Discursive profile of international telecommunication regulations as institutional dialogue: a sociosemiotic perspective

ABSTRACT

This study, from a sociosemiotic perspective, sets out to examine the meaning making process of the International Telecommunication Regulations by investigating the contributions submitted by the Member States and Sector Members of the International Telecommunication Union, and two versions of the International Telecommunication Regulations (1988 version and 2012 version). The findings show that the International Telecommunication Regulations, as a sign, may be ideologically and institutionally constrained as well as historically situated. As regards its review, Member States and Sector Members have divergent views carrying distinct institutional positions, which are induced by various national interests and different technological levels. Concerning its revision, a comparative analysis of the overall articles and the modal system of the 1988 version and the 2012 version reflects that the meaning making of the International Telecommunication Regulations is inherently embedded in specific historical backgrounds, and the frequent use of soft language in the 2012 version may be conceived of as a mediational means to compromise the distinct views of member states on the controversial issues and facilitate institutional interactions. It is therefore argued that the discourse construction of the International Telecommunication Regulations is an institutional process of “interest weighing”, jurisdictional compromise and institutional dialogue among Member States.

KEYWORDS:

• International Telecommunication Regulations
• contributions
• discourse construction
• sociosemiotic
• institutional dialogue

Acknowledgment

This work was supported by the major project of the National Social Science Foundation under Grant 20ZDA062.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 See the official website of World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT-12), https://www.itu.int/en/wcit-12/Pages/default.aspx (accessed 10 March 2019).

2 39 contributions, downloaded from https://www.itu.int/pub/S-CONF-WCIT-2012/en; two versions of the ITRs, downloaded from https://www.itu.int/en/history/Pages/RegulationsCollection.aspx (accessed 2 March 2019).

3 Available at https://sites.google.com/site/kevinbouge/stopwords-lists (accessed 5 March 2019).

4 Available at https://www.itu.int/en/council/eg-itrs/Pages/more.aspx (accessed 10 March 2019).

5 See Document EG-ITRs-4/7-E.

6 Preamble, Member States affirm their commitment to implement these Regulations in a manner that respects and upholds their human rights obligations.

7 Article 11, Member States are encouraged to adopt energy efficiency and e-waste best practices taking into account the relevant ITU-T Recommendations.

8 Article 12, Member States should promote access for persons with disabilities to international telecommunication services, taking into account the relevant ITU-T Recommendations.

9 Institute for Human Rights and Business, “Telecommunications and Human Rights: An Export Credit Perspective” (February 2017). https://www.ihrb.org/uploads/reports/IHRB%2C_Telecommunications_and_Human_Rights_-_An_Export_Credit_Perspective%2C_Feb_2017.pdf (accessed 25 April 2019).

10 Article 6 Member States shall individually and collectively endeavor to ensure the security and robustness of international telecommunication networks in order to achieve effective use thereof and avoidance of technical harm thereto, as well as the harmonious development of international telecommunication services offered to the public.

11 Article 7.1 Member States should endeavor to take necessary measures to prevent the propagation of unsolicited bulk electronic communications and minimize its impact on international telecommunication services. Article 7.2 Member States are encouraged to cooperate in that sense.

12 Article 6.1, Member States shall individually and collectively endeavor to ensure the security and robustness of international telecommunication networks.

13 Article 7.1, Member States should endeavor to take necessary measures to prevent the propagation of unsolicited bulk electronic communications and minimize its impact on international telecommunication services.

14 see https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-20717774 (accessed 15 May 2019).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Promoting the Cooperation on Cyberspace Strategy under the Belt and Road: [Grant Number SKY-505101-0003].

Notes on contributors

Jiamin Pei

Jiamin Pei is a Research Fellow at School of International Studies, Zhejiang University. Her research field includes legal discourse,sociosemiotics, corpus linguistics, organizational studies, and cyber law.

Le Cheng

Le Cheng is a concurrent professor at School of International Studies and Guanghua Law School, Zhejiang University. He is currently Associate Dean of School of International Studies, Director of Institute of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, Director of Center for Legal Discourse and Translation and Director of Center for Contemporary Chinese Discourse Studiesat Zhejiang University. Additionally, he is the Editor-in-Chief of International Journal of Legal Discourse and Acting President of Multicultural Association of Law and Language. His main research interests include semiotics, language and law, terminology, discourse studies, corpusstudies, and cyber law.