<nettime> Informational human rights statement

[Oleg Kireev <kireev2000@cityline.ru>]

INFORMATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS STATEMENT
(to be presented at the "Uses and Abuses of the Language of Human
Rights" next5minutes4 panel in Amsterdam, Sept. 14th)


Oleg Kireev



Last year a famous film director Lars von Trier published a documentary cinema manifesto which defines rules for the documentary cinema making. This rules allow to avoid manipulation in editing, in filming etc., and to present the object with maximal fullness.

In the age of proceeding infowar - which the World-Information.org site had dedicated brilliant materials to - we need clear rules concerning making and delivery of information. These will be rules defining an ethics of an information exchange. Activists, journalists and media workers who want to oppose informational noise and falsifications will take responsibility in following these rules when producing or delivering information. These rules will become a Charter for the informational human rights. They will not only formulate professional ethics of media-workers but will also give an information consumer an idea of a quality information which he has right to demand. These rules have to be compiled without any reservations about the relativity and subjectivity of ethical demands or about the interpretation subjectivity, and published. For sure, they will stay open for further discussions and corrections, but will become a basis for an informational solidarity.
 
Herewith I suggest several basic formulas for informational human rights.


1.      When producing information, an informer gives all the present factual datas with maximal precision.

2.      When transmitting an information, an informer doesn't change anything nor add anything. When there're several contradictory sources an informer delivers all factual datas with source indication.

3.      An informer doesn't create informational cases himself. If information is produced by a participant of an action or an event, then he "forgets" about his participation when producing an information.

4.      Information has to be delivered with minimum of generalizations, therefore an informer also "forgets" his analytical opinions (for instance those concerning causes and consequences of an event) and tells them separately from an immediate information.

5.      Information has to be strictly tied in time to the event.

6.      Any wrong information has to be refuted. 

7.      Any superfluous, unreliable or not-in-time information has to be qualified as an informational noise. An informational noise producer is as hostile as a manufactured information producer.


We share the point of view that information is the highest value of contemporary society. 
An agreement about common informational principles will allow us to elaborate a perception of information which corresponds to its value.

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