The final session produced two main outputs.

One was ‘the WEMF4 declaration on the safety of journalists’ – which we will posted in full on this site shortly.   The statement, presented to the meeting by Jean Reveillon, EBU Director General,  tells of the increasing number of  professional journalists murdered in the line of duty.  It tells that eight out of ten of their killers are never brought to justice.  The must be no different levels of justice, but society regards the murder of policemen as an ultra-serious offence, and usually stops at nothing to bring the guilty to justice.  Do journalist, who risk their lives so we can hear the truth, deserve so much less?

The other output was a ‘Mexico Decaration’ which drew conclusions for each of the topics discussed; convergence, archive presevation, citizen journalism, the digital transition, media and the multlateral institutions, access services, and journalists safety.  This will also be available on this site shortly.

Will there be another WEMF in two years?   That’s for the Unions to discuss and decide, but there was at least an invitation to hold it in Central Africa from the AUB (African Union of Broadcasters).   Maybe another few meters forward then?

The session moved on to ‘access’ services – services which help people with disabilities.   The bottom line here is that there is technology available aplenty.  It can provide great services to help those with sight or hearing disabilities,  or the aged, to follow and enjoy television and radio.  But, it is all very slow to get widely used.   For example, it’s a quarter century since ‘audio descriptions’  – adding a sound track to a TV programme describing what is happening in the picture – was first developed.  Today  only a handful of broadcasters throughout the world add audio descriptions to a few percent of their programmes.  Most do nothing at all.  It is a super aid for those with sight disabilities  and the aged to enjoy television.   But it does add to the cost of making TV programmes.    There is a new UN Convention which may impose obligations on broadcasters in this area, but it is rather vaguely worded.  Who is to know, and who is to decide, what are actually what the Convention calls ‘reasonable measures’ to help those with disabilities?   Does that include spending money?

The grey clouds got even darker with the last session of the WEMF 4, which concerned the growing numbers of journalists killed in the line of their job.   Delegates were truly moved by the long rolling caption showing all the journalists who have been murdered since the last WEMF.   The UN has asked governments to protect them, but the reality is that the situation is getting worse.  And two thirds of the deaths have nothing to do with war, but with reporting crime.   Everyone agrees on ‘taking action in a meaningful way’, but  the detail is that no one knows which action to take.   The meeting touched on ‘citizen journalists’ – Joe Public who uses their mobile phone to shoot news and send it in.  What protection do they have?   None at all.
How could the WEMF be seen overall?   The organizers could not have been more helpful.  The arrangements were stylish.  The discussions were a roller coaster of problems.   Did it come anywhere near the UN request to ‘shape the future of broadcast and broadband for the benefit of mankind’?   That, alas, is still someway away.

The picture shows TV anchors Paola and Sergio moderating the opening

The picture shows EBU's David Lewis addressing the WEMF

The picture below shows the 3D TV camera being used by Televisa to shoot the WEMF4 in 3D. Two normal Panasonic Cameras are mounted on a cross bar, spaced at about 6-10 cm apart.  The cross bar is mounted on a large ‘crane dolly’ which allows the 3D camera to move anywhere in the conference room from the back to the front as the producer wishes.  The resulting 3D pictures are stored on Blu ray discs in compressed form.  Mexican style television production grammar usually involves very close cameras.

3D TV camera used by Televisa to shoot the WEMF4 in 3D

]]> http://wemf.wordpress.com/2009/11/13/fourth-wemf-shot-in-3d/feed/ 1 David Wood WEMF1_3D WEMF2_3D WMF3Dcamera http://wemf.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/glamour-internet-and-danger-to-life-wemf-4-begins-in-mexico/ http://wemf.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/glamour-internet-and-danger-to-life-wemf-4-begins-in-mexico/#comments Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:05:04 +0000 David Wood http://wemf.wordpress.com/?p=19 ]]> WEMF 4 began in style.  The conference room was expensively dressed for television programme production by the national Mexican broadcaster, Televisa.   The two-handed opening moderation was done by glamorous local TV anchor Paola Rojas, and the sober-male TV anchor Sergio Sarmiento from the other national network.  This was bound to be newsworthy, and at one point there seemed as many press photographers and TV cameramen in the room as conference participants.    Projecting this forward, if a future conference has participants which are all press photographers and TV cameramen, would this work?

The opening session was intended to set the scene and highlight key issues, with each broadcasting union saying what they thought was important for the conference to solve. A range of local broadcast managers explained how they saw things, as did the relevant Mexican government minister, and a senior man at the UN.

David Lewis from the EBU reminded the conference of the mortal danger journalists’ face in some countries – in the absence of any wars.  By his calculation, Mexico itself holds the highest risk of life for journalists of any country in the western world.   Later, the Minister gave a frank reply.    Mexico has changed to a country with complete freedom of speech, but at the same time has seen organized crime.  The window was opened and bad as well as good came in.   But this, we were assured, will change.

The UN presentation too (Mr. Akasaka) was impressive.   The purpose of the conference should be clear:  “to shape the future of broadcasting and broadband for the benefit of all mankind”.  But what, your blogger thought, are we going to do after lunch?   The UN down to earth analysis of the situation was startling.  Only 15% of the developing world has any access to Internet, and they pay much more than the developed world for access.  The poorest people pay the highest costs.   There are more broadband connections in even a small developed country like Australia that in the whole of Africa.

He also stressed the priority of the protection of journalists.  His epithet that ‘no news is bad news when there are atrocities’ rang in all our ears.

Paolo and Sergio went back to their TV studios leaving many problems to solve.

The next session looked at the oncoming train of broadband and its effects on broadcasting – friend or foe?  Predictably everyone argued that broadcasters have to accept the inevitable and work with broadband, not against it.   Broadcasters have to move from using Internet for promotion to providing real services.  One worrying fact was that companies which are embedded in one world rarely see the future coming and make a success of it.   We have to hope broadcasters are different from saddle makers, and can move on to make cars.

The World Electronic Media Forum takes place in different parts of the world every two years. 2009 is the turn of Mexico City.

WEMF discusses and pontificates on worldwide issues in media content and policy for broadcasting and Internet. How far have the good intentions of the last WEMFs been put into practice? What are the new challenges coming out of the age of ‘convergence? These were what the delegates from all over the world came to Mexico City to find out.

Did we think about H1N1 as we flew in? Of course. All passengers when they land have to complete a questionnaire about whether they had a sniffle, throat tickle, or headache recently. It’s actually difficult on a 12 hour air controlled flight not to.

Further on, all passengers must press a large red button, which measures your temperature. But hang on, if the person in front of you presses the button and he has the virus, won’t you pick it up from the button…..?

Mexico City is spectacular from the incoming air plane seat, and seems to sit on top of a plateau of a billion lights. You learn that locally it’s pronounced Meh-he-co…but then try to hail a ‘Tah-he’, and nary a cab appears.

The Sessions will cover the relationship between Internet and Broadcasting, the impact of the digital switch over, journalists just doing their job in mortal danger, helping persons with disabilities (now subject of a recent UN Convention), and the need for broadcasters to work closer to bodies like the UK to ensure the public hears the important things. It should be interesting. Subject to compatibility of local spicy food and my interior system I will report highlights over the next few days.

The steam also came up with the Session 1 of the second day’s World Electronic Media Forum, the WEMFIII.   It was about helping the ‘non mainstream’ listener, viewer, or user.  There are the poor, and there are those with ‘special needs’.   For the poor we may be on the threshold of the ’100 dollar computer’, to be made available to kids throughout the developing countries, which seems (to the author) the dream of the developed world too… miniscule power consumption, unbreakable, and easy to use.  You know you want one.   

The other user groups are those with ‘Special Needs’ – the handicapped.   The Session showed that in Europe, Japan, and the United States engineers are working of the same kinds of things, like ways to make using digital television and radio receivers easy to use.  Handbooks that don’t need a training course to understand?  Same buttons on all equipment?  Here, hang on, don’t even those without ‘Special Needs’ want this?   The fact is the regions are all working independently on this, and so we are likely to end up with a lot of non helpful differences in this helpful technology.    

Session 2 concerned how to make broadcasts available to everyone, particularly those in poor areas of the world.  One of the tools available for bringing radio to Africa is the ‘wind up radio’ – apparently designed to look like a handbag, so girls don’t mind carrying it into the fields.  Near the top of the causes of failure list (it was said) is goats eating the leads.   Technology marches on, and the new version will also be an MP3 player, and have data ports.   Nice, but is the need for such is coming to an end with the more widespread use of mobile phones with build in radios? 

Session 3 looked at the ‘explosion’ of ways ordinary people can contribute to the media, what is called the ‘Public Sphere’.  It is true that anyone can have a voice on Internet, but there were fears that this was not bringing a healthy diversification of views, but a polarisations of views around particular opinions.  The web 2.0 might not be the harbinger of diversity, but of counterproductive polarisation. These were things to think about amid all the euphoria of the web global village.  

Session 4. was about who decides what is important in the news we watch and hear – what are the most important issues of the day – academics call this ‘agenda setting’.   A university professor from Iran reported an analysis of the media in the west, showing a lack of fairness to Iran.  A doctor from Malaysia argued that agenda are set by groups of Elite.  It was a touchy political debate.  But no one argued that the news that the world sees and hears is mainly news about the ‘west’, though no ‘remedy’ emerged.  Perhaps there isn’t one?.   In a wrap up session, the conclusions from all the sessions were brought together, and suggestions were made for the common conclusions.   The next WEMF will be in South America in 2009.   

Let’s hope the mortality rate for Journalists has begun to fall then.  We’ll probably be on ‘Web 3.0′ (at least).  Maybe I’ll be able to buy a 100 dollar laptop there too?  

Just before landing, the Captain announces that there is ‘capital punishment for drug carriers in Malaysia’.  I worry about mistakes with my coat-pocket sachets of Switzerland’s favourite cure-anything ‘Neo-Citron’.   No arrest is made.

The meeting begins with keynotes about what has been achieved at previous WEMFs, and the prospects for the current one – one of the keynotes by EBU President Fritz Pleitgen is effective, though with a script containing (to the tuned ear) many a turn of phrase by EBU Head of Governance, David Lewis.  

Last time, the two hottest topics were about assuring that Journalist’s stay alive in difficult situations, and the awaking of the knowledge that most of the world’s audio visual archives are deteriorating ‘under our noses’.   These issues still remained hot, but the place (or threat) of  ‘user generated content’ – stories and pictures made by the public – seemed likely to need discussion too.

Session 2.  Speakers try to sum up what are the key challenges today in broadcasting in technology, programmes, and regulation.  It came down (for Leiven Vermaele) to broadcasters making use of Internet communities to build on their TV and radio programmes, and (for others) to staying ahead of the new technology game.   The User Generated Content question of who is/could/should verify that the content really is what it purports to be lurked in the background. 

Session 3.  Edith Piaf sings of life on the streets of Paris – the Berlin Wall comes down – Khrushchev changes history at the UN.  These were some of the images of the past designed to provoke attendees to weep at the potential loss of the world’s audio visual archives – not an unlikely prospect.  The world has so far assembled about 200 million hours of audio/visual material.  About half will disappear in the next 10 years – unless something is done.  UNESCO estimates the proportion to be higher – 80%.   The Session ‘Lost to the World’ described what steps a working group of the WBU/EBU, the UN, and UNESCO have done.  A campaign to sensitize the media and governmental community is underway.  The web site is www.archivesatrisk.org.

Session 4. The first day of the Conference could only be called ‘moving’.   When human beings are killed in a conflict situation it is tragedy. Journalists are not lesser human beings.  They bring the truth about the conflict to a world that needs to know. They have to be allowed to live or we will never hear or see the truth.   The Session on ‘protecting the truth tellers’ was harrowing.  The number of Journalists killed in the line of their job is rising each year.  Somehow, all the speakers agreed, this trend has to be reversed. More training, more awareness, more deterrence?  But can it be done?  Only a soothsayer would know.   

The first day ended with an examination of campaigns for Aids awareness by the Global Media AIDS initiative.  Not a day for ‘joy to the world’.