ROUND TABLES

Theme 3 - Cultural Policy and the Changing Role of Government: Opportunity for Exchange and Dialogue

Synthesis

During this session, the Working Group on Cultural Heritage and the Working Group on Broadcasting in a Global Environment presented their findings to the Ministers.The Ministers discussed these issues while considering the role of national governments in cultural policy making. They reflected on the effectiveness of existing policies and considered new emerging trends and their impact on cultural policy-making.

The initial discussions during this session focused primarily on media and broadcasting issues. Marita Ulvskog of Sweden expressed her concerns about the increasing concentration in media ownership, the strength of the economic actors involved in the media sector and their capacity to deliver a global homogenous message. In her opinion, this new trend in the media sector poses a challenge to cultural diversity and should be monitored closely. Since the Working Group on
Broadcasting in a Global Environment concluded its work on broadcasting issues, Marita Ulvskog proposed that Sweden lead a Special Policy Research Team on Media Issues to analyze trends in media ownership and policies in this field. She encouraged Ministers to have strong political will and support for public service broadcasting.

Moving from media policy to a broader cultural policy perspective, Antun Vujic of Croatia spoke of core values to be included in cultural policy. In his opinion, culture, democracy and development are strongly interrelated and should be the basis of all cultural policy. He added that culture and democracy therefore should be an integral part of development strategies. Sheila Copps of Canada noted that in order to achieve this goal the role of minority cultures needs to be recognized and local people have to be given tools to build capacity.

Jaime Nualart of Mexico turned the discussion to cultural heritage. He stressed the importance of broadening the definition of heritage to include rituals, lifestyles and linguistic expressions. Luis Armando Soto of Colombia agreed that in order to be inclusive, the definition of heritage should include intangible aspects of culture since most tangible aspects mostly represent the dominant social and ethnic groups in society. He encouraged Ministers to modernize cultural heritage institutions that remain tangible heritage focused and make them more inclusive of these new
realities. Brigitte Mabandla of South Africa concluded the discussion by discussing the threats to heritage sites in developing countries in general and in Africa in particular. She commented on the lack of resources to preserve and maintain heritage sites in developing countries and spoke of the need for foreign aid to alleviate this problem.

During this session, Ministers discussed the challenges and issues facing the broadcasting industry. Italy was thanked for chairing the Working Group on Broadcasting in a Global Environment. Ministers agreed that Sweden lead a Special Policy Research Team to examine media concentration issues. Ministers also gave Mexico’s Working Group on Cultural Heritage a mandate to broad the definition of intangible heritage to include intangible aspects of culture and to conduct a study of cultural heritage policies in INCP member countries.

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