The Daily Summit - Stop the press.

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December 08, 2003

Stop the press. So, we know how many people each government is sending to the World Summit, but how many of their citizens know they are going? Daily Summit has compiled a league table of journalists accredited to each country.

Does it say something about the Malaysian government's attitude to free speech that it is sending 137 government officials but not one journalist (according to offical lists)?

Scroll down for table.

Switzerland is unsurprisingly top of the table with an army of 300 journalists (are there any Swiss hacks not going?), but it is the French, British and American results that are some of the most intriguing.

France has got a weasel up its trouser leg over the English language's supremacy on the internet and is clearly planning something.

Meanwhile the UK, a country whose government has so little interest in WSIS that it is only sending a junior minister, has a surprisingly high number of journalists attending. You certainly wouldn't have guessed from the advance coverage WSIS has received in the British press.

And the US? For somewhere that has more journalists than any country on the planet 20 doesn't seem that many...

Perhaps more interesting still is the absence of any journalists from Malaysia, despite having the largest government delegation with 137 officials. The only other country to have such a discrepancy between its government and press delegates is Gabon, where civil servants outnumber journos by 33 to 1.

And on a more quizzical note: who would have thought that Bangladesh had such a strong interest in the information society?

300 Switzerland (compared to 48 government officials)
70 France (108 gov't officials)
40 United Kingdom (34 gov't officials)
33 Bangladesh (61 gov't officials)
27 Tunisia (21 gov't officials)
26 Italy (36 gov't officials)
23 Germany (58 gov't officials)
20 United States (66 gov't officials)
18 Lebanon
17 Azerbaijan
17 Pakistan
16 Romania
16 South Africa
15 Japan
15 Nigeria
13 Iran
11 Cuba
11 Ghana
10 Belgium
9 Kenya
9 Netherlands
7 Cameroon
7 Canada
7 Morocco
7 Sri Lanka
6 Egypt
6 Spain
5 Portugal
4 Austria
4 Botswana
4 Haiti
4 Mozambique
4 Russian Federation
4 Senegal
4 Togo
3 Brazil
3 Costa Rica
3 Croatia
3 Dem. Rep. of the Congo
3 Ethiopia
3 Finland
3 Iraq
3 Nepal
3 Rwanda
3 Turkey
3 Uruguay
3 Zimbabwe
2 Algeria
2 Armenia
2 Colombia
2 Denmark
2 Gabon
2 Philippines
2 Thailand
2 Uganda
1 Argentina
1 Belarus
1 Benin
1 Bosnia and Herzegovina
1 Bulgaria
1 China
1 Czech Rep.
1 Ecuador
1 Georgia
1 Hungary
1 India
1 Kuwait
1 Latvia
1 Mexico
1 Moldova
1 Namibia
1 Serbia and Montenegro
1 Sierra Leone
1 Solomon Islands
1 Sudan
1 Sweden
1 Tanzania
1 Trinidad and Tobago
1 Yemen
1 Zambia

Jack Malvern @ December 8, 2003 12:27 PM

Comments (3)

i dont see any one from Uganda, yet I am very much here. Arent there any officials from my country here?

Julius Mucunguzi @ December 8, 2003 05:05 PM

I'm trying to decide if the 6 officials from Trinidad and Tobago are going to do enough to keep one journalist busy.

Taran @ December 8, 2003 07:07 PM

With between 500 to 900 International Media in Geneva right now one has to wonder why they all missed a history making event on Monday. There are over 200 Participants in the First ever, Fully Represented, UN Sanctioned, Worldwide Indigenous Group Forum which began a 4 day World Summit workshop Monday in Geneva and no media appear to have covered it. There seems to be a gaggle of reporters who are content to collect per diem and write about the various chiefs of state and wealthy governments who are shunning the WSIS this week, yet a fully attended World Forum, just across town is being ignored and shunned by the very same outspoken media folks. One might say it's just another case of the kettle calling the pot black or perhaps the same as someone who does not vote complaining about the bad laws in their country. Instead of enduring the organizational chaos at Palexpo, every media person in attendance has an opportunity to document history in the making! The Indigenous Nations are determined to deliver a full consenus Programme of Action to the World Summit this Thursday. Please share the journey of that excitement with the world it WILL shape the future of the Information Society and you don't want to miss it! If you choose to remedy this situation and have a little fun Tuesday, the morning workshops cover Culture: Histories/Herstories, Traditional Communication/Implications for Modern Technologies and Indigenous Intellectual Property issues with the fourteen speakers representing 10 countries. Tuesday afternoon's workshops cover E-Education, E-Health and Private Sector Panels with the ten speakers representing 6 countries. You will also get to enjoy a scenic trip during your short bus ride there!

From Palexpo Bus #5 leaves 7x/hr (every 8 minutes) for the UN and takes you to the Nations (UN Buildings) stop in just 8 minutes. The Global Forum on Indigenous People and the Information Society (GFIPIS) is at the Geneva International Conference Center (CICG) just a couple minutes walk from the UN, past the UIT/ITU building. The return ride also leaves every 8 minutes and takes 10 minutes to deliver you back to Palexpo. If you have a WSIS badge the fare is waived, otherwise it is between 2 and 3 francs (CHF) to ride.Full Forum Schedule thru Thursday Bus #5 Schedule Palexpo to UN Bus #5 Schedule, to Palexpo

Kathryn DeVries @ December 9, 2003 03:22 AM

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