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29 / 05 / 2004
Barcelona will be the headqaurters for a platform of world regulators for the audiovisual sector
The Dialogue “Global Communication, Cultural Diversity and Regulation” held at the Forum Barcelona-2004 closed with the proposal of creating, in Barcelona, “a world headquarters of cooperation for regulators of the audiovisual sector from all over the world” reported Joan Botella, director of the Dialogue and vice-president of the European Association of Audiovisual Authorities.
According to Joan Botella, this cooperation platform of audiovisual regulators, along with professionals and academics from the Observatory on communication and information will be the third “window” that the related Forum dialogues have agreed to back and establish in Barcelona.
“The idea is to form a permanent exchange network of information and opinions between the regulatory authorities that approve a platform of joint action that promotes cultural diversity” explained Joan Botella. The director of the Dialogue “Global Communication, Cultural Diversity and Regulation” that ended today at the Forum, concluded that although “it is absurd to think that of an international regulator of audiovisual content when a world-wide government is still utopian.” Botella also mentioned that the proposal has just gotten off the ground.
At the Dialogue, there were over 300 registered participants and representatives from 38 regulatory authorities from audiovisual sectors from four continents. UNESCO also played very active role in a debate on the tension between the market value and the cultural value of audiovisual goods, a reflection of the difficult conciliation between cultural diversity and globalization.
Milagros del Corral, deputy director of culture for UNESCO, reiterated that the organization is immersed in preparing the universal convention for the protection of culture scheduled for next year. “It’s about preventing this diversity from being devastated by the rules of the market,” Corral said. Unesco has started 31 projects as part of the initiative ”Global Alliance for Diversity” with which they hope to back the cultural audiovisual industry of developing countries and countries in transition.
Paola Manacorda, councilor for the Italian Authority for the Guarantees of Communication, criticized the “defensive legislation” in European television and called for the regulation of spaces that allow new cultures on the Old Continent. Milagros del Corral pointed out that the quotas of European audiovisual products cause a slow down in the development of, for example, French African music, crushed by American industry that takes over the quota-free space. According to Botella, the problem lies in the fact that ”we aren’t free and we can only choose what we are offered.”
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