The Second Summit of the Heads of State and Government of the Council of Europe mandated the Organisation to "to develop a European policy for the application of the new information technologies, with a view to ensuring respect for human rights and cultural diversity, fostering freedom of expression and information and maximising the educational and cultural potential of these technologies".
The Council of Europe is currently drafting a declaration outlining the European policy requested by the Summit. In parallel, different sectors of the Organisation are developing policies designed to maximise the potential of the new information technologies (NITs) in their sectors of competence.
The Council of Europe's objective is to maintain and enhance its core values of human rights, the rule of law, cultural diversity and the freedom of expression, conscience and association.
Consequently, the Culture Committee, assisted by the Cultural Policy and Action Division, is launching a number of activities aiming at revising cultural policy instruments to correspond to the constantly evolving context of the information society. The key principles to be promoted, both in the field of culture and in other fields of competence of the Council of Europe, are:
-access,
-creation and creativity,
-identity, diversity and pluralism,
-participation and
-the rule of law.
Key factors affecting the value chain of cultural creation, production, distribution and use in the convergent environment are being identified and existing structural shortcomings attended to as well as possible remedies developed.
Education: M.A. in political science, University of Helsinki
Extracts from professional career:
Present position:
Special Adviser, Council of Europe, Directorate of Education, Culture and Sports, Cultural Policy and Action Division.
Main tasks include participation in the preparation of the Council of Europe Declaration, requested by the Second Summit of the Heads of State and Government of the Council of Europe in October 1997, on new information technologies and participation in the preparation of European cultural policy for the information society.
Previous positions:
Special Adviser, Ministry of Education and Culture of Finland, International Relations 1996-1998
Expert on audiovisual policy, European Commission, DG X 1994-1996
Secretary General, State Committee on Audiovisual Integration, Ministry of Education and Culture of Finland, 1993-1994
Project Manager, Audiovisual Eureka Center, 1991-1993
Representations:
Member of the Finnish delegation to the Council of Europe's CDCC, 1996-1998
Member of the Bureau Audiovisual Eureka, 1997-1998
Member of the Coordinators' Committee of Audiovisual Eureka, 1992-1994 and 1996-1998
Member of the Bureau of European Audiovisual Observatory, 1997-1998
Member of the Executive Council of European Audiovisual Observatory, 1994 and 1996-1998
Member of the Finnish delegation to the Advisory Committee of MEDIA Programme 1993-1994
Member of the Finnish delegation to the Council of Europe's CDMM, 1992-1994
Cultural Policy and Action Division
The Council of Europe is an international organisation based in the French city of Strasbourg. It was established by 10 countries in the wake of the Second World War, with the signing of its Statute in London on 5 May 1949. Today, there are 40 Member States. Its main role is to strengthen democracy, human rights and the rule of law throughout its member states. The defence and promotion of these fundamental values is no longer simply an internal matter for governments but has become a shared and collective responsibility of all the countries concerned.
The Strasbourg Summit of October 1997 fixed new priorities for co-operative efforts which will now benefit some 800 million Europeans. Fostering social cohesion and protecting citizen security more effectively are two of the main emphases. Others include promoting human rights - the establishment of a single, permanent Court on 1 November 1998 will be an important part of this - and strengthening democracy.
Development of a European policy in order to ensure that the core values of the Council of Europe are maintained and strengthened in the emerging information society is one of the priorities. Consequently, the Council is continuing and further intensifying its efforts to that extent as well as preparing a common Declaration on the application of new information technologies.
