Media Management (1)

Media Management
Part 1: Technologies for Corporate and Educational Applications

• By David Gulbransen.
• Date: Feb 4, 2005.
Article Information
Contents
1. Introduction to Media Management
2. Two Approaches: Hardware Versus Software
3. Hardware-Based Systems
4. Software-Based Systems
5. Planning and Implementation
6. Media Management Wrap-Up
7. Media Management: Tip Sheet

Article Description
For years, The IT industry has been bandying about the term "convergence," meaning the merger of computer networking and media technologies. Well, convergence has finally arrived: Several systems are available that are geared directly toward media management. This article is part 1 of a two-part series in which we take a look at some of the media management technologies for corporate and educational applications. In part 2, we'll take a look at the scaled-down versions of these technologies emerging for the home market.

Apple Pro Training Series: Optimizing Your Final Cut Pro System
Suppose your division of the company is producing training documentation for a new business process to be rolled out in the next quarter. You've spent a lot of time developing great training materials, including a fantastic videotape that will allow satellite offices to enjoy the same training session as the home office, without the expense of flying a corporate trainer to Timbuktu and back. Now comes the question: How do you distribute that training video?
Sure, you can copy the tape and ship the copies via FedEx. But then you'll need NTSC versions of the tape as well as PAL versions. Not to mention that VHS just doesn't look very good. No problem—DVD technology is here, and you can create DVDs to ship.
But as the word of your project gets out, the CEO has a great idea: Anyone in the company should be able to access the video and complete the training on his or her own schedule—worldwide training on demand.
Then you get a call from another department. They loved the preview you sent out. In fact, they want to use part of your video in a training program they're putting together for partners, but they need to edit out the sensitive internal information.
Suddenly you're swamped with work, all related to the distribution and reuse of that award-winning training session. Or presentation. Or internal communication piece. The type of content doesn't really matter—the result is the same: You need a media management solution.
1- Introduction to Media Management
The amount of information we consume today is staggering. Between print, radio, television, and the Internet, we're surrounded by messages in a variety of formats, all vying for our attention.
As the amount of media that we produce and archive increases, we need new tools to deal with the massive amounts of data, as well as compressing/converting it into various formats for various uses; finally, we need some way of cataloging and retrieving relevant media elements for various uses.
Corporate users have a variety of needs related to media management. Companies may want to distribute internal training and communications videos, as well as corresponding PowerPoint presentations or Excel documents. Imagine a presentation by the CEO, accessible to the entire corporation worldwide, viewable on PCs, Macs, or on DVD, and with the CEO's PowerPoint presentation playing side-by-side with his speech. That's not the future; it's available now.
This technology is even more powerful in the education arena. Imagine being able to provide lectures and courses to remote areas, or sharing a guest speaker at regional campuses, or having an archive of a class that can be offered for continuing education courses to professionals, via the web. The possible applications are astonishing.
2- Two Approaches: Hardware Versus Software
Of course, any solution for media management will be composed of both hardware and software; the two go hand in hand. However, two slightly different approaches are taken by the largest players in the media management market:
• In software-based systems, the bulk of the work—capturing, converting, and cataloging assets—is performed by specialized software running on industry-standard server hardware. The advantage of this method is that you can leverage some of your existing servers and upgrade features of the management system without additional investment in hardware. Some specialized components, such as video capture, still require specialized hardware; however, these systems emphasize choice and can usually accommodate a variety of off-the-shelf components for capture.
• Hardware-based systems consist of one-stop solutions that incorporate capturing hardware, encoding hardware, and software into one proprietary system. The advantage of these systems is ease of integration (and sometimes cost).
3- Hardware-Based Systems
Distribution of media assets over the Internet is network-intensive, so it makes sense that one company leading the way in media distribution is Cisco Systems. Cisco has developed the Application and Content Networking System (ACNS), which leverages software from Interactive Video Technologies along with Cisco ACNS hardware to streamline content delivery.
The Cisco system can provide video-on-demand services as well as live broadcasts and presentation distribution. Because it utilizes Cisco networking hardware, this system can be an extremely cost-effective solution for distribution of media assets throughout an organization. However, because it's a hardware-based solution, it involves tweaking your network infrastructure and limits you to distribution via the Cisco hardware. This system also comes with a hefty price tag. Still, for large organizations with offices located around the world, the Cisco-based solutions offer a very powerful means for content distribution.
For organizations that have Fortune 500 needs without Fortune 500 budgets, Digital Rapids' StreamZ server line offers content distribution that's primarily geared toward video distribution. The StreamZ line allows an organization to quickly and easily distribute media in a variety of formats over the web. The company's tagline is not far off the mark: "What if you could plug a VCR right into your network?" Your video goes into the server in one format, and comes out in any number of other formats—including Windows Media, QuickTime, DivX, and MPEG—in real time. StreamZ servers are extremely easy to use and integrate, and the servers scale to meet a variety of organizational needs. However, there are some drawbacks. Scaling the servers to larger enterprises means adding more and more StreamZ to your network, and the presentation-integration capabilities of the system are limited. If your media assets are principally on video, this might be the way to go, but for more complete media integration you might look at other solutions.
Along the same lines as the servers from Digital Rapids are the Optibase MGW line of servers for video distribution. These servers provide video-on-demand as well as streaming video options, and are designed to be a one-stop solution for video distribution. Unlike some of the other products we'll take a peek at later, the MGW line is limited to video distribution. However, Optibase is one of the leading producers of encoding hardware, and many of their capture cards form the basis of the other software-based solutions we'll explore. For standalone, hardware-based video distribution, Optibase remains a solid solution.
VBrick is another company offering hardware-based video distribution systems. One advantage to VBrick's architecture is that many of its products are designed to be highly scalable. In addition to encoding and decoding appliances, VBrick offers video-on-demand servers, streaming servers, and some very unique set-top box hardware.
Like the other hardware-based solutions, VBrick can provide simultaneous format encoding and distribution over the network. However, the EtherneTV set-top box is a product that plugs into your network and into a TV, LCD, or plasma monitor, allowing you to play network-distributed video sources over a standard television interface. It's a great way to distribute traditional video content to various locations and show that content over traditional video equipment. One nice feature of the VBrick product line is affordability. Because each appliance is specialized, the cost per unit tends to be fairly low, making it a cost-effective means for building exactly the network that you need.
Finally, Telestream offers a mix of software and hardware solutions in their FlipFactory and ClipView product lines. The FlipFactory line allows simultaneous encoding of video assets into a variety of formats, which can then be distributed over the web. The ClipView, ClipExpress, and ClipMail products offer a hardware-based distribution system that allows you to distribute encoded video over IP networks to a variety of locations and devices.
Media: More Than Just Video
Most of the systems we've considered so far excel in terms of video content distribution. However, what about true media integration? That's where software-based systems really start to outpace their hardware-centric brethren.
Video is a fantastic tool for communication. However, many organizations are just beginning to develop sophisticated video communications; the bulk of communications in many organizations still comes in the form of Microsoft Office applications that accompany presentations. Many organizations would be lost without their reports in Word, spreadsheets in Excel, and the ever-present PowerPoint slides that accompany that presentation to the board or client pitch.
4- Software-Based Systems
At the forefront of software-based content management systems are the offerings from Virage. Without a doubt, Virage is the Cadillac of content management—with Ferrari pricing. The two flagship products from Virage, VS Archive and VS Webcasting, offer an unprecedented level of content management and distribution.
Just what can the Virage system do? Well, it can take your video sources and distribute them in a variety of formats via browser over the network. It can also help you to archive those video assets, keeping metadata about those assets to make searching useful. Oh, and it can also perform facial recognition on speakers in the video, and perform a real-time speech-to-text transcript. If that isn't enough, it has a system that allows you to provide users with access to video clips stored in the system, giving them the ability to edit together new clips, all within a browser interface. With the VS Webcasting component, you can broadcast PowerPoint and other documents in conjunction with the video, so that viewers can see both the presenter and the presentation in the same window. They can even perform real-time polling, and the entire presentation can be archived and stored for later viewing.
If it sounds like an incredible system, it is. However, the management power provided doesn't come cheap. It does leverage off-the-shelf servers and hardware, allowing it to be integrated into enterprise data farms easily, and so on. However, the components from Virage are very much aimed at large-scale enterprise deployment.
Running a close second to Virage in terms of functionality are the products from AnyStream. AnyStream started out principally in the area of real-time encoding. As the company name would imply, they have encoding down pat. With their Agility product, AnyStream can quickly and easily convert video content into nearly any form of video distribution imaginable. It's a powerful tool for streaming video distribution or video-on-demand. However, AnyStream hasn't stopped there. Their Apreso software component is designed for presentation integration; with Apreso, you can integrate video with PowerPoint presentations and other document formats for a single point of distribution for entire presentations.
TIP
One of the truly amazing things about most of these software solutions is that they can be used in conjunction with one another. For example, products from Virage and AnyStream store metadata related to their video archives in SQL databases; therefore, with a little bit of tweaking, organizations can roll out implementations of multiple-vendor solutions in order to tailor a complete system designed to fit the needs of all the departments that might utilize these content management and distribution systems.
Another provider of video solutions is VideoBank, which offers a software solution built on off-the-shelf Windows servers. Like Virage and AnyStream, the VideoBank solution allows simultaneous encoding for video into multiple formats, and redistribution of video assets over the web.
VideoBank also makes use of a centralized database with file metadata, which allows users to integrate other file types along with video assets, to provide a more robust media content management solution. And because it's built on common database technology, it can be incorporated with other software solutions such as Virage and AnyStream.
Not to be left out of the content management arena, Pictron has recently announced the Media Gateway Presenter. In conjunction with the Pictron's Media Gateway system, the Presenter product allows the integration of presentation files in addition to video offerings.
5 - Planning and Implementation
Deploying a content management solution involves a great deal of planning beyond the content management solution itself. In addition to selecting the content management/distribution system that makes the most sense for your organization, you need to be certain that key systems don't get overlooked:
• Content creation infrastructure. Does your organization currently have video production facilities? How is video content for your organization created: in-house? outside contractors? You need to carefully evaluate how your organization creates the content you're going to manage and distribute. The ingestion portion of your content management system must be compatible with the types of video assets you're currently producing, and that may mean changing some of the ways in which you produce content.
• Network infrastructure. Email and FTP can be taxing on a network, but they pale in comparison to the demands of streaming or on-demand video. Before you design a grand system to deliver training videos directly to the desktop of everyone within your organization, take a good hard look at your network infrastructure to ensure that you have the bandwidth to handle projected usage and a clear plan for growth as demands increase.
6- Media Management Wrap-Up
The tools that are currently emerging for media content management and distribution are very exciting. We've gone from a time when a winning presentation was an executive with an LCD projector in a room, to one where it's possible to have three executives in different offices around the world present to board members who are also scattered around the globe, in real-time, with everyone in the comfort of their own offices. And that presentation can be archived for other employees to review or edit into yet another—completely different—presentation for the annual meeting.
In fact, many organizations are intimidated at first by the flexibility and power that these modern systems afford users. However, those same organizations find that once they've implemented these systems, new methods of working and communication evolve that surpass even their wildest expectations. "Knowledge is power," but too much information can leave us feeling overwhelmed, unless we have content management solution that allows us to easily share, organize, and distribute that knowledge.
7- Media Management: Tip Sheet
• Software-based solutions, which are actually a mix of proprietary software and off-the-shelf hardware, offer flexible solutions designed to grow with your needs. Here are some of the top software-based system vendors:
o Virage
o AnyStream
o VideoBank
o Pictron
o Telestream
o Interactive Video Technologies
• A number of hardware manufacturers also play in the media content and distribution game. These companies make hardware used for encoding and/or distribution. Some offer their own software and some bundle their hardware with software from other vendors. Here are some of the hardware system leaders:
o Cisco
o Digital Rapids
o Optibase
o VBrick Systems
http://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.asp?p=366534&seqNum=7&rl=1

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Media Management(2)

Media Management
Part 2: Audio/Video Solutions for the Home
• By David Gulbransen.
• Date: Feb 25, 2005.
Article Information
Contents
1. Media Management for the Home
2. DVRs Gone Wild
3. Computer-Based Systems
4. Audio and Video
5. Audio-Only Solutions
6. Wrapping Up
7. Home Media Management: Tip Sheet

Article Description
This article concludes David Gulbransen's two-part series on the convergence of computer networking and media technologies. Part 1 discussed some of the current media management technologies for corporate and educational applications. This article looks at the scaled-down versions of these technologies emerging for home entertainment.
Media Management for the Home
Do you love music? Do you love movies? Are you a photo nut, snapping away at every gathering of family or friends? If so, computing technology has come a long way in providing you with numerous ways to spend your time and your money.
Not long ago, portable music was pretty rare, but transistor radios changed all that. The Walkman ushered in another era of unprecedented portability that continues today, with products like the iPod and other MP3 players. The overwhelming popularity of these products speaks of the American consumer: We want what we want when we want it.
The rise in popularity of the Internet and compressed audio and video formats has brought us to the point where music and video anywhere, anytime is nearly a reality. But there are a few drawbacks. The biggest obstacle is simply keeping track of all that media and getting it where we want it. Because so much of our world is now based around the home computer and the Internet, more and more of the music and movies we love find a home on our hard drives.
Having these files on the PC isn't too much of a problem for the portable player. We can connect the Rio, iPod, Argus, or whatever to the PC; download the songs we want to listen to or the videos we want to watch; and be on our merry way. Sure, it's a bit of a hassle, but not more than most consumers are willing to bear. But what about that same level of portability within our homes? That possibility has remained more elusive—until now.
Portable audio and video have been options for years. But what has eluded us has been getting that music, video, or photo from the PC—which typically sits in an office, den, or family room—to the stereo or TV in the living room, family room, or bedroom. Sure, many people have hooked up their PCs to their home entertainment centers, running the necessary cables back and forth. But just as many consumers have looked at the problem, shrugged, and not bothered.
Now, literally dozens of products are coming on the market that take advantage of the prevalence of wireless networking in the home and PCs, allowing you to use the airwaves to get your MP3s to the stereo and your movies to the 32-inch TV in the bedroom.
2. DVRs Gone Wild
DVRs Gone Wild
"TiVolution." "Replay Revolution." Whatever you want to call it, digital video recorders (DVRs) are here, and consumers love them. Because DVRs actually are computers integrated into home entertainment systems, they seem like a good place to start with media convergence.
Sure enough, TiVo has launched the Home Media option. With a TiVo Series2 recorder, you can use all of the regular TiVo features for recording broadcast programs. However, the Home Media option also allows you to connect to your PC (or Mac) and access your music and photo libraries. You can do this over a wired Ethernet connection, or using a wireless adapter. Once you've connected the Series2 TiVo to your network, it's relatively simple to start browsing your collection of music and photos.
What about costs? Start with the investment in the TiVo itself; the Home Media option is an add-on feature that costs more. And TiVo has a monthly service subscription fee as well. However, if you already own a Series2 TiVo that you use for recording television, the Home Media option might be a very easy, convenient, and cost-effective means of getting your music and photos from your PC to your home entertainment system.
3. Computer-Based Systems
Computer-Based Systems
You didn't really think that Microsoft would sit around idle and get locked out of the home entertainment market, did you? Of course not. Which is why Microsoft has introduced the Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005. This special edition of Windows is designed to run on Windows Media Center PCs, which are available from a variety of manufacturers, such as Dell and Gateway. The Media Center PC allows you to record and play live TV; burn and play DVDs; play Windows Media video, music, or radio; and view photos—all controlled via a remote control. It really is a PC that happens to go in your home entertainment center.
So what's the drawback? Well, cost is a big one. This really is a PC, and it costs as much as a PC. Actually, because of all the special features, typical Media Center PCs cost a little more than the average PC, which can put a serious dent in your movie and music budget.
Another PC-based offering comes from Sony: the Sony Vaio RoomLink Network Media Receiver. The RoomLink allows you to access all your music, video, and photos stored on your PC, and send them over the wireless network to your TV. However, in addition to the cost of the RoomLink receiver, which is not inexpensive, you need a Sony Vaio PC running Sony's Vaio Media software. If you're a devotee of all things Sony, this might be an option, but if you like a little more choice, there are much more flexible alternatives.
4. Audio and Video
Audio and Video
Of course, in some sense, all of the options here are "PC" based. The idea is to access the media files from your PC, after all. However, unlike the Media Center PC and the RoomLink, the following products allow you to get music, video, and photos from your existing PC, not purchase a new one.
Nearly all of the products here support most standard formats: MP3, WAV, WMA, JPEG, GIF, AVI, MPEG1/2/4, etc. Additionally, most work over both 802.11b and 802.11g, although for video performance you'd be much better off with an 802.11g network.
On the high end of these products is the Philips Streamium. There are several models in the Streamium line, starting around $300 and up depending on the features. All models allow you to connect to a wired or wireless network and play music, photos, or video from your PC. As with most of the products profiled here, you need to run a proprietary system—in this case, the Philips Media Manager—on your PC in order to access the media remotely. Although it's not the least expensive offering on the market, Streamium comes from a manufacturer with a solid reputation in home electronics and is easy to integrate into a home system without requiring additional purchases.
The PRISMIQ MediaPlayer is a device from PRISMIQ, a company currently offering this one product. They've been around since 2002, however, and the product does just what it's advertised to do. You can use it to play video, music, Internet radio, and photos from your PC on your home entertainment center. The MediaPlayer also allows you to browse the web on your TV, which is a nice additional feature. It works over a wired network or wireless—although it doesn't include a wireless card, so you have to purchase one separately. PRISMIQ has announced that they're working on a version that can function as a DVR, but that product hasn't been released. You need to run the PRISMIQ Media Manager on your PC, and unfortunately it only supports PCs. Mac users have to look at another solution.
Not to be outdone, several wireless networking manufacturers have their own line of wireless media players. First up is the D-Link Wireless Media Player. D-Link is best known as a provider of networking gateways, routers, hubs, and so on in the low-cost market. The D-Link Wireless Media Player works over a WiFi network and has wireless networking built in; no need to purchase a separate adapter. Of course, you need to run the D-Link Media Server software on your PC, which means that Mac users are once again out of luck.
Finally, networking company SMC offers the EZ-Stream, a WiFi streaming player that requires you to install the SMC Media Manager software on your PC. And again, Mac users are ignored. Curiously, the EZ-Stream doesn't support Windows Media files, even though it's a PC-only product.
5. Audio-Only Solutions
Audio-Only Solutions
Although many products offer both video and audio streaming to your entertainment center, you may want to hold off on the video for a while. After all, hard drives are getting cheaper and cheaper, and video formats are still undergoing a bit of settling. If you just want to get your music from your PC to your stereo, you're in luck. Here's a rundown of products that just support audio. All of these devices support MP3 playback as well as Windows Media, and all work via a WiFi network. Because the demands for audio aren't as great as video, these should all work without a problem over an 802.11b network.
First up is Sound Blaster Wireless Music from Creative Technology, one of the biggest names in PC audio. Of course, PC audio means, well, PC audio, so Mac fans are once again left in the dark. The cumbersomely named Sound Blaster Wireless Music also has a somewhat slow and cumbersome remote, which is used for browsing song selections. Because it doesn't do video, you can't view song selections on your TV. It also requires installing the Creative MediaSource software.
The Roku SoundBridge network music player is probably the most interesting-looking option on the market. The tube shape of the Roku makes it very distinctive. The SoundBridge has a vacuum-fluorescent display on the front of the unit for browsing directories and selections, and features a remote control. Windows users can choose between Windows Media Connect and Musicmatch for managing audio libraries. For Mac users, the news is mixed. Although the SoundBridge supports Mac and iTunes, it lacks the ability to play ACC files purchased through the iTunes music store, which is a serious drawback to any serious Mac user.
The Squeezebox from Slim Devices is the player for all systems. It uses the open source Slim Server Software for media management, runs on Windows as well as the Mac, and it also runs under Linux, BSD, and even Solaris! It features a vacuum-fluorescent display and a remote control, but can also be controlled from a Pocket PC or Palm device. Truly, the Squeezebox is the king of WiFi streaming devices for the geek community.
With D-Link in the game, Linksys couldn't be left out, and sure enough, they have the Wireless-B Media Adapter. The Wireless-B Media Adapter isn't limited to just audio; it also supports photo viewing. However, it doesn't support video and it doesn't support Macs. It connects to your TV for viewing photos and navigation menus. The TV connections lead me to suspect that a Wireless-G version supporting video may be in the works, but so far nothing has been announced.
Finally, there's a product that's all Mac! Actually, that's not entirely true; Apple's AirPort Express supports both Macs and PCs running Apple's AirTunes software. The AirPort Express is a very small device, the smallest of all these offerings, and curiously, it doesn't feature a remote. In fact, the one big drawback is that you have to select your music via AirTunes, either at the PC/Mac itself, or, if you have a laptop handy, you can do it remotely. Overall the product is very nice, and if you have a Mac, it's probably the way to go. However, not having a remote can be an annoyance at times.
6. Wrapping Up
Wrapping Up
As you can see, many products are available from a host of manufacturers, all hoping to capitalize on this explosive new market that's been created through the prevalence of MP3s and wireless networking. Keep in mind as you evaluate these technologies that many of these products are first generation, targeted at early adopters. Expect a few hiccups along the way. And don't count on the manufacturer and/or product being around forever. Fortunately, on the low end, you don't have to spend an arm and a leg to get a decent product; in a few years, when 802.11x is around and you can stream a DVD at full quality anywhere in your house from any of the machines on your home network, you won't feel like you wasted money in the meantime.
7. Home Media Management: Tip Sheet

Home Media Management: Tip Sheet
We've explored a number of products that are designed to allow you to manage your home entertainment media content. Here's a quick rundown of the various manufacturers' web sites.
• Video and audio systems:
o TiVo Home Media
o Microsoft Windows XP Media Center
o Sony Vaio RoomLink
o Philips Streamium
o PRISMIQ MediaManager
o D-Link Wireless Media Player
o SMC EZStream
• Audio only:
o Creative Sound Blaster Wireless Music
o Roku SoundBridge
o Slim Devices Squeezebox
o LinkSys Wireless-B Media Adapter
o Apple AirPort Express
http://www.informit.com/articles/article.asp?p=370631&seqNum=7&rl=1

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Freedom of Communications on the Internet

Freedom of Communications on the Internet
by Lothar Determann

The Internet is altering human communications, society, and the law. The change is happening both rapidly and internationally. It is not driven by any central political concept, but rather by the power of technology and by individual desires for free communications. This raises a number of issues, including concerns regarding defamation and the protection of minors, consumers and data privacy. There is a worldwide discussion as to what extent freedom of speech on the Internet may or must be restricted. That in turn raises questions regarding the states’ jurisdiction to legislate under international law. Who may/must pass laws? Which issues have to be regulated? To what extent must laws protect the individual on the Internet? To what extent may laws restrict the freedom of the individual on the Internet? Are the existing Internet laws valid? Legal aspects of these questions are discussed in Lothar Determann’s recently published book on "Kommunikationsfreiheit im Internet - Freiheitsrechte und gesetzliche Beschränkungen [Freedom of Communications on the Internet]" published in Baden Baden, Germany, 1999, 653 pages by Nomos (ISBN 3-7890-6267-7). The results of his analysis can be summarized as follows:
1. The Internet connects electronic communication systems and channels worldwide. Both traditional and new ways of communicating are combined in this new medium. Therein, people communicate via telephone services, broadcasting, electronic newspapers, bulletin boards and mail as well as on public forums. Not surprisingly, the Internet assumes problems of traditional media law. But it also present entirely new questions, which arise as a result of the Internet’s international reach and extended scope of technical possibilities.
2. From the classical liberal perspective, freedom of communication with regard to the government is achieved if private individuals may decide for themselves which information they wish to express, access and receive, without any interference by the government. The relevant civil and human rights guarantees therefore aim to limit government’s power to impair individual rights to free expression and information and to bar discrimination against specific ideas.
3. Public international law does not generally limit the legislative jurisdiction of the states. Certain limitations may arise under customary international law ("CIL"), however, if and to the extent states collectively acknowledge that certain aspects of transborder or foreign events may not be regulated locally. However, national jurisdiction to prescribe does not generally require a Genuine Link expressly recognized by CIL.
4. According to CIL, jurisdiction to enforce national laws is generally limited to a state’s territorial boundaries. Due to this limitation, states are prohibited from, amongst other things, physically sending subpoenas, questionnaires, judgments, notifications about regulations and any other governmental decisions abroad and from instigating official investigations abroad via electronic contact with Internet servers located in foreign territory. However, CIL does not prevent a state from publishing national regulations, judgments and administrative orders on servers located in its territory, and thereby giving worldwide notice of national rules and decisions which might apply also to matters and persons abroad.
5. Within the German legal system, universal CIL limits on the international jurisdiction on the states rank beneath the German Constitution and above federal codes. Thus, all branches of German government are bound by such CIL, with the sole exception that the legislature is not bound for purposes of amending the Constitution. According to U.S. constitutional law, the federal legislature is generally not bound, regardless of whether it enacts statutes or amendments to the U.S. Constitution. However, all other U.S. government institutions are generally bound by CIL. According to European Community law, all institutions of the European Community (EC), including the EC legislature, are bound.
6. The powers conferred on the EC by various provisions of the EC Treaty, include the power to restrict freedom of private commercial communication on the Internet in order to harmonize the economic conditions of the Common Market. Due to its international character, the Internet is specifically relevant to the objectives of the Common Market. The legal problems raised by the Internet can normally not be solved satisfactorily by the member states. In general, these problems are more efficiently addressed at the Community level. Therefore, the Subsidiarity Principle hardly limits the EC’s power to regulate commercial Internet communication. With respect to communications, the EC has so far regulated most notably the areas of television, commercial advertising, telecommunications and intellectual property protection.
7. Within the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) the federal legislature is competent to implement EC directives and matters not regulated by the EC to the extent that the federal Constitution (Grundgesetz, hereinafter "GG") provides for federal legislative jurisdiction. Federal jurisdiction extends to the areas of telecommunications, foreign affairs, youth protection, copyright law, criminal law, civil law, court procedures, commercial law and competition law. In the absence of an express federal legislative power, the 16 German states are competent. The GG confers general jurisdiction on the states rather than any specific areas of legislation. Accordingly, the assertion of unwritten, specific state powers to pass broadcasting and media legislation is at odds with the distribution of powers system provided by the GG. Such assertion of specific state powers neither protects state souvereignty nor the vertical balance of powers, since the assertion of unwritten legislative powers can easily be and already is arbitrarily used both for and against an extension of federal legislative powers. Instead, Art. 72 II GG, which provides that the federal legislature may only regulate matters of concurring legislative powers if a federal law is necessary, must be observed to maintain the vertical balance of power.
8. To the extent that a matter falling under both federal and state legislative jurisdiction is governed by inconsistent federal and state laws, the state law is generally void according to Art. 31 GG. An exception to this rule applies if the federal legislature in bad faith tries to undermine comprehensive concepts of the state legislature based on federal jurisdiction to regulate bordering subjects or overlapping areas (such as, e.g., criminal law). In such cases, the federal law is void due to a violation of the principle of federal and State Loyalty. Neither Art. 20 GG nor the fundamental rights provisions of the GG determine which legislature has jurisdiction.
9. The distribution of powers provided by the GG is mandatory and complete. It cannot be derogated by agreements between the FRG and its states. Nonetheless, contrary to constitutional law, the federal government and the states reached a political compromise with respect to legislative powers to regulate Internet communication. Under the compromise, electronic communication was divided into different categories to be regulated by various federal and state codes. The categories received labels such as Tele Services, Media Services, and Broadcasting. Due to this concept, both the federal parliament and the states have partially exceeded their legislative powers. Consequently, §§ 5, 6 TDG and § 5 MDStV are partially void.
10. The differentiation between broadcasting and other forms of online communication was also caused by the fact that the majority of the German states wanted to preserve and extend to the Internet the traditional broadcasting system. That system consists of state owned stations, financed by fees and commercial advertising, and heavily regulated private broadcasters, financed solely by advertising. The federal government, on the other hand, wanted to encourage private development of the Internet by enacting only basic market-oriented regulation.
11. The federal Constitutional Court ("BVerfG") initially accepted, and subsequently even declared mandatory, the extremely restrictive treatment of broadcasting by the state legislatures. The BVerfG treats the freedom of broadcasting provision contained in Art. 5 I 2 Alt. 2 GG entirely different from the other guarantees of freedom of communication contained in the same Article. Art. 5 I 1, 2 GG lists freedom to express opinions and freedom of information, press, broadcasting and film. The BVerfG interprets the right to free broadcasting primarily as an objective guarantee, rather than a civil right available to individuals. Instead, the BVerfG and the majority of German scholars claim that the right to free private broadcasting is granted subject to the condition that a variety of opinions is ensured through comprehensive legislation. To a large extent, the BVerfG directs the elected legislature regarding what rules broadcasting legislation must contain. This appears to be problematic under the principles of democracy and the balance of powers. Amongst other things, the BVerfG ordered the state legislatures to guarantee the existence, finance and development of public broadcasting stations and to heavily regulate private broadcasting. According to the court, private broadcasting is prohibited unless expressly permitted by statute.
This interpretation of the fundamental right of free broadcasting is not imposed by the GG. It cannot be explained by general methods of constitutional interpretation. It is not compatible with the general character of civil rights guarantees. Therefore, it cannot be accepted. Furthermore, the prevailing interpretation of Art. 5 I 2 Alt. 2 GG is not suited to address the technical and social changes in communication introduced by the Internet, especially not the convergence of media.
As the other freedoms guaranteed in Art. 5 I 1, 2 GG, the right to free broadcasting is a fundamental right, available to individuals, and directed against restrictions of private freedom imposed by the government. Restrictions are permissible only to a limited extent since technological progress has substantially reduced the scarcity of frequencies and financial barriers to electronic communications, factors which in the past were used to justify the exceptionally restrictive treatment of private broadcasting. After all, the existing distinctions in state codes between vaguely defined media sectors, especially the division of Tele Services, Media Services and Broadcasting, cannot be justified by constitutional considerations either, besides being hardly practicable and ill-suited from a technical perspective.
12. The FRG has obligated itself by international treaties to prohibit the dissemination of child pornography, and to restrict the freedom of private communication to protect individuals, amongst other things, against defamation and racial hate speech. The U.S. has refused to enter into respective treaty obligations in order to preserve its current constitutional law practice with regard to freedom of speech. The EC Treaty does not confer on the EC the power to enter into human rights treaties.
13. In order to establish and develop the Common Market, the EC must, among other things, approximate the national laws of the members states, including laws which restrict the freedom of private communications. Therefore, the EC directs the member states via secondary Community laws, such as, e.g., the Broadcasting Directive, to restrict the freedom of private communications in order to protect the youth and consumers, and to protect against racial hate and discrimination.
14. The German GG confers on the democratically elected legislature a wide range of discretion with regard to the character and dimension of protection granted by the government to the individual. The concept of judicially deriving governmental obligations to protect the individual from constitutional provisions on fundamental rights is at odds with the aforementioned legislative discretion and, consequently, to some extent also with the democratic principle. Furthermore, since fundamental rights primarily protect freedom, it is generally not possible to derive governmental obligations to restrict one citizen’s freedom in order to protect another citizen from fundamental rights provisions. Therefore, specific governmental obligations to restrict the freedom of private communications can be recognized only if expressly stated in the GG. Art. 5 II GG expressly states an obligation to restrict fundamental rights to free communications in order to protect the youth and personal honor.
15. The U.S. Constitution does not legally obligate the government to restrict freedom of communication on the Internet.
16. Legal obligations to restrict private freedom imposed on the government are at odds with legal guarantees of private freedom. Guarantees of private freedoms in turn limit the possibility of statutory restrictions of the freedom of private communication on the Internet.
17. In international law, freedom and privacy of communication is primarily guaranteed in Art. 10 and 8 ECHR and Art. 19 and 17 CCPR, respectively. These guarantees of freedom are enforced by international institutions against the treaty member states. Due to lack of federal legislative jurisdiction, however, the federal transformation codes could not incorporate these rules into the German legal system. The U.S. ratified the CCPR with the reservation that it shall not be deemed to require or to authorize any legislation or other action by the U.S. restricting the right to free speech protected by the Constitution, laws and practice of the U.S.
18. According to Art. 10 I 3 ECHR, only Internet Services that have the manipulation potential of moving pictures and sound, like broadcasting and film, may be subject to statutory permit requirements. Complete prohibitions on private broadcasting or other private Internet Services in favour of public broadcasting stations or other state owned institutions cannot be justified under Art. 10 ECHR.
19. In the area of EC law, freedom of private communication is guarded by the freedom to sell goods and to provide services within the EC, as well as the Fundamental Right to Free Communication.
20. The EC law guarantee of the free movement of goods limits national restrictions on Electronic Trade in goods delivered as tangible products outside the Internet. The freedom of related, commercial Internet communications (e.g. electronic advertising, product information and contracts) is protected against national measures by the member states to the extent such measures are discriminating against transborder trade.
21. The EC law guarantee of the freedom to provide services comprehensively protects Electronic Trade in intangible products against restrictions by member states, regardless of whether such restrictions are discriminative. This is relevant for a major portion of commercial Internet communications, as these often represent ‘transborder services for remuneration’ as defined by Articles 59 and 60 EC Treaty [Articles 49, 50 EC Treaty], e.g., advice, entertainment and information. Many services are financed by advertising. Such services are free for the Internet user, but not for the business advertising its products. However, communications cannot be deemed ‘services for remuneration’ and ‘transborder services’ solely based on the fact that third parties charge remuneration for the technical transmission of communications (e.g., telecommunications fees) and that Internet contents are transmitted across borders for technical reasons (international and decentralized net structure, division of messages into separate data packages for transmission). Instead, the qualification of communications as ‘transborder services for remuneration’ depends primarily on the economic relations between the communicating parties involved.
22. The EC Fundamental Right to Free Communication assumes functions of fundamental rights granted in the national constitutions of the member states: securing individual freedom by limiting governmental powers. Fundamental Rights of EC law apply to restrictions of private freedom deriving from EC law (either applying directly or being implemented by national laws) and to national law restrictions on the freedom to sell goods and provide services in the Common Market. EC Fundamental Rights bind all official institutions of the EC and its member states.
The EC Fundamental Right to Free Communication covers all kinds of expressions as well as the accessing and receiving of expressions. It represents an individual’s right to liberty in the classical liberal sense. Restrictions to the EC Fundamental Right to Free Communication can only be justified by narrowly tailored, clear and unambiguous laws, published and readily accessible by the public. Permit requirements may only be imposed on Internet services which use, like broadcasting and film, moving pictures and sound.
23. Internet services which, like radio, television and film, utilize the manipulation potential of sound and/or moving pictures are covered by the German fundamental right of free broadcasting, Art. 5 I 2 Alt. 2 GG. Other Internet services are covered by Art. 5 I 1 Hs. 1 GG. That way, the freedom of choice and access to all electronic media is guaranteed. However, opinions and commentaries communicated via broadcasting may be restricted to a larger extent, since Art. 5 I 2 Alt. 2 GG expressly only guarantees the right to free reporting of facts. Even so, Art. 5 II GG generally prohibits content discrimination, unless necessary for protection of the youth, the honour of individuals or the liberal and democratic order of the German constitutional system (Art. 18 GG).
24. A basic supply of public broadcasting and Internet services provided by the government and the existence of public broadcasting stations are neither warranted nor prohibited by the GG. If public broadcasting stations are maintained, any influence on their reporting by other branches or institutions of government must be excluded. Therefore, the fundamental right to free broadcasting granted in Art. 5 I 2 Alt. 2 GG and the EC Fundamental Right to Free Communications must be available to public broadcasting stations, too. However, the Human Right laid down in Art. 10 ECHR is only available to private persons.
Public broadcasting stations may not charge mandatory fees for Internet connections because the Internet currently does not allow real time reception of broadcasts. The fundamental right to free information and the EC subsidy laws are opposed to an enactment of German legislation requiring the payment of broadcasting fees for Internet connections.
25. Art. 10 I GG (privacy of telecommunications) guarantees the privacy of all electronically transmitted private communications (including Internet communications) against any interference by the government. Also the nonpublic use and reception of generally available information is protected. Thus, government institutions are generally not allowed to monitor or track the use of public Internet and broadcasting services by individuals and private entities. However, this does not prevent government institutions from directly accessing information sources that are available to the public.
26. Under U.S. law, any legislation restricting the freedom of private communications has to conform to the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Generally, restrictions can be valid under the First Amendment if they are narrowly tailored, clear and unambiguous, and not content based. As in Germany and elsewhere in Europe, terrestrial broadcasting was treated differently from other media in the United States. This special treatment was justified by referring to the scarcity of frequencies. Due to technological progress, however, such special treatment was adjusted by the FCC, courts and scholars some fifteen years ago to correspond to the treatment of other forms of communications.
Freedom of private communications on the Internet is especially protected under U.S. constitutional law as the Internet appears to be well suited to the ideal of a free marketplace of ideas. This is one of the primary reasons why the U.S. Supreme Court voided the prohibition of ‘indecent’ communications in the Communications Decency Act of 1996.
27. Freedom of private communications on the Internet is restricted by numerous German statutes. These statutes refer to electronic communications in various legal terms, such as Broadcasting, Telecommunications Service, Tele Service, Media Service, Document, Data, Film, Picture and Print Document.
28. German broadcasting law generally applies regardless of whether broadcasts are transmitted via traditional channels or via the Internet. However, it does not apply to online services accessible on request, but only to disseminated traditional television and radio programs covering several content categories (e.g., news, sports and entertainment) and also to specialty channels focusing on certain specific categories such as entertainment and music, but not to teleshopping and news channels. The definition differentiating between broadcasting and Media Services contained in §§ 2 I 2 MDStV, 2 I 3, 20 II RStV is unconstitutionally vague. Thus, it cannot justify the application of the restrictive broadcasting law to Media Services as referred to by the RStV. Only the MDStV applies to such services, e.g., to teleshopping and news channels.
29. §§ 2 TDG/MDStV define overlapping ranges of applicability. This is due to the fact that the federal legislature did not provide for an unconditional reservation with respect to the MDStV. Thus the conditional reservation of the MDStV became ineffective. Additionally, §§ 2 TDG/MDStV raise a number of problems of interpretation and differentiation, also with regard to other media laws and other laws.
The providing of Internet access for users and content providers as well as the operation of telecommunication networks and technical transmission apparatus is not regulated by either the TDG or the MDStV, but exclusively by the TKG.
The TDG applies to Tele Services including, amongst other things, online video games, online banking, telecommuting, search engines, information services on request if they are offering traffic, weather, environmental, stock exchange information and product information if offered without any ‘editorial arrangement’. Remarks of private individuals on opinion forums, such as bulletin boards or in e-mails, and information on commercial products qualify as Tele Services, unless the element of ‘editorial arrangement for public opinion making’ is dominant in such communications.
The ranges of applicability of the TDG and the MDStV are overlapping with regard to disseminated information services concerning traffic, weather, the environment, the stock exchange, and information on commercial products on Home Pages or other web sites. Such services qualify both as Tele Services and Media Services. Whether or not a specific statutory provision applies or not depends on whether such provision has been enacted by the competent legislature.
Media Services under the MDStV are, amongst other things, teleshopping shows, moderated opinion forums, such as newsgroups and bulletin boards, and also Home Pages and information services editorially arranged for public opinion making.
30. The liability of communication mediators for contents under general laws is of great importance to the freedom of private communications on the Internet. The German legislatures have attempted to regulate such liability in §§ 5 TDG/MDStV. This legislative intent rules out an application of privileges granted by other media laws to providers of Tele Services and Media Service by way of analogy.
According to §§ 5 TDG/MDStV (applied directly or by way of analogy), Service Providers are liable for content, which is not their own only if: (i) they disseminate such content or make such content available on request; (ii) they have actual knowledge of the specific, incriminated content; and (iii) if it is commercially reasonable and acceptable to block or otherwise prevent dissemination. The last mentioned requirement is normally met. Mere Access Providers are generally not liable for the content that they transmit, even if they have knowledge. However, under certain circumstances, mere Access Providers can be ordered to block access to specific contents, especially by deleting links and contents stored by way of proxy caching.
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ETHICS IN COMMUNICATIONS

PONTIFICAL COUNCIL FOR SOCIAL COMMUNICATIONS
ETHICS IN COMMUNICATIONS

I
INTRODUCTION

1. Great good and great evil come from the use people make of the media of social communication. Although it typically is said�and we often shall say here�that "media" do this or that, these are not blind forces of nature beyond human control. For even though acts of communicating often do have unintended consequences, nevertheless people choose whether to use the media for good or evil ends, in a good or evil way.
These choices, central to the ethical question, are made not only by those who receive communication�viewers, listeners, readers�but especially by those who control the instruments of social communication and determine their structures, policies, and content. They include public officials and corporate executives, members of governing boards, owners, publishers and station managers, editors, news directors, producers, writers, correspondents, and others. For them, the ethical question is particularly acute: Are the media being used for good or evil?
2. The impact of social communication can hardly be exaggerated. Here people come into contact with other people and with events, form their opinions and values. Not only do they transmit and receive information and ideas through these instruments but often they experience living itself as an experience of media (cf. Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Aetatis Novae, 2).
Technological change rapidly is making the media of communication even more pervasive and powerful. "The advent of the information society is a real cultural revolution" (Pontifical Council for Culture, Toward a Pastoral Approach To Culture, 9); and the twentieth century's dazzling innovations may have been only a prologue to what this new century will bring.
The range and diversity of media accessible to people in well-to-do countries already are astonishing: books and periodicals, television and radio, films and videos, audio recordings, electronic communication transmitted over the airwaves, over cable and satellite, via the Internet. The contents of this vast outpouring range from hard news to pure entertainment, prayer to pornography, contemplation to violence. Depending on how they use media, people can grow in sympathy and compassion or become isolated in a narcissistic, self-referential world of stimuli with near-narcotic effects. Not even those who shun the media can avoid contact with others who are deeply influenced by them.
3. Along with these reasons, the Church has reasons of her own for being interested in the means of social communication. Viewed in the light of faith, the history of human communication can be seen as a long journey from Babel, site and symbol of communication's collapse (cf. Gn 11:4-8), to Pentecost and the gift of tongues (cf. Acts 2:5-11)�communication restored by the power of the Spirit sent by the Son. Sent forth into the world to announce the good news (cf. Mt 28:19-20; Mk 16:15), the Church has the mission of proclaiming the Gospel until the end of time. Today, she knows, that requires using media (cf. Vatican Council II, Inter Mirifica, 3; Pope Paul VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi, 45; Pope John Paul II, Redemptoris Missio, 37; Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Communio et Progressio, 126-134, Aetatis Novae, 11).
The Church also knows herself to be a communio, a communion of persons and eucharistic communities, "rooted in and mirroring the intimate communion of the Trinity" (Aetatis Novae, 10; cf. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Some Aspects of the Church Understood as Communion). Indeed, all human communication is grounded in the communication among Father, Son, and Spirit. But more than that, Trinitarian communion reaches out to humankind: The Son is the Word, eternally "spoken" by the Father; and in and through Jesus Christ, Son and Word made flesh, God communicates himself and his salvation to women and men. "In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets; but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son" (Heb 1:1-2). Communication in and by the Church finds its starting point in the communion of love among the divine Persons and their communication with us.
4. The Church's approach to the means of social communication is fundamentally positive, encouraging. She does not simply stand in judgment and condemn; rather, she considers these instruments to be not only products of human genius but also great gifts of God and true signs of the times (cf. Inter Mirifica, 1; Evangelii Nuntiandi, 45; Redemptoris Missio, 37). She desires to support those who are professionally involved in communication by setting out positive principles to assist them in their work, while fostering a dialogue in which all interested parties�today, that means nearly everyone�can participate. These purposes underlie the present document.
We say again: The media do nothing by themselves; they are instruments, tools, used as people choose to use them. In reflecting upon the means of social communication, we must face honestly the "most essential" question raised by technological progress: whether, as a result of it, the human person "is becoming truly better, that is to say more mature spiritually, more aware of the dignity of his humanity, more responsible, more open to others, especially the neediest and the weakest, and readier to give and to aid all" (Pope John Paul II, Redemptor Hominis, 15).
We take it for granted that the vast majority of people involved in social communication in any capacity are conscientious individuals who want to do the right thing. Public officials, policy-makers, and corporate executives desire to respect and promote the public interest as they understand it. Readers and listeners and viewers want to use their time well for personal growth and development so that they can lead happier, more productive lives. Parents are anxious that what enters their homes through media be in their children's interests. Most professional communicators desire to use their talents to serve the human family, and are troubled by the growing economic and ideological pressures to lower ethical standards present in many sectors of the media.
The contents of the countless choices made by all these people concerning the media are different from group to group and individual to individual, but the choices all have ethical weight and are subject to ethical evaluation. To choose rightly, those choosing need to "know the principles of the moral order and apply them faithfully" (Inter Mirifica, 4).
5. The Church brings several things to this conversation.
She brings a long tradition of moral wisdom, rooted in divine revelation and human reflection (cf. Pope John Paul II, Fides et Ratio, 36-48). Part of this is a substantial and growing body of social teaching, whose theological orientation is an important corrective to "the �atheistic' solution, which deprives man of one of his basic dimensions, namely the spiritual one, and to permissive and consumerist solutions, which under various pretexts seek to convince man that he is free from every law and from God himself" (Pope John Paul II, Centesimus Annus, 55). More than simply passing judgment, this tradition offers itself in service to the media. For example, "the Church's culture of wisdom can save the media culture of information from becoming a meaningless accumulation of facts" (Pope John Paul II, Message for the 33rd World Communications Day, 1999).
The Church also brings something else to the conversation. Her special contribution to human affairs, including the world of social communication, is "precisely her vision of the dignity of the person revealed in all its fullness in the mystery of the Incarnate Word" (Centesimus Annus, 47) In the words of the Second Vatican Council, "Christ the Lord, Christ the new Adam, in the very revelation of the mystery of the Father and of his love, fully reveals man to himself and brings to light his most high calling" (Gaudium et Spes, 22).
II
SOCIAL COMMUNICATION
THAT SERVES THE HUMAN PERSON
6. Following the Council's Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes (cf. nos. 30-31), the Pastoral Instruction on Social Communications Communio et Progressio makes it clear that the media are called to serve human dignity by helping people live well and function as persons in community. Media do this by encouraging men and women to be conscious of their dignity, enter into the thoughts and feelings of others, cultivate a sense of mutual responsibility, and grow in personal freedom, in respect for others' freedom, and in the capacity for dialogue.
Social communication has immense power to promote human happiness and fulfillment. Without pretending to do more than give an overview, we note here, as we have done elsewhere (cf. Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Ethics in Advertising, 4-8), some economic, political, cultural, educational, and religious benefits.
7. Economic. The market is not a norm of morality or a source of moral value, and market economics can be abused; but the market can serve the person (cf. Centesimus Annus, 34), and media play an indispensable role in a market economy. Social communication supports business and commerce, helps spur economic growth, employment, and prosperity, encourages improvements in the quality of existing goods and services and the development of new ones, fosters responsible competition that serves the public interest, and enables people to make informed choices by telling them about the availability and features of products.
In short, today's complex national and international economic systems could not function without the media. Remove them, and crucial economic structures would collapse, with great harm to countless people and to society.
8. Political. Social communication benefits society by facilitating informed citizen participation in the political process. The media draw people together for the pursuit of shared purposes and goals, thus helping to form and sustain authentic political communities.
Media are indispensable in today's democratic societies. They supply information about issues and events, office holders and candidates for office. They enable leaders to communicate quickly and directly with the public about urgent matters. They are important instruments of accountability, turning the spotlight on incompetence, corruption, and abuses of trust, while also calling attention to instances of competence, public-spiritedness, and devotion to duty.
9. Cultural. The means of social communication offer people access to literature, drama, music, and art otherwise unavailable to them, and so promote human development in respect to knowledge and wisdom and beauty. We speak not only of presentations of classic works and the fruits of scholarship, but also of wholesome popular entertainment and useful information that draw families together, help people solve everyday problems, raise the spirits of the sick, shut-ins, and the elderly, and relieve the tedium of life.
Media also make it possible for ethnic groups to cherish and celebrate their cultural traditions, share them with others, and transmit them to new generations. In particular, they introduce children and young people to their cultural heritage. Communicators, like artists, serve the common good by preserving and enriching the cultural heritage of nations and peoples (cf. Pope John Paul II, Letter to Artists, 4).
10. Educational. The media are important tools of education in many contexts, from school to workplace, and at many stages in life. Preschoolers being introduced to the rudiments of reading and mathematics, young people seeking vocational training or degrees, elderly persons pursuing new learning in their latter years�these and many others have access via these means to a rich and growing panoply of educational resources.
Media are standard instructional tools in many classrooms. And beyond the classroom walls, the instruments of communication, including the Internet, conquer barriers of distance and isolation, bringing learning opportunities to villagers in remote areas, cloistered religious, the home-bound, prisoners, and many others.
11. Religious. Many people's religious lives are greatly enriched through the media. They carry news and information about religious events, ideas, and personalities; they serve as vehicles for evangelization and catechesis. Day in and day out, they provide inspiration, encouragement, and opportunities for worship to persons confined to their homes or to institutions.
Sometimes, too, media contribute to people's spiritual enrichment in extraordinary ways. For example, huge audiences around the world view and, in a sense, participate in important events in the life of the Church regularly telecast via satellite from Rome. And, over the years, media have brought the words and images of the Holy Father's pastoral visits to countless millions.
12. In all these settings�economic, political, cultural, educational, religious�as well as others, the media can be used to build and sustain human community. And indeed all communication ought to be open to community among persons.
"In order to become brothers and sisters, it is necessary to know one another. To do this, it is...important to communicate more extensively and more deeply" (Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, Fraternal Life in Community, 29). Communication that serves genuine community is "more than the expression of ideas and the indication of emotion. At its most profound level, it is the giving of self in love" (Communio et Progressio, 11).
Communication like this seeks the well being and fulfillment of community members in respect to the common good of all. But consultation and dialogue are needed to discern this common good. Therefore it is imperative for the parties to social communication to engage in such dialogue and submit themselves to the truth about what is good. This is how the media can meet their obligation to "witness to the truth about life, about human dignity, about the true meaning of our freedom and mutual interdependence" (Pope John Paul II, Message for the 33rd World Communications Day, 1999).
III
SOCIAL COMMUNICATION
THAT VIOLATES
THE GOOD OF THE PERSON
13. The media also can be used to block community and injure the integral good of persons: by alienating people or marginalizing and isolating them; drawing them into perverse communities organized around false, destructive values; fostering hostility and conflict, demonizing others and creating a mentality of "us" against "them"; presenting what is base and degrading in a glamorous light, while ignoring or belittling what uplifts and ennobles; spreading misinformation and disinformation, fostering trivialization and banality. Stereotyping�based on race and ethnicity, sex and age and other factors, including religion�is distressingly common in media. Often, too, social communication overlooks what is genuinely new and important, including the good news of the Gospel, and concentrates on the fashionable or faddish.
Abuses exist in each of the areas just mentioned.
14. Economic. The media sometimes are used to build and sustain economic systems that serve acquisitiveness and greed. Neoliberalism is a case in point: "Based on a purely economic conception of man", it "considers profit and the law of the market as its only parameters, to the detriment of the dignity of and the respect due to individuals and peoples" (Pope John Paul II, Ecclesia in America, 156). In such circumstances, means of communication that ought to benefit all are exploited for the advantage of the few.
The process of globalization "can create unusual opportunities for greater prosperity" (Centesimus Annus, 58); but side by side with it, and even as part of it, some nations and peoples suffer exploitation and marginalization, falling further and further behind in the struggle for development. These expanding pockets of privation in the midst of plenty are seedbeds of envy, resentment, tension, and conflict. This underlines the need for "effective international agencies which will oversee and direct the economy to the common good" (Centesimus Annus, 58).
Faced with grave injustices, it is not enough for communicators simply to say that their job is to report things as they are. That undoubtedly is their job. But some instances of human suffering are largely ignored by media even as others are reported; and insofar as this reflects a decision by communicators, it reflects indefensible selectivity. Even more fundamentally, communication structures and policies and the allocation of technology are factors helping to make some people "information rich" and others "information poor" at a time when prosperity, and even survival, depend on information.
In such ways, then, media often contribute to the injustices and imbalances that give rise to suffering they report. "It is necessary to break down the barriers and monopolies which leave so many countries on the margins of development, and to provide all individuals and nations with the basic conditions which will enable them to share in development" (Centesimus Annus, 35). Communications and information technology, along with training in its use, is one such basic condition.
15. Political. Unscrupulous politicians use media for demagoguery and deception in support of unjust policies and oppressive regimes. They misrepresent opponents and systematically distort and suppress the truth by propaganda and "spin". Rather than drawing people together, media then serve to drive them apart, creating tensions and suspicions that set the stage for conflict.
Even in countries with democratic systems, it is all too common for political leaders to manipulate public opinion through the media instead of fostering informed participation in the political process. The conventions of democracy are observed, but techniques borrowed from advertising and public relations are deployed on behalf of policies that exploit particular groups and violate fundamental rights, including the right to life (cf. Pope John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae, 70).
Often, too, the media popularize the ethical relativism and utilitarianism that underlie today's culture of death. They participate in the contemporary "conspiracy against life" by "lending credit to that culture which presents recourse to contraception, sterilization, abortion and even euthanasia as a mark of progress and a victory of freedom, while depicting as enemies of freedom and progress those positions which are unreservedly pro-life" (Evangelium Vitae, 17).
16. Cultural. Critics frequently decry the superficiality and bad taste of media, and although they are not obliged to be somber and dull, they should not be tawdry and demeaning either. It is no excuse to say the media reflect popular standards; for they also powerfully influence popular standards and so have a serious duty to uplift, not degrade, them.
The problem takes various forms. Instead of explaining complex matters carefully and truthfully, news media avoid or oversimplify them. Entertainment media feature presentations of a corrupting, dehumanizing kind, including exploitative treatments of sexuality and violence. It is grossly irresponsible to ignore or dismiss the fact that "pornography and sadistic violence debase sexuality, corrode human relationships, exploit individuals�especially women and young people, undermine marriage and family life, foster anti-social behaviour and weaken the moral fibre of society itself" (Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Pornography and Violence in the Communications Media: A Pastoral Response, 10).
On the international level, cultural domination imposed through the means of social communication also is a serious, growing problem. Traditional cultural expressions are virtually excluded from access to popular media in some places and face extinction; meanwhile the values of affluent, secularized societies increasingly supplant the traditional values of societies less wealthy and powerful. In considering these matters, particular attention should go to providing children and young people with media presentations that put them in living contact with their cultural heritage.
Communication across cultural lines is desirable. Societies can and should learn from one another. But transcultural communication should not be at the expense of the less powerful. Today "even the least-widespread cultures are no longer isolated. They benefit from an increase in contacts, but they also suffer from the pressures of a powerful trend toward uniformity" (Toward a Pastoral Approach To Culture, 33). That so much communication now flows in one direction only�from developed nations to the developing and the poor�raises serious ethical questions. Have the rich nothing to learn from the poor? Are the powerful deaf to the voices of the weak?
17. Educational. Instead of promoting learning, media can distract people and cause them to waste time. Children and young people are especially harmed in this way, but adults also suffer from exposure to banal, trashy presentations. Among the causes of this abuse of trust by communicators is greed that puts profits before persons.
Sometimes, too, media are used as tools of indoctrination, with the aim of controlling what people know and denying them access to information the authorities do not want them to have. This is a perversion of genuine education, which seeks to expand people's knowledge and skills and help them pursue worthy purposes, not narrow their horizons and harness their energies in the service of ideology.
18. Religious. In the relationship between the means of social communication and religion there are temptations on both sides.
On the side of the media, these include ignoring or marginalizing religious ideas and experience; treating religion with incomprehension, perhaps even contempt, as an object of curiosity that does not merit serious attention; promoting religious fads at the expense of traditional faith; treating legitimate religious groups with hostility; weighing religion and religious experience by secular standards of what is appropriate, and favoring religious views that conform to secular tastes over those that do not; trying to imprison transcendence within the confines of rationalism and skepticism. Today's media often mirror the post-modern state of a human spirit "locked within the confines of its own immanence without reference of any kind to the transcendent" (Fides et Ratio, 81).
The temptations on the side of religion include taking an exclusively judgmental and negative view of media; failing to understand that reasonable standards of good media practice like objectivity and even-handedness may preclude special treatment for religion's institutional interests; presenting religious messages in an emotional, manipulative style, as if they were products competing in a glutted marketplace; using media as instruments for control and domination; practicing unnecessary secrecy and otherwise offending against truth; downplaying the Gospel's demand for conversion, repentance, and amendment of life, while substituting a bland religiosity that asks little of people; encouraging fundamentalism, fanaticism, and religious exclusivism that foment disdain and hostility toward others.
19. In short, the media can be used for good or for evil�it is a matter of choice. "It can never be forgotten that communication through the media is not a utilitarian exercise intended simply to motivate, persuade or sell. Still less is it a vehicle for ideology. The media can at times reduce human beings to units of consumption or competing interest groups, or manipulate viewers and readers and listeners as mere ciphers from whom some advantage is sought, whether product sales or political support; and these things destroy community. It is the task of communication to bring people together and enrich their lives, not isolate and exploit them. The means of social communication, properly used, can help to create and sustain a human community based on justice and charity; and, in so far as they do that, they will be signs of hope" (Pope John Paul II, Message for the 32nd World Communications Day, 1998).
IV
SOME RELEVANT ETHICAL PRINCIPLES
20. Ethical principles and norms relevant in other fields also apply to social communication. Principles of social ethics like solidarity, subsidiarity, justice and equity, and accountability in the use of public resources and the performance of roles of public trust are always applicable. Communication must always be truthful, since truth is essential to individual liberty and to authentic community among persons.
Ethics in social communication is concerned not just with what appears on cinema and television screens, on radio broadcasts, on the printed page and the Internet, but with a great deal else besides. The ethical dimension relates not just to the content of communication (the message) and the process of communication (how the communicating is done) but to fundamental structural and systemic issues, often involving large questions of policy bearing upon the distribution of sophisticated technology and product (who shall be information rich and who shall be information poor?). These questions point to other questions with economic and political implications for ownership and control. At least in open societies with market economies, the largest ethical question of all may be how to balance profit against service to the public interest understood according to an inclusive conception of the common good.
Even to reasonable people of good will it is not always immediately clear how to apply ethical principles and norms to particular cases; reflection, discussion, and dialogue are needed. We offer what follows with the hope of encouraging such reflection and dialogue�among communication policy makers, professional communicators, ethicists and moralists, recipients of communication, and others concerned.
21. In all three areas�message, process, structural and systemic issues�the fundamental ethical principle is this: The human person and the human community are the end and measure of the use of the media of social communication; communication should be by persons to persons for the integral development of persons.
Integral development requires a sufficiency of material goods and products, but it also requires attention to the "inner dimension" (Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, 29; cf. 46). Everyone deserves the opportunity to grow and flourish in respect to the full range of physical, intellectual, emotional, moral, and spiritual goods. Individuals have irreducible dignity and importance, and may never be sacrificed to collective interests.
22. A second principle is complementary to the first: The good of persons cannot be realized apart from the common good of the communities to which they belong. This common good should be understood in inclusive terms, as the sum total of worthy shared purposes to whose pursuit community members jointly commit themselves and which the community exists to serve.
Thus, while social communication rightly looks to the needs and interests of particular groups, it should not do so in a way that sets one group against another�for example, in the name of class conflict, exaggerated nationalism, racial supremacy, ethnic cleansing, and the like. The virtue of solidarity, "a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good" (Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, 38), ought to govern all areas of social life�economic, political, cultural, religious.
Communicators and communication policy makers must serve the real needs and interests both of individuals and of groups, at all levels and of all kinds. There is a pressing need for equity at the international level, where the maldistribution of material goods between North and South is exacerbated by a maldistribution of communication resources and information technology upon which productivity and prosperity greatly depend. Similar problems also exist within wealthy countries, "where the constant transformation of the methods of production and consumption devalues certain acquired skills and professional expertise" and "those who fail to keep up with the times can easily be marginalized" (Centesimus Annus, 33).
Clearly, then, there is a need for broad participation in making decisions not only about the messages and processes of social communication but also about systemic issues and the allocation of resources. The decision makers have a serious moral duty to recognize the needs and interests of those who are particularly vulnerable �the poor, the elderly and unborn, children and youth, the oppressed and marginalized, women and minorities, the sick and disabled�as well as families and religious groups. Today especially, the international community and international communications interests should take a generous and inclusive approach to nations and regions where what the means of social communication do�or fail to do�bears a share of the blame for the perpetuation of evils like poverty, illiteracy, political repression and violations of human rights, intergroup and interreligious conflicts, and the suppression of indigenous cultures.
23. Even so, we continue to believe that "the solution to problems arising from unregulated commercialization and privatization does not lie in state control of media but in more regulation according to criteria of public service and in greater public accountability. It should be noted in this connection that, although the legal and political frameworks within which media operate in some countries are currently changing strikingly for the better, elsewhere government intervention remains an instrument of oppression and exclusion" (Aetatis Novae, 5).
The presumption should always be in favor of freedom of expression, for "when people follow their natural inclination to exchange ideas and declare their opinions, they are not merely making use of a right. They are also performing a social duty" (Communio et Progressio, 45). Still, considered from an ethical perspective, this presumption is not an absolute, indefeasible norm. There are obvious instances�for example, libel and slander, messages that seek to foster hatred and conflict among individuals and groups, obscenity and pornography, the morbid depiction of violence�where no right to communicate exists. Plainly, too, free expression should always observe principles like truth, fairness, and respect for privacy.
Professional communicators should be actively involved in developing and enforcing ethical codes of behavior for their profession, in cooperation with public representatives. Religious bodies and other groups likewise deserve to be part of this continuing effort.
24. Another relevant principle, already mentioned, concerns public participation in making decisions about communications policy. At all levels, this participation should be organized, systematic, and genuinely representative, not skewed in favor of particular groups. This principle applies even, and perhaps especially, where media are privately owned and operated for profit.
In the interests of public participation, communicators "must seek to communicate with people, and not just speak to them. This involves learning about people's needs, being aware of their struggles and presenting all forms of communication with the sensitivity that human dignity requires" (Pope John Paul II, Address to Communications Specialists, Los Angeles, September 15, 1987).
Circulation, broadcast ratings, and "box office", along with market research, are sometimes said to be the best indicators of public sentiment�in fact, the only ones necessary for the law of the market to operate. No doubt the market's voice can be heard in these ways. But decisions about media content and policy should not be left only to the market and to economic factors�profits�since these cannot be counted on to safeguard either the public interest as a whole or, especially, the legitimate interests of minorities.
To some extent, this objection may be answered by the concept of the "niche", according to which particular periodicals, programs, stations, and channels are directed to particular audiences. The approach is legitimate, up to a point. But diversification and specialization�organizing media to correspond to audiences broken down into ever-smaller units based largely on economic factors and patterns of consumption�should not be carried too far. Media of social communication must remain an �Areopagus' (cf. Redemptoris Missio, 37)�a forum for exchanging ideas and information, drawing individuals and groups together, fostering solidarity and peace. The Internet in particular raises concerns about some of the "radically new consequences it brings: a loss of the intrinsic value of items of information, an undifferentiated uniformity in messages that are reduced to pure information, a lack of responsible feedback and a certain discouragement of interpersonal relationships" (Toward a Pastoral Approach To Culture, 9).
25. Professional communicators are not the only ones with ethical duties. Audiences�recipients�have obligations, too. Communicators attempting to meet their responsibilities deserve audiences conscientious about theirs.
The first duty of recipients of social communication is to be discerning and selective. They should inform themselves about media�their structures, mode of operation, contents�and make responsible choices, according to ethically sound criteria, about what to read or watch or listen to. Today everybody needs some form of continuing media education, whether by personal study or participation in an organized program or both. More than just teaching about techniques, media education helps people form standards of good taste and truthful moral judgment, an aspect of conscience formation.
Through her schools and formation programs the Church should provide media education of this kind (cf. Aetatis Novae, 28; Communio et Progressio, 107). Directed originally to institutes of consecrated life, the following words have a broader application: "A community, aware of the influence of the media, should learn to use them for personal and community growth, with the evangelical clarity and inner freedom of those who have learned to know Christ (cf. Gal 4:17-23). The media propose, and often impose, a mentality and model of life in constant contrast with the Gospel. In this connection, in many areas one hears of the desire for deeper formation in receiving and using the media, both critically and fruitfully" (Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, Fraternal Life in Community, 34).
Similarly, parents have a serious duty to help their children learn how to evaluate and use the media, by forming their consciences correctly and developing their critical faculties (cf. Familiaris Consortio, 76). For their children's sake, as well as their own, parents must learn and practice the skills of discerning viewers and listeners and readers, acting as models of prudent use of media in the home. According to their age and circumstances, children and young people should be open to formation regarding media, resisting the easy path of uncritical passivity, peer pressure, and commercial exploitation. Families�parents and children together�will find it helpful to come together in groups to study and discuss the problems and opportunities created by social communication.
26. Besides promoting media education, the institutions, agencies, and programs of the Church have other important responsibilities in regard to social communication. First and foremost, the Church's practice of communication should be exemplary, reflecting the highest standards of truthfulness, accountability, sensitivity to human rights, and other relevant principles and norms. Beyond that, the Church's own media should be committed to communicating the fullness of the truth about the meaning of human life and history, especially as it is contained in God's revealed word and expressed by the teaching of the Magisterium. Pastors should encourage use of media to spread the Gospel (cf. Code of Canon Law, Canon 822.1).
Those who represent the Church must be honest and straightforward in their relations with journalists. Even though the questions they ask are "sometimes embarrassing or disappointing, especially when they in no way correspond to the message we have to get across", one must bear in mind that "these disconcerting questions are often asked by most of our contemporaries" (Towards a Pastoral Approach to Culture, 34). For the Church to speak credibly to people today, those who speak for her have to give credible, truthful answers to these seemingly awkward questions.
Catholics, like other citizens, have the right of free expression, including the right of access to the media for this purpose. The right of expression includes expressing opinions about the good of the Church, with due regard for the integrity of faith and morals, respect for the pastors, and consideration for the common good and the dignity of persons (cf. Canon 212.3; Canon 227). No one, however, has a right to speak for the Church, or imply he or she does, unless properly designated; and personal opinions should not be presented as the Church's teaching (cf. Canon 227).
The Church would be well served if more of those who hold offices and perform functions in her name received communication training. This is true not only of seminarians, persons in formation in religious communities, and young lay Catholics, but Church personnel generally. Provided the media are "neutral, open and honest", they offer well-prepared Christians "a frontline missionary role" and it is important that the latter be "well-trained and supported". Pastors also should offer their people guidance regarding media and their sometimes discordant and even destructive messages (cf. Canon 822.2, 3).
Similar considerations apply to internal communication in the Church. A two-way flow of information and views between pastors and faithful, freedom of expression sensitive to the well being of the community and to the role of the Magisterium in fostering it, and responsible public opinion all are important expressions of "the fundamental right of dialogue and information within the Church" (Aetatis Novae, 10; cf. Communio et Progressio, 20).
The right of expression must be exercised with deference to revealed truth and the Church's teaching, and with respect for others' ecclesial rights (cf. Canon 212.1, .2, .3, Canon 220). Like other communities and institutions, the Church sometimes needs�in fact, is sometimes obliged�to practice secrecy and confidentiality. But this should not be for the sake of manipulation and control. Within the communion of faith, "holders of office, who are invested with a sacred power, are, in fact, dedicated to promoting the interests of their brethren, so that all who belong to the People of God, and are consequently endowed with true Christian dignity, may through their free and well-ordered efforts toward a common good, attain to salvation" (Lumen Gentium, 18). Right practice in communication is one of the ways of realizing this vision.
V
CONCLUSION
27. As the third millennium of the Christian era begins, humankind is well along in creating a global network for the instantaneous transmission of information, ideas, and value judgments in science, commerce, education, entertainment, politics, the arts, religion, and every other field.
This network already is directly accessible to many people in their homes and schools and workplaces�indeed, wherever they may be. It is commonplace to view events, from sports to wars, happening in real time on the other side of the planet. People can tap directly into quantities of data beyond the reach of many scholars and students just a short time ago. An individual can ascend to heights of human genius and virtue, or plunge to the depths of human degradation, while sitting alone at a keyboard and screen. Communication technology constantly achieves new breakthroughs, with enormous potential for good and ill. As interactivity increases, the distinction between communicators and recipients blurs. Continuing research is needed into the impact, and especially the ethical implications, of new and emerging media.
28. But despite their immense power, the means of communication are, and will remain, only media�that is to say: instruments, tools, available for both good and evil uses. The choice is ours. The media do not call for a new ethic; they call for the application of established principles to new circumstances. And this is a task in which everyone has a role to play. Ethics in the media is not the business only of specialists, whether they be specialists in social communication or specialists in moral philosophy; rather, the reflection and dialogue that this document seeks to encourage and assist must be broad and inclusive.
29. Social communication can join people in communities of sympathy and shared interest. Will these communities be informed by justice, decency, and respect for human rights; will they be committed to the common good? Or will they be selfish and inward-looking, committed to the benefit of particular groups�economic, racial, political, even religious�at others' expense? Will new technology serve all nations and peoples, while respecting the cultural traditions of each; or will it be a tool to enrich the rich and empower the powerful? We have to choose.
The means of communication also can be used to separate and isolate. More and more, technology allows people to assemble packages of information and services uniquely designed for them. There are real advantages in that, but it raises an inescapable question: Will the audience of the future be a multitude of audiences of one? While the new technology can enhance individual autonomy, it has other, less desirable implications. Instead being a global community, might the �web' of the future turn out to be a vast, fragmented network of isolated individuals�human bees in their cells�interacting with data instead of with one another? What would become of solidarity�what would become of love�in a world like that?
In the best of circumstances, human communication has serious limitations, is more or less imperfect and in danger of failing. It is hard for people consistently to communicate honestly with one another, in a way that does no harm and serves the best interests of all. In the world of media, moreover, the inherent difficulties of communicating often are magnified by ideology, by the desire for profit and political control, by rivalries and conflicts between groups, and by other social ills. Today's media vastly increase the outreach of social communication�its quantity, its speed; they do not make the reaching out of mind to mind and heart to heart any less fragile, less sensitive, less prone to fail.
30. As we have said, the special contributions which the Church brings to the discussion of these matters are a vision of human persons and their incomparable dignity and inviolable rights, and a vision of human community whose members are joined by the virtue of solidarity in pursuit of the common good of all. The need for these two visions is especially pressing "at a time when we are faced with the patent inadequacy of perspectives in which the ephemeral is affirmed as a value and the possibility of discovering the real meaning of life is cast into doubt"; lacking them, "many people stumble through life to the very edge of the abyss without knowing where they are going" (Fides et Ratio, 6).
In the face of this crisis, the Church stands forth as an "expert in humanity" whose expertise "leads her necessarily to extend her religious mission to the various fields" of human endeavor (Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, 41; cf. Pope Paul VI, Populorum Progressio, 13). She may not keep the truth about the human person and the human community to herself; she must share it freely, always aware that people can say no to the truth�and to her.
Attempting to foster and support high ethical standards in the use of the means of social communication, the Church seeks dialogue and collaboration with others: with public officials, who have a particular duty to protect and promote the common good of the political community; with men and women from the world of culture and the arts; with scholars and teachers engaged in forming the communicators and audiences of the future; with members of other churches and religious groups, who share her desire that media be used for the glory of God and the service of the human race (cf. Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Criteria for Ecumenical and Inter-Religious Cooperation in Communications); and especially with professional communicators�writers, editors, reporters, correspondents, performers, producers, technical personnel�together with owners, administrators, and policy makers in this field.
31. Along with its limitations, human communication has in it something of God's creative activity. "With loving regard, the divine Artist passes on to the human artist"�and, we might say, to the communicator as well�"a spark of his own surpassing wisdom, calling him to share in his creative power"; in coming to understand this, artists and communicators "come to a full understanding of themselves, their vocation and their mission" (Letter to Artists, 1).
The Christian communicator in particular has a prophetic task, a vocation: to speak out against the false gods and idols of the day�materialism, hedonism, consumerism, narrow nationalism, and the rest�holding up for all to see a body of moral truth based on human dignity and rights, the preferential option for the poor, the universal destination of goods, love of enemies, and unconditional respect for all human life from conception to natural death; and seeking the more perfect realization of the Kingdom in this world while remaining aware that, at the end of time, Jesus will restore all things and return them to the Father (cf. 1 Cor 15:24).
32. While these reflections are addressed to all persons of good will, not just Catholics, it is appropriate, in bringing them to a close, to speak of Jesus as a model for communicators. "In these last days" God the Father "has spoken to us by a Son" (Heb 1:2); and this Son communicates to us now and always the Father's love and the ultimate meaning of our lives.
"While he was on earth Christ revealed himself as the perfect communicator. Through his incarnation, he utterly identified himself with those who were to receive his communication, and he gave his message not only in words but in the whole manner of his life. He spoke from within, that is to say, from out of the press of his people. He preached the divine message without fear or compromise. He adjusted to his people's way of talking and to their patterns of thought. And he spoke out of the predicament of their time" (Communio et Progressio, 11).
Throughout Jesus' public life crowds flocked to hear him preach and teach (cf. Mt 8:1,18; Mk 2:2,4.1; Lk 5:1, etc.), and he taught them "as one who had authority" (Mt 7:29; cf. Mk 1:22; Lk 4:32). He told them about the Father and at the same time referred them to himself, explaining, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life" (Jn 14:6) and "he who has seen me has seen the Father" (Jn 14:9). He did not waste time on idle speech or on vindicating himself, not even when he was accused and condemned (cf. Mt 26:63, 27:12-14; Mk 15:5, 15:61). For his "food" was to do the will of the Father who sent him (Jn 4:34), and all he said and did was spoken and done in reference to that.
Often Jesus' teaching took the form of parables and vivid stories expressing profound truths in simple, everyday terms. Not only his words but his deeds, especially his miracles, were acts of communication, pointing to his identity and manifesting the power of God (cf. Evangelii Nuntiandi, 12). In his communications he showed respect for his listeners, sympathy for their situation and needs, compassion for their suffering (e.g., Lk 7:13), and resolute determination to tell them what they needed to hear, in a way that would command their attention and help them receive the message, without coercion or compromise, deception or manipulation. He invited others to open their minds and hearts to him, knowing this was how they would be drawn to him and his Father (e.g., Jn 3:1-15, 4:7-26).
Jesus taught that communication is a moral act: "For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil man out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. I tell you, on the day of judgment men will render an account for every careless word they utter; for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned" (Mt 12:34-37). He cautioned sternly against scandalizing the "little ones", and warned that for one who did, "it would be better... if a great millstone were hung round his neck and he were thrown into the sea" (Mk 9:42; cf. Mt 18:6, Lk 17:2). He was altogether candid, a man of whom it could be said that "no guile was found on his lips"; and further: "When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he trusted to him who judges justly" (1 Pt 2:22-23). He insisted on candor and truthfulness in others, while condemning hypocrisy, dishonesty�any kind of communication that was bent and perverse: "Let what you say be simply �Yes' or �No'; anything more than this comes from evil" (Mt 5:37).
33. Jesus is the model and the standard of our communicating. For those involved in social communication, whether as policy makers or professional communicators or recipients or in any other role, the conclusion is clear: "Therefore, putting away falsehood, let every one speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another... Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for edifying, as fits the occasion, that it may impart grace to those who hear" (Eph 4:25,29). Serving the human person, building up human community grounded in solidarity and justice and love, and speaking the truth about human life and its final fulfillment in God were, are, and will remain at the heart of ethics in the media.
Vatican City, June 4, 2000, World Communications Day, Jubilee of Journalists.
John P. Foley
President
http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/pccs/documents/rc_pc_pccs_doc_20000530_ethics-communications_en.html

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ETHICS IN INTERNET

ONTIFICAL COUNCIL FOR SOCIAL COMMUNICATIONS
ETHICS IN INTERNET

I. Introduction
II. About the Internet
III. Some Areas of Concern
IV. Recommendations and Conclusion

I
INTRODUCTION
1. "Today's revolution in social communications involves a fundamental reshaping of the elements by which people comprehend the world about them, and verify and express what they comprehend. The constant availability of images and ideas, and their rapid transmission even from continent to continent, have profound consequences, both positive and negative, for the psychological, moral and social development of persons, the structure and functioning of societies, intercultural communications, and the perception and transmission of values, world views, ideologies, and religious beliefs".(1)
The truth of these words has become clearer than ever during the past decade. Today it takes no great stretch of the imagination to envisage the earth as an interconnected globe humming with electronic transmissions -- a chattering planet nestled in the provident silence of space. The ethical question is whether this is contributing to authentic human development and helping individuals and peoples to be true to their transcendent destiny.
And, of course, in many ways the answer is yes. The new media are powerful tools for education and cultural enrichment, for commercial activity and political participation, for intercultural dialogue and understanding; and, as we point out in the document that accompanies this one,(2) they also can serve the cause of religion. Yet this coin has another side. Media of communication that can be used for the good of persons and communities can be used to exploit, manipulate, dominate, and corrupt.
2. The Internet is the latest and in many respects most powerful in a line of media -- telegraph, telephone, radio, television -- that for many people have progressively eliminated time and space as obstacles to communication during the last century and a half. It has enormous consequences for individuals, nations, and the world.
In this document we wish to set out a Catholic view of the Internet, as a starting point for the Church's participation in dialogue with other sectors of society, especially other religious groups, concerning the development and use of this marvelous technological instrument. The Internet is being put to many good uses now, with the promise of many more, but much harm also can be done by its improper use. Which it will be, good or harm, is largely a matter of choice -- a choice to whose making the Church brings two elements of great importance: her commitment to the dignity of the human person and her long tradition of moral wisdom.(3)
3. As with other media, the person and the community of persons are central to ethical evaluation of the Internet. In regard to the message communicated, the process of communicating, and structural and systemic issues in communication, "the fundamental ethical principle is this: The human person and the human community are the end and measure of the use of the media of social communication; communication should be by persons to persons for the integral development of persons".(4)
The common good -- "the sum total of social conditions which allow people, either as groups or as individuals, to reach their fulfillment more fully and more easily"(5) -- provides a second basic principle for ethical evaluation of social communications. It should be understood inclusively, as the whole of those worthy purposes to which a community's members commit themselves together and which the community exists to realize and sustain. The good of individuals depends upon the common good of their communities.
The virtue disposing people to protect and promote the common good is solidarity. It is not a feeling of "vague compassion or shallow distress" at other people's troubles, but "a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good; that is to say to the good of all and of each individual, because we are all really responsible for all".(6) Especially today solidarity has a clear, strong international dimension; it is correct to speak of, and obligatory to work for, the international common good.
4. The international common good, the virtue of solidarity, the revolution in communications media and information technology, and the Internet are all relevant to the process of globalization.
To a great extent, the new technology drives and supports globalization, creating a situation in which "commerce and communications are no longer bound by borders".(7) This has immensely important consequences. Globalization can increase wealth and foster development; it offers advantages like "efficiency and increased production... greater unity among peoples... a better service to the human family".(8) But the benefits have not been evenly shared up to now. Some individuals, commercial enterprises, and countries have grown enormously wealthy while others have fallen behind. Whole nations have been excluded almost entirely from the process, denied a place in the new world taking shape. "Globalization, which has profoundly transformed economic systems by creating unexpected possibilities of growth, has also resulted in many people being relegated to the side of the road: unemployment in the more developed countries and extreme poverty in too many countries of the Southern Hemisphere continue to hold millions of women and men back from progress and prosperity".(9)
It is by no means clear that even societies that have entered into the globalization process have done so entirely as a matter of free, informed choice. Instead, "many people, especially the disadvantaged, experience this as something that has been forced upon them rather than as a process in which they can actively participate".(10)
In many parts of the world, globalization is spurring rapid, sweeping social change. This is not just an economic process but a cultural one, with both positive and negative aspects. "Those who are subjected to it often see globalization as a destructive flood threatening the social norms which had protected them and the cultural points of reference which had given them direction in life....Changes in technology and work relationships are moving too quickly for cultures to respond".(11)
5. One major consequence of the deregulation of recent years has been a shift of power from national states to transnational corporations. It is important that these corporations be encouraged and helped to use their power for the good of humanity; and this points to a need for more communication and dialogue between them and concerned bodies like the Church.
Use of the new information technology and the Internet needs to be informed and guided by a resolute commitment to the practice of solidarity in the service of the common good, within and among nations. This technology can be a means for solving human problems, promoting the integral development of persons, creating a world governed by justice and peace and love. Now, even more than when the Pastoral Instruction on the Means of Social Communications Communio et Progressio made the point more than thirty years ago, media have the ability to make every person everywhere "a partner in the business of the human race".(12)
This is an astonishing vision. The Internet can help make it real -- for individuals, groups, nations, and the human race -- only if it is used in light of clear, sound ethical principles, especially the virtue of solidarity. To do so will be to everyone's advantage, for "we know one thing today more than in the past: we will never be happy and at peace without one another, much less if some are against others".(13) This will be an expression of that spirituality of communion which implies "the ability to see what is positive in others, to welcome it and prize it as a gift from God," along with the ability "to 'make room' for our brothers and sisters, bearing 'each other's burdens' (Gal. 6, 2) and resisting the selfish temptations which constantly beset us".(14)
6. The spread of the Internet also raises a number of other ethical questions about matters like privacy, the security and confidentiality of data, copyright and intellectual property law, pornography, hate sites, the dissemination of rumor and character assassination under the guise of news, and much else. We shall speak briefly about some of these things below, while recognizing that they call for continued analysis and discussion by all concerned parties. Fundamentally, though, we do not view the Internet only as a source of problems; we see it as a source of benefits to the human race. But the benefits can be fully realized only if the problems are solved.
II
ABOUT THE INTERNET
7. The Internet has a number of striking features. It is instantaneous, immediate, worldwide, decentralized, interactive, endlessly expandable in contents and outreach, flexible and adaptable to a remarkable degree. It is egalitarian, in the sense that anyone with the necessary equipment and modest technical skill can be an active presence in cyberspace, declare his or her message to the world, and demand a hearing. It allows individuals to indulge in anonymity, role-playing, and fantasizing and also to enter into community with others and engage in sharing. According to users' tastes, it lends itself equally well to active participation and to passive absorption into "a narcissistic, self-referential world of stimuli with near-narcotic effects".(15) It can be used to break down the isolation of individuals and groups or to deepen it.
8. The technological configuration underlying the Internet has a considerable bearing on its ethical aspects: People have tended to use it according to the way it was designed, and to design it to suit that kind of use. This 'new' system in fact dates back to the cold war years of the 1960s, when it was intended to foil nuclear attack by creating a decentralized network of computers holding vital data. Decentralization was the key to the scheme, since in this way, so it was reasoned, the loss of one or even many computers would not mean the loss of the data.
An idealistic vision of the free exchange of information and ideas has played a praiseworthy part in the development of the Internet. Yet its decentralized configuration and the similarly decentralized design of the World Wide Web of the late 1980s also proved to be congenial to a mindset opposed to anything smacking of legitimate regulation for public responsibility. An exaggerated individualism regarding the Internet thus emerged. Here, it was said, was a new realm, the marvelous land of cyberspace, where every sort of expression was allowed and the only law was total individual liberty to do as one pleased. Of course this meant that the only community whose rights and interests would be truly recognized in cyberspace was the community of radical libertarians. This way of thinking remains influential in some circles, supported by familiar libertarian arguments also used to defend pornography and violence in the media generally.(16)
Although radical individualists and entrepreneurs obviously are two very different groups, there is a convergence of interests between those who want the Internet to be a place for very nearly every kind of expression, no matter how vile and destructive, and those who want it to be a vehicle of untrammeled commercial activity on a neo-liberal model that "considers profit and the law of the market as its only parameters, to the detriment of the dignity of and the respect due to individuals and peoples".(17)
9. The explosion of information technology has increased the communication capabilities of some favored individuals and groups many times over. The Internet can serve people in their responsible use of freedom and democracy, expand the range of choices available in diverse spheres of life, broaden educational and cultural horizons, break down divisions, promote human development in a multitude of ways. "The free flow of images and speech on a global scale is transforming not only political and economic relations between peoples, but even our understanding of the world. It opens up a range of hitherto unthinkable possibilities".(18) When based upon shared values rooted in the nature of the person, the intercultural dialogue made possible by the Internet and other media of social communication can be "a privileged means for building the civilization of love".(19)
But that is not the whole story. "Paradoxically, the very forces which can lead to better communication can also lead to increasing self-centeredness and alienation".(20) The Internet can unite people, but it also can divide them, both as individuals and as mutually suspicious groups separated by ideology, politics, possessions, race and ethnicity, intergenerational differences, and even religion. Already it has been used in aggressive ways, almost as a weapon of war, and people speak of the danger of 'cyber-terrorism.' It would be painfully ironic if this instrument of communication with so much potential for bringing people together reverted to its origins in the cold war and became an arena of international conflict.
III
SOME AREAS OF CONCERN
10. A number of concerns about the Internet are implicit in what has been said so far.
One of the most important of these involves what today is called the digital divide -- a form of discrimination dividing the rich from the poor, both within and among nations, on the basis of access, or lack of access, to the new information technology. In this sense it is an updated version of an older gap between the 'information rich' and 'information poor'.
The expression 'digital divide' underlines the fact that individuals, groups, and nations must have access to the new technology in order to share in the promised benefits of globalization and development and not fall further behind. It is imperative "that the gap between the beneficiaries of the new means of information and expression and those who do not have access to them...not become another intractable source of inequity and discrimination".(21) Ways need to be found to make the Internet accessible to less advantaged groups, either directly or at least by linking it with lower-cost traditional media. Cyberspace ought to be a resource of comprehensive information and services available without charge to all, and in a wide range of languages. Public institutions have a particular responsibility to establish and maintain sites of this kind.
As the new global economy takes shape, the Church is concerned "that the winner in this process will be humanity as a whole" and not just "a wealthy elite that controls science, technology and the planet's resources"; this is to say that the Church desires "a globalization which will be at the service of the whole person and of all people".(22)
In this connection it should be borne in mind that the causes and consequences of the divide are not only economic but also technical, social, and cultural. So, for example, another Internet 'divide' operates to the disadvantage of women, and it, too, needs to be closed.
11. We are particularly concerned about the cultural dimensions of what is now taking place. Precisely as powerful tools of the globalization process, the new information technology and the Internet transmit and help instill a set of cultural values -- ways of thinking about social relationships, family, religion, the human condition -- whose novelty and glamour can challenge and overwhelm traditional cultures.
Intercultural dialogue and enrichment are of course highly desirable. Indeed, "dialogue between cultures is especially needed today because of the impact of new communications technology on the lives of individuals and peoples".(23) But this has to be a two-way street. Cultures have much to learn from one another, and merely imposing the world view, values, and even language of one culture upon another is not dialogue but cultural imperialism.
Cultural domination is an especially serious problem when a dominant culture carries false values inimical to the true good of individuals and groups. As matters stand, the Internet, along with the other media of social communication, is transmitting the value-laden message of Western secular culture to people and societies in many cases ill-prepared to evaluate and cope with it. Many serious problems result -- for example, in regard to marriage and family life, which are experiencing "a radical and widespread crisis"(24) in many parts of the world.
Cultural sensitivity and respect for other people's values and beliefs are imperative in these circumstances. Intercultural dialogue that "protects the distinctiveness of cultures as historical and creative expressions of the underlying unity of the human family, and...sustains understanding and communion between them" (25) is needed to build and maintain the sense of international solidarity.
12. The question of freedom of expression on the Internet is similarly complex and gives rise to another set of concerns.
We strongly support freedom of expression and the free exchange of ideas. Freedom to seek and know the truth is a fundamental human right,(26) and freedom of expression is a cornerstone of democracy. "Man, provided he respects the moral order and the common interest, is entitled to seek after truth, express and make known his opinions...he ought to be truthfully informed about matters of public interest".(27) And public opinion, "an essential expression of human nature organized in society," absolutely requires "freedom to express ideas and attitudes".(28)
In light of these requirements of the common good, we deplore attempts by public authorities to block access to information -- on the Internet or in other media of social communication -- because they find it threatening or embarrassing to them, to manipulate the public by propaganda and disinformation, or to impede legitimate freedom of expression and opinion. Authoritarian regimes are