Ge Today, practically all Internet communication transits via the US (including messages sent from Ottawa to
Montreal or Vancouver, for example). That is not a comforting thought, even less so for Europeans.

In the end, we may continue to trust that the focused self-organising principles that have governed Internet evolution so far
will prevail for the better, but focus here is the operative word. The Internet works and has successfully resisted vorticial
biases in its information control flows but mainly because people with brains and hearts have kept paying attention. The
NSM invites just that kind of attention.

A FOOTNOTE ON THE NEXT FIVE MINUTES:

The time span indicated by the ironic title NSM is put in perspective by the project announced at the Doors of Perception
Conference on Speed in November 1997 and now in process of realisation by Danny Hillis, a century clock which beats a
second a year. | was reminded of this important art and technology concept by a curious fact of astronomy which is given
evidence by the accuracy of the records kept by Babylonians of full solar eclipses. The computer-assisted calculations of
waves of eclipse frequency over the last millennia first show that the ancient records were accurate down to less than a
degree in space and than a second in time, but even more than that, it is the very precision of such records that allow sci-
entists today to estimate that there has been an imperceptible but verifiable slow-down of the Earth's rotation speed. Such
a huge throwback in relevant data charted by people even if they may not have had our problems in mind heralds a formi-
dable change of scale in time which is commensurate with the change of scale satellites and instant networked access is
now bringing to space. The idea of the NSM suddenly feels like eternity...

THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE MEDIA
IN NATIONAL CONFLICTS
HOW TO GUARANTEE THE FUTURE
ROLE OF INDEPENDENT MEDIA

The rapid development of telecommunications and media technologies has changed the very nature of the media. In both
space and time they are becoming an integral part of events taking place. Live coverage itself has been transformed into
a new event. Examples of this are the landing of US marines in Somalia and Haiti and the assault on the Beli dom and the
Ostankino television station in Moscow.

Politicians have a powerful and crucial influence on the media in non-democratic regimes and unconsolidated democra-
cies. In democratic societies politicians endeavour to influence the media as much as possible by spin-doctoring. On the
other hand the media themselves are able to exert an increasingly decisive influence on the behaviour and decisions of
politicians. My argument is that the media have no power of their own, but that their influence stems from modern meth-
ods of implementing specific policies: above all through the media, to a lesser extent in the parliament and in other are-
nas for political activities.

Commercialisation suppresses the diversity of programming, as well as programs related to minorities, alternative culture,
and subcultures. The pursuit of higher audience ratings is reflected in news and current affairs reporting. News presenta-
tion, that selection of excerpts from reality presented by media to their audience is now characterised by the trivial, the
bizarre and the scandalous. As a consequence of this hard news now occupies less space in the media. There is less will-
ingness to cover the expenses of public service broadcasters which are now being forced into commercialisation. In the
process, the public has the most to lose - it loses its sources of information.

Mmmm mn OHHH