The digital age has changed the consumption habits of culture. Today, audiences are immersed in a multitude of dematerialized content, which transits through channels and in a constantly renewed way: streaming platforms, social networks... In this context, how can we make cultural content stand out? And how can States continue to promote the diversity of cultural expressions in the digital environment?
These are the main questions to which the Joint Working Group of the Ministries of Culture and Foreign Affairs have to propose answers, through the development of a roadmap of good practices to implement and update UNESCO’s 2005 Convention on Culture in the Digital Environment.
What is UNESCO’s 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of Cultural Diversity?
The 2005 Convention is the first international instrument to recognize the dual economic and cultural nature of cultural goods and services. Concretely, this convention legitimizes the principle of cultural exception, which includes the exclusion of audiovisual goods from the negotiations of trade agreements.
The Convention affirms several major principles, including the freedom of each sovereign State to implement national public policies in favour of culture and the affirmation of international cooperation and solidarity policies in cultural matters with countries in development.
What are the challenges of implementing the 2005 Convention in the digital environment?
The UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions adopted in 2005 was prepared and signed before the profound transformation of our cultural practices through digital (streaming platforms, social networks). Its primary scope therefore does not take this dimension into account, whereas digital technology has changed our uses and our access to cultural goods and services, particularly via social networks.
To address this, in 2017 UNESCO adopted operational guidelines on the implementation of the 2005 Convention in the digital environment. These operational guidelines are measures to promote and protect the creation, production and access to cultural goods and services in the digital environment, but also to take advantage of the economic opportunities (among others) it offers.
As part of their implementation, UNESCO has asked each State signatory to the 2005 Convention to present a roadmap of good practices in order to continue to enrich exchanges and identify new issues that may arise.
What is the action of the Ministry of Culture in this specific framework?
In 2019, the Ministry of Culture, in conjunction with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, established a working group composed of experts on the digital environment. This working group was tasked with identifying good practices and developing a French roadmap for the implementation of the UNESCO Convention. Based on an overview of the measures taken to promote the diversity of cultural expressions in the digital environment, these objectives are illustrated by good practices, existing, to be strengthened or developed.
The result of all this work has led to the drafting of a French national roadmap of good practices transmitted to UNESCO. This sheet is structured around 3 main axes:
- Support for the creation and protection of creators in the digital environment;
- The promotion of cultural diversity in the digital environment;
- The development of audiences and access to culture in the digital environment.
For each of its axes, examples of actions supported by the Ministry of Culture or led by civil society organizations in France are presented.
To find out more
- Launch of the Franco-Quebec mission in 2019 on discoverability
- The Franco-Quebec strategy on discoverability presented in 2020
- Implementation of the Franco-Quebec strategy through a call for projects
- A MOOC to learn about discoverability issues
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