Every movement, every age has its own unique human rights battle. Fifty years ago, blacks fought for their civil rights, then women for theirs, then environmentalists for the right to clean air, water, and food. And now in this age of systematically distorted information, we face a new human rights battle – one that we can no longer ignore. This battle is for the The Right to Communicate.

It’s a battle for openness, transparency and democracy. It’s about citizens winning real access to the mass media; winning the right to walk into our local TV stations and buy 30 seconds of air time; to start a low-power, community radio station; to speak out on the internet, from anywhere in the world, free from censorship or arrest.

It’s also about cleaning up the toxic areas of our mental environment and feeding a wholesome media diet to our kids. On a more personal level, it’s about dealing with our media-induced anxieties and depressions and staying sane in this crazy postmodern age of ours. We must, in the end, face the fact that nothing else will matter if we can’t save that most precious natural resource of all - the peace and clarity of our own minds.

We, the people, must win control of society’s most powerful means of expression. Without the ability to share our ideas and opinions, we cannot debate issues or make informed decisions. We cannot raise healthy children, create good public policy or hold elections that matter. We lose the power to shape our own consciousness, our own future. We lose even the power to imagine what that future might look like. The right to communicate is not an abstract demand. It’s a remedy for distorted and misleading public discourse, the sort that allowed the US to attack Iraq, that every day allows Palestinian suffering to go largely unnoticed, and that allows big business to keep global warming off the political agenda.

To win the right to communicate will take years, perhaps generations. But we’ve already taken some important first steps. We’ve built up a 20,000-strong Media Carta network and fired the first shot. In September 2004, we launched legal action against four of Canada’s biggest television networks – CTV, CanWest, Global, CBC and CHUM Ltd. With one of Canada’s most prominent civil rights lawyers, Clayton Ruby, as lead counsel, we expect to win the legal right to buy air time for citizen-produced advocacy ads. The lawsuit also names the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) for its role in regulating the broadcasters. It’s a landmark case that could set a precedent for other countries to follow. We’re building a team of lawyers and launching a similar First Amendment legal action in the US in 2005.

Our ultimate goal is to enshrine The Right to Communicate as a fundamental human right in the constitutions of all free nations and in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Sign the Media Carta. Join this movement. A victory here will change everything.

Kalle Lasn and Tim Walker