Highlights:
Third
International Meeting of Cultural Professional
Organizations Set for South Korea for June 1-4 2004
Approximately
700 organizations representing artists and other cultural professionals
from more than 90 countries around the world will be invited to gather
in Seoul, South Korea, June 1-4 for the Third
International Meeting of Cultural Professional Organizations.
The meeting is being hosted by the
Korean Coalition for Cultural Diversity (KCCD), who expect
to send out invitations by the end of February, with a detailed program
to follow in March. Invited to the Seoul meeting will be delegates of
professional organizations representing actors, writers, directors, composers
and musicians, visual artists, publishers, independent producers of film/television
and music, broadcasters and distributors.
The Third Meeting will be held at a critical moment in the trade and culture
debate. Because while there is reason for optimism—notably as a result
of the decision last October by UNESCO at its General Conference to undertake
the development of an international convention on cultural diversity—there
is also serious cause for concern about the growing pressure on culture
from international trade agreements.
While wide-ranging international and regional negotiations such as the
WTO Doha Round and the Free Trade Area of the Americas talks are moving
slowly, culture has in the meantime come into play in a proliferating
range of bilateral trade negotiations initiated by the United States with
several countries, including Korea, Morocco and the Southern African Customs
Union, to name only those at an advanced stage of negotiations.
Still, the UNESCO process holds out the promise of securing a true legally-binding
international convention—a treaty—that would reaffirm the sovereign
right of countries to develop, implement and maintain policies intended
to ensure a space for their domestic culture.
The challenge for cultural professional organizations in every country
now is to support this process—to make sure that the resulting instrument
is a true convention and not simply a declaration or recommendation, and
to get the convention adopted sooner rather than later, ideally by 2005.
And given that the ultimate fate of the convention will be decided by
the member-states of UNESCO, it is essential that cultural professional
organizations in each country mobilize to engage in discussion with their
governments with the goal of securing their support for this initiative.
Ideally, the cultural professional organizations will maximize the impact
of their mobilization by joining together to work with their fellow organizations
to establish national coalitions.
Mobilizing to respond to these challenges will be the central theme of
the Third International Meeting in Seoul.
The Seoul meeting builds on the Second International Meeting of Cultural
Professional Organizations held in Paris in February of 2003 and which
brought together 300 representatives of 125 cultural professional organizations
from 30 countries. The original gathering of cultural professional organizations
was held in Montreal, Canada, in September of 2001, when more than 100
representatives from 68 cultural professional organizations from 11 countries
began the discussion of how best to respond to the growing pressures on
culture coming from trade negotiations.
In addition to invited delegates from cultural professional organizations,
political leaders, government officials and representatives from the broader
cultural sector will also be invited as observers.
The host Korean Coalition for Cultural Diversity brings together 16 organizations
representing professionals from every sector of Korean culture. It is
organizing the meeting in close cooperation with the International Liaison
Committee of Coalitions for Cultural Diversity, which now brings together
11 coalitions from around the world—Argentina, Australia, Burkina
Faso, Canada, Chile, France, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand and Senegal,
as well as Korea.
Australia-U.S.
Agree on Free Trade Deal:
What Happened on Culture?
In the early
hours of February 8, Australia and the United States concluded a bilateral
Free Trade Agreement after 14 straight days of last-ditch negotiations
between Australian Trade Minister Mark Vaile and U.S. Trade Representative
Robert Zoellick. What happened with respect to culture is still not
fully clear. The two sides immediately issued contradictory news releases—Australia
asserting it had retained the right to pursue cultural policies now
and in the future, while the United
States asserted that it had obtained ‘unprecedented market
access’ for its film and television production.
With the official text of the agreement not expected to be released
for some weeks, Australia’s cultural sector was left attempting
to glean its fate from a series of fact
sheets on key elements of the agreement released by the Australian
government. The implications of these were not reassuring—it appears
that Australia has preserved its existing cultural policies but that
its latitude to implement new policies in the future, particularly over
digital broadcasting and new media in general, will be extremely limited.
The governments of both countries must ratify the agreement in order
for it to become law, and a full debate is expected in Australia’s
House of Commons and Senate. The fate of culture will be part of that
debate. And with Australia evidently having obtained only modest gains
with respect to access to the U.S. market for its agricultural products—notably
sugar—Opposition party critics can be expected to question whether
the FTA was useful even from the standpoint of this industry. How this
will play out in an expected election year should prove interesting.
On February 10, the organizations representing Australia’s actors,
screen directors, film and television producers and screenwriters—all
members of the Australian Coalition for Cultural Diversity—issued
a news release expressing their concerns about the apparent limitations
the Australian government had accepted with respect to maintaining its
right to apply cultural policies in the future. The debate is now underway.
Highlights from the news
release follow.
The free trade agreement with the US threatens significant losses to
Australian culture, representatives of the Australian film and television
industry said today.
As more details of the deal become available, the industry says it is
deeply concerned by the contradictions between the Australian Government’s
statements and those from the US.
"This is despite the Government’s assurances that they have
protected our right to ensure local content on Australian media whilst
retaining the capacity to regulate new and emerging media, including
digital and interactive television," said Simon Whipp, Director
of the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance’s Equity section.
(...)
"At this point, the lack of detail is causing the industry considerable
concern," said Richard Harris, Executive Director of the Australian
Screen Directors Association. "In new media, for example, it is
not clear whether the Government has really retained the flexibility
it claims or whether it will have to go cap-in-hand to the US government
for approval every time it wants to intervene on behalf of Australian
consumers." (...)
Simon Whipp also criticized the John Howard government for the lack
of transparency in the talks. "The Government has promised us all
along the way that they’d discuss any offer they made to the US
with the industry, and they’ve reneged on this Commitment."
Report
from Morocco :
The Cost of Raising Questions about Culture
Editor’s
Note: Established in December of last year, Morocco’s new Coalition
for Cultural Diversity has been working tirelessly to focus government
and public attention on the importance of maintaining their country’s
latitude to pursue cultural policies despite an imminent Free Trade
Agreement with the United States. The treatment of culture is believed
to be very much an issue in the talks. However, the Moroccan government
has maintained an almost total news blackout concerning details of how
culture is being addressed.
On January 28, the Moroccan coalition, in conjunction with other groups
concerned about the trade negotiations, planned a peaceful sit-in in
front of the country’s Parliament. Before the demonstration could
begin—with only 30 participants on hand, waiting for colleagues
to arrive—an estimated 200 police used batons to violently disperse
the participants. Nabil Ayouch, a leading Moroccan filmmaker and one
of the founders of the country’s coalition, was one of three people
injured by the police action. What follows are excerpts from Nabil’s
full account of what happened on January 28.
January 28, 2004, will live on as a sad day in our country's history.
This country that at times can fill us with such hope, that gives us
the strength to believe a better future is possible.
On January 28, 2004, my dreams were shaken…
We, professionals from the cultural milieu, had joined with doctors
and pharmacists in staging a sit-in to make known our concerns about
the ongoing free-trade negotiations between Morocco and the United States.
We went peaceably – as we also want to see order and security reign
in our country – to fulfil our duty as citizens, to say that this
agreement may pose a serious threat to our future.
Before we were even able to make our voices heard, we were attacked,
with inexplicable violence, by an onslaught of billy clubs. That night,
the CRS (national police) didn't realize that it was not only men and
women it was beating and trying to silence, it was the identity of the
Moroccan people…
The culture being handed over like a commodity under this agreement
is our very soul, our plurality, our diversity, which we are just in
the midst of rediscovering. It is what makes us, despite our differences,
the proud people we are today, united around a single and shared identity.
I am angry.
It isn't so much the violence of the blows we were dealt that night
that angers me, it is the hatred and recklessness with which they were
delivered. What angers me is that while some claim the sit-in was unauthorized,
they don't bother to explain that it could be no other way, as no demonstration
has been granted authorization for several months now. What angers me
are the Brezchnevian television clips showing members of the CRS in
friendly conversation with some passersby, with an off-camera voice
reporting the peaceful dispersal of the sit-in. What angers me is the
silence of the authorities – not a single word, not a single apology,
not a single regret expressed. Just the kind of tacit approval the CRS
needed to feel justified in wielding its billy clubs whenever it likes.
Is this the cost of submission to the Americans?….
Yet some members of the government had agreed to meet with us right
from the outset. They were surprised and shared our concerns about the
Agreement. They promised to take action.
Since then, the Moroccan negotiators keep trying to reassure us by saying
that the situation is under control, the same discourse that is constantly
being fed, like a litany, to the public, the media, and parliamentarians.
But if the situation really is under control, why is it that they refuse
to let us see the part of the Agreement that concerns us? Why all the
secrecy?
Instead of trying to reassure us on matters of detail, like the preservation
of existing subsidies, why not give us clear answers on the essentials?
The Moroccan people have the right to know what nationality will be
dominating its images and sounds in the decades to come. (...)
Elsewhere, professionals are consulted, kept informed and even sometimes
invited to take part in the negotiations. Here, they are refused all
information and clubbed. What a sad commentary on our country…
(...)
The battle will continue, before and after this agreement is signed.
The Moroccan negotiators, for their part, will also forge ahead, and
we know that the fight won't be an easy one.
But at the end of the day, what history and our children will be left
with in 30 or 50 years is the reality of this agreement, as it is signed,
and the ramifications for our life and our people. (...)
I have but one hope: that those who are currently negotiating our future
remember, each morning when they look in the mirror and at all times
thereafter, that they are first and foremost Moroccan citizens. And
that they may be proud of that fact.
Next
Steps in the UNESCO Process
to Develop a Convention on Cultural Diversity
By Cécile Despringre, France’s Coalition for Cultural Diversity
In a speech delivered to Executive Board members during an information
session on January 22, 2004, UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro
Matsuura gave a follow-up report on the October General Conference's
resolution mandating him to prepare a draft convention on the protection
of the diversity of cultural content and artistic expression, and on
the proposed schedule for this work:
Meetings of independent experts
As we indicated in our last issue of Coalition Currents, the Director-General
convened an initial meeting from December 17 to 20, 2003, of 13 academic
experts, thinkers and authors drawn from a wide range of schools of
thought and disciplines, as well as being representative of diverse
regions and cultures. According to the UNESCO Director-General, "their
discussions were extremely rich and heartening, and showed a common
desire to come up with measures capable of preserving cultural diversity
(…). There remain a number of points to be clarified, such as definitions,
scope, and the rights and obligations of Member States." (our
translation)
Accordingly, Matsuura plans to call this group of experts together for
a second meeting in late March to put together proposals on the wording
of the draft convention's key articles, structured into five chapters:
- objectives
- scope of the convention
- rights and obligations of Member States
- international co-operation
- enforcement mechanisms
The Director-General is not ruling out the possibility that a third
meeting of this group may be necessary before the summer to arrive at
a complete draft of the text.
WTO, WIPO and UNCTAD consultation
The Director-General has been in contact with these three organizations,
which were specifically mentioned in the General Conference resolution,
to inform them of the decisions made by the General Conference. All
of these organizations responded by expressing their willingness and
availability to co-operate.
While these organizations will receive the report from the first experts
meeting in December as soon as it is ready—expected to be some
time in mid-February—the Director-General will not officially call
for their opinions or comments until the experts have arrived at concrete
proposals for a draft convention. The Director-General has stressed,
however, that formal consultation with international organizations must
precede the intergovernmental consultation phase so as to ensure that
member-states have all the information they need for their reflection.
Intergovernmental consultation
The report from the first meeting of the group of experts will also
be distributed to member-states in mid-February, but UNESCO’s Director
General intends to proceed with the intergovernmental consultation phase
only at the point when these experts have developed concrete proposals
and international organizations have given their feedback on these.
Given that a third meeting of the group of experts may be called before
the summer, it is possible that the intergovernmental phase may not
be launched by the Executive Board during its next meeting scheduled
for April 14 to 29, 2004, but may only get underway in the summer.
What about consultation with the civil society?
The process described above does not make any specific provision for
consultation with the civil society nor with professional organizations
from the cultural milieu. In response, the International Liaison Committee
of Coalitions for Cultural Diversity wrote to the Director-General of
UNESCO to express its concern and to stress the importance of involving
Coalitions for Cultural Diversity and cultural professional organizations
in the development of the draft convention from the very outset of the
process.
Reps
for International Liaison Committee of Coalitions
Take Part in Meeting of the International Network
on Cultural Policy's Working Group on Cultural Diversity
Representatives
of the International Liaison Committee of Coalitions for Cultural Diversity
took part in a joint working session with members of the International
Network on Cultural Policy's Working
Group on Cultural Policy and Globalization (WGCDG) on January
20th in Berne, Switzerland.
Liaison Committee representatives Debora Abramovicz, Director of International
Affairs for the Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs dramatiques
(SACD) and representative of the French Coalition for Cultural Diversity,
and Robert Pilon, Executive Vice-President of the Canadian Coalition for
Cultural Diversity, reported to WGCDG members on the coalition movement's
priorities for the coming year.
Abramowicz and Pilon emphasized the coalitions' determination to work
actively—in co-operation with the network of ministers—to have
an International Convention on Cultural Diversity adopted at UNESCO by
fall 2005, while in the interim devoting every effort to persuading countries
currently engaged in trade negotiations, particularly in bilateral negotiations
with the United States, to refrain from making any liberalization commitments
that may potentially impact culture.
The Berne joint working session was part of a two-day WGCDG meeting that
brought together those responsible for the cultural diversity file in
the departments of culture of 14 INCP member-countries (Canada, Croatia,
Finland, France, Germany, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, South Africa,
Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom).
Topping this meeting's agenda was the development of the INCP's workplan
and priorities for 2004 in view of next October's INCP ministerial meeting
in Shanghai, China. This workplan should be unveiled on the INCP web site
in the next few weeks.
Representatives of the International Network for Cultural Diversity (INCD)
also made a presentation to the WGCDG members.
Coalition Currents is published by the Secretariat for the International Liaison Committee of Coalitions for Cultural Diversity (ILC). Member Coalitions:
Argentina,
Australia, Burkina Faso,
Canada, Chile, France, Korea, Morocco,
Mexico, New Zealand, Senegal.
154 Laurier Ave. West, Suite 240
Montreal, QUE H2T 2N7
T. (514) 277-2666
F. (514) 277-9994
www.comitedevigilance.org
e-mail:
Editor:
Jim McKee
Contributors in this issue: Robert Pilon,
Bruno Bettati, Cécile Despringre,
Mélanie
Marron, Sylvie Riendeau
Interested in bringing organizations representing cultural professionals in your country together in a coalition for cultural diversity?
For
assistance, contact the Secretariat of the International Liaison Committee
of Coalitions for Cultural Diversity:
mckee@cdc-ccd.org.