Statement Report Cover Sheet

Theme/Region: Water and Journalist Panel
DATE:
22- March, 2003 / Name of Coordinator(s):Ms. Tracey Osborne
Code: JOUP

Contact information in Japan

/ Accommodation:Kyoto International Conference Hall
Contact No.:
Contact E-mail:

Statement Report

DATE:
( 22 )- March, 2003 / Theme/Region: Water and Journalist Panel
Code: JOUP
Name of Coordinator(s):Ms. Tracey Osborne
Ms. Mijako Nierenkoether
Reporter/Rapporteur:
Contact E-mail:

PRESENTATION BY GUY ROGERS FOR THE WATER MEDIA NETWORK TO THE MINISTERIAL

CONFERENCE OF THE 3RD WORLD WATER FORUM IN KYOTO, JAPAN

  1. Issues

A key ingredient of effective water management is an informed public and a transparent and democratic decision-making system.

To reduce poverty there must be access to information and improved quality of information from beginning to end of the deliberative process. People with more information are empowered to make better choices. Officials must therefore be empowered to make it less difficult for journalists to access information about water issues, to create the conditions where the disenfranchised can exercise meaningful choices about the economic and political challenges our societies are facing in dealing with water.

That means moving from political cultures in which secrecy prevails as the norm to ones in which freedom of information is the rule, guaranteed by law. It means moving away from cultures in which criticism and exposing the policy-making process to public scrutiny are viewed as inherently subversive, instead of the necessary lubricants of good governance.

Corruption and incompetence thrive behind closed doors. Journalists who understand the full scope of policy implications are crucial as they provide an important forum for debate among policy-makers, NGOs, and the public at large and are in important check on the powerful. But many journalists face both legal and informal pressures, which inhibit the reporting of complex environmental, institutional and social issues, of us fulfilling our role of informing the public.

This access to information must be met by a commitment from journalists to objectivity and a determination to get the facts right.

This forum reflects a converse problem that exists for journalists that there is sometimes too much, disparate information. It is our job to synthesise, but the water debate and our communication of it would be improved if it were grounded in "a planetary view". The primary thing that makes Earth different from the other planets is its water. So how do we keep the balance in terms of different people and different species? This view needs to launch and frame any fresh initiative or debate.

  1. Actions

To strengthen the ability of the media to cover water issues, governments and major international institutions should commit themselves to:

  • Introducing freedom of information (FOI) legislation / codes of conduct guaranteeing access to all the sources of information drawn on by policy makers and to plans early and all the way through the deliberative process, after full consultation with users, particularly journalistic organisations. Such FOI legislation / codes of conduct should be administered with an appeals' system independent of government;
  • Building the capacity of their information centres to make sure that information is accessible, informative, and easy to access; * Assisting journalists' work by organising global, regional, national and local training workshops, seminars, study tours, press briefings and press conferences involving a broad range of opinion from civil society and stakeholders.

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