ILO activities

A Tripartite Meeting on the Future of Work and Quality in the Information Society: The Media, Culture, Graphical Sector took place from 18 to 22 October 2004, at the ILO in Geneva. This meeting brought together representatives of governments, employers' and workers' organizations from over 50 countries to discuss the topic, on the basis of a background report (pdf, 648k) prepared by the ILO.

The Report discusses:

• The Information Society and the Media, Culture, Graphical sector
• The Media, Culture, Graphical sector and the development of the Information Society
• Impact of ICTs on the sector
• Intellectual property rights and labour rights in the information society
• Impact of ICTs on contractual arrangements in the sector
• The Information Society and gender equity
• International instruments relevant to the sector
• Social dialogue in the sector.

The Meeting adopted a set of conclusions (pdf, 46k) on issues relating to Employment, Quality, the World Summit on the Information Society and Social Dialogue and the Note on the proceedings provides a summary of the debates.

From 28 February to 3 March 2000, the ILO held a Symposium on Information Technologies in the Media and Entertainment Industries: Their Impact on Employment, Working Conditions and Labour-Management Relations. This Symposium brought together representatives of governments, employers and workers to address topics including employment status, contractual arrangements, and social protection, training initiatives and the promotion of social dialogue, and to draw up conclusions to provide guidance for future work by the ILO in the media and entertainment industries. A background document (published in English, French and Spanish) was used as a basis for the discussion.

The outcomes of the meeting are available in a Note on the proceedings (also available in pdf format, 218k).

The ILO, along with UNESCO and WIPO, also provides secretariat services for the biannual of the Intergovernmental Committee of the Rome Convention. The eighteenth ordinary session of the Intergovernmental Committee of the International Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organizations (Rome Convention, 1961) was held from 27 to 28 June 2001 at ILO headquarters.

In 2003, the ILO published a working paper on Violence and stress at work in the performing arts and journalism (pdf, 138k).

A study on Child performers working in the entertainment industry around the world: An analysis of the problems faced - pdf, 339k, commissioned by the Sectoral Activities Department as a follow-up to the 2000 Symposium on Information Technologies in the Media and Entertainment Industries, was published in May 2003. It was written by Katherine Sand, former General Secretary of the International Federation of Actors, and it examines the value of children to the entertainment industry, the various international and regional standards relating to protection of children and child labour and their relevance to child performers, considers the regulation and monitoring of children’s working conditions in the entertainment industry and the role of performers’ organizations.

The ILO also supported the preparation a study by the International Federation of Journalism 2006, entitled The Changing Nature of Work.

Previous ILO work has focused attention on issues of concern to specific employment groups and industries within the media, culture and graphical sphere. These have included changing levels and types of employment, conditions of employment and work, employment relations, intellectual property protection, skill requirements and training needs, and labour relations.