WELCOME

Role of Civil Society in

Building Information Society

AHM Bazlur Rahman

Chief Executive Officer
Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication
info@bnnrc.net www.bnnrc.net
 Information Society ?
The Information Society is to build
up a knowledge based society,
striving for education, health,
development, democracy and much
more. It demands networking and
knowledge flows from central to
local and at all levels of the Society.
 Current trends of Information Society
The reality, if current trends continue, might be very different, the
dream might become a nightmare
1. The fruits of human creativity – from academia to media, from
indigenous medicines to music- are being privatized, ownership
concentrated into the hands of a few, and access restricted to
those who can pay ;
2. The airwaves, for radio, television and telecommunications, are
being sliced up and sold to the highest bidder ;
3. The internet, once a promising new public sphere, is
increasingly commercialized and controlled ;
4. The media, controlled by the MNCs, sell consumerism to
people, and people to advertisers, and now media machines is
very much aggressive!
 Vision of Civil Society
Information Society is grounded in the Right to Communicate, as a
means to enhance human rights and to strengthen the social,
economic and cultural lives of people and communities.
Civil Society Organizations come together to help build an
information society based on principles;
 Transparency
 Diversity
 Participation
 Social and Economic justice
 Inspired by equitable gender, cultural and national
perspectives
 Themes and Actions of Civil Society
1. Strengthening the public domain, ensuring that information
and knowledge are readily available for human
development and not locked up in private hands
2. Ensuring affordable access to, and effective use of ,
electronic network in a development context, for instance
by innovative and pro-people regulation and public
investment
3. Securing and extending the global commons, for both
broadcast and telecommunication, to ensuring this public
resource should be managed in the public interest
4. Instituting democratic and transparent governance of the
information society from local to global
5. Supporting community and people-centered media,
traditional and new like Community Radio
 Enhancing Civil Society Role in Up-scaling
Information Society
- Documentation of the best practices
- Pilot project by CSOs/NGOs for learning
- Grassroots consultation
- Establishing CSOs as legitimate counterpart to the government
- Bridging the gap between people’s needs and Government
program
- Supporting Government program through training and other
means
- Joint innovative program
- Facilitating the national strategy / program development
- Initiate Public-Private and CSO Partnership and
- Monitoring WSIS action plan
 THANK
YOU
For Listening