UNESCO approves convention on cultural diversity | Media Trade Monitor

Visit the Media Trade Monitor website on the Convention on Cultural Diversity

"UNESCO has approved the Convention on Cultural Diversity (CCD), after several years of negotiations. The CCD (formally known as the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Contents and Artistic Expressions) is meant to provide legal backing to the principle that culture cannot be reduced to a commodity. Concretely, it is meant to allow each country to exclude its cultural policies, including 'audiovisual services' - otherwise known as the mass media - from 'free trade' deals like the WTO.

"During the negotiations, progressive NGO networks like the International Network on Cultural Diversity and the campaign for Communication Rights in the Information Society called for broad civil society support for the CCD, but warned that it must not be subordinated to the WTO and must be written to support cultural and media diversity inside countries, not only between them. In addition, they successfully lobbied for the elimination of language that would have supported the current extremist copyright regime, but failed to insert references to the importance of the public domain, fair use, and the creative commons."

Media Trade Monitor is a partnership between Free Press, the International Network for Cultural Diversity (INCD), and the campaign for Communication Rights in the Information Society (CRIS).