One of
the most fundamental questions with which humanity is confronted at this
beginning of 21e century is that of the democracy. Will the transition generally desired towards
the democracy succeed or will see us on the contrary multiplying the
dictatorships, perhaps under new faces?
The question arises with a new acuity since the tragedy of September 11,
2001. To measure this evolution in
concrete terms - the democracy is not summarized with the multipartism - is a
priority task. This is why the World
Council of Radio-Télévision, an initiative of the civil company in favor of
public broadcasting, decided to consider the quality of the electronic media
under the only angle of their contribution to the democracy and the social
development. This contribution is
capital. Let us listen to professors
Nassanga and Alowo, University Makerere de Kampala: "Apart from the three traditional roles
of information, education and entertainement, the media has acquired several
others. These include socialization,
mobilization, watchdog, linking institutions, monitoring, mirror of society,
farming promotion, engine of changes, and interpretation of resulting." Without media of quality, no chance to make a
success of the true democratic transition, that which gives to the citizens
more control on their own destiny. The
electronic media are in first line because they are of an access much more
universal than the newspaper industry or than the Internet even the illiterate
ones and the inhabitants of the most moved back zones listen to the radio and,
in the cities, look at television and also because their role is closely
related to the everyday life of each one.
According to the happy formula of professor Karol Jakubowicz, "broadcasting
is the most universal and effective way of involving everyone in shared
frameworks". Let us underline in
the passing that the international speech on the freedom of the press tends to
consider the electronic media under the exclusive angle of their capacity to be
informed, by forgetting their other roles, however so significant... Tacitly recognized criteria We make the
assumption that, everywhere in the world, the listeners and televiewers are
aware of what the electronic media should bring to them from a citizen point of
view and which it is possible to evaluate the quality of the current offer
starting from criteria tacitly recognized in the whole world by the users
them-even.
We entrusted to professor
Louis Balme, of the ISAS (International Standardization and Accreditation
Services), the care to develop a first reference frame through qualitative
investigations in six countries as various as possible from/to each other: South Africa, Canada, Colombia, India,
Mauritius and Switzerland. In each
country, it questions three groups:
professionals of the media, users and experts, in their putting the
following question: from the point of
view of the social development and democracy, which would be the measurable
criteria to retain to evaluate in your country and according to your experiment
1) the electronic media (radio, television, Internet in its component media) in
terms of contents 2) the system of broadcasting in terms of structure and
infrastructure (outline law, bodies of regulation, roles reserved for the media
private, public, Community, geographical diffusion, etc.) Each group has to work according to the
Japanese method of the Diagram of Affinities, which guarantees concrete
results, in a coherent form, facilitating the international comparisons. A common international reference frame the
assumption to check is that professional, users and experts of the six
countries tested propose sufficient similar criteria to provide the base of a
common international reference frame, whose project should be available end
November 2002. We envisage of course
significant regional differences, but a joint base is essential to the
credibility of a universal step. In 2003,
if all is well, the project will be subjected to the international associations
radiodiffuseurs as with the bodies of regulation with an