REGION ICT development and media

16 ICT, development and media
Mark Borg

Introduction
Technology is an inescapable reality that infiltrates every part of
our lives. It usually dictates how we do things and undoubtedly improves our lives by minimising our mundane tasks, allowing us more
time to dedicate to more significant activities. The last century has
seen technology advancing in leaps and bounds, because of the silicone chip. For instance, in just a decade, the cell phone jumped from
our science fiction screens into the hands of millions of consumers
with an unprecedented hunger for the technology. Prices dropped
dramatically in a very short period to quickly make it one of the most
affordable electronic consumer products on the market.
Not quite as flamboyantly as the cell phone, the computer has
gone through a comparatively quiet revolution in design. It took less
than half a century for a computer that once filled a room to come
down to a size that now fits a laptop. With this came advancements in
programming, the Internet, audio and video formats and peripherals.
While the developed world took the lead in these technological
advancements, the developing world seemed to be watching from the
side. But not just watching—many developing countries realised the
potential of the technology. Strategies that before were unaffordable

had suddenly been made affordable, owing to the versatility of the
Internet.
Like everything new, the Internet initially met considerable resistance, more so since it is a medium for all kinds of information, including material that is considered ‘unsavoury’ by sectors of the
community.
But precisely because it is a medium for all kinds of information,
the Internet made economic sense. Through a single medium, we
could suddenly communicate information on health, agriculture or
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business, pass on news, educate students, and send mail to individuals.
All of these in the form of text, pictures, movies, music and voice
messages. It almost seemed that the Internet was as vast as the imagination of the people who were using it.
This was quickly recognised and any initial resistance faded
away as people began to understand the benefits it could bring to their
work and their lives.
There was a push, especially by international development agencies like the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), to use

the technology for development purposes. Former UNDP administrator Mark Malloch Brown said, ‘ICTs, especially the Internet, are both
about stimulating wider participation, exchanging experience, communicating ideas, transmitting knowledge, sharing new findings and
best practices and facilitating the development of communities of
practice and new modes of cooperation’ (Brown, 2001). However, the
focus had to shift from the technology, and trying to find ways to use
it, to development problems and assessing whether the technology
could be a solution (or part of a solution) to some of these problems.
That is, the focus should be on people and the developmental uses of
the information and communication technologies, and not on the technology per se. It was realised that, unfortunately, not everyone was
benefiting from ICTs to the same extent. In fact, a ‘digital divide’ had
been created.
The digital divide
The Digital Divide has been equated to the gap between the
‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’ in the world, the rich and poor. Now people are falling into another two categories, referred to as the ‘knows’
and the ‘know-nots’. It is not a coincidence that the ‘haves’ and the
‘knows’ and the ‘have-nots’ and the ‘know-nots’ are usually the same
categories of people, for a very simple reason: wealth gives one access
to knowledge and knowledge gives one access to even more wealth.
The Digital Divide can be defined as the gap between those able
to benefit from digital technology and those who do not (Hammond,

2001). This refers not only to those who have direct access to technology, but also to those who are actually helped by technology. Therefore, it would not be enough to give Internet access to people everywhere; one will need to make sure that people can make op-

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timal use of it for their own and their community’s benefit.
With the advent of the Internet, amazing new opportunities presented themselves to Pacific Island countries. Here was an opportunity
to overcome some of the barriers that have plagued island nations,
such as distance, isolation and dispersal of their populations.
A study on digital divides in the Pacific was published in 2004
by Dirk Spennemann. He found that each of the Pacific Island countries was mentioned by more than a million pages on the web, with
Samoa, Fiji and Guam the most frequently mentioned. However, less
than 1 per cent of all pages about Pacific Island countries are hosted
on their own domains. He concluded that the divide was so great that
it could not be bridged with the resources available to the countries at
that time. He suggested that the divide be perceived as being two-fold:
access to reliable and affordable technology, and information literacy.
A component of this digital divide is the dependence of the South on
the North for technology. To reduce this dependence, some suggest

that developing countries ‘should integrate both production and use,
and draw on the substantial ICT capabilities existing in the South
through bilateral, regional and inter-regional cooperation’ (Joseph,
2005).

This requires new initiatives in South-South or Regional Cooperation in the areas of ICT. There are also a number of projects in the
South or even in the region that can offer inspiration to other countries
on what can be done with the few resources available to them. An interesting initiative from India is DakNet. DakNet uses wireless technology and a bus to transfer email from village kiosks to an Internet
access point in a town. The idea is as simple as it is innovative. Although these village Internet kiosks do not have direct access to the
Internet they store email until the regular public bus visits the area to
drop and pick up passengers. The bus carries a server and using wireless technology it automatically picks up mail from the village kiosk
servers and downloads the mail it received from the hub in town. As it
approaches town, it automatically transfers this mail received from the
village kiosks to the Internet hub. In this way, people using the village
Internet kiosks are able to send and receive email even though the villages do not have Internet connections, or even telephone connections.
A great example from the Pacific is the Solomon Islands ‘People
First’ Network. Through this network, Solomon Islands has been able
to extend the Internet to a number of remote areas and outer islands,

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through the use of radio and solar technologies. Thus, people in these
localities were able to send and receive email before they even had
telephones and electricity. The delivery of Internet has been able to
provide Internet at a low cost, improve communications, bridge the
distances that exist in the archipelago and therefore assist in nation
building following the upheavals that the country has experienced.
However, despite these innovations, one cannot ignore the huge
obstacles facing the Pacific in its development of ICTs.
Obstacles to ICT development in the region
The Pacific has recognised that there are a number of obstacles
limiting the development of ICTs in the region, that is, the limited and
unequal access to communications technology, high costs of equipment and services, insufficient telecommunications bandwidth, low
investment in networks and the outdated and absence of sufficient
regulatory frameworks at the national level (Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, 2006). These obstacles, of course, are not confined to the Pacific. The international discourse on ICTs lists the same obstacles to
ICT development in all continents. However, the Pacific does offer
extremes of some of these obstacles and these need to be overcome
before people living in developing countries can maximise the benefits of this technology.

Prices / rates
High costs of Internet connectivity are probably the biggest obstacle for the use of Internet in developing countries. Unless Internet is
affordable it will remain the tool of those who are financially better
off. One must consider not only the rates one pays for the Internet
connectivity but also the cost of computer equipment, with prices,
though continuously falling, still too high for most people’s budgets.
Internet Service Providers’ (ISP) monopolies have been cited as the
primary reason for these excessive Internet rates. In fact, once these
monopolies were removed and the established ISPs challenged by new
competitors, significant decreases in rates became evident. On the
other hand, the international pricing of computer equipment has been
decreasing but these decreases were not necessarily enjoyed by the island countries. As a measure to increase interest and use of ICTs,

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many governments have dramatically decreased, or even removed, duties and taxation on computer equipment and products (including peripherals and software). One way to overcome the barrier of the high
costs of computer equipment is to set up telecentres, that is, community centres that offer Internet access for a small fee, a version of
Internet Cafes found in cities and towns. These telecentres could be

set up in schools or community halls.
Infrastructure
The poor telecommunications and electricity infrastructure in the
Pacific, particularly in rural areas and outer islands, has inhibited the
expansion of ICT technologies in the region. This has been partially
overcome by use of technologies that do not need this infrastructure in
place (e.g. the use of radio and solar technologies in the People First
Network of Solomon Islands). However, if countries intend to deliver
more advanced tools over the Internet, there is a need for more robust
ICT infrastructure that will support broadband technologies.
Literacy (English)
The Internet is very much an English medium, with 30 per cent
of Internet users being English speaking in 2007 (www.internetworld
stats.com/stats7.htm) and 68 per cent of the web-content being in English (2004 - www.glreach.com/globalstats/refs.php3). The most widely
used language in the Pacific region is English. Most sites are in English and those who cannot read English are thus handicapped. But the
landscape is also quickly changing. This year, over 14 per cent of
Internet users worldwide are Chinese Mandarin speaking, 8 per cent
Spanish, 7.7 per cent Japanese, 5.3 per cent German and 5 per cent
French. In the Pacific, English will likely remain the dominant language. However, the development of vernacular content in Pacific Island countries should be encouraged with information being offered in
both English and the other major languages used in the country. This

should be a policy for government websites so that this goes some
way in overcoming any language barrier that may exist.
Digital literacy (or computer literacy)
With the technology emerges another type of literacy because
one needs to be able to use the technology to really benefit from it.

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The flip side is that large numbers of people are digitally illiterate because they have not had the opportunity to use a computer in their
lives, which means they will not be able, on their own, to benefit from
any advancement in the technology.
Local content
Although the Internet has a vast amount of content, very little in
the Pacific is local content. It is easier to find out what the City Council of Hamburg, Oslo, or Stuttgart is doing rather than to keep up with
the City Council of Suva, Honiara, or Port Vila where we actually
live. Pacific Island countries must make serious efforts to develop local content, relevant to local populations, for the Internet as much as
for other local media.
All these obstacles point to the need to have technology intermediaries based at tele-centres. These are trained persons that can help

people who are either English illiterate or digitally illiterate to make
optimal use of ICTs. They are the ones who know the technology and
can assist people receive or pass on the information they require.
These intermediaries will also be in an ideal position to develop local
content in accordance with the needs of local communities. Without
these intermediaries, ICTs will remain inaccessible to most of our
populations.
International and regional structures
There are a number of international and regional structures that
now deal with the development of ICTs in one way or another.
The international recognition that ICTs and development are
linked was probably given by the UN Millennium Summit and the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), particularly Goal 8, which
was basically a hotchpotch goal that included targets on trade, aid,
debt, the private sector and even land-locked and Small Island developing states. One of the targets under this Goal 8 was: ‘In cooperation
with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies—especially information and communications technologies’.1
The UN hosted the World Summit on the Information Society
1

The Millennium Development Goals at URL www.un.org/millenniumgoals/

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(WSIS) held in Geneva in 2003, followed by another Summit in Tunis
in 2005.2 In 2003, the Summit produced a declaration of principles
and a plan of action (World Summit on the Information Society,
2003). There were 11 principles:
1.

The role of governments and all stakeholders in the promotion of
ICTs for development
2. Information and communication infrastructure: as essential foundation for an inclusive information society
3. Access to information and knowledge
4. Capacity building
5. Building confidence and security in the use of ICTs
6. Enabling environment
7. ICT applications: benefits in all aspects of life
8. Cultural diversity and identity, linguistic diversity and local content;

9. Media
10. Ethical dimensions of the Information Society
11. International and regional cooperation.

On the Media, the Plan of Action suggested the following:
a)
b)
c)
d)

e)
f)

g)

Encourage the media—print and broadcast as well as new media—
to continue to play an important role in the Information Society
Encourage the development of domestic legislation that guarantees
the independence and plurality of the media
Take appropriate measures—consistent with freedom of expression—to combat illegal and harmful content in media content
Encourage media professionals in developed countries to establish
partnerships and networks with the media in developing countries,
especially in the field of training
Promote balanced and diverse portrayals of women and men by
the media
Reduce international imbalances affecting the media, particularly
as regards infrastructure, technical resources and the development
of human skills, taking full advantage of ICT tools in this regard
Encourage traditional media to bridge the knowledge divide and to
facilitate the flow of cultural content, particularly in rural areas.

The 2005 WSIS Tunis Summit produced a ‘Tunis Commitment’
which reiterated the urgency to bridge the digital divide, and an
‘Agenda for the Information Society’. Regionally, we have also made
2

The full WSIS documentation may be viewed at www.itu.int/wsis/index.html

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headway in establishing structures that promote and support the use of
ICT for development.
PacINET is an annual conference held in the Pacific as a venue
to discuss the development of ICT in the Pacific, with an emphasis on
technical issues. If the media want to reach the people who are driving
the development of ICT in the region, this is the conference they need
to attend. PacINET is convened by the Pacific Islands Chapter of the
Internet Society (PICISOC). The Internet Society is ‘the international
organisation for global coordination and cooperation on the Internet,
promoting and maintaining a broad spectrum of activities focused on
the Internet's development, availability, and associated technologies’
(http://www.isoc.org/isoc/). It currently has more than 100 organisation members and over 20,000 individual members in over 180 countries. PICISOC was formed in 1999 to represent the Pacific Islands in
ISOC as well as provide a space for Pacific Internet users to discuss
ICT developments in the region (http://www.picisoc.org).
The University of the South Pacific (USP) was one of the first
organisations to realise the need for ICTs in a region such as this.
USP’s Distance and Flexible Learning Centre (DFL) makes use of a
satellite communications network, USPNet, to deliver tertiary education to people in the Pacific who would otherwise not be able to study
face-to-face. In fact half of USP’s 15,000 students make use of this
tool, with over 200 credit courses being offered through DFL.3
Another successful initiative in the region is the Pacific Public
Health Surveillance Network (PPHSN or PACNET) coordinated by
the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (http://www.spc.int/phs/
PPHSN/index.htm). In existence since 1996, it is a network of health
professionals to harmonise health data needs and develop adequate
surveillance systems, including operational research; develop relevant
computer applications; adapt field epidemiology and public health
surveillance training programmes to local and regional needs; promote
the use of e-mail, opening the network to new partners, new services
and other networks; and produce publications. PPHSN has given rise
to other networks: EPINET, LABNET and PICNET. EPINET (Epidemiology Network) offers coordinated surveillance and response
field activities, as well as establishing and maintaining relevant targetdiseases surveillance and response protocols, including all technical
3

http://www.usp.ac.fj/index.php?id=aboutus_overview

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and resource-related aspects of all operations. LABNET (Laboratory
Network) networks a small group of existing laboratories in the Fiji
Islands, French Polynesia, Guam and New Caledonia to provide public health laboratory services for all Pacific Island countries for the six
initial target diseases (dengue, measles, influenza, leptospirosis, cholera and typhoid). PICNET (Pacific Infection Control Network) aims to
communicate ways in which, with limited resources, one may ensure
patient and health care worker safety from infectious diseases.
PACWIN (Pacific Women’s Information Network), another SPC
coordinated Network, brings together a very active network of
women, most from the Pacific, who share information and discuss
gender-related issues affecting the region (http://www.spc.int/wom en/).
Although all these efforts have benefited some people in Pacific
Island countries, ICT initiatives have so far been ad hoc. There is little
relationship between these different initiatives. They arose from individual, mostly donor driven, endeavours. One cannot help feeling that
the region could have achieved more if these initiatives arose from a
shared vision and according to agreed strategies.
This recognition of the importance of ICTs by Pacific regional
organisations has had an impact on the development of regional ICT
strategies. The strategy for the development of ICTs in the region is
encompassed in a number of documents: the Communication Action
Plan (CAP) of 1999 and reviewed in 2002; the Pacific Islands Information and Communications Technologies Policy and Strategic Plan
(PIIPP) of 2002 and the Pacific Regional Digital Strategy (PRDS).
The Pacific Islands Forum Information and Communications
Technologies Ministerial Forum held in Wellington in March 2006 issued a declaration (termed the ‘Wellington Declaration’) in which it
was declared that :
ICTs, while not an end in themselves, have a key role as a basis for
economic development, while also promoting and enhancing social
cohesion, cultural enrichment and environmental conservation. While
the Pacific region faces a number of obstacles to the effective deployment of communications and other infrastructure, we acknowledge that the region also stands to benefit enormously from the effective use of ICTs. Therefore we pledge to work together to support the
advancement of Forum countries through improved deployment and
use of ICTs in our societies’.

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A survey conducted in 20024 by the Forum Secretariat identified a
number of priorities including:
•

•
•

•
•
•

•

Human resource development (including training and the establishment of systems to assist HRD)
Price reductions of telecommunications services
The need for telephone and Internet services to outer islands
and outer lying areas
The need to encourage ICTs in schools by ensuring that
school students have access to computers and the necessary
training methods
Telecommunications infrastructure development
Improved networked economies through e-government and ecommerce
Development of policy and regulatory frameworks.

The Pacific Regional Digital Strategy5 was developed as a component of the Pacific Plan.6 The strategy is built around three pillars—
at the country level, the regional level and the global level.
At the country level, it emphasises the need for ICT country
strategies that ‘will develop and sustain strong country leadership of,
and stakeholder involvement in, ICT development’. It identifies a
number of key programmes that reflect the processes necessary to develop ICTs at the national level, but using regional capacity. These include support to leaders to develop policy, plans and programmes; development of measures to assist in the gathering of statistics and the
setting up of development targets; expansion of telecommunications
access to rural and remote areas; and development of human resources.
Interestingly, at the regional level, the strategy’s primary key programme regards ICT leadership, including research, governance, advocacy, consulting, regional planning and coordination, promotion of
best practice, equity in representation and statistics.
Pacific Island countries are starting to develop their own national
ICT strategies. Vanuatu has developed a ‘Telecommunications Policy
4

http://forumsec.org/UserFiles/File/ICTsurveyreport2002.pdf
www.pacificplan.org/tiki-page.php?pageName=Digital+strategy1
6
The Pacific Plan for strengthening regional cooperation and integration may be
downloaded from www.pacificplan.org
5

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Statement’ that it has submitted for public consultation. In this policy
statement, Vanuatu outlines its near-term, medium-term and long-term
objectives as follows:
Near term objectives
• Review, update and promulgate a new telecommunications legal
and regulatory framework (including a new Telecommunications
Act)
• Promote new private entrants to provide services.
Medium-term objectives
• Ensure that prices to be paid by the public are at similar levels to
those in open markets overseas, even taking into account Vanuatu’s relatively small domestic market
• Ensure that quality of services will also be of similar levels to
those in open markets.
Long-term objectives
• To have effective competition in most of the country, especially
in mobile telephony and Internet access
• Achieve very good coverage of rural areas, especially with mobile telephone service and Internet access, with private investment and, where appropriate, targeted support from a Telecommunications Development Fund, and as a consequence also of
reasonable licence requirements.

National strategies have been found to be very effective in giving
guidance to the development of ICTs in a country, ensuring optimal
use of available resources for the benefit of all sectors of society, and
not just the privileged few.
Measuring ICT development
A number of indices are now being used to measure the development of ICTs in different countries and these indices are used to
compare development between countries. The one that has taken most
usage is the Digital Opportunity Index (DOI).
The DOI is an Index used by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to track progress in bridging the digital divide and
the implementation of the outcomes of WSIS. The DOI is a composite
index comprising 11 separate indicators, including data on prices for
mobile telephony and Internet access relative to local incomes to reflect affordability of ICTs; household penetration of fixed lines, per-

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sonal computers and Internet access; and data on more advanced technologies in broadband access.
The 2007 World Information Society Report: Beyond WSIS7
provides the Digital Opportunity Index and the World Ranking for
most countries in the world.
Table 16.1: Digital Opportunity Index and World Rank: 2005/06
Country
Korea (Rep.)
Australia
New Zealand
Tonga
Fiji
Samoa
Vanuatu
Papua New Guinea
Solomon Islands

Digital Opportunity
Index 2005/2006
0.80
0.65
0.65
0.41
0.39
0.29
0.21
0.19
0.13

World Rank
1
22
25
92
99
125
141
148
166

There are some lessons to be learned from countries like Korea.
The report attributes the Korean success mostly to the government’s
lead role in the deployment of broadband. However, its success is a
combination of factors: environmental factors (high literacy and
school enrolment, tech-savvy consumers and a largely urbanised
population); policy factors (a strong government push towards the Information Society and high investment by the private sector in new
technologies and services); and a highly competitive market structure.
What sets Korea apart is the strong guiding role played by the government. The government set up a Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC), which promoted broadband deployment by establishing a framework for facilities-based competition. It kept regular
consultations with telecommunications operators to keep user costs
low and promote access throughout the country. It also promoted nation-wide training programmes for computer and Internet skills with
large-scale education for children, housewives, the elderly and the
disabled. The Pacific may not be able to repeat Korea’s success but
there are certainly many lessons to be learned!
7

The full report is available at
www.itu.int/osg/spu/publications/worldinformationsociety/2007/report.html

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Despite all the amazing stories coming out of India, it only ranks
124th on the world index, whereas China, a comparably populous nation, ranks 77th. The ICT stories that come out of a country may not
necessarily be indicative of the success of their ICT strategies. It may
just be an indication of a better thriving media, or an indication that
there are better (English speaking) journalists reporting ICT stories in
India than there are in China!
In the Pacific, we know that Fiji’s economy is stronger than that
of Tonga. However, Tonga has been able to create better digital opportunity than Fiji, which ranks it higher on the DOI. Similarly, Vanuatu ranks higher than Papua New Guinea.
Unfortunately, other Pacific Island countries (e.g. Cook Islands,
Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru,
Niue, Palau and Tuvalu) are not covered in the Index. This is in itself
an indication that these Pacific Island countries need to strive to collect the kind of data necessary to be able to work out the digital opportunity indices for these countries as well.
Countries that have made rapid growth in Internet development
have been those with prominent IT champions (in the case of Malaysia it was the then Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohammed himself). The
other characteristics include an open and pro-active government; a
dynamic private sector; investment in appropriate infrastructure; appropriate and forward-looking IT and telecommunications public policies and legislation; and a clear understanding of the overall impact on
a country’s welfare.
Reporting ICT for development
Journalists of small media agencies, like those in small island
states, are expected to be experts on everything. In the Pacific Islands
there is hardly any specialisation in covering beats like ICT, as one
would tend to find in larger nations. But this is an important area for
national development. The media has a key role to play by analysing
and disseminating information and creating awareness.
Media companies can invite specialised contributors, or they may
consider giving their journalists specialised training in ICTs, not just
in their use, but more importantly in understanding the underlying issues of ICT development and ICT for Development (ICT4D).
Our dependence on technology also lays us open to the risk of

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sabotage. The media cannot ignore the importance of security to a
modern society that works through the Internet. Viruses, spyware,
identity thefts and problems created by crackers, hackers and spam
agents can do a lot of damage.
The more traditional crimes have taken on more sophistication
through the use of such a versatile technology to form illegal networks
in money laundering, child pornography, trade in women, trade in endangered species, trade in stolen antiquities, terrorist groups, and so
forth. The Pacific is not immune from these hazards.
The need for journalists to understand ICTs and report on them is
further underlined by the rapid growth of the Internet. There are presently some four million websites being added to the Internet every
month.8 If something as rapidly expanding as the Internet does not deserve a journalist’s attention, then what does?
Opportunities need to be created so that our journalists in the Pacific region understand the intricacies of a rapidly changing technology and are thus able to make judgements on the types of technologies
being offered by the market; the strategies being offered by governments; and the real digital threats facing our societies (rather than
those promoted by governments wanting to control our cyber freedoms using the excuse of some looming cyber-terrorist threat).
Editors and newsroom managers need to recognise the importance of the technology and the need for their journalists to be better
prepared and able to understand the issues related to ICT4D. This will
enable them to inform the public better about the ramifications of decisions and actions taken by their governments or the private sector.
Similarly, Pacific leaders should recognise the importance of the media in educating the public on ICTs. The education of journalists in
this area should form part of the region’s digital strategy and of any
national strategies that are developed.

8

http://news.netcraft.com/archives/web_server_survey.html