UNESCO does not have a specific position on what to call Sept. 28, according to Guy Berger, the director of the Freedom of Expression and Media Development.
Berger wrote to FreedomInfo.org Nov. 14 concerning whether Sept, 28 should remain “Right to Know Day” or be changed to “Right to Information Day” if it is internationally recognized by the United Nations.
FreedomInfo.org requested his comment on reports that UNESCO preferred “Access to Information Day.” (See previous FreedomInfo.org report.)
The nomenclature issue came up during the drafting of the final declaration of the Pan African Conference on Access to Information. The African Platform on Access to Information issued Sept. 19 in Cape Town includes a call for the UN to endorse “Right to Information Day.”
However, saying the description of UNESCO’s position was not “strictly speaking correct,” Berger explained:
To our knowledge, the proposal for “Access to Information Day” was advanced by civil society group, Highway Africa, on the basis of the argument that while “access” presupposed a legal right, such a situation did not necessarily guarantee practical means of access. In the Highway Africa perspective, “access” would be an umbrella concept that would also bring in a wider range of stakeholders, and this perspective in fact informed the nomenclature of the conference and its declaration.
He said further:
UNESCO itself does not have a specific position on the nomenclature, but it will be responding to the PACAI request to support 28 September as “International Right to Information Day”.
The next General Conference of the organization will only be in 2013, but meanwhile the Communication and Information Sector will continue to work with stakeholders to promote rights and access to information through activities such as research, meetings, publications and advice to policy-makers.
UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, “works to advance the right to freedom of expression which is internationally recognized as including the “right to seek, receive and impart information and ideas…” Berger said in his letter. “This mission informs the programmes of the Communication-Information Sector which have the over-arching objective of `building inclusive knowledge societies’, including promoting the broad right to freedom of expression, which includes access to information and knowledge, he said. Here is the website of the sector.
Pointing out recent activities, he said:
The Sector is already been highly active in these matters. In recent times, this has included being a partner in the September 17-19 Pan African Conference on Access to Information; convening (with Transparency Morocco) a conference on 20 October on freedom of information; publishing the book “Freedom of Information: A comparative legal survey,”,promoting media and information literacy and open education resources.
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