CR Update 1 - Liberty Global

Corporate Responsibility
Update
February 2008
IN THIS
ISSUE
CR Committee
Founded page 1
Liberty Global &
Insafe Develop
Internet Safety
Toolkit page 1
‘IN’ Program
Launched page 1
Health &
Wellness Month
a Runaway
Success
page 1 & 3
UPC
Netherlands
Implements
Block on Child
Sexual Abuse
Content
page 2
Chello
Multicanal is
‘Committed’
page 2
VTR Develops
a Responsible
User Manual
page 2
J:COM Launches
‘Donations on
Demand’ page 3
Cablecom
Employees
Volunteer
for Special
Olympics
Challenge
page 3
NGO Spotlight:
Senior Web &
UPC page 4
Internet for
Seniors page 4
Issue 01
CR Briefs
Corporate
Responsibility
Committee
CR Committee Founded
‘IN’ Program Launched
Liberty Global founded a Corporate Respon­
sibility Committee (CRC) last summer to
manage its CR issues and strategy, and to
create a better understanding of the CR
messages both internally and externally.
Commenting on the successful formation of
the committee, Rick Westerman SVP Investor
Relations and Corporate Communications said,
“This team of senior executives will certainly
take CR at Liberty Global to a higher level and
be an effective forum to develop new ideas and
programs”. CRC members include: Mauricio
Ramos- President Liberty Global Latin America,
Rick Westerman, Amy Blair-SVP Global HR,
Shane O’Neill- SVP, Chief Strategy Officer
and President Chellomedia, Miranda Curtis –
President Liberty Global Japan, and Nimrod
Kovacs – Chairman UPC Central Europe.
In September 2007 Liberty Global launched
its new flagship e-inclusion programme, ‘IN
the Community’. IN promotes digital inclusivity
through widening access, enhancing skills, and
creating opportunities for communities where
we operate. IN addresses the digital divide
in its entirety by embracing the Company’s
different digital technologies and the issues
around access, skills and opportunities.
Liberty Global & Insafe Develop
Internet Safety Toolkit
Liberty Global has partnered with Insafe, the
European Commission funded Internet safety
network, to create an Internet Safety Toolkit.
The toolkit is a fun guide for parents and
children to understand and deal with Internet
safety issues. The
toolkit will be translated in 11 European
languages and distributed across UPC’s
European
footprint.
Insafe plans to launch
the toolkit on Safer
Internet Day on 12th
February ’08.
Safety Toolkit Cover
Graham King from Corporate Legal Dept
donating €1000 to Cliniclowns Charity
Health & Wellness Month
a Runaway Success
The first-ever Health & Wellness Month organised for the corporate employees of Liberty
Global, UPC Broadband and Chellomedia in
the Netherlands last October was a huge
success with 86% of the staff saying it made
a positive impact. According to an internal
survey, the Health & Wellness initiative with
its various components – Health, Nutrition,
Wellness, and Fitness – should be held on a
regular basis. Organised by HR and Corporate
Communications, the aim of Health & Wellness
Month was to get employees to start thinking
Article continues on page 3
CR Briefs
UPC Netherlands Implements
Block on Child Sexual Abuse
Content
UPC Netherlands has become the very first and
only large broadband service provider to date
in the Netherlands to implement a block on
websites containing child sexual abuse content. The filter was implemented in September last year in cooperation with the National
Dutch Police Force (KLPD) and the Dutch
Ministry of Justice, which is also trying to force
other cable operators to comply. The request is
yet to be implemented by other Dutch service
providers.
The filter blocks hundreds of black-listed
sites containing child sexual abuse content.
The black-list contains Internet pages which
are “undisputedly and without doubt” in the
business of showing child sexual abuse content
images. If a forbidden site is visited by a UPC
subscriber, a KLPD warning STOP page appears
informing them of the block.
Commenting on the block, the Managing
Director of UPC Netherlands Diederik Karsten
said, “As provider of Internet services we are
committed to promote a safe and responsible
use of the web, especially for young children
and teenagers.”
The possibility of other company affiliates
using this filter is presently under review.
Currently, the Dutch Ministry of Justice is
examining the possibility of legal measures
that would force all Dutch Internet providers to
co-operate.
‘Stop Page’ warning from the National Dutch
Police Force
Chello Multicanal is ‘Committed’
Chello Multicanal – the Spain based Business
Unit of Chellomedia – introduced its Corporate
Responsibility initiative called ‘Commitments’
in September last year. ‘Commitments’ aims to
raise awareness about the present day social
challenges and issues like road safety, healthy
eating, human and children’s rights, Internet
safety and global warming. As part of the
programme Chello Multicanal selects a monthly
theme aligned with UN international days like
International Children’s Day, World Food Day
etc. and, creates a two-minute documentary
style public service announcement on it. The
programme is then broadcast three times a day
on all Chello Multicanal Channels in Spain and
Portugal. ‘Commitments’ has been received very
well by the Spanish and Portuguese audience
and has generated a lot of positive PR. Chello
Multicanal’s documentary channel, Odisea, is
often referred to as the Social Message Channel
by the local press and public.
VTR
Develops a
Responsible
User Manual
VTR has developed a
responsible use manual called ‘Kind Family’ to educate children and their parents on the safe
use of the Internet, TV and telephony. The manual provides sound advice
on the proper use of
VTR services and relevant technologies.
‘Kind Family’ will be
distributed
among
VTR clients and will
be the first of its kind
in Chile. Under this
initiative, VTR has
also created a website (www.guiatvinfantil.cl) that provides
information on all
the children’s channels that are broadcasted by VTR, and
recommends educational
programmes
according to the age
group. Furthermore
VTR has developed a
site (www.navegaseguro.cl) that provides
information on the
safe use of the Internet, allowing children
to reap its benefits
without them being
exposed to its dangers. Seeing its services as powerful tools
that can educate,
entertain and facilitate communication
amongst
children,
VTR will continue
to develop its ‘Kind
Family’ social responsibility programme,
throughout 2008.
Screen shots from the Public Service
Announcements
2
Liberty Global Corporate Responsibility Update February 2008 Issue 01
CR Briefs
Cablecom Employees Volunteer
for Special Olympics Challenge
Health and Wellness Month
Continued…
about the small ways that can improve their
health and well-being.
The month was divided into four themed
weeks: Health, Nutrition, Wellness and Fitness.
The first week, Health Week, featured an
on-site Medical Check-Up where employees
could get their cholesterol, blood sugar, fitness
level, body mass index, and height & weight
checked. Nutrition Week featured free fruit &
Yakult days and a nutrition seminar.
Q. W
ould you like to see Health and
Wellness Month become a yearly intiative?
Yes
95.2%
No
4.8%
UPC Broadband’s Swiss subsidiary, cablecom,
organised the first ever cablecom challenge
for athletes with mental or multiple disabilities
during summer last year. The competition was
held in Lugano, Switzerland, where competitors
from several nationalities competed in athletics,
swimming, bocce, tennis, basketball and golf.
The cablecom challenge is a joint initiative, set
up in collaboration with the Foundation Special
Olympics Switzerland. Cablecom employees
volunteered to assist in the contest, which
attracted more than 500 participants. The
cablecom challenge is a new sport platform for
the disabled in Switzerland, and will be held
every year in different parts of the country. The
next challenge will be held on 20 September
2008 in Wettingen, Switzerland.
Q. W
hat impact has Health and Wellness
Month had on your impression of UPC/
Liberty Global/Chellomedia as an employee?
Very Positive
Impact
26.2%
Positive
Impact
60.3%
Hasn’t Changed
Opinion
9.5%
Negative
Impact
0.0%
Please
Comment
4.0%
3
J:COM has come up
with an innovative
way to raise funds
for non-profit organisations by launching
a
‘Donations
on Demand’ service
that allows subscribers to donate easily with their remote
controls. The service was launched in
December 2006 and
following its success
has been recently
extended to include
short films.
The first non-profit
organisation to benefit from ‘Donations
on Demand’ has been
UNICEF, the United
Nations
Children’s
Fund.
“We
are
very
grateful to J:COM for
allowing UNICEF to
be the first charitable
organisation to benefit from this wonderful feature,” says the
Japan committee for
UNICEF, “We congratulate the company on
its innovative use of
on demand technology to benefit organisations like ours.”
J:COM subscribers
can select between
three pre-set contribution levels of ¥525,
¥1,050 and ¥3,150
(approx EUR 3.5, EUR
7.00 & EUR 20.00).
Employee response to Health & Wellness Month
The Wellness Week included a relaxing 15
minute neck and shoulder massage by professional masseurs plus Yoga, Body Balance, Tai
Chi and a stress handling seminar. And the final
week, focusing on Fitness, featured on-site
Pilates, Body Pump classes, a week membership at a local gym, and a cross-departmental
bike race where the winners could win €1000 to
donate to a charity of their choice. Almost 96%
of the staff said that they would like the company
to organise more of such days throughout
the year.
J:COM
Launches
‘Donations
on Demand’
From top: Cablecom employees cheering the
participants; enthusiastic participants at the
cablecom challenge
Liberty Global Corporate Responsibility Update February 2008 Issue 01
In Depth
NGO
Spotlight
been a huge success and will be expanded
to Romania and Slovakia this year with the
support of EU.
UPC Poland: e-Senior Academy
UPC Poland has started an e-Senior Academy
to assist inclusion of senior citizens into the
digital world.
The Academy initially started off as a pilot
project (offering free internet and computer
courses) and later developed into a full fledged
e-Senior Academy in more than 10 major
cities. The creation of this project is the result
of the previous courses and how popular they
proved to be among seniors; for every one
place offered in the course, eight to ten people
applied. The week long course is accompanied
by a customised 100 page curriculum course
book also developed by UPC Poland.
Book cover of SeniorWeb’s research – ‘Making
Connections: Older People & the Internet’
Internet for Seniors
UPC Hungary, UPC Poland and UPC Slovenia,
are enthusiastically working towards bridging
the digital divide between the younger and
older generation by offering free computer
courses to senior citizens. The long-term objective of these initiatives is to increase computer
literacy amongst people that would otherwise
not be given this opportunity.
UPC Hungary: ‘Click on it Grandma!’
UPC Hungary partnered with a local non-governmental organisation (NGO) to launch ‘Click
on it Grandma!’ a programme providing free
computer courses to senior citizens in Hungary.
The programme helps overcome the main
obstacles for computer and Internet usage,
and bridges the ICT gap between young and
senior Hungarians. In Hungary, 84 per cent
of people aged between 55 and 75 have no
basic computer skills, which is well above the
EU average of 65 per cent. Since September
2006 UPC Hungary has been providing financial support to the Budapest Cultural Centre in
organising ‘Click on it Grandma!’ initiative.
‘Click on it Grandma!’ has been selected as
the best practice for ICT education and aging
in EU’s ministerial meeting held in Lisbon in
December 2007. The programme has overall
4
Seniors in class
UPC Slovenia: Five Day Beginners Course
In Slovenia, UPC Telemach provides free five
days beginner courses to familiarise children
and the elderly with basic computer and
Internet skills. At the end of the course each
participant receives a UPC Telemach Diploma,
vouchers for discounted computers, and a
free internet subscription for a month. More
than 1000 students have attended the course
till date.
Liberty Global is building on its experiences gained in Hungary, Poland and Slovenia
to develop similar initiatives across its footprint.
UPC’s computer courses are aligned with
Liberty Global’s E-inclusion programme ‘IN
the Community’, and also with the European
Information Society 2010 e-inclusion initiative.
SeniorWeb
& UPC
SeniorWeb is a Dutch
based charity that
was founded in 1996
by the major Dutch
senior citizens’ organisations. The mission
of SeniorWeb is to
introduce senior citizens to the possible uses of computer and Internet, and
to bridge the Digital
Divide between the
older and younger
generation. An important premise of SeniorWeb is that it is
carried out for and
by senior citizens.
At present SeniorWeb teaches computer and the Internet
usage to more than
55,000 senior citizens in over 300 locations across the Netherlands.
UPC Netherlands
has partnered with
SeniorWeb to sponsor an in-depth study
called ‘Making Connections – Older people and the Internet’.
The report presents a
broad overview of the
situation with regard
to older people and
Internet, with an
emphasis on private
Internet use.
Contact Details
For more information
and feedback please
email:
[email protected]
Editors
Asra Fareed
Bert Holtkamp
Hanne Wolf
Roy Sharone
Liberty Global Corporate Responsibility Update February 2008 Issue 01