultures in participating in the worldwide
audiovisual and electronic networks.

RECOGNISE and bear witness by our actions to the unprecedented and
widespread proliferation of initiatives for the free and
democratic use of means of communication by alternative, community
and popular media organizations.  These actions illustrate the
will, the capacity and the creativity deployed by civil society in
the social appropriation of information and communication
technologies, and they constitute an international social movement
offering a democratic alternative to the market-dominated
political arena.

* * *

BASED ON THE ABOVE, WE

AFFIRM that the development of alternative communication practices
based on democratic principles of liberty, equality and
participation, which defend plurality and cultural diversity, is
essential to the creation of fora which support citizen's
participation in a democratic process;

DEMAND that governments, international organisations and private
sector enterprises accept and act on the needs of civil society in
the area of social communication.  In a spirit of openess and
equity, they must create an adequate legal and economic framework
which will facilitate and reinforce universal access to
alternative, participative, democratic, independent media, and
create a public space for debate and consultation in which
representatives of civil society will participate in the
determination of communication policies.  In this way, the civil
society can become a fully fledged actor in the development of
communication systems at the national and international levels;

INVITE governmental, non-governmental and multilateral
organisations working in international cooperation to support
democratic and non-commerical initiatives that acknowledge the
centrality of the right to communicate, and the strategic
importance of communications for development;

PROMOTE the active and equitable participation of the women in all
decisions relating to the information and communication systems,
and support the portrayal of positive images of women in the
media;

SUPPORT indigenous people in their struggle to reaffirm their
identities and their right to communicate;

ENCOURAGE the forces of civil society to engage in collective and
responsable actions to broaden and deepen the use of appropriate
new information and communication technologies, as well as create
and strengthen mecanisms of citizen consultation and
participation.  In this spirit, we participate actively in the
growing international movement to unite  networks and
international coalitions working in different areas of alternative
communication;

ASK the Government and the information and commercial enterprises
of Brasil to include the participation of civil society,
represented by the National Forum for the Democratisation of
Communication.

* * *

THEREFORE,  we encourage all individuals and organisations
worldwide working in the field of communications for development
and democracy to collaborate in solidarity and work together, at
every opportunity, to achieve these goals.

Cajamar, Brasil 5 July, 1996.

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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    (or   videaz@web.apc.org)
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