The World Wide Web Foundation calls for the next set of UN
development goals to include access to information and freedom
of expression
Feb 4, 2014 at 5:21 am • Gabe Trodd
The World Wide Web Foundation has joined hundreds of civil
society organisations and campaign groups from around the
world in calling for the next set of UN development goals to
include access to information and freedom of expression. The
statement includes 195 signatories from civil society
organisations from 77 countries on all 5 continents.
The joint statement comes ahead of a meeting of the UN Open
Working Group for Sustainable Development Goals, which takes
place in New York this week – and will include further
discussions on governance. Calling on the United Nations to
put government accountability and independent media at the
centre of a new framework for global development, the
statement says:
‘Human development in the coming decades will depend on
people’s access to information. Ground-breaking new media and
technology are enabling major expansion of economic, social
and political progress.
We believe that freedom of expression and access to
independent media are essential to democratic and economic
development. Freedom of speech and the media are means to
advance human development and are ends in their own right.’