Table
of Contents
Home
Introduction
What
is Information Ethics
Global
Information Justice
Intellectual
Property
Censorship
Privacy
Concluding
Remarks
Notes
Resources |
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| Global Information Justice
(GIJ) as an ethical ideal flows out of and is closely related to the idea
of global access to information, i.e. bridging the distance between
the information have and have-nots. As earlier technology created
a distinction between nations based on industrial development (or lack
thereof), Information Technology has created a chasm between nations on
the basis of access to that technology.
According to Marcus Breen,
Information Technology is on the verge of becoming an undemocratic force
as it has "...reduced communication flows in society...."(4)
There is now an inorganic imbalance between the IT professionals and other
information producers/haves and the consumers of the information or those
with no access (the have-nots)- there is an information imbalance of power.
Globally, what this amounts to is a veritable wave of information/cultural
colonialism. The challenge for those on the sidelines of the Information
Age is to try to obtain and use the technology to their benefit without
being overwhelmed by it.
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| Increasingly a problem,
this divide has been discussed in UNESCO (The United Nations Educational,
Scientific, and Cultural Organization) and its INFOEthics Programme.
The ideal of this Programme is to emphasize the need for increased access
to information in the Public Domain in order to use Technology for the
promotion of greater information equity and justice. UNESCO has worked
to guide information professionals and policy makers to focus their attention
on informing and empowering all the world.(5)
One way UNESCO has done this is through the INFOEthics
Congresses, the last of which was in 2000.
Also out of UNESCO has
come the ICIE, the International Centre
for Information Ethics, an international think tank and centre for research
into the issues of Information Ethics. |
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Global
Information Justice