Updated: 08 December 2003

The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) will be held from 10 to12 December at the Geneva-PALEXPO Exhibition and Conference Centre, opposite the Geneva International Airport. 
WSIS shuttle buses will be provided from the Airport Main Building, Arrival Area, to PALEXPO Hall 7 where the WSIS Registration Service is located. A WSIS Information desk will be located in the Airport Arrival Lounge from 8 to 12 December 2003.

The following information is provided to assist media planning to cover the Summit. This document will be updated frequently. 

Accreditation

Media accreditation for members of the media is available on the WSIS website. An online application form with instructions is available at https://www.itu.int/net/wsis/newsroom/accreditation/index.html 
 
Media accreditation services will be available in Hall 7 of PALEXPO as follows: 

5-9 December: 09h00 to 13h00 and 14h00 to 18h00
10-12 December: 08h00 to 21h00 

Media accreditation will be available onsite but media are strongly urged to complete their accreditation in advance of arrival in Geneva to avoid unnecessary delays and to ensure approval of your accreditation. Media who have received confirmation of the accreditation may pick up their media passes from the accreditation centre on presentation of two forms of photo identification (passport, driver’s license, employee identification etc.) Media with valid accreditation credentials to the United Nations or who were accredited to ITU TELECOM WORLD 2003 need only fill in the online form (without submitting the otherwise required supporting documentation). 

Accreditation for Media Travelling with Heads of State or Government

Media travelling with Heads of State or Government and heads of delegation must register through the official media accreditation channel and will need to be included on a list being submitted to WSIS Media Accreditation by the Delegation media liaison officer. Please note that unless they are pre-accredited through the Delegation media liaison officers will have to go through full accreditation before gaining access to Palexpo and that this could be a lengthy process.

There is no need for media travelling with Heads of State or Government to provide further supporting documentation as required under normal accreditation procedure as badges will be prepared in advance and distributed at arrival by the delegations media liaison officer. The delegation media officer will contact those journalists travelling with Heads of State or Government to inform them of the complete requirements.
Media Centre
The Media Centre is located in Hall 2 of PALEXPO. All media accredited to the Summit will have free access to the

Media Centre. 

The Media Centre will provide the full range of media facilities and will be organized and managed by staff of ITU, the UN Department of Public Information and the Government of Switzerland. The facilities will be available starting on 9 December from 07h30 through the closing of the Summit. The Media Centre will be open from 07h30 until 24h00. 

Media Pools
At certain times, access for media to some other parts of the building will be restricted because of space or security considerations. Coverage in restricted areas will be arranged on a "pool" basis and media will be escorted to restricted areas by WSIS media liaison staff, as needed. 

Media Pool information and sign up will be located at the information desk in the Media Centre.

Visual media coverage of the arrival and welcoming of Heads of State and Government at Palexpo, as well as the opening ceremony and plenary will be done by selected media pools. Media Liaison staff will escort crews into location.

Governments’ official photographers will have an opportunity, on a rotating basis, to cover the speech of their Head of State, Head of Government or Head of delegation, from set positions in the Plenary and Roundtable rooms. Owing to space limitations, they may not remain to cover other speeches and may be required to move into and out of these set positions with other members of the media pools. 

A limited number of still photographers, escorted by media liaison staff, will also be allowed to take
photographs from the Plenary and Roundtable rooms. The Media Pool Coordinator in the Media Centre will organize these operations.

Facilities

Media Working Room

The media centre will house a working area, available free of charge on a strictly first-come, first-served basis and equipped with the following:
· 250 work spaces with Ethernet connection and Internet access (75 with PCs and 175 with laptop connections)
· a bank of 10 fixed line phones will be available with free (time limited) local, national and international access
· 6 large plasma screens in the Media Working Room are available to allow journalists to follow the plenary and roundtable sessions as well as press conferences
· 10 mult-boxes will be available to radio broadcasters in a dedicated area of the Media Centre for audio recording with LXR connections (English, French and floor audio)
· media will be provided with wireless interpretation headsets

Radio coverage

· 4 radio booths with Internet connections, ISDN lines and NT Box are available to radio broadcasters on a dedicated or shared basis. Access to the booths on a shared basis is done by booking at the Media Centre. No central radio production or recording facility is provided.

Press Agencies coverage

· 4 booths for press agencies with Internet connections have been allocated to agencies on a first come, first served basis. The basic set up includes 3 desks and chairs as well as Internet connectivity. Any additional requirements are at the charge of the agency having booked the booth.

Television coverage

The government of Switzerland has appointed Télévision Suisse Romande (TSR) as the host broadcaster for WSIS. TSR, in cooperation with the Eurovision News Services, will provide broadcast services at the Media Centre. 

The Eurovision MCR feed point is expected to be operational from 9 December. 
Facilities that can be provided to television broadcasters will consist of:
· tape playout (Beta SP/SX and DVCPro) 625 PAL or 525 NTSC
· stand-up positions for live programme inserts
· shared editing (SP/SX) with or without editor (PAL)
· workspaces for own edit gear cabled with 2 host broadcaster signals (PAL) — one of the Plenary session and one of the roundtables, both with 2 audio channels — international sound and choice of one translation 
· direct uplinking to the Global Eurovision Network 

A rate-card for broadcast facilities / transmissions is available upon request from newsoperations@eurovision.net 

In addition, 26 television booths with French, English and Floor audio plus Internet connections and television monitor will be available at no cost through Eurovision. 

Media Information

A Media Information Office will provide information to journalists on background and on the record.
WSIS media staff can facilitate interviews with Summit officials and experts before and during the
Summit. Please note that during the Summit, journalists may need to be accompanied by a Media Liaison official for interview assignments, if they are in a secure area. 

Press Conferences and Briefings

Daily press briefings will be held at 12h00 in the press conference room located at the Media Centre. This room will also be used for other press conferences and is fully equipped with audio-visual facilities and French/English interpretation. This room is open from 9 to 12 December and can be booked between 08h30 and 19h00. The list of press conferences will be displayed in the Media Centre and will be posted at
https://www.itu.int/net/wsis/geneva/newsroom/events/calendar.asp.

Opening Ceremony, Plenary and High Level Roundtable Access for Media

The opening ceremony, plenary and high-level roundtables will be broadcast in the Media Centre.
· There are 100 seats reserved for print media within the Plenary Hall. Access to this location will be by media pool pass, which will be distributed at the media entrance to the Plenary room on a first-come, first-served basis.
· Photographers and Television cameramen will have access to locations on either side of the Plenary Hall. These will be managed through media pools, which will be organized at a location adjacent to the media entrance to the Plenary room. 
All events that require media pools are designated on the event schedule. 
Due to space restrictions seating is not available for media in the Roundtable room. However, space will be available in an adjacent overflow room. 

Arrangements for Coverage of Bilateral Meetings

Photo opportunities may be available for bilateral meetings between heads of State and Government and other high officials that are open for coverage. Media representatives covering these meetings will be asked to assemble at the Media pool departure point in the Media Centre at which time a Media Liaison Officer will escort them to the location. Please note that it will be up to the delegations to determine the size and composition of the bilateral media pools and to contact the journalists they wish to participate in the pool

Printed Materials

Hard copies of all Summit documents as well as copies of statements made by Heads of State, Heads of Government and Heads of delegation made available by delegations will be available in self-service in the pigeonhole area. These documents will also be available at https://www.itu.int/net/wsis/geneva/. 
Media information will be made available electronically on the media pages of the Summit website: www.itu.int/wsis/geneva/newsroom/. 

In addition, journalists will find pigeonholes located in the media centre with press materials from Delegations, UN agencies and other international organizations, Civil Society and Business entities. 

Photographs

WSIS will provide photographic coverage of the Summit proceedings. High-resolution copies of selected photographs will be available for download from www.itu.int/wsis/plib  as from 9 December to all accredited media. A username and password is required and will be sent out on Monday, 8 December 2003.

Live Webcast

The Summit will provide live video and audio web coverage of the Summit plenary, roundtables and press conferences at https://www.itu.int/net/wsis/geneva/coverage/  It will also provide an indexed archive of the coverage.

Wireless Cards

The Wireless LAN at the World Summit in Palexpo is provided by Swisscom as part of their Public Wireless LAN service. The LAN supports the 802.11b Wi-Fi Standard.

The Wireless LAN covers Halls 1 to 7 including the entrance hall and the Conference Center. 

Accredited media to WSIS will receive Value Cards that permit two hours of free connection. Additional Value Cards can be bought at 
· the Secretariat 2 room in Hall 0
· from all Swisscom Mobile shops in Geneva

A technical hotline, for PWLAN, will be accessible:
Phone: 0900 333 221
Opening hours:
Monday to Friday: 08h00-22h00
Saturday: 08h00-17h00
Sunday and public holidays: closed (please call the standard business hotline under 0800 88 99 11)

Parking 

Media have free access to car park P49 (to see the map, please click here) from which shuttles run every 15 minutes to Palexpo Hall 7 (Registration Area) and Palexpo Hall 5 (main entrance for the Summit). This service will operate Monday, 8 December to Saturday, 13 December non-stop daily as from 07h30.