We recognise that the practice and systems of communications have the power to transform lives, and to influence the behaviour of organisations, institutions, communities and nations.  We also believe that for too long the processes and systems of communications have been concentrated within the power of too few in industrialised countries who use such power to homogenise cultures and ideologies.  Recognising this, and that communication systems and processes are not easily accessible to all the world's people, we the following joined together to propose a vision of communications for the 21st century that animates our collective commitment to positive social change.
This vision is shaped by the following principles:
I.   Every voice has the right to be heard and should have the means to be heard.
ii.  Communications systems and technology must, therefore, be affordable, accessible to all.

III. To work best, the process of communication must allow a free flow from many to many, rather than from one to many.
IV. Communities must play an essential role in finding their own communications solutions and developing their own communications strategies.

We believe that unmediated communication processes, in which all of us may communicate freely, directly and horizontally with one another, will endow each of us with a greater sense of our own possibilities, enrich our cultures through direct contact with other cultures, create a conversation without limits in which each voice may be heard equally, and from which may evolve enlightened societies that value tolerance, self-determination and active participation.

We believe in the power of strong, vivid and personal images to transform consciousness.  And we believe that the images and stories that define and shape a group, a community or a people are primarily theirs alone to make.
For we believe that the cultures of the world need not be subsumed by those cultures of industrialised nations which dominate control of channels of communications.

We believe that ideas with the power to enhance our lives are arising from voices too long excluded from the larger human discourse.  These are too often the voices of people from the edges of the world, from the margins of society.  They may own neither presses nor broadcasting towers, but they do have the capability of taking responsibility for their futures.  We've seen how many previously marginalised people, given the opportunity, can create solutions for complex world problems, and may, in fact, well possess the energy and vision that will help ensure the future for all of us.
We believe that communication is essential for strengthening cultural identity and human values, encouraging further world development, allowing people in communities throughout the world to participate in their own governance, to organise, and to shape our future world.

Moved to action by these principles, we have agreed to work together toward free and open access of all people to the methods, means and tools of communication, to reach out to communities around the world for their ideas and their strength, and to embrace and promote new understanding and new knowledge from wherever it might arise.