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com The People's Communication Charter is an initiative of the Third World Network (Penang, Malaysia) and the Centre for Communication & Human Rights (Amsterdam, the Netherlands). Basic to the initiative is the observation that across the world people face pervasive forms of censorship, distorted and misleading information, stereotyped images of gender and race, restricted access to knowledge, and insufficient channels to communicate their ideas and opinions. The reality of our communication environment reduces the capacity of ordinary men and women to control the decisions that others take about their lives. This 'dis-empowerment' violates the human entitlement to dignity, equality and liberty. To defend human integrity against this, communication should contribute to the 'empowerment' of people. This implies the need to improve the quality of our communication environment. This is a tall order. Communication is an arena largely controlled by very powerful interests. The media moguls and their political friends will not voluntarily put their stakes at risk. The information industries, the telecommunication operators and their large clients, the intellectual property industries and the supporting governments are not likely to act against the dis-empowering impact of communication. Moreover, in most societies people are at present not seriously concerned about the quality of their communication environment. So far the arena of communication politics has been ignored by people's movements! People are more worried about the killing of whales than about the disappearance of minority languages. However, since our communication environment is as essential to our common future as the natural ecology, it is time for people's movements to focus on the production and distribution of information and culture. If people do not want to be surrounded by electronic surveillance, political propaganda, or the incessant appeal to their consumerism, they cannot be complacent about the existing communication structures. If people refuse to be silenced and do not want to live with a massive choreography of televised violence, they cannot trust states and markets to accommodate their communication needs. They will have to take responsibility themselves. An obvious problem is that information consumers are not normally organised in representative associations. They are a diverse community, geographically dispersed and ideologically fragmented. It will be no easy matter to design effective mechanisms to articulate and defend the needs of such a heterogeneous community. A first step in this process could be the worldwide adoption by individuals and movements of The People's Communication Charter. This Charter provides the common framework for all those who share the belief that people should be active and critical participants in their social reality and capable of governing themselves. The People's Communication Charter can be a first step in the development of a permanent movement concerned with the quality of our communication environment. In the Summer of 1995, the latest version of the Charter will be distributed to all those who are interested. All these individuals and groups will be asked to indicate their support for the provisions of the Charter. After this 'ratification' process all the signatories will be consulted about the possibilities for implementation of the Charter. One of the ideas that has already been launched is to organise an International Tribunal that would receive complaints by signatories and invite the parties involved to submit evidence and defense upon which the Tribunal could come to a judgment. The establishment of such a Tribunal could contribute to the awareness that the quality of communication matters. The Charter is not an end in itself. It provides the basis for a permanent critical reflection on those worldwide trends that determine the quality of our lives in the third millennium. Bibliography:

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