At a conference in the World Forum on Communication Rights, a parallel forum to the
official World Summit on the Information Society, speakers from the United
States, Colombia, and a Kenyan technologist working in Rwanda took up this theme.
This session that was convened by APC and hosted by Karen Banks (APC, London) and Ralf Bendrath (German WSIS Coordination Group, Berlin).
The first victim of war is the truth, so goes an old proverb. Communication propaganda has been used throughout history as a means of justifying military aggression and mass killings —, from the middle ages to the genocide in Rwanda to the war in Iraq. But communication —, and in particular grassroots network-driven communication —, can also be a force for peace building and conflict resolution. It is precisely for this reason that the first thing rulers on the road to war deny are people's right to communicate freely —, be it by censorship, manipulation, restricting access to the means of communication or otherwise —, in the interests of national security.
This session discussed recent examples of communication rights and wrongs in the context of war and peace. It assessed military attempts to wage information warfare and analysed the role of mass media in framing and amplifying military conflicts. It also discussed how people were denied their right to communicate in these circumstances, and how they resisted and built up new forms of independent media and communication channels for peace activism and peaceful communication.
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