THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF THE
FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION
IN THE NEW INTERNATIONAL ORDER
A DISSERTATION
SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF ATLANTA UNIVERSITY
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR
THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
BY
MARVIN HAIRE
DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE
JULY 1986
Bu. T ABSTRACT
Political Science
Haire, Marvin B.A. Youngstown State University, 1976 M.A. Atlanta University, 1980
The Political Economy of the Free Flow of Information in the New International Order.
Advisor: Professor William H. Boone
Dissertation dated: July 1986
This dissertation analyzes the quest by the underdeveloped and non-aligned nations for a New World Information and Communication
Order (NWICO). This is achieved by focusing on the evolution of the debate over the "free flow of information" within the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), from its inception in 1946 to the present. The major assumption of this analy¬ sis is that the concept of "free flow" has served as a useful ideolo¬ gical weapon employed by the United States in fostering the emergence of American state, multinational corporate and banking interests as dominant actors in the arena of international communications and in¬ formation in the post-World War II era. This dominance has been achieved at the expense of both Western European allies and Third
World nations. We note that until the decision by the Soviet Union to join
UNESCO in the mid-1950s and the rise in the membership of Third World nations during the era of decolonization in the 1960s, the U.S. found very little opposition to its views and philosophy regarding the free flow of information. However, with the formation of the Non-Aligned
Movement and the socialist inclinations of newly independent member- states of UNESCO, the U.S. found itself increasingly in the minority on major issues on the agency's agenda.
The crisis of U.S. legitimacy as the leader of UNESCO came to a head with the call for a New World Information and Communications Or¬ der in 1974. The outline of NWICO sought to challenge the prevailing dominance of Western interpretations of Third World reality and ex¬ pose the illusions of the Western conception of free flow of informa¬ tion. NWICO alternatively proposed the necessity of developing with¬ in UNESCO an independent set of methodologies and techniques for dis¬ seminating accurate information, and the acquisition of the appropri¬ ate technological capacity to enable Third World nations to halt the concentrated flow and control of news and information by Western media monopolies that penetrated sovereign boundaries irrespective of the needs and desires of the population therein.
Employing the lens of historical materialism, our hypothesis contends that the NWICO as conceptualized and proposed by the majori¬ ty of UNESCO's member-states will more than likely fail to material¬ ize unless there is a fundamental re-ordering of the international political economy and a re-orientation of the current Third World go¬ verning class away from neo-colonial relations. Until such time we will, at best, witness continuing debates and declarations over the appropriate paths to take toward achieving NWICO with few substantive measures disigned to ensure that it becomes an actuality.
The conclusions reached in this analysis suggest that under the the ultra-conservative drift of the Ronald Reagan Administration, the
United States has exhibited an increasing impatience and unwilling¬ ness to continue its formal participation in international organiza¬ tions like UNESCO where majority decisions no longer avidly reflect a pro-Western bias. This is clearly seen in the proposed U.S. withdraw¬ al from UNESCO and the accompanying surge toward corporate-sponsored bilateral trade relations. This posture will not only cripple U.N.
Special Agencies like UNESCO by drastically cutting their operating budgets and thus curtailing their ability to finance proposed inter¬ governmental development projects. It also exposess the continuing dependency of the Third World ruling elite on the West in general, and even more so than ever before, on the directors of multinational corporations and banks who hold the key to whether this elite will be able to maintain its cherished position as intermediaries between the
MNC's and the masses.
Rather than facilitating a free and more balanced flow of infor¬ mation between and among nations, these trends show all the signs of deepening the levels of dependency of the Third World on the direct¬ ives of international finance capital. In practical terms we can ex¬ pect an increasing trend toward the merging of traditional telecom¬
munications carriers and computer companies into the new field called
"informatics" with little, if any, challenge at all. The deepening economic dependence of the Third World is shown in our study to be a corollary to the rise of informatics and a pre¬ condition of the increasing level of psycho-social and political manipulation of the major institutional arrangements and minds of the populace of the Third World. To facilitate a fuller appreciation of the intricacies and inter-relatedness of these dimensions of the pro¬ blem, a conceptual framework of "cultural imperialism" is offered. As an indication of probable steps that African-Americans might take re¬ lative to these trends, and with the objective of realistically mov¬ ing toward the objectives of creating a NWICO, we offer the broad outlines of a model entitled the Afro-Centric Transnational Informa¬ tion Outreach Network (A.C.T.I.O.N.), It is a model we believe may be a first step in the right direction. This dissertation is dedicated to my lovely wife Gwendolyn B. Haire; my two daughters, Mashirika Zizwe and Adrianne DeOnne; my parents Marshel and Jamie C. Haire; my sister and brother Mrs. Marcia L. Ellis and Nehemiah
Haire and their families; and to the memories of my Godmother Mrs. Carthe- nia Jamison Driskell, and my uncle Mr. Noah Haire. I would like to acknowledge the support of several individuals who have provided timely assistance and encouragement throughout the strug¬ gle to achieve this goal during the last five years. This list includes my dissertation advisors: Drs. William H. Boone, Hashim Gibrill, Larry
Noble, and Robert Holmes; Professor Alfred Bright, Mr. William L. Driskell,
Dr. Ruben Cowart, Mrs. Lena Jones, Ms. Veronica Carter, Mrs. Lisa Richards,
Dr. Charles Dean, Dr. Mack H. Jones, Dr. Earl Picard, and Dr. Shelby Lewis.
I would also like to extend my sincerest grant of appreciation to Mrs.
Debra McClendon for sacrificing untold hours of precious family time to ensure that that the final draft of this dissertation was typed, and to
Mr. David G.E. Goins for providing valuable feedback on the various drafts of this dissertation as they have emerged and for providing con¬ tinued intellectual stimulation that has gone a long way toward helping me wade through some rather turbulent waters.
Marvin Haire July 25, 1986 TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter
I. THE NEW WORLD INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ORDER: MYTH OR REALITY
Introduction 1 Statement of Problem .•••2 Hypothesis 9 Methodology and Research Techniques 12 Data Collection 14
II. THE FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION: A REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Introduction 16 Dissertations/Articles 16
III. TOWARD A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK OF THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF THE FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION: A QUESTION OF CULTURAL IMPERIALISM
Introduction 47 The Psycho-Social Dimension 52 The Political Dimension 57 The Economic Dimension 62 Conclusions 67
IV. UNESCO AND THE UNITED STATES: THE EARLY YEARS
Introduction 72 Pre-UNESCO Goal and Objectives of U.S Communication Policy 78 The United States and UNESCO: The Early Years 85 The Soviet Challenge at UNESCO 95
Chapter
V. THE EMERGENCE OF THE THIRD WORLD IN UNESCO: SEEDS OF RESISTANCE AND THE CRISIS OF U.S. LEGITIMACY
Introduction 103 Conspiracy of One-Way Flow of Information: The Colonial Legacy 107
l The Grand Area and U.S. Information Policy 114 Toward a More Balanced Flow of Information: Guiding Principles 123 The Challenge of the Non-Aligned Movement 126 The Kissinger Impasses 131
VI. BELGRADE AND BEYOND: REAGONOMICS, INFORMATICS AND THE CRISIS OF THE NWICO
Introduction 143 The "Voices of Liberty" 147 The Real NWICO: The American Economic Agenda 159 The Structure of the International Telecommunication System 161 Computer Communication: The "Sixth Sense" 166 For Whom the Bell Tolls 173
VII. SUMMARY 202 CONCLUSIONS 217
VIII. APPENDICES 227
Appendix A. Records of the UNESCO General Conference 21st Session Belgrade, 23 September to 28 October 1980 Volume 1 Resolutions 227
Appendix B. Text of Declaration by News Organizations on Freedom of Press 240
Appendix C. Organizational Structure of UNESCO Secretarial and 1984/85 Budget and Employee Figures 241
Appendix D. Constitution of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization; Instrument Establishing a Preparatory Educational, Scientific and Cultural Commission; and Resolutions Adopted by the Conference. (1946) 242
Appendix E. Text of Draft Declaration on Fundamental Principles Concerning the Contribution of the Mass Media...UNESCO General Conference, 20th Session, Paris 1978 252
Appendix F. MacBride Commission Report: Party Communication Tomorrow/Conclusion and Recommendations...255
Appendix G. Selected Advertisements of Major Multinational Corporations Involved in the Informatics Industry 272
IX. Bibliography 281
ii CHAPTER I
THE NEW WORLD INFORMATION & COMMUNICATION ORDER: MYTH OR REALITY?
INTRODUCTION
I think we are correct in saying that Africa is the most misre¬ presented continent in the world, and that is largely because our story has been told outside of Africa by non-Africans... We have had the Organization of African Unity, which has been working for the last 20 years as a political forum for the integration of African interests, but we have not had any vehicles on a regular basis for exchanging news and information about Africa. You see, we are still, at the moment, victimized by the colonial structures that were set up many decades ago, so that the exchange of news among African countries and across the continent still, to a large extent, follow the old colonial lines.
Alfred Opubor, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Nigerian News Agency (1982)
There is no easy way to describe to you the magnitude of the money transactions that banks transmit around the world every day. Perhaps it is sufficient to say that we are living in an in¬ creasingly interdependent world, and the growth in international trade testifies to that...global exports in 1976 were $980 billion which is 12.6% higher than the year before. A large part of that total was financed through trade credits arranged by banks; all of it triggered some kind of international financial transaction which depended on the world's communication media.
Testimony of Robert B. White Executive Vice President of Citibank, before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's Subcommittee on International Operations (1977)
-1- -2-
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEMS
The above quotations of White and Opubor serve as useful focal points with which to begin our discussion of a topic that has gained a great level of notoriety among both progressive and conservative intellectuals in the world arena: the quest for a New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO). One of the most denigrating and per¬ plexing crises confronting the oppressed populations of the under¬ developed world in the 1980's is the continuing inability to control the nature, content and direction of the communication and information flow within and across their respective geo-political boundaries. Already victimized by the international imperative of economic peripheralization and dependency, these populations find themselves increasingly locked in between the oscillating spectors of distorted news media, constrained technical information and economic data.
This inability to control the flow of information and communi¬ cation lies at the heart of an intensifying North-South debate on the necessity of radically restructuring the world's political economy and creating a New World Information and Communication Order. The failure to control the flow of information is viewed as not only jeopardizing the ability of nations to resolve domestic political crises, but ad¬ ditionally implies the loss of control over critical dimensions of national consciousness and cultural action among the populace necessary
for responsible economic development and creative social production.
What, then, are the proposed composition and dimensions of this
quest by the Third World and Non-Aligned nations for a New Wold In¬
formation and Communication Order? What are the historical precedents
of this quest and the likelihood of the NWICO being achieved in the -3- immediate future? If unsuccessful, what implications can be derived with respect to those most negatively affected by the present-day nature of the international flow of information? What relevance does the quest for this NWICO have for the majority of people of African descent, including those of us living within the context of America's capitalist society?
These and other related questions serve to orient this disser¬ tation on this increasingly important topic. The issue itself is not new. The control of the flow and/or exchange of ideas, knowledge, in¬ formation, and news has always been a key concern of ruling classes of both ancient and modern regimes. Consequently, access to priviledged information and facts has been a determining factor in most, if not all, attempts by the oppressed to change the nature of their objective con¬ dition. In this sense, information and knowledge translate into power or at least an ability to understand power relationships. Once this situation is understood, one at least has the choice of either accepting these arrangements or alternatively seeking to effect a purposeful change.
The latter option was clearly on the minds of the leaders of anti¬ colonial movements in the 1940's and 1950's. With the rise of strong nationalists currents and the quest for independence from colonial domination following World War. II, a number of leaders of newly emerg¬ ing nations gathered at a Bandung, Indonesia conference in 1956 to organize a movement oriented toward the concept of "non-alignment."
This movement was to act as a "third force" or buffer zone between
Western nations (i.e., the First or so-called "free" Western World) and the Eastern communist bloc nations (i.e., the Second World, led -4- by the Soviet Union). As the theme of non-alignment gained momentum the leaders of the movement launched a two-fold attack on what were termed the spectors of "neo-colonialism" and cultural imperialism.
Symbolically speaking, this attack reached a plateau in 1973 when leaders of the Non-Aligned Movement meeting at Algiers formulated proposals for both a New International Economic Order and a New World
Information Order. The NIEO proposal sought to curb the effects of underdevelopment and dependency, while the proposal for a NWIO (now termed the New World Information and Communication Order, or NWICO) sought to challenge the dominance of Western interpretations of Third
World reality, or what was labeled "cultural imperialism."
In May 1974 the United Nations General Assembly adopted the
"Declaration of the Establishment of a New International Economic
Order." This Declaration called for the replacement of the existing order characterized by inequality, domination, dependency, narrow self-interests and segmentation, with a "new order" based upon the principles of equity, sovereign equality, interdependency, common interests and cooperation among states irrespective of their economic and social-political system. Behind these abstractions was the hope of better access for Third World nations' commodities to the inter¬ national market place, more financial assistance and increased access to Western technology. Although couched in similar terms and paralleling the U.N. General
Assembly's Declaration on the NIEO, the attack on cultural imperialism
gained increasing exposure and intensity within the halls of the
United Nations Educational, Social and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), a U.N. special agency. The major emphasis here centered upon the -5-
Western conception of "free flow of information" between nation¬
states. The movement for non-alignment asserted that the notion of
"free flow" (like the ideas of freedom of the seas, free markets, free
enterprise and free trade) merely concealed the nature of neo-colonial
cultural domination and control. In general terms, the alternatives
presented through the various resolutions of UNESCO focused on develop¬
ing the professional methodology and techniques, and the acquisition of
the appropriate technological hardware needed to halt the concentrated
flow and control of news and information by Western media monopolies
that penetrated sovereign boundaries irrespective of the needs and
desires of the populace within. The end result of such penetrations
was viewed as constituting de facto hegemony and myth-making by the
world's major communication agencies that provided ensuing corporate
interest with confused and pacified domestic audiences among the
populations of the Third World.
As the decade of the 1980's reaches its midpoint, the above-
mentioned two-fold attack is still being waged. For the most part,
the hopes of the NIEO were all but obliterated by the mid-1970's
world economic crisis, resulting in international stagnation, inflation
and recession throughout the entire system. Under such conditions the developing countries' terms of trade have generally worsened and their
indigenously produced commodities have consistently been kept out of
Western markets. Additionally, financial and technical aid has become
increasingly bilateral and directed toward providing more favorable
conditions for MNC investors, and toward increasing the availability
of a plethora of luxurious amenities for the indigenous ruling elites in neo-colonial states. -6-
The campaign for a NWICO has encountered similar obstacles. At the 1980 Twenty-First Session of the UNESCO General Conference in
Belgrade, for example, Resolution 4/19 was adopted, suggesting that this "new world information and communication order" should be based, among other consideration, on:
...the elimination of the negative effects of certain monopolies, public or private, and excessive concentration;
...the removal of the internal and external obstacles to a free flow and wider and better balanced dissemination of information ideas;
...the capacity of developing countries to achieve improvement of their own situations, notably by providing their own equipment, by training their personnel, by improving their infrastructures and making their information and communication media suitable to their needs and aspirations;
...the sincere will of developed countries to help them attain these objectives;
...respect for people's cultural identity and the right of each nation to inform the world about its interests, its aspirations and its social and cultural values, and
...respect for the right of the public, of ethnic and social groups and of individuals to have access to information sources and to participate actively in the communication process.1
Within one year of Resolution 4/19 conservative representatives of various Western and Third World news organizations,
1 "The New World Information and Communication Order" Resolution 4/19 adopted by the 21 Session of UNESCO General Conference, Belgrade 1980. See Appendix for full text of this resolution. -7- meeting in a serene French Alps resort called Tailories, countered this proposal with their own program and declaration titled "Voices of
Liberty.
This proposal stressed key features of the new Reagan Administra¬ tion's hardline opposition to the recent trends at UNESCO and a specific rejection of the proposed NWICO. The major thrust of this conservative stance included the need for heightened aggressiveness in the conquest of new markets for the "high-tech" products of American MNCs and the recognition of the crucial role played by "free" advertising in this conquest; the dismissal of multilateral consensual agreements in favor of "bilateral" economic, technical, and professional assistance in enchancing the principle of "free flow"; and most importantly, pressure to curb the possible implementation of UNESCO's International Program for the Development of Communications (IPDC), a program initially pro¬ posed by the U.S. delegation to UNESCO at the 1978 General Conference, but later reevaluated by the Reagan Administration as a potential threat to transnational corporate dominance in the arena of information and telecommunication flow.
The original purpose of the IPDC program was to establish a general fund through which Third World nations could finance their most urgent needs in the field of communication and information through contributions from wealthier nations.
2 Fernando Reyes, "The Tallories Counteroffensive: A Matter of High Politics, "North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA), Volume 16, No. 4 (July-August 1982): 26-29. See Appendix for full text of this declaration. -8-
At an IPDC meeting held in Acapulco, Mexico in January 1982, Third
World nations came armed with over fifty project proposals requiring nearly $90 million. In general, the African countries requested funds to develop their communication infrastructures to incorporate the vast marginal rural population. The countries of Asis and Latin America emphasized the need to establish networks to connect their already existing national systems. Under the pressure of U.S. representatives, however, only fourteen of the fifty initiatives were approved and the
IPDC general fund received scarcely $6 million."5
Essentially the U.S., West Germany and Japan allied to push for bilateral aid to the private sector operating in the Third World, with the aim of marginalizing both UNESCO and national efforts to develop self-reliant communication and information networks. U.S. opposition to any democratization of the communication process was revealed when
U.S. delegate Elkin Taylor refused to approve the following proposal un¬ less the final clause (underlined below) was eliminated:
The IPDC project should increase the capacity of individuals and groups in urban and rural communities, their access^to the media and the possibility of active social participation.
The phrase was removed. In the end a third of the $6 million allocated came from France, and another third came form countries of the Arab gulf.
^"Let A Hundred Issues Bloom, "North American Congress on Latin American (NACLA), Volume 16, No. 4 (July-August, 1982): 24-35.
4IPS Cable, Acapulco, January 22, 1982. -9-
The Netherlands, Canada, Austria and Italy promised contributions, as did the poverty-stricken nations of Bangladesh and Benin, each of which pledged a symbolic $5,000. On the other hand, however, $50 million was collected for specific bilateral projects between various Western
European and underdeveloped nations. But even this amount appeared in¬ significant in comparison to the more than $56 million allocated by the
U.S. Agency for International Development (AID) for U.S.-sponsored bilateral communication projects, $30 million of which went to the Middle
East alone.
HYPOTHESIS
In light of the above developments, this dissertation examines the probable success and/or failure of the quest for a NWICO. It is the working hypothesis of this analysis that: despite the apparent sincerity of the efforts of the member-states of UNESCO, a "new world information order" seems to have already been constructed. It is an order that many of the present governing class in the underdeveloped world have little choice but to encourage, and from which many appear to actually benefit.
It an order that was created and is controlled by MNCs and transnational banks designed to facilitate their current and future quest for in¬ creasing markets, raw materials and profits. Thus, the possibility of developing a genuine NWICO is largely dependent upon the extent to which an independent information and communication network can be erected through the pooling of resources by the nonaligned and socialist nations of the world to counter the current trends.
This analysis seeks to clarify a mystifying international debate that has awarded a disproportinate amount of attention to the concentra¬ tion and distortions of world news events in the hands of Western news -10- agencies (i.e., UPI, AP, AFP, and Reuters) at the expense of a much more fundamental and important crisis. Although we consider this focus on media distortion to be an important concern in itself, we believe it to be the ideological camouflage for a "new order" that has arisen to guide and finance the relocation of production sites in the world economy by MNCs that seek to maximize profits by taking advantage of international differentials in wages and taxes, raw material availability, and the political compliance of neo-colonial regimes in the underdeveloped regions of the world. Activated by a complex set of pressures, initia¬ tives, and requirements arising out of the constraints of capitalist expansion and development in a few core industrial areas (foremost of which is the U.S.), corporate and banking concerns have ushered in a spectacular growth of new communication technologies to facilitate the financing and operation of their profiteering activities. The key to this "new order" has been the synthesis of three very broad fields of communication technology into a world information network including a combination of: a) computer hardware - mainframe computer, minicomputers and semi¬ conductors or integrated circuits; b) software - computer programs, data bases; servicing; and c) transmission networks - both publicly and privately organized to move data already processed and generated through traditional telecommunication lines (such as telegraph and telephones) and the growing use of satellites (for direct- satellite broadcast and trans-border data flow). Thus, a major assumption of this analysis is that much of the pub¬ lic debate over the NWICO can be viewed within the context of the sym¬ bolic use of politics (i.e., an authoritative mobilization and alloca¬ tion of bias) that serves to redirect attention away from a fundamental -11- dimension of the current crisis. Additionally, the history of this public debate reflects the longstanding Cold War struggle between two contradictory poles on the appropriate nature of communication flow on an international scale. On the one side stands the United States doctrine of
"free flow" (i.e., that no barrier should prevent the flow of information among "peace-loving" nations).5 This doctrine has dominated international thinking on the question of media information dissemination policy for nearly four decades.
Standing counterposed to this interpretation has been the so-called
"totalitarian" view, representing initially the ideas and communication philosophy of the Soviet Union. It is from this latter view that the current quest for the NWICO has derived its major tenet. The Soviet view challenged the Western interpretations of international political reality, labeling such "free flow" as distortions of the truth designed to serve the narrow self-interest of imperialist expansion.6 The energ¬ ies spent by the Communist camp on waging this critique against Western news media's ideological practices, however, have far exceeded those energies directed toward attempting to halt the impact of the communica¬ tion and information networks currently seeking, the more.effective dominance of international finance capital.
5William G. Harley "The Mass Media & Society: An American View¬ point" in UNESCO Courier (April, 1977) pp. 27-31. 6Yassen N. Zasursky & Zuri I. Kashlev, "The Media & Society: A Soviet Viewpoint," in UNESCO Courier, (April, 1977) pp. 24-28. -12-
It is this contradictory stance that raises a series of questions about the probability of ever achieving the quest for a NWICO. The very exis¬ tence of MNCs and the transnational banking structure have become depen¬ dent on their capacity for instantaneous communication between central headquarters and their affiliates located in the Third World, bypassing national governments. Thus the fear of these transnationals(and con¬ sequently of the U.S. government) is that the debate initially concerned with the flow of international news and ideas, linked to that regarding the inequities in the flow of economic data and technical information, could explode out of control and end up questioning the entire inter¬ national political economy.
METHODOLOGY AND RESEARCH TECHNIQUES
As a scholarly research project this dissertation includes three major components: a) content and critical analysis of existing literature; b) the development of a conceptual framework; and c) a case study. The review of literature begins with a content analysis of doctoral dissertations written between the years 1964-1980. These pub¬ lications are varied in the specific subject matter and approach to the question of flow of international information. They reflect both the
"conservative" Western conception of the problem and alternatively, what might be classified as a "moderately critical" posture towards this
Western view. The second part of this review focuses on a number of art¬ icles published by African-American writers cn the topic. The objective here is to highlight the general direction of their analysis; what sources and/or levels of conflict are identified; and what suggestions are made to resolve the problems identified. -13- Upon the completion of this review we attempt to establish our own conceptual framework, through which we believe the issues might be more appropriately viewed. Utilizing an Afro-Centric perspective and a dialectical method of analysis, we critically examine the concept of
"cultural imperialism" by suggesting three dimensions of the problem: economic, political and psycho-social. This examination is then applied to a general overview of the major concerns of the current debate on the
NWICO in an effort to provide a theoretical structure for a more com¬ prehensive explanation of the problems involved.
The major body of this dissertation includes a three-part case study of the controversies surrounding the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization. The initial segment of this study entails an historical analysis of the factors contributing to the formation of
UNESCO and its early evolution under the ideological and financial tutelage of U.S. foreign policy directives from 1945 to 1960. The major goal of this analysis is to determine the degree to which the "free flow of information" concept has provided U.S. policy managers with a strong ideological weapon for creating a high level of suspicion about alterna¬ tive forms of social-political and economic formations to that of cap¬ italism. Attention will also be given to the debate between the major opposing views of information flow: those of the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.
The second segment of the case study proceeds on to analyze the rise of a strong contingency of non-aligned and Third World nations within UNESCO. The numerical coup d1 état of this group within UNESCO radically changed the organization's orientation and thrust the quest for a NWICO to top-level priority on the agenda of the UNESCO Director
General and General Conference. Key actors in this movement and the -14- response of the U.S. to their initiatives highlight this discussion.
The concluding component of this case study examines the proposed content of the NWICO, UNESCO proposals offered to facilitate its implementation, and includes a note on the contradictions that might hamper such an agenda, including the implications of the proposed U.S. withdrawal from UNESCO in January 1985. Finally, we highlight the
"economic" dimensions of the flow of information by pointing out the linkages that exist between the free flow of information, on the one hand hand, and, the increased penetration of international finance capital into the underdeveloped world, on the other.
DATA COLLECTION
With respect to our analysis of the evolution of the debate within
UNESCO, and the role of the U.S. therein, data is drawn from two primary sources. The first includes UNESCO publications covering the period in ' question (i.e.,1945 to 1984). The publications reflect: a) bi-annual reports of the Director General on the activities of UNESCO; b) periodic appraisals of UNESCO's programs from the United Nations Economic and
Social Council; and c) UNESCO declarations, resolutions and reports of the General Conference. The second major category of data includes: a)
U.S. Department of State Bulletins and Special reports on UNESCO act¬ ivities; b) U.S. Senate committee hearings on international tele¬ communication policies; and c) U.S. House of Representatives hearings on UNESCO, freedom of information and telecommunication policy.
Informational sources for our discussion of the "economic" dimension of problems come primarily from an unobstrusive synthesis of the content of literature in the discipline of international politi¬ cal economy. Key contributors to a critical understanding of the -15- economic objectives of imperialistic ventures and the motives and practices of international finance capital in the era of neo-colonialism include such scholars as Pierre Jalee„ Paul Baran, Harry Magdoff, Kwame Nkrumah. Richard Barnet, Samir Amin, Walter Rodney, and others. To establish the linkages between the contributions of these authors and the quest for a NWICO, we rely primarily upon the contributions of Herbert I. Schiller. A synthesis of these scholarly achievements should provide the interested reader of this dissertation with the necessary facts and data to make an initial determination of the validity of the hypothesis of this analysis. CHAPTER II
THE FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION: A REVIEW OF LITERATURE
INTRODUCTION
Most studies on the question of the free flow of information and communication provide neither a concise conceptual framework nor a theoretical lens that would facilitate our understanding of the full dimensions of the problem. Such studies seem to focus almost ex¬ clusively on various aspects of the time-locked political or "ideo¬ logical" debate that has developed over the years at the expense of im¬ portant historical, economic and psycho-social considerations that im¬ pact upon the communication process. Despite these limitations we do feel a necessity to highlight the general direction and nature of the concerns of those writers who have sought to address the problem. As such, this review of literature begins with a collection of disserta¬ tions that are related to the question of "free flow of information," followed by an examination of an important set of articles written by
African-Americans.
-16- -17-
An early indication of the above mentioned trend is found in the i 1964 doctoral dissertation of Michael Ta Kung Wei. In this analysis the author attempts to examine a 15 year span (from 1948 to 1963) of
United Nations debates on the issue of freedom of information. Within this time frame the U.N. had sought not only to define the concept of
"freedom of information," but also to secure, by conference and the adoption of conventions, legal obligations eminating from the concept.
Ta Kung Wei identifies four instruments that were used to achieve these aims:
a) The Universal Declaration of Human Right;
b) The Draft Convention on Human Rights;
c) The Draft Convention on Freedom of Information; and
d) The Convention on the International Transmission of Nei/^and The Convention on the International Right of Correction.
1 Michael Ta Kung Wei, hreedom of Information As An International Problem (Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Missouri, 1964). 2 The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 10, 1948. Article 19 states: "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion without inter¬ ference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." The Draft Convention on Human Rights was characterized as an international "bill of rights" and also carries over the principle laid forth in Article 19. The Draft Con¬ vention on Freedom of Information was designed to implement general standards of "national" law in the field of communications. It allowed contracting states to assume certain obligations with respect to their domestic legislations and be entitled to take action against alleged violations of the convention. It also defined the scope and limitations of freedom of information, drawing the line between rights and duties, freedom and responsibilities. Both the convention on the International Transmission of News and the Convention on the International Right of Correction aimed at advancing a common method of solving practical problems in the achievement of freedom of information that might result from the misrepresentation of facts. -18-
In analyzing this period of U.N. activity Ta Kung Wei notes that despite the surge in declarations and conventions, progress in address¬
ing many of the concerns was either slow or non-existent. Part of the blame for such inactivity was laid on the Cold War atmosphere, and to a
lesser extent on differing ideologies divided over an emphasis on free¬
dom of information across national boundaries, on the one hand, and in¬
formation responsibility on the other.
In a vein similar to that of Ta Kung Wei, Adnan Al-Maniey ana¬
lyzed a variety of constitutional mandates of UNESCO to promote the free
flow of information and UNESCO programs developed to reduce certain man¬
made communication barriers."5 Focusing on UNESCO's "direct approach"
(reliance on its own authority) and indirect approach (cooperation with
other international organizations), the writer observed that UNESCO had
been successful in concluding five international agreements and two
schemes. As a collective, the conventions and schemes were designed to
reduce custom charges and internal taxes; remedy the lack of hard cur¬
rency to enhance developing nations' ability to purchase communication
hardware; the dispatching of experts to assist in the technical appli¬
cation of communication equipment; and the establishment of permanent
centers for training personnel in communication.
^Adnan Al-Maniey, UNESCO's Role in Promoting Freedom of Inter¬ national Communications (Ph. D. Dissertation, University of Indiana, 1967). -19-
Despite these areas of success, Al-Mainiey cautions the reader that little progress had been made in penetrating what were termed
"political" barriers. Like Ta Kung Wei, he concludes that ideological differences continued to block genuine progress toward the overall ob¬ jectives of UNESCO. Additionally, AL-Maniey linked the desire of gov- vernments to promote their national economic interests, and the fear among smaller nations that the increased flow of international informa¬ tion might result in the loss of national identity as standing in the way of progress.
Writing in 1980, however, René J. J. Ravault challenged the im¬ plication that practices of the United States and other advanced in¬ dustrialized countries in the field of international communication are always "economically advantageous" to these countries. In his view,
Anglo-American nations (i.e., the United States, Canada, United Kindom,
Australia and New Zealand) do not import a significant amount of foreign mass communications products and do not seriously learn foreign lan¬ guages; thus they find themselves unable to collect in a selective fashion, nor make proper sense out of "data" about events taking place abroad. Moreover, as a result of the massive exportation of Anglo-
American mass communication "entertainment" and the English language,
foreign nations have the opportunity to make better sense out of the
"data" they obtain or selectively collect about Anglo-American civil¬ izations.
^René Jean-Jacques Ravault, Some Possible Economic Dysfunctions of the Anglo-American Practice in International Communications: A Theoretical Approach (Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Iowa, 1980). -20- Ravault contends that this allows others economically developed nations of the First World to more effectively penetrate Anglo-American economic markets (a sort of "reverse-cultural imperialism," if you will). Contrary to the drift of Ravault's contentions, F.B. Kalupa, III, reasons that any confusion arising in the minds of the public in Anglo- American societies is not a result of an inability to make proper sense out of data imported about world affairs. Such confusion, Kalupa argues, arises more often out of specific practices adopted by newsroom organizations, policy management, and decision strategies used in the news selection process.5 This is not to suggest that Ravault was un¬ aware that most of the public's conception and general opinions of worldly affairs is influenced by a select few "gatekeepers." Kalupa's conclusions, however, contrary to those of Ravault, suggest that "at best" the public will only receive a constrained conception of reality. Although many of the decisions made about what constitutes "news" or vital information have more to do with time and space constraints, Kalupa infers that a noticeable conservative "bias" enters the picture over the ideological stance to be projected on such events as liberation movements, progress of socialist states and issues involving human rights.
^Francis Boniface Kalupa, III, International Communication Decision-Making: Systems Theory Development Grounded in Field Analysis of Foreign News Gatekeeping (Ph. D. Dissertation, University of Southern California, 1979)7 -21- In 1979 Raphael C. Anasiudu sought to address the impact of these technical information constraints on African states.6 But rather than focusing upon news gathering problems and international agreements with UNESCO and the U.N., he chose to examine the burgeoning reliance of African states on the Western controlled modern electronic telecommunica¬ tion systems, particulary the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization (INTELSAT). Anasiudu's analysis considered three key areas of active African participation in INTELSAT: a) use of facilities for domestic, intra-African telecommunication; b) share in the tech¬ nological fruits of membership; and c) share in decisionmaking and policy development. Despite this active participation, however, Anasiudu surmises that the setting up of circuits of African INTELSAT usage for common- carrier telecommunications and the flow of Africa's traffic via INTELSAT facilities still tended to closely follow the structure of traditional trade and political links derived from Africa's past colonial rule. This pattern of use was found by the author to be predominantly oriented toward communication with Western Europe and the United States, while traffic between Africa and the rest of the developing world was prac¬ tically non-existent. The trickle between African countries themselves was found to still only take place mainly between countries with similar colonial heritages.
^Raphael Cukwubunna Anasiudu, Benefits and Problems of African Countries' Participation in INTELSAT (Ph. D. Dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1979). -22- Utilizing Algeria and Nigeria as case studies, Anasidu cautions the reader that while it is always good to recognize the new possibilities offered by leasing INTELSAT for domestic telecommunication functions, it is impossible to ignore the fact that by stimulating national demands
for satellite services and information exchange equipment, INTELSAT
simultaneously accentuates the problem of "technological dependence" for
African and developing country members. These nations have been en¬ couraged to embark on extensive telecommunication expansion programs with minimal local technology production capabilities or supporting infra¬
structures.
As mentioned at the outset of this review, the dissertations on the
subject of the international flow of information leave much to be
desired. As a collectivity they tend to drift along an a-historical and
a-theoretical path that leaves more crucial questions unanswered than
they provide resolutions for. Their research in no way seeks to link
their central concerns with the implications or impact these developments
have on the vast majority of mankind. For although we are not questioning
the sincerity of their scholarly endeavor, each of the authors might
take heed of an axiom once advanced by the late political economist
Paul Baran, who noted:
...a true statement about a social fact can (and most often will) turn into a lie if the fact referred to is torn out the social whole of which it forms an integral part, if the fac^ is isolated from the historical process in which it is imbedded.
7Paul A. Baran, "The Commitment of the Intellectual, "Monthly Review (May 1961): 13 -23-
Indications of the limited utility of these contributions are many. For example, although Ta Kung Wei labels the progress of United
Nations efforts in addressing the problem of freedom of information as either slow or non-existent, he makes no effort to suggest the long range implications of this practical inactivity, nor does he offer any recommedations for altering this stance other than searching for solutions outside the moribund halls of the U.N. Nor does he or
Al-Mainiey attempt to critically analyze the role of key actors in the formulation of such conventions and declarations of the U.N. and UNESCO.
Both tend to assume a high level of pluralism in the decisionmaking process and fail to pay particular attention to the mobilization of bias by the United States as the main financial backer of both these organizations. Taking this factor into account, one might rationally argue that any project, scheme, or declaration that stood antithetical to the goals of U.S. foreign policy would meet both political and econ¬ omic scrutiny. Even the supposedly technical projects approved by
UNESCO have tended to serve to create dependency relationships by the
Third World nations on the expertise and technical know-how that only the U.S. could provide.
In Ravault's analysis, moreover, we find the trend of narrowly confining the notion of communication and information flow to an
ideological realm at the expense of important economic considerations.
Even if one were to characterize the export of information as merely
"entertainment" there are still the undelying motives of the psycho¬
logical warfare of news-for-profit multinational corporation to bear
in mind. In this sense entertainment packages might be more appropri¬
ately viewed as socializing agents that encourage "conspicuous con- -24- sumption" habits for those affected. Thus, the acquisition of the ap¬ parent need to invest in America by elites, whether in Japan, Australia,
Saudi Arabia or Nigeria, seems more to imply "mission accomplished" rather than the inverse. Left untouched in Ravault's question of the importation of news and hard facts is that when such data falls into the
"right hands" (i.e., the corporate sector and state apparatus), it often becomes a key tool and powerful weapon for achieving economic and pol¬ itical goals on world scale.
Kalupa also prefers to discuss the flow of communications at the expense of a plethora of other types of information of a more technical and economic import. Although his attention is focused on gatekeeping of news events in American society, mention might also have been made that it is this same "gatekept" news that is re-exported to the popula¬ tions of both the advanced and underdeveloped world. The implications of this reversed trend of a constrained and conservatively biased flow of information would have made for a much more well-rounded discussion of Kalupa's part.
And lastly, while it was easy for Anasiudu to document the lop¬ sided distribution of benefits accruing mainly to INTELSAT'S tech¬ nologically advanced member nations, his analysis fails to address pos¬
sible methods for spreading these benefits on more equitable basis.
This is surprising in light of proposals that had been presented by
UNESCO which, by the time of his writing, included a blueprint of the
IDCP (mentioned earlier) and a Pan African News Agency. Nor did
Anasiudu find it important to examine the implications of African states and individuals that had taken an aggressive or radical posture in de¬ manding a more equitable distribution of benefits from INTELSAT partici- -25- pation. In this area we might learn from the case of Iran.
With the overthrow of the Shah and the emergence of the American- hostage crisis, former President Carter ordered a series of sanctions against Iran, among the most important of which was the interruption of
Iranian use of the ten satellites that made up the INTELSAT system at that time. Because Iran, like most African and underdeveloped nations, was dependent on these satellites for as much as 70-80% of its in¬ ternational communication needs, such an interruption played havoc with the entire Iranian economy. Not only did these sanctions curtail all telephone and television service, but they also prohibited the country from international airline scheduling and froze the transfer of all
Iranian funds. In preparing to carry out this plan Carter consulted not with the member-states of INTELSAT, but with the manager of the INTELSAT system who also happened to be director of COMSAT (a private American telecommunications corporation which uses U.S. government-financed
Q space communication technical expertise, hardware and experience).
Thus, numerous questions remain. If, as Al-Maniey and Ta Kung Wei insist, both U.N. and UNESCO proposed measures have basically been failures in their practical application, what international mechanisms are more suitable arenas in which to challenge in an effort to remedy the problem? It the primary problem is that news and information is being shaped and controlled by various "gatekeepers." how, then, do
Ravault and Kalupa suqgest we pry open or break down these barriers to the truth?
Q William J, Broad, "Satellite Sanctions Against Iran," Science (May 16, 1980): 685-686. -26-
If, in fact, the present flow of African information is dependent on mechanisms like INTELSAT and continues to follow old colonial lines of communication, what would Anasiudu recommend as an alternative model?
How does this process impact upon the rural peasantry of Nigeria and
Algeria? How does it affect the nature of the growing African urban labor force? What are the implications of an underdeveloped country that is spending millions on high-tech telecommunication equipment rather than addressing the human needs of its populace in such areas as food, health and education? These are the burning issues and yet they continue to go unaddressed. Perhaps we should rightly turn our attention to others who have given these matters some attention, to see whether all has been lost.
The remainder of our review of literature focuses specifically on the contributions of a select group of African-American scholars who have addressed the problems of the white world in the control of in¬ formation and communication about African and African-American affairs.
A cursory examination of a timely bibliography compiled by Earnest Kaiser on "Blacks and the Mass Media" reveals over 160 books and articles re¬ lating to various aspects of the communication process, such as tele¬ vision, radio, information exchange, etc. (Here I am excluding an ad¬ ditional compilation of references provided by Kaiser on film and g theater.) Of these entries, however, only four titles speak to the re¬ lationship of the quest for a new international information order to the African-American community in the U.S., and of these four the im-
9 Earnest Kaiser, "Blacks and the Mass Media: A Bibliography," Freedomways, Volume 22, No. 3 (1982): 193-209 -27- plications drawn were for the most part, incidental. Two additional articles specifically address the control of information within the U.S. political economy, while an additional four articles dealt with the role of media in interpreting events on the continent of Africa. Of these ten works listed seven surfaced between 1979 and 1982. It is also important to point out that with the exception of two contributions by
Sheila Smith-Hobson, each of these articles limits the parameters of its discussion of information to that disseminated by the news wire services and print media. This is done at the expense of a wide range of in¬ formation types such as advertising, educational, financial, research and development information.
Curiously absent from Kaiser's bibliography is a noteworthy 1973 contribution of David G. Dubois, entitled "Toward Pan-African Media
Workers' Unity." 10 Dubois's article explicitly attempts to expose what he terms "the conspiracy of the Establishment media to control the ex- change of information" 11 between the people of Africa and African-
American revolution in the U.S. (although he fails to indentify who, or what, this latter group consists of. Focusing primarily on newspapers,
Dubois notes that the Associated Press and the United Press Inter¬ national of the U.S., Reuters News Agency in London, or Agence France
Presse in Paris provided the bulk of news that editors on the continent of Africa received for their foreign news, including that on the
10 David G. Dubois, "Toward Pan-African Media Workers' Unity," The Black Scholar, Volume 5, No. 1 (September 1973): 11-14.
11 Ibid., p. 11. -28-
African-American revolution in America. Alternatively, it is from these same sources that African-American revolutionaries receive their news and analyses of the African revolutionary process. As a result of the
"gatekeeping" by these major wire services, both groups are kept relat¬ ively ignorant of the existence, activities, ideologies and victories of each other, or the Establishment media distorts the image and truth of these events, turning important information into "pro-imperialist,"
"pro-neo-colonialist" and "anti-revolutionary" propaganda.
Although he provides no concrete examples, we believe that Dubois correctly identifies the root cause of the problem as being the tele¬ communication facilities established by colonial powers linking their activities within the colonies with the metropolitan elite. The object¬ ive of this network was the speedy transmission of commercial, stock market, and banking information to facilitate exploitation of African people's riches. The role of the press was to mainly provide a flow of economic and political information bearing on the particular resources being exploited from the métropole to the colonial newspaper, while
"African" news of the same nature was supplied from colonial adminis- 12 trative office to the métropole to enlighten potential investors. "The U.S. wire services," Dubois notes, "were late-comers to this net¬ work. In the post-World War II era the UPI and AP worked in collabo¬ ration with already-established European links and began to station permanent bureaus for gathering and distributing news in major cap¬ itals."1"5
12 ibid., p. 12
13Ibid., P- 12 -29-
What Dubois fails to further elaborate on, and what distinguishes our research from the literature, is that the telecommunication networks
established by colonial powers during this era to facilitate economic
exploitation are still basically in place and continue to provide the
transmission of commerical, stock market and banking information to
potential private/corporate investors in advanced capitalist societies.
Rather than address this problem in greater detail Dubois insinuates
that our major concern should focus upon developments limited to the
news media. In his opinion our energies should be directed toward the
following considerations:
1) ... we [African-Americans] determine what is important news and information for transmission, not the Established media.
2) Emphasis must be place on facts, not analysis...
3) Anticipate exposive development...If we've provided the back¬ ground as it happens the Establishment media's lies and dis¬ tortions can be exposed.
4) Direct contact between éditas and media workers must be established and maintained.
How these directives are to be implemented, however, is left to the
reader's imagination. Dubois offer no model.
With the exception of The Black Scholar article by Dubois, the
remaining contributions are found in Freedomways, and cover a twenty-
year period (1962-1982). The first is that of Charles P. Howard, Sr., 13 entitled "How the Press Defames Africa." Writing more than ten years
prior to Dubois, Howard provides an historical foundation for Dubois'
thesis on the conspiratorial procedure of the American and European
press in their misrepresentation of African affairs.
14Ibid., p. 12
^Charles P. Howard, Sr., "How the Press Defames Africa", Freedom- ways , Volume 2, No. 4 (Fall, 1974): 361-370. -30-
Howard suggests that the "scandalous" treatment of Africa and its national leaders became especially noticeable after 1957, when Ghana inaugurated its first African-led government under President
Kwame Nkrumah.
In Howard's view, a significant portion of the blame for the distortion within the American society's view of Africa can be placed on the ignorance of the field reporter, whom he defines as the "... recorder of government, but also a participant. He, as much an anyone, helps to shape the course of government...(and) is the indispensable broker and middle man among the subgovernments of Washington. He can choose from the myriad events...which to describe and which to ig- 16 nore." The author notes that most of the newly assigned reporters covering the "African beat" had little, if any, prior accurate knowledge of African society. For the most part, these individuals were the
subjects of a"campaign of falsification" that has occasioned Americans'
understanding of African affairs since the slave trade. Inaccurate and
stereotypical depictions of Africa persisted in both pictoral displays
and general literature until improvements were made in transporation and
communication systems in the twentieth century. With these developments
increased knowledge of the military-strategic and economic importance of
Africa emerged but such information was devoid of an historical back¬
ground to provide reporters with a clear perspective. Howard insists
that the colonial powers benefited by the lack of knowledge of what was
really occuring in Africa and found it a desirable policy to
16 Ibid., p. 362 -31-
"... blackout the real truth about those areas and their inhabitants so that they might continue to exploit without competition. 7 (The vehicle used to create and maintain this false impression was the
European and American press.) In evaluating the role of the American press in relation to Africa, Howard concludes that by the 1960's this press had become a crucial element of the American foreign policy pro¬ cess: that the press no longer limited itself to chronicling events as they occurred, but became a weapon for creating the kind of countries and government that the U.S. wanted. These developments were part¬ icularly true in the establishment of new countries in Africa.
To substantiate this assertion, Howard provides a brief case study of the American press and its treatment of Congo Premier
Patrice Lumumba. Although Lumumba reached office through the prescribed constitutional procedures and the will of the Congolese electorate, the
Euro-American press viewed him with utter disdain. His crime was his firm belief in and plans for unifying the Congo and utilizing the nation's natural resources for the benefit of the Congolese people, a matter completely misconstrued by the American press and contrary to the interest of the former Belgium colonial masters. For this "crime" he was labeled a Communist in the news and the reporters began the process of deciding what was good or "best" for the country themselves. Howard cites a February 18, 1961 New York Daily News editorial to illustrate the degree of distortion the American public was subjected to in an attempt to legitimize the successful assassination of Lumumba.
17Ibid., p. 363
18 Ibid. -32-
Entitled "Lumumba Kaput" the editorial stated:
Another Communist appears to have entered into hell. The Katanga breakaway government reported yesterday that ousted, jogged and escaped Congo Premier Patrice Lumumba and two friends were "massacred" Sunday morning by African villagers and buried, not cooked and eaten with the customary cannibal condiments. Lumumba was or is an obvious Moscow stooge, and we can't regard his passing as a loss to society.
Howard concludes his analysis by highlighting a trend within various
American cities to eliminate a multiplicity of newspapers with differ¬ ing views of vital questions of U.S. foreign policy. This process, he contends, is bound to leave the reading public ill-informed and lead to a systemic blockout of issues adverse to "the powers."
The major assumptions of Howard and Dubois are carried over in the analyses of Noble, Smith and Hairston. Writing in 1974 in a
Freedomways article entitled " Who Control Media Information?" Gil
Noble confirms the thesis that "...the control of news media lies in the hands of non-blacks exclusively." 20 This monopoly control over the information process has resulted, in Noble's mind, in an "imbalanced meal" or an inherent bias that has distorted not only the current re¬ porting of facts, but our entire ingestion of recorded history.
Noble offers the reader the perspective of an African-American television news commentator with an established career of servicing the New York City public. With this insider's view Noble instructs us that it is privately, white-owned wire services (i.e., AP,UPI, Reuters, and AFP) that send out the daily cadre of reporters to gather facts and cover the world's events. Once the reported material comes in to
2glbid., p. 366. uGil Noble, "Who Controls Media Information?" Freedomways, Volume 14, No 4 (Fourth Quarter, 1974): 317-319 -33- the news bureau, he continues it is:
...the bureau chief that appraises the report as "balanced" and newsworthy. If it passes his scrutiny, he then wires it to a central office, probably in New York, where a chief editor goes over it again. If he says so, the news report is then "wired" all over the world to every newspaper, radio and television station. You see, they all subscribe to the wire services. Every newsroom receives it. In fact, it is the backbone source of news informatif that radio and television (then) rewrites and passes on to you.
The major problem here is that none of the news bureaus that gather the basic information and raw data of these wire services is headed up by
Africans or African-Americans. ABC's sole news bureau in Africa is directed by an Irishman. "In other words," contends Noble, "the over¬ whelming preponderance of news that Americans get about Africa is coming from the viewpoint of persons who are foreign to that con- 22 tinent...Maybe hostile too." Noble concludes with a cautionary message on the illusion of isolated black field reporters and the increasing trend of placing
African-Americans as evening news anchor persons as reflecting some move toward self-determination in information control. Such persons make "no decision" on what news will be broadcast, how much emphasis will be given to particular stories and how much follow-up will be provided on future broadcasts. All such decision are made by "non¬ blacks." This trend toward a misinformed African-American audience is tragic because television more and more serves as the sole provider of the African-American communities' news information and in increasing numbers has become a mechanism utilized to "baby sit" black children.
21 Ibid., p. 318 22 Ibid. -34-
As with Dubois and Howard, nonetheless, Noble's prescriptions for altering this state of affairs leave much to be desired. Although he suggest that..."there is no way non-blacks can look at world events with the same eyes that blacks do...," he mentions no blueprint for achieving a black perspective in the news. At best he becomes apolo¬ getic:
We need to question whether what we consume is whole or part of the whole. We need to be concerned about who controls the news. We should recognize that up to now, history as it is trans¬ mitted via the media is not "story." And please don't accuse me of hating white people..."control must be shared." If there are non-Blacks who disagree...would you be willing to accept the exact reverse to today's scene in the media? Would ^ou be happy with a Black-controlled media (sic)? Of course not.
A more radical approach is taken by Earl Smith in an essay en- 24 titled "Black Africa and the Press." Adopting the lens of Marxist-
Leninist analysis Smith's position is that the news of the daily strug¬ gles in Africa is most effectively examined within the context of what such news means to the development of capitalism, its continual crisis, and its need for expansion and/or annexation of crucial areas of the socalled underdeveloped world. In essence, it is not simply the mis¬ representation of reality by individual journalists that should occa¬ sion one's framework, but additionally, perceiving the press as a cru¬ cial link in the long chain of imperialism. The role Smith ascribes to the media is that of the "bulwark of imperialism" which exerts a pro¬ found influence of the average man on the street , controlling what in¬ formation is and is not disseminated to the public and utilized to
23Ibid., p. 319
24Earl Smith, "Black Africa and the Press, "Freedomways, Volume 17, No 3 (Third Quarter 1977): 143-154 -35-
campaign against the belief that African countries should be indepen- 25 dent.
Smith contends that the high point of this ideological campaign
came with the decline of the colonial system during and after World War
II. The ethos adopted was both a liberal and paternalistic belief that
a people (any people) must prove themselves worthy of freedom by appro¬
ximating the Euro-American models of constitutional democracy and
economic modernization. One of the illusions that the American press had sought to foster is that the U.S. had "no policy" toward Africa and hence, "no interest" in African affairs. Smith counters this notion ex¬ plicitly by identifying U.S. interests as serving to maintain a system of oppression for the free operation of financial and industrial capital, the most essential economic basis of imperialism. The problem was not that the U.S. did not have a firm policy toward Africa, but rather that the U.S. had no policy that included a clear future of Africa's free¬ dom in mind. As U.S. financial interests in Africa multiplied, so, too, 27 did the media's ideological justification of such interest multiply.
To validate his analysis Smith examines press coverage of the struggles for liberation in Mozambique, Angola, South Africa and
Zimbabwe. With respect to Mozambique his findings reveal virtually no media exposure given to the fifteen-year history of this armed struggle.
The Angolan liberation struggle, however, received global attention not
25 Ibid., P- 143. 26 Ibid. 27 Ibid., p. 144. -36- only because of the presence of oil, but also because it was against
Portuguese troups backed with Western arms and aligned with South
African forces and mercenaries from around the world, including the U.S.
Smith suggests that the struggles for liberation in both Zimbabwe and South Africa were also victims of false reports at the hands of capitalist news media. The intent here was the "ideological destruction" of just, democratic struggles against racist white minority regimes, backed by the military-industrial and financial complexes of the Western world. The policy adopted by the media was to "sell" the "latest and most exciting" news at a profit with the underlying motive of spreading a bourgeois ideological perspective that condemned the restoration of 28 peace and freedom to the African people in their own land.
Smith goes on to analyze the media distortion of the role of
Cuba in Africa, the rebellion in Soweto, and the close tie of the mis¬ information of the U.S. media to the intimate relation between U.S. business interests and the South African state. He concludes by quoting the W.E.B. Dubois epigram that: "the struggle in Africa is a struggle against imperialism," and adds in closing that"...the press should re- 29 port it as such. What press Smith would have us rely upon for accurate information on African affairs escapes his analysis. A useful step might have been for Smith to list those newspapers, periodicals, radio sta¬ tions, that he considered reliable sources of accurate information.
28 . . . TIbid., P. 143. 29 Ibid. P- 152. -37-
Like Smith, Loyle Hairston views the U.S. media as promoting a value system that "reflects and reinforces the world view of the cap¬ italist system."3^ In a brief essay entitled "U.S. Media: The in¬ formation Opiate," Hairston notes that "...the Media carefully control and shape information to the extent that it becomes, in itself, an ideology that can influence our perception of ourselves and society, our world view and concept of reality. " 31
In Loyle Hairston's view information is power, enabling us to function as human beings. But information is also a "means of control," a method of determining how we think, examine ideas, and perceive re¬ ality. It provides the symbols upon which status claims are established and through which conformity, masquerading as "sophistication," is elicited. One of the key conduits of information, Hairston adds, is the
American educational system. "...The genious of the U.S. educational system lies in the way it has effectively hidden from public scrutiny the real source of...power."32 That power is dispersed in the various institutions of the capitalist system which, in’collaboration with govern¬ ment, empowers the rich to promote their class interest as the "national" interest. From this scenario Hairston deduces that those who control the media i.e., the 2% of the U.S. population that own or control over 75% of the nation's wealth—dictate not only what information will be re¬ ported but whose interests it is to serve.3"5
30Loyle Hairston, "U.S. Media: The Information Opiate," Free- domways, Volume 22, No. 3 (1982): 143.
*llbid., p.143 ^Ibid., p.140 33Ibid., p.141. -38-
The vested interests that the media serve, however, conflict sharply with the interest of the general public and "third world" people in partic¬ ular. But the fact that the information industry is owned and operated for profit by major corporations has not as of yet aroused a high level of suspicion in the public mind. As Hairston notes, "Few of us ever believe that Walter Cronkite would tell us less than the truth, or that the New York Times would slant stories to bring them in line with its ed¬ itorial positions. ^
One of the central concerns of this dissertation is the inaccuracy of the media in their protrayal to the world of the objective conditions of African-American life. Citing the bias of the New York Times in its depiction of the Zimbabwean liberation struggle, Hairston notes an
"equally blatant bias...found in news stories about minorities within the 35 United States." He adds that, indeed:.
...when non-whites are mentioned in U.S. media, the context is usually crime, sports or entertainment. Overall, the image con¬ veyed is of a violent, anti-social people who deserve to be ex¬ cluded from the advantages of mainstream society... Today, media mention of "welfarechiselers" conjures up in the public mind images of millions of lazy Blacks, Puerto Ricans, Chicanos, etc., lolling in the she^er of welfare benefits extractd form white American taxpayers.
Rather than addressing the core of race relatons in the U.S. which main¬ tains the non-white populaton as largely a source of exploitable cheap labor, the media , through T.V. and radio news programs, black anchormen and women convey the impression that "all is well on the social land¬ scape." In reality, suggest Hairston, non-whites are "acceptable" only insofar as they embrace those values which support the prevailing order.,
.values which are peddled in the mass media as authentic and eternal.
^Ibid., p. 141. ^Ibid. 6Ibid., p. 141. Ibid., p. 142 -39-
Equally dangerous, instructs Hairston, is the misinformation we receive about recent U.S. foreign policy objectives in Africa toward such nations as South Africa, Namibia, Kenya and others. The purpose here, as always, has been to blunt moral outrage about and immobilize resist¬ ance to, oppresive governments,.lull concerned people into believing that supporting liberation movements is futile, that self-determination can be more easily gained by negotiations." 38
Hairston ends his discussion with a call for an interruption of the imbalance one-way of information. Aligning himself with the resolutions of UNESCO conferences calling for a NWICO, he admits that establishing the "new order" will be a difficult task. Western powers continue to control most of the world's communication technology and the equality of nations in this arena is not a part of imperialism's game plan.
But Hairston, like the other African-American authors reviewed above, prefers not to elaborate on the implications of these last points. In¬ stead it is Sheila Smith-Hobson who attempts to fill the void.
In a 1981 article written specifically on "the New World Informa¬ tion Order," Ms. Smith-Hobson contends that the overemphasis on the im¬ pact of "news" (both domestically and internationally) by African-
American scholars tends to obscure the more crucial concerns of the quest for a NWICO. 39 Referring to research conducted by Cees J. Hamelink,
38Ibid., p. 143 39 Sheila Smith-Hobson, "The New World Information Order," Freedomways, Volume 21, No. 2 (1981): 106-113. -40-
Smith-Hobson instructs us that international news is only a small aspect of the international information flow. News is estimated as being only about ten percent of the total flow of information. The remaining balance consists of what is termed "informatics," including the use of word processing terminals and computerbased information services from telephone and telegraph to satellite-transmitted radio and television broadcasts. The fact of the matter is that the "information industry" is the world's third largest and fastest growing industry, and is under the near total monopoly of a select few Western corporations. Within the U.S. and information-based economy has been developing since the end of World War II to the point "where by 1970 nearly half of the en¬ tire American work force could be classified as holding jobs in which the main activity was the production, processing and distribution of in¬ formation. This sector of the labor force earned over 53% of all labor income.".,40
One problem with the tremendous growth of the information industry, however, has been the inability of the American domestic market to absorb the output of this industry. Between 1970 and 1980, Smith-Hobson ob- 41 serves, this absorption rate had grown at a rate of only .04%. Thus, the industry out of sheer necessity has taken on an imperialistic nature for its survival. It has had to "create" overseas markets or what Smith-Hobson terms a "foreign appetite" for U.S. information ma¬ chines.
40 Ibid., P- 106
Ibid., P- 107 -41- By 1980 this appetite was exceeded on the international market only by demands for U.S. guns and butter. At the forefront of creating this appetite are U.S. multinational corporations. In 1978 IBM alone was re¬ sponsible for over 70% of all computer installations worldwide, earning $100 billion in the process. More important, notes Smith-Hobson, IBM's gross revenues from its overseas operations alone is over $1 billion annually and growing everyday. 42 Part of the key to understanding the value of information, in Smith-Hobson's view, is to view it as a natural resource: the "perfect" natural resource. In this sense information is seen as infinitely re¬ newable—the act of consumption does not destroy the information and it can be used repeatedly and simultaneously. 43 In fact, the more one uses certain types of information (i.e., knowledge, scientific laws), the more valuable it becomes. On the other side of the coin, however, despite the infinite nature of this perfect resource, the ability to absorb it is finite. In the international political economy the ability to absorb translates into the "abiliity to pay." For the most part, this latter criterion has remained in the realm of Western European markets. The Third World nas had to rely upon multilateral (i.e., World Bank and IMF) and bilateral aid programs to purchase information from U.S. firms, and
very often this information concerns facts about their own country's resources.
42Ibid., p. 109 43 Smith-Hobson borrows this notion of information as the "perfect" natural resource from Marc Uri Porat, "Global Implications of the In¬ formation Society," in Journal of Communication, Winter 1978 Vol. 21 No. 1 P. 79 -42-
Such information is usually offered as part of a consulting or management contract or comes only when a MNC is allowed to establish a manufacturing subsidiary as a joint venture with a Third World nation. In the latter
instance, patent royalties and management fees for the use of U.S.
technology and U.S. management expertise are often part of the package deal.
Thus, it is the desire of the Third World to satisfy its insa¬
tiable information "appetite" devoid of the above mentioned strings
attached that lies at the heart of the quest for a NWICO. Proposals to
challenge the dominance of the West on this question have ranged from
imposing taxes on specific types of information, to the indigenization of
informatic facilities. As Smith-Hobson concludes, few Western news
sources have published the major points of contention over the NWICO.
Instead they have resorted to labeling the efforts of the 154 member
UNESCO conference an attack by "authoritarian" and "Communist" regimes
to subvert the freedom of the press and to regulate (censor) the free
flow of information between and within nations. They have further charg¬
ed that certain resolutions and remedies proposed would lend credence
and financial aid to the "propaganda" of national "terrorist" organ¬
izations like the PLO. Moreover, fear is expressed that a series of
UNESCO decisions would restrict the movement of journalists and thus hinder the ability of the Western news media to accurately report
international events.^4
Part of the reason for the fear on the part of the U.S. Smith-
Hobson ascribes to the increasing leadership role played by African re-
44 Ibid., P. 108. -43- presentatives to UNESCO. Three of the most outspoken advocates of the
NWICO have been Amandou Mahtor M'Bow of Senegal, UNESCO's Director-
General; Mustapha Masmoudi of Tunisia; and F. Lwayantike Mosha,
Tanzanian Senior Information Officer at the U.N. Despite revered international status Western Media analysts have resorted to labeling them puppets of
Communist governments who have merely signed their names to articles and documents written by a committee of media experts from several Communist 45 nations, including the Soviet Union, East Germany, and Vietnam.
Although I consider Ms. Smith-Hobson's article to be the most valuable of contributions on the NWICO question by an African-American to date, still missing is how the economic dimensions she has out¬ lined impact on the African-American communities of the U.S. and the vast majority of the people in the Third World in general. In a related art¬ icle by the same author entitled "A Fourth Revolution, if...," she struggles to establish a theoretical framework for viewing and resolving 46 the problems of the communication revolution. Relying primarily on the theories of German poets Hans Magnus Enzensberger and Herbert I.
Schiller, Smith-Hobson echoes the theses of Earl Smith and Loyle
Hairston on the role of the media in molding the minds of their consti¬ tuents to the dicates of the capitalist class of the international corn- unity.
^Sheila Smith-Hobson, "A Fourth Revolution, If..." Freedomways, Volume 22, No. 3 (1982): 131-138. -44-
The keys issue is how to ensure that each country will be freed to determine its future, based on its history, culture and values, with¬ out manipulation or imposition of others. Recognizing that information has been "colonized" is a major step, suggest Smith-Hobson, but this must be accompanied by the conscious awareness that the NWICO is no "quick fix"
for all the political, social, and economic problems existing within
individual nations. In other words, she contends:
the (NWICO) must come about concomitantly with new "Interoàl" information orders in each and every country that seeks sover¬ eignty. For that to be achieved, not only the efforts of national leaders, but organizations and activism on the part of the people are neeHed which ma^c,prove to be a greater challenge than in¬ ternational reform.
At the grass roots level the strategy must be to strive to end what
Enzensberger identifies as the "isolation of the individual participant
from the social learning and production process." 48 This is considered
an impossible task unless those concerned organize themselves. This, in
Enzensberger's view, is the "political case" of the question of media.
In the final analysis, however, Smith-Hobson adopts Schiller's
position that "storming" and "overturning" the ancient but enduring
governing coalitions are the means by which the humanistic use of the new
technology may be secured. In summary, she concludes: with a quote from
Herbert I. Schiller that notes:
47Ibid., p. 135.
48 Ibid. -45-
The utilization of the new communication technology for human needs requires a thorough reordering of the social process which regulates the informational system and all levels of personal and national existence. The dilemma is, however, that the controlling crust of the industrial state calls on the communication media to resist soc^l organization that must precede the technological re¬ formation.
Although I agree with this conclusion, I am concerned as to how this will
be achieved. This circular reasoning surely does not point toward any
specific direction African-Americans should take out of the maze of con¬
fusion. Is the greater problem our own internal weakness or that of
capitalist controlled information society?
Thus, among the African-American scholars who have given the topic
some consideration there appears to be a consensus that there is a
crisis, but no one seems quite sure as to whom this crisis affects most.
Each implies that the distortion of information (i.e., news report) can
lead to ideological or psychological confusion, but what this confusion means in everyday terms seems elusive. Is the major problem the "field
reporter," as C.P. Howard suggests, or as Noble contends, a crisis with¬
in news bureaus and the Euro-centric mentality of bureau chiefs, editors
or black reporters? If the present nature of the flow of news helps
capitalist expansion by reflecting a bourgeois value system, as suggested
by E. Smith and L. Hairston, what are the prerequisites for a socialist
media presentation and how might the majority of African and African-
American people take more active participation in the control of this
system of information? If, as Smith-Hobson would lead us to believe,
49 Herbert I. Schiller, Mass Communications & American Empire. Boston, Mass.: Beacon Press, 1969 p. 150-151. -46- there is no real possibility of a genuine "free flow" of international informations until the imperialist system has been overthrown, would not the key to this task itself be based upon a conscious critical awakening of the majority of mankind? How, in the interim, would this awakening be facilitated? What role would African-American telecommunication experts play in carrying this program out? Thus, although we see a need for a new international information order, just how this will be achieved and what the real impact of the present order is remains a question. CHAPTER III
TOWARD A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK OF THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF THE FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION: A QUESTION OF CULTURAL IMPERIALISM
INTRODUCTION
The development of a conceptual framework for viewing the various dimensions of the issues involved in the quest for a New World In¬
formation and Communication Order is no easy task. Nonetheless, issues
are directly related to this topic that offer an important degree of in¬
sight on how it might best be addressed. On this note we can follow the
directions of a timely contribution by Shelby F. Lewis, in which she
provides a conceptual lens for the study of education and development in
i African states. Professor Lewis' framework informs us that as a result of
both colonial and neo-colonial controls of market information, the
cultural and ideological norms of the West have tended to dominate the
plans of most African states not only in political and economic realms,
but additionally in the control of the flows of knowledge and ideas.
3ecause of this domination, newly designed institutions, whether they
be media, educational, or financial usually tend to serve the interests
1 Shelby F. Lewis, "Toward a Conceptual Framework For the Study of Education and Development in African States." Atlanta University, Department of Political Science (Mimeo), 1979.
-47- -48- 2 of the West rather than those of African people. Although the major concern of Lewis is the "society-saturated" educational systems in
African states, this concern does not preclude her commenting on the impact of other socializing mechanisms. Among those mechanisms she identified are communications systems. Lewis explains that:
Media-type communications are a chilling reality in Africa today. These powerful communication systems exist to secure, not gradual submission, but openarmed allegiance in penetrated areas. They form an emerging imperial network of Western economics and fi¬ nances which utilized the "society saturated" conduits for its defense and entrenchment wherever it already exists^and for it ex¬ pansion to locales where it hopes to become active. She further cautions:
This communication system is not only...outside the limited "schooling" arena, it is outside the control of those who run the schools in Africa and those who run—politically—the nation¬ states of Africa. Some attention might be called for in this area before the society is completely inundated with outside values and before young and unborn youtjj are cut off effectively from "authentic" African culture.
Implicit in the analysis of Lewis is the assumption that those who control the flow of information in a given society have significant con¬ trol over the direction of that society. In this sense, control of in¬ formation is a power wielding mechanism that can shape not only the political economy of a group of people, but additionally their psycho¬ logical wellbeing. Such control threatens the totality of a particular group and questions their ability to create a life for themselves in the present and the future world order.
2 Ibid., p. 1.
3 Ibid., P- 19. ^Ibid. -49- Very few, if any, concepts speak of this total domination. Most
analyses focus in myopic fashion on specific dimensions of domination.
Yet as Lewis notes, there is an interrelatedness in the forms of ex¬ ploitation affecting African people. To discount, for example, the
impact of the domination of people at the psycho-social level would
eliminate a key ingredient essential to understanding the success of
political and economic exploitation. The former (i.e., psycho-social
or "mind shackles") accounts in part for the "ease of neo-colonial rule
in contemporary African states."5 Likewise, to slip-shoddenly divorce the material basis of exploitation (i.e., the economic dimension) we negate
the impact of the foundation for nearly all social formations, capital¬
ist, socialist or otherwise.
It is for these reasons that we offer the concept of "cultural
imperialism." We define cultural imperialism as the usurpation and/or
complete alteration of the basis survival mechanisms of a less power¬
ful nation or group by a dominant foreign entity. To achieve this ob¬
jective the foreign entity relies upon a series of interrelated mechan¬
isms ranging from physical force, economic dislocation, psychological
manipulation and/or the political options of oppression, assimilation and
acculturation—all of which suggest varying degrees of submission. The
effect of cultural imperialism is the systemic attack on the major
innovations that the subordinated populace has developed and relied upon
for effectively understanding and resolving problems that have arisen be¬
tween mankind and nature, and the single individuals in their evolving
relations with other individuals and groups within and outside that
5Ibid., p. 1. -50- particular society. Hence, cultural imperialism implies an attempt to either disrupt or destroy the methods and techniques developed by the subordinated group to manipulate the natural environment and the pro¬ cesses developed to communicate and exchange vital ideas and information necessary for social survival. If completely successful in this process, cultural imperialism re-fashions the society in its entirety, including the political institutions, the means and mode of economic production, and the thought process of the subordinated population to suit the needs and desires not of the people therein, but rather those of the foreign entity. Dialectically speaking, cultural imperialism stands in direct con¬ tradiction to "authentic cultural action." In the latter case, each country or group is free to determine what path its future will take based upon certain historical milestones, economic and political arrange¬ ments and the values inherent in each. The future is approached in¬ dependent of imposition of manipulation by external forces. Viewed from an Afro-centric perspective, authentic cultural action would arise from a synthesis of the normative assumptions relating to the history, present problems and future goals of African people both on the continent of Africa and in the diaspora. Such actions would take full consideration of the integral relationship between the objective conditions of each group in determing the appropriateness of blue-prints for progress. It would deem such measures as valid or reliable only to the extent that they are based upon the perceived needs of an historically oppressed and exploited people. As such, these actions would serve as mechanisms or steps toward genuine practical and conscious liberation. -51-
This view of the role of culture closely corresponds with that of the late revolutionary theoretician, Amilcar Cabral. Cabral reasons that culture is the "life" of society":
...the conscious result of the economic and political activities of that society, the...dynamic expression of the kinds of relation¬ ships which prevail...(and) the positive and negative influence which exerts (itself) on the evolution of relationship within a society, as well as among different societies...Like history, or because of history, culture has its material base^in the level of the productive forces and the mode of production.
As distinct from the chronicling of history which allows a people to
understand the nature and extent of the imbalances and conflicts(eco-
nomic, political and psycho-social) which characterize the evolution of
a society, Cabral argues that:
...culture allows us to know the dynamic syntheses which have been developed and established by social conscience to resolve these conflicts at each stage of its evolution, in the search for survi¬ val and progress. ...in culture there lies the capacity (or the responsibility) for forming and fertilizing the seeding which will assure the continuity of history...Thus it is understood that im¬ perialist domination, by denying the historical development of dominated people, necessarily also denies their cultural develop¬ ment. (This is) why imperialist domination, like all other foreign domination, for its own security, requires direct liquidation i^f the essential elements of the culture of the dominated people.
Nonetheless, Cabral warns us of the pitfalls of viewing authentic cul¬
tural syntheses and solutions as a perfect, finished whole. He proposes
instead that we view the cultural process as an expanding and developing phenomenon which proceeds in an "uneven fashion" through several phases
of evolution. In this light, we might more readily prepare a defense
6Amilcar Cabral, "National Liberation and Culture," in Return to the Source: Selected Speeches of Amilcar Cabral. Edited by African Information Service. (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1973), pp. 41-42
7Ibid., p. 42. -52- against the regressive nature of various types, of internally generated cultural resolutions and also against external efforts to repress or
O alienate the cultural life of society from the people themselves. What role then, one might ask, does information and the communica¬ tion of such information through various media play in the process of cultural imperialism? One way to view the question is to define in¬ formation as the basis of all authentic cultural activity. At a funda¬ mental level, information or raw data is the basis of all that we know or believe to be true. Hence, faulty, inaccurate or distorted inform¬ ation must be seen as a key determinant in whether a particular culture develops along authentic lines or stagnates in a state of total wretched¬ ness. THE PSYCHO-SOCIAL DIMENSION At the "psycho-social" level of cultural imperialism the concern over whether information is accurate or distorted raises the crucial epistemological question: "How one comes to know the truth of reality within the context of an oppressive environment?" As Mao Tse Tung has suggested in his valuable discussion, "On Practice," the acquisition of knowledge is an evolving and dynamic process that requires the smooth 9 transition through a series of progressive stages.
8Ibid., pp. 50-51. 9 Mao Tse Tung, "On Practice: On the Relation Between Knowing and Doing, " in Selected Readings From the Works of Mao Tse Tung, edited by the Editorial Committee for Selected Reading, Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1971), pp. 65-84. -53-
The first of these stages is that of cognitive or sensual perception of direct and indirect experiences followed by the application of reason or meaning to this sensed reality through concept formation. This stage is followed by the development of symbolic or descriptive language codes through which this meaning can be transmitted to others.
Most important, however, is the practical application or test of ration¬ ally ordered concepts in an effort to understand and/or change a partic¬ ular aspect of the natural or social environment. Success or failure in
"practice," or in the applications of this perceived knowledge will usu¬ ally determine the truth or falsity of that knowledge as it applies to a particular situation.
If, however, within the context of cultural imperialism the ini¬ tial perceptions of data, information, facts or experiences are them¬ selves the subject of distortion by a foreign, hostile, dominating entity (thus creating an "illusion" reality), then it seems only logical that the more advanced stages of reasoning and the practical application of the perceived knowledge of the subordinated individual or group will be hardpressed in its search for the truth. Thus, the nature of in¬ formation and its impact at the psycho-social level of cultural imperial¬ ism basically reflects the intensity and extent of oppression within a
"dominant-subordinate" relationships. In such relations, Mack H. Jones has argued:
...adversary people will never share a common reduction of pure fact to described fact. Their anticipation and control needs are different and most often competitive, ...consequently the dimensions which they abstract from sense data, subsume under con¬ ceptual definitions, link into propositions, and ultimately be¬ come the hasis for relevant explanations, differ consistently -54- therewith. 10
Depending upon the success or duration of cultural imperialist penetration, two differing responses seem most likely to manifest themselves. Both of these responses might be more readily understood as resulting from a psychological process commonly referred to as "cogni¬ tive dissonance": a state of mental discomfort or confusion that arises from an imbalance or contradiction between actions taken to manipulate one's environment and the results achieved. 11 On a positive note, the struggle to resolve this contradiction can often elicit a sense of urgency, and itself becomes a motivating force that stimulates a motion toward a more critical re-examination of one's initial perception of reality and actions taken based upon this perception. Paulo Freire has categorized this response as " naive transitivity',' the ability of the oppressed or subordinated group to perceive the source of his/her ambiguous existence within the objective conditions of society in general. 12 At this level of consciousness Freire suggests that the ability to distinguish distorted conceptions of reality from what had before elicited mental confusion implies the oppressed applying a degree of "critical" awareness to an understanding of their existence. The term
"naivity" is employed, however, because such awarness still precludes actual steps or actions taken to alter oppressive conditions:
10 Mack H. Jones, "The Epistemological Vacuum in Black Critiques of Contemporary Science." A paper prepared for delivery to the Conference on the African Mind in the New World. November 18-20, 1976, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, p. 6.
11 Elton B. McNeil, The Psychology of Being Human (San Francisco, CA: Canfield Press, 1974), pp. 384-387.
12 Paulo Freire, Education for Critical Consciousness (New York: The Seabury Press, 1973), p. 18. -55- Although men's horizons have expanded and respond more openly to stimuli...consciousness is still fragil and capable of distortion. If this consciousness does not progress to the stage of "critical transivity," it may be deflected by sectarian irrationality into fanaticism.
Freire characterizes the "critically transitive consciousness" as pos¬ sessing, among other qualities:
...depth in the interpretation of problems;...by the testing of one's "findings" and by openness to revision; by the attempt to avoid distortion when perceiving problems and avoid preconceived notions when analyzing them;...by the practice of dialogue rather than polemics; ...It will not appear as a natural byproduct of even major economic changes, but must grow out of a critical ed¬ ucational effort based on favorable historical conditions...an active, dialogical educational program concerned with social and political responsibility.
If, on the other hand, one is incapable of resolving the con¬ tradictions of cognitive dissonance and continues to experience a
series of incumbent failures, an alternative tendency is for this dis¬ comforting state to drift uncritically into resignation; to begin to
attribute what appears to be an insurmountable task to the whims of
fate; to define the roots of the problems an internal defect in oneself
and the resolution of the problem to factors above and beyond objectives
reality. This tendency Freire refers to as "fanaticized" or semi-intran-
sitive consciousness. 15 The only information or data which the dominated
consciousness grasps at this level are those that lies within the im¬
mediate orbit of its objective conditon or lived experience. At this
level of quasi-immersion, the oppressed lack what Freire terms
"structural perception" of facts, information and problematic situations.
13 Ibid.
14Ibid., pp. 18-19.
15Ibid., p. 19. -56-
Hence, the action-orientation becomes less that of transforming reality, but more towards defensive or therapeutic and magical solutions.
Even if we were to discount the impact of distorted information used to make political and economic decisions and focus on the impact of general information transmitted to the oppressed by the Euro-American communication media, the psychosocial ramifications are tragic. Perhaps the greatest tragedy of modern man, Freire argues:
...is his domination by the force of ...myths and his manipulation by organized advertising, ideological or otherwise. Gradually, without even realizing the loss, he relinquishes his capacity for choice, he is expelled from the orbit of decisions. Ordinary men do not perceive the tasks of the time, the latter are interpreted by an "elite" and presented in the form of recipes, of pre¬ scriptions. And when men try to save themselves by following the prescriptions, they drown in leveling anonymity, without hope and without faith, domesticated and adjusted.
In the final analysis, psycho-social domination within the cultural imperialist context smacks of a process Bobby E. Wright has termed
"mentacide": the deliberate and systematic destruction of an in¬ dividual's or group's mind and in the process the elimination of chance behavior.17 One essential condition for the process of mentacide to be effective, however, is the control of the opposing group's institutions or the power to significantly influence their nature and direction.
Institutions, in this sense, have very little to do with buildings or anything concrete, but rather with methods and ideas which sustain a soc¬ ial fabric or continue a way of life. They are the material basis and
16Ibid., p. 6. 17 Bobby E. Wright, A Psychological Theory of Educating the Black Child (Chicago, Illinois: Third World Press, 1976), p. 1. -57- symbolic reflection of authentic cultural action that in any adversary
relationship comes under constant attack.
THE POLITICAL DIMENSION
Thus the "political" dimension of cultural imperialism speaks to
the process by which the dominant group's communication and information
values are authoritatively mobilized and allocated within the institu-
tional arrangements of the subordinated group. 18 One such value that
dictates this relationship is that "no barriers should prevent the 'free
flow' of information among nations." Freedom, however, is a relative
value in itself. Within the context of cultural imperialism it is al¬
ways best to question the extent to which freedom to both transmit and
receive accurate information exists, if at all. The freedom to communi¬
cate and receive information appears to have meaning only if it includes
the freedom to independently erect and control the mechanism through
which new information will be received. For the oppressed populace of the
world today, such degrees of freedoms do not uniformly exist. Few, if
any, of the institutions through which vital information flows are free,
politically speaking, from the authoritatively mobilized and allocated
biases of advanced capitalist societies. In his classic work entitled
Culture Against Man, Jules Henry elaborates on the nature of the
authoritiatively mobilized culture. Henry suggests that:
18 Cf. Peter Bachrach and Morton S. Barantz, "Two Faces of Power" in Thomas R. Dye and Brett W. Hawkins (eds.) Politics in the Metropolis, 2nd ed. (Columbus, Ohio: Charles E. Merrill Publishers Co., 1971), pp. 423-433. -58- ...All great cultures, and those moving in the direction of greatness, have an elite which might be called the "cultural maximizers" whose function is to maintain or push further the culture's greatness and penetration...this function is never to alter the culture radically. He may help to give more intense expression to features that already exist, but he never wants to bring about a fundamental change. Thus, those who have the capacity to maximize culture in this sense are among the elite in all highly developed civilizations...the power from which emanates the new technical ideas and industrial products so necessary to the continuation of ...culture.
Perhaps the most common of phrases employed by the cultural maximizers is that of "free expansion." As Henry contends, what is of interest to them, or better yet, what drives them is the necessity to expand, but not in search of new ideas that will facilitate change. To the contrary, these maximizers have in mind the permanence of their culture, which is defined in terms of limitless growth. Hence, the notion of freedom becomes a rather perverted illusion for those who un¬ knowingly seek it.
In the area of communication this perversion takes a variety of distorted forms. Claus Mueller has identified three: directed, arrested and constrained. 20 For Mueller:
Directed communication results from governmental policy designed to consciously structure language and communication to maximize efficiency in policy objectives. Arrested communication is re¬ ferred to as the limited capacity of individuals and groups to engage in political communication because of their linguistic env vironment (a result of their restricted speech codes) and not be¬ cause of any apparent political intervention.
19 Jules Henry, Culture Against Man (New York: Vintage Books, 1965) i P* 31.
^Claus Mueller, The Politics of Communication: A. Study in the Political Sociology of Language, Socialization and Legitimation (New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 1973), pp. 19-24. -59- (Most importantly) Constrained communication denotes successful attempts by both private and governmental groups to structure and limit public participation in the communication process in order that dominant interests prevail. The intentional and un¬ intentional constraints they elicit preclude the articulation of popular demands as well as facilitating an unobstructed discussion of specific issues. Moreover, those subject to distorted ccmmLnica- tion may not even be able to.recognize the form and consequence of this type of communication. If the distortion of communication is effective, demands which threaten the stability of the system find very little, if any, room for articu¬ lation. Thus, within advanced capitalist societies the stability of the political system cannot always be attributed to indirect and direct manipulation and exploitation of the working populace. Rather, stability seems to be linked in many instances to the distortion of in¬ formation very often expressed in class-specified codes that control the general public's ability to understand and thus participate in political communication. Mention needs also to be made of the role of socializing agents and institutions in this process (such as schools, churches, the family and media) that fail to provide individuals with the tools necessary for adopting an active and critical view of the political system. By facilitating restricted language codes (from which arrested communication derives), these socializing agents foster a view of the political universe as not only static, but one which must be obeyed in an uncritical and apathetic manner. This view is prevalent not only among the mass populace, but additionally within the petty bourgeois and in- tellegentsia sectors that have the ability to manipulate information and redirect the consciousness of the people.
21 Ibid., p. 19. -60- All this helps in creating the atmosphere of legitimacy so necessary to any system of domination and remains effective only to the extent that the perverted principle of freedom has been internalized, collectively accepted as normative and thus has become a binding force in society.
It is in this light that we view the concept of "free flow of in¬ formation" as primarily an evolving philosophical justification that grants legitimacy to the impact of cultural imperialism. This philoso¬ phy has emerged to rationalize a world system of communication in which the terms and character of the production of information are determined by those bent on controlling international markets. A largely one- directional flow of information represents the constraints and the reality of power. So too, does the promotion of restricted language codes (European) and economic relations (capitalism). The effectiveness of this process can be seen in the example of communication relations between the advanced industrial societies of the West and the so-called
Third World.
Thus, in the political sphere, that is with respect to the author- iative mobilization and allocation of information, the imbalance takes many forms. Mustapha Masmoudi, Tunisia's Secretary of State for In¬ formation and the First President of the Intergovernmental Coordinating
Council for Information of the Non-Aligned Countries, has listed several of these forms. They include: 1. A flagrant quantitative imbalance between the volume of news and information emanating from the developed and the intended for the developing countries and the volume of the flow in the opposite direction. Almost 80% of the world information flow emanates from the major transnational agencies, which devote only 20 to 30% of their news coverage to the developing world. -61-
This results in a veritable de facto monopoly.
2. An inequality in information resources wherein five major transnational agencies monopolize between them the essential share of material and human potential, while almost a third of the developing countries do not yet possess a single national agency. 3. A de facto hegemony and a will to dominate evident in the marked indifference to the problems, concerns, and aspirations of the developing countries. This hegemony is founded on financial, industrial and technological power and results in most of the developing countries being relegated to the status of mere consumers of information sold as a commodity. By transmitting to the developing countries only news processed by transnational media consortia, that is, news which they have filtered out and distorted, they impose their own way of seeing the world, often presenting only the most unfavor¬ able, stressing crises and holding them up for public ridicule.
A. The survival of the colonial era in the present-day informa- system enshrines past forms of political domination by high¬ lighting events whose significance is isolated, limited, or even non-existent to all but those with vested interest in the international system. Information is distorted by re¬ ference to moral or political values peculiar to certain states through the use of labels and persuasive epithets and definitions, chosen consciously or unconsciously with in¬ tention of denigrating the values and concerns of other nations.
5. Finally, there is an alienating influence in the political, economic and psycho-social spheres resulting from developed countries having hegemony over the communication institutions of the Third World through direct investment. This is accompanied by the nearmonopoly on world-wide advertising by major Western advertising agencies, which operate like the media transnationals and earn their income by servicing the interests of transnational industrial and financial corporat¬ ions. Further domination is found in the influence these mechanisms exert in opposing social evolution in the devel¬ oping world by propagating information, news and values de¬ trimental or?contrary to a client country's development aims and efforts.
22 Mustopha Masmoudi, "The New World Information Order," Journal of CormnLnication, Volure 29, No. 2 (Spring 1979): 172-175. -62- THE ECONOMIC DIMENSION
What, then, are the "economic" dimensions of cultural imperialism?
What is the material basis of the process of Western domination over
the international flow of information? To address the economic dimen¬
sions of cultural imperialism is to reflect upon the historic inability
of the oppressed to control the economic means and mechanisms needed to
challenge the hegemony of the imperialist expansion of multinational
corporations and banks. More and more of the power of these MNCs has come to rest upon their capacities to marshal information and knowledge,
as well as their traditional role in directing the productive and
financial activities of penetrated areas. In either case the oppressed
find themselves at a strategic disadvantage.
At the micro-level, the theory of the firm itself and its in¬
ternational economic involvement is dependent on a range of assumptions
regarding its effectiveness in the generation, management and use of productive knowledge. If one traces the principle means of production and the elements of power of major MNC's, key recognition must be awarded to the availability and acquisition of quality information on the location and exploitation of cheap human and natural resources and raw materials over long periods of history. The structure of the modern MNC has become in fact—"in¬ formation dependent"; that is, the MNC's appropriability of information being perhaps as important as its research and development capacity, and the control it allows one to exercise over markets and technological innovations once products from such resources are acquired. Micro-level interpretations of the activities of transnational corporations are based on two key propositions: -63- a) ...in circumstances of great complexity and uncertainty there may be limits to individuals' or firms' capacity to receive, store, retrieve and process information to one another effectively; in such circumstances " internalization" of what would otherwise be (public) transactions may be the most effective means of organizing activity, and
b) ...where there may be reason to doubt the...completenesss of information being supplied by (public media) sources,...it may be necessary to "internalize" one's information sources to prevent what has been termed "opportunism" (i.e., and effort to realize individual gains through lack of ...honesty in transactions). Which ever path is chosen the crucial point is that in both cases in¬ formation is not "free and flowing," but rather is seen as a "product" which, like any other, can be acquired at a cost—either by making it oneself or by acquiring it from another.
S.P. Magee has indentified at least five crucial areas of MNC in- 24 vestment in information key to their success and/or survival. In¬ formation is required for product creation, development, production functions, the creation of markets and appropriability. Magee contends that MNCs are "specialist" in the production of information that is less efficient to transmit through markets than within firms. They produce sophisticated technologies not because of their social good, but because appropriability (or the profit margin and returns) is higher for sophisticated as opposed to simpler technologies. The large proportion of skilled labor employed by MNCs is an outgrowth of the skilled labor
23 Rita Cruise O'Brien, and G.K. Helleiner, "The Political Economy of Information in a Changing International Economic Order," International Organization, Volume 34, No. 4 (Autumn 1980): 445-470.
24Stephen P. Magee, " Information and the Multinational Corporation An Appropriability Theory of Direct Foreign Investment," in J.N. Bhagwati, ed., The New International Economic Order: The North South Debate (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1976). pp. 322-326. -64- intensity of the production process for both the creation of information and appropriability of the returns from information. The relative ab¬ undance of skilled labor in advanced capitalist societies dictates that they naturally have a comparative advantage in both creating and export¬ ing new information.
To ensure this comparative advantage MNCs also find it vitally im¬ portant to invest in information to determine the probability of the leakage of new ideas, the reduction of revenues if valuable information is loss to potential competitors, the cost of legal (patents, tariffs, etc.) and extra-legal (trade secrets, distortions of information) remedies to prevent leakage and the cost of punishing interlopers. 25
Computer firms,for example, invest millions of dollars simply to camou¬ flage the techniques used in new models to prevent copying by rival firms through the creation of artificial and sophisticated masking devices and artifical product differentiation. °
A monopolist, however, has virtually no appropriability problem unless there are "potential'- entrants who can enter their field and em¬ ulate innovations made by the monopolist. Perhaps the least of the worries of MNCs is that such "potential" entrants will come from the
Third World nation^. What is known or can be readily found out by MNCs in the industrialized centers of the world about resources, climatic con-
25Ibid., p. 326.
26Ibid., P- 327. -65- ditions, technological innovations, market conditions, that is, all in¬ formation needed to make investments far exceeds such knowledge in the developing countries. This fact gives both public and private interest in the capitalist world a considerable advantage in their capacity to profit from world market participation and to bargain for key needs in¬ ternationally. The developing world's informational difficulties derive also from the absence of relevant expertise at either the national or in¬ tergovernmental level which can serve their interests on a continuing basis.
Information "access" among the dependent populace was considered largely irrelevant by the colonial masters. But decolonization, nationalization and other more radical steps toward social transformation changed the environment of information needs and access from the Third
World perspective. When these nations began to pursue economic policies based on perceived self-interest,their lack of accurate information and expertise (itself a legacy of the success of colonial "schooling") led them blindly into various forms of bilateral and multilateral "debt traps." Thus poor access to and control of information can be linked to the vulnerability of Third World leaders in negotiating what was in¬ herently stagnating dependency relationships that took the form of
"tied aid" and "unequal exchange" in international resources. Much of this problem can be subsumed under the adoption by newly independent nations of Euro-American economic "modernization" schemes without applying critical scrutiny to the applicability of such
27 Ibid., -66- models. The underlying assumption of these models contended that global information and communication systems and the free flow of information within such systems would, in and of themselves, promote the economic growth and development of the Third World. In this scenario, the only problem seen as facing newly independent but underdeveloped nations was that of rapid acquisition of the appropriate technology (through Western aid and trade packages) for information transferral and exchange. The contemporary extension of this debate suggests that the under¬ developed nations are not to be denied the new technology (provided they accept the "Western" theory of freedom of information). Rather, the new technology should be pressed on the poor countries in an atmosphere of urgency. It is reasonable to believe that the intent here is to secure the implantation of Western information and communication models of production, administration, control. In essence, the advanced in¬ dustrial nations provide the technology, capital, skilled expertise and consumption patterns for the underdeveloped world, establishing in¬ formation production ' facilities designed to service the markets of the West. The new international communication and information order falls neatly into this context in that increased linkages, broadened flows of MNC-generated ideas, information and data, and above all, installation of new technology correspond exactly with the far-reaching industrial and technological shifts occuring within advanced capitalist societies. A small but increasingly powerful group of governmental and corporate descision-makers are now fostering the belief that an ideal way of re¬ lating to the future world economy is to garner the export market on ideas and knowlege based on sophisticated information tools. -67- Publications, news broadcasts, business information, computer software packages, etc., can all be sold abroad for export revenue while the knowledge and domestic resources remain under monopolistic control: that is, one can sell such information over and over again and still have it —the "perfect commodity." The spokesmen for these powerbrokers are urging an acceleration of the transformation of the U.S. domestic economy, eliminating as quickly as possible older, less profitable labor-intensive industries such as the automotive and steel. Their vision encompasses a massively reorganized division of labor worldwide in which the U.S. would provide the lead in vital information and communication control. To be sure, this approach necessitaties difficult decisions which these spokesmen are prepared to recommend. If the U.S. does bargain on an "information age" society, it will have to be prepared to make trade concessions in other areas where U.S. technological advantage is smaller and its labor cost greater. The expected results are a loss of jobs in the older domestic industries in exchange for guarantees that the growing communication and information industry will continue to expand. CONCLUSIONS In summary, we are suggesting that the new information industries, the changing sites of industrial production and the sophisticated in¬ strumentation that permit high volume, instantaneous international com¬ munication are imposing new mechanisms of cultural imperialism on much of the world. This new global order does not arise out of the desire to overcome the effects of an historical legacy of underdevelopment and dependency. The current vision springs from the beneficiaries of domi¬ nation and their intent on perpetuating it. As we have suggested, the -68- concentrated control, manipulation and distortion of information has created enormous obstacles for those seeking self-determination psycho- socially, politically, and economically. The success of Euro-American dominance over the information flow within and between key institutions of the underdeveloped world must be linked in part to the ideological submission of a psuedo-ruling elite sector of the Third World. Generally speaking, this sector emerged from the "society-saturated" training institutes of the colonial masters to fill vacancies in politicial apparati of the state during decolonization. Their submissive stance with respect to cultural dignity allowed the pattern of information flow that governed colonial relations to continue uninhibited. The eclipsed era of classical colonialism sought to mold and shape the political institutions along "neo-colonial" lines. This ruling stratum had been politicized,, pressured, forced, and very often bribed with material luxuries into shaping the institutional framework to correspond to or promote the values of the dominating foreign entity. The largely one-directional flow of information from the West to periphery nations for the most part went unchallenged at the domestic and international level. The utilization of communication media and related interdisciplinary fields was geared toward fastening the grip on the minds of the oppressed audiences, enabling the foreign policies of the former colonial masters and the U.S. to continue their objectives in the exploited regions. In this process the ruling elite moved from gradual submissiveness to open-armed allegiance with respect to the dicatates of the imperialist network of communication and information control. -69- In this light, Western communication apparati offered the solution to the problems of the Third World through the mechanisms of negotiation, voting, etc., or in one's potential ability to consume material amenities that only Western markets could provide. The anxiety or cognitive dis¬ sonance resulting from the limits placed on one's actions in this op¬ pressive environment was resolved by the psychic attachment to the sensationalized world news, dramatized serials, and movies which tended to act out the struggle between the dominant or "good," "white" and "strong" over the subordinated "bad," "black" and "weak." As the minds and institutional arrangements of the ruling elite sunk further into a submissive stance, there actions and policies, or lack thereof, naturally began to sanction the mechanism of domination. This ruling elite, finding itself in the tenuous position of having to compromise the authenticity of indigenous cultural action and thus the future devel¬ opment of the nation, found an increasing need to sanction the mystifi¬ cation and/or physical oppression of the masses in order to maintain the legitimacy of the state and thus savoring its cherished position. In fact this elite welcomed a Western media-made reality as a pacifier of popular consciousness and for the fringe benefits of material well-being that came with the packages. Any effort to thwart this process was defined in terms of "author¬ itarianism" or "totalitarianism." In this sense such efforts were viewed as Soviet or Communist-inspired and thus subject to a more forceful line of attack by the Western imperialist states. -70-
Nt> public mention was made that the socialist perspective emphasized that the communication media should be used in conformity with the in¬ terest of the working people, and that freedom to communicate should be assessed dialectically within the context of "freedom to express the truth." It was this latter emphasis on "truth" that prompted Western extremists (and particularly the U.S.) to circumvent its theory of the "free flow" of information. The official line became that all points of view should be heard, with the assumption that the "best" ideas will finally prevail. Whether the "best" ideas were in the interest of the majority was not a qualifying criterion. If the things communicated or said were of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger to the objectives of democracy, however, they could be censored. With the passage of time and historical distance from the initial formulation of the Western conception of "free flow" of information, it can safely be said that such a conception is illusory and mythical in its essence. Where the flow does move Freely within the Western scenario is in the privately organized circuits between corporate and state affili¬ ates in the imperialist international sphere. Selectors and controllers continue, as they always have, to sift, and shape the messages and in¬ formation that will circulate throughout societies around the world. A conceptual lens that fails to take the above-mentioned dimensions of cultural imperialism into account will also fail to grasp the serious¬ ness of the problem at hand. -71-
If not placed in the proper perspective, the technical jargon that has arisen to cloud these issues (i.e., terms such as "remote sensing satellites," transborder data flow," "informatics," etc.) and the follow¬ ing detailed discussions of historical and current trends will make little, if any, sense. What remains, then, is do just that: to apply this framework of cultural imperialism to the issues and recast the en¬ tire debate from a Third World perspective. CHAPTER IV
UNESCO AND THE UNITED STATES: THE EARLY YEARS
INTRODUCTION
On December 30, 1983 the United States formally announced that it intended to withdraw from the United Nations Education, Scientific and
Cultural Organization in one year's time. For many observers the announcement came as a shock and signaled the death knell of the U.N. special agency. Although other advanced Western nations had supported many of the conservative reforms sought by the Reagan Administration at UNESCO, none had indicated an intent to leave the organization.
Both France and West Germany, for example, have tried to dissuade the
U.S. from withdrawing. Moreover, Ambassador Jean Ping, the Gabonese
Chairman of the African States at UNESCO , issued a signed plea on be¬ half of the fifty African member-nations requesting the U.S. to re¬ consider its decision because the withdrawal would "...undermine the 2 agency's future programmes."
1 Walter Pincus, "U.S. Keeps Door Open to Stay in UNESCO," The Washington Post, December 30, 1983, P. A-12.
2"Africans Hit UNESCO Pullout: U.S. Move Seen Undermining Agency," The Washington Post, December 31, 1983, p. A-15.
-72- -73- Despite these and other ardent appeals, the U.S. contends that "...there is no conceivable way that UNESCO could change its policies, its direction, or it practices, such that we would be enticed to re¬ main.""5 Numerous reasons were cited to rationalize U.S. policy on this matter. At a State Department news briefing Gregory J. Newell, Assistant Secretary for International Organization, expounded upon UNESCO's con¬ tinuing "politicalization" of virtually every subject it dealt with; the organization's exhibition of blatant hostility towards the basic in¬ stitutions of a free society, especially a free market and a free press; 4 and its demonstration of unrestrained budgetary expansion. Newell went on to suggest that the Reagan Administration would reconsider with¬ drawal if evidence of permanent change were seen on several substantive issues. Among those cited were the following: ...that UNESCO (should) drop discussion of "disarmament issues" which were Soviet-inspired...$726,000 for programs pursuing "maintenance of peace and international understanding"...could be better spent on education of refugees...... UNESCO should return to the traditional approach to human rights and drop such things as "collective rights" and other ap¬ proaches that reflect an emphasis on government control over the individual rather than the traditional American view of individual' rights...
^Pincus, p. A-12. AU.S. Department of State, "U.S. Statement on UNESCO," Text of the Intention of the U.S. to withdraw from UNESCO, Washington, D.C., December 29, 1983, The New York Times, December 30, 1983, p. A-4. -74- ...the agency would have to move away from the "new economic order" in its studies and approach that have been extremely critical of capitalistic, free-market economy...... UNESCO would have to curb its budget, and halt its financial growth...... UNESCO would have to back away from the controversial "new world information and communication order"... In financial terms the U.S. withdrawal would cost UNESCO nearly $200 million. The U.S. has traditionally contributed one-fourth of the agency's annual regular budget; thus without these funds, contends Newell, "...the agency will be forced to priority-setting."5 6(Cf.Appendix C) What factors have brought on what West German opposition leader Uwe Holtz has characterized as an "arrogant" attitude by the U.S. at UNESCO?7 8 Is the U.S.'s proposed withdrawal merely the "...attitude of an infantile tantrum," as suggested by Lusi Ramallo, president of
C LNESCO's Spanish committee? "Infantile" and "arrogant" may be appro¬ priate adjectives to summarize the current efforts of the U.S. to manipulate the 162 member-countries of UNESCO. These efforts, however, should be viewed along an historical continuum rich in contradictions
5Pincus, p. A-12. 6Ibid. Also see Appendix for the Constitution and Organizational Structure of UNESCO's Secretariat and Budget figures for 1984-85. 7"Africans Hit UNESCO Pullout," p. A-15. 8Ibid. -75- that plagued U.S. policy toward UNESCO both in theory and practice.
The most recent display of the contradictory stance of the
United States and perhaps one of the underlying reasons for the proposed withdrawal was the controversary over the denial to its own media of the freedom of access to news and vital information. The cloud of confusion and mystery over the U.S. invasion of Granada still hangs low, but clearly exhibits the schizophrenic posture of the U.S. international in¬ formation and communication policy. After thirty-eight years of failure in the efforts of UNESCO to achieve some semblance of parity in the un¬ inhibited flow of information across geo-political boundaries, the
Reagan Administration's invasion of Grenada saw the U.S. ironically defending key features of UNESCO's position on the NWICO; ie., that:
...transnational media impose their own way of seeing the world upon the developing countries...often present(ing) these com¬ munities .. .in the most unfavorable light, stressing crises, strikes, etc...
...that journalist regard themselves as utterly detached from, and perhaps even hostile to the host government...no social group should have the prerogative of not being held accountable to the community to which it belongs...
(and)...that journalists care little about accuracy, reporting events from a bias that distorts the truth...(Thus) the right of correction should be reinforced by calling to account the in¬ dividual or legal entity guilty of violating the principles of professional^deontology or of propagating false or biased in¬ formation. ..
9 Cf. Mustopha Masmoudi, "The New World Information Order," Journal of Communciation, Volume 29, No. 2 (Spring 1979), pp. 172-198. -76-
As such, the American press's freedom and the public's "right to know" became inconsequential in view of the larger U.S. "national interest"
of subduing Grenada by any means necessary. One of the most astounding
things about the Grenada situation was the quick, facile assumption by
key officials of the Reagan Cabinet that the press wanted to get to
Grenada, not to witness the invasion on behalf of the American public,
but to sabotage the operation.
This paranoia on the part of the Reagan Administration has been
reflected in other domestic arenas and efforts to control the flow of
information thereby defining the nature and limits of public debate on
crucial issues. At various times, Reagan has proposed strict rules pro¬
hibiting contact between Administration officials and reporters; has
used the FBI to crack down on embarassing news leaks; and has moved to
reduce the scope of freedom of the Information Act by imposing a lifetime
government censorship on tens of thousands of officials who have had 10 access to classified information.
Thus, when the U.S. military decided to excluded the press from
Grenada, the White House was more than receptive. If one were to seek
a valid precedent for the exclusion, one might examine the British
rationale for government restriction, but not outright ban, of the press
10 William A. Henry, III, "Journalism Under Fire," Time, December 12, 1983, pp. 76-93. -77- during the Falkland Islands War. 11 In the Grenada incident, however, secrecy was not the problem. The American press, in general, has al¬ ways been willing to respect agreed-upon security strictures. More of a problem was the need for total censorship of any information about an invasion that violated nearly every international law for the peace-
ful settlement of disputes currently on record. 12 When the smoke had cleared and Grenada had been reduced to an appendage of the American empire, the U.S. in the process had lost the ideological club it had
used to batter progressive UNESCO resolutions and declarations into
submission. Rather than being forced to provide a public relationale
for the posture taken against its own media, attention has been con¬
veniently shifted to proposed U.S. withdrawal from UNESCO and the
question of the likelihood of the agency being able to survive at all.
11 Michael Kernan, "Picturing the Invasion: The Network Struggle to Get to Grenada," The Washington Post, October 26, 1983, p. B-1. Kernan quotes from a letter sent by Edward M. Joyce, President of CBS News, to Defense Secretary Casper Weinberger, protesting the refusal to allow news crews to land on the island, with or without military pro¬ tection and protesting the attitude of the Public Affairs office as in¬ dicated in the statements to CBS correspondents by Bill Lynch that "...we learned a lesson from the British in the Falklands." Joyce noted that: "...To use the censorship by the British as an example to be followed by the United States in this military operation is baffling to me and deeply disturbing because it refutes the principles of the First Amendment..." ABC also sent a protest.
12 The United Nations and Organization of American States Charters both forbid such a violation of a nation's territory. When Secretary of State George Schultz was asked about this violation, he cited the two-year old treaty that formed the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States as justification for military invasion. But that treaty, to which the U.S. is not even a signatory stipulates that "collective" military action can be taken against "external" aggression, and then only by a unanimous vote of the eight member states. Only five members voted to take action against Grenada. -78- With the above in mind it might now be appropriate to reflect back upon the root cause of the current crisis by tracing the origins and evolution of U.S. foreign policy toward UNESCO from its inception in
1946. This will entail a preliminary analysis of pre-World War II goals and objectives of U.S. policy makers, particularly the challenge made to lessen British dominance in international communication and to insure the "free flow of information" would indeed be the cornerstone of
UNESCO's philosophical bent. From here we shall move on to examine the development of the debate over contending views the "free flow" concept within UNESCO and early efforts geared toward its achievement, and con¬ clude with an analysis of major tenets of the quest for a "new world in¬ formation and communication order" that has resulted in a crisis of U.S. ideological hegemony within the organization.
PRE-UNESCO GOALS AND OBJECTIVES OF U.S. COMMUNICATION POLICY
In the first decades of the twentieth century, important sectors of
U.S. domestic political economy became increasingly impatient with being excluded from vast resources preempted by the still forceful British and
French colonial empires. British imperial preferences in particular had tied together a colonial network of territorial dependencies that sealed the U.S. off from possible commercial penetration. The decisive role played by Britain's world-wide communication network did not go un¬ noticed, for not only did it hold the colonial system together by pro¬ viding vital control and administrative information, but it also pro¬ moted the advantages of colonialism in terms of market and investment in¬ formation, insulating British imperial forces from external assault. -79- For many observers, therefore, the real power and hegemony of the
British, despite a great navy and seapower, was the spread of communi¬ cation facilities that provided the colonial administration with the in¬ formation necessary to maintain control. The relationship between
British naval power and communication, however, was more reciprocal than antagonistic or competitive. To maintain their navy, for example, the
British established coaling stations at strategic points everywhere on the globe. From Gilbraltar to Malta, from the Suez to the West Indies, the British controlled access to or exits from narrows and straits with each serving as a naval coaling station. These stops also tended to be excellent places for communication cables to land, especially in the early days when a single cable could not be stretched too far. Control¬ ling international sea lanes and communication lines, Britain was naturally in a position to control international commerce because com¬ merce had to follow communications. Britain thereby dominated the world economy in the last half of the nineteenth century and the first quarter of the twentieth century, until the newly developed radio telegraphy decreased the importance of cable, opening up the possibility of com¬ petition in the field of world-wide communication, and World War I left
Britain in debt to the United States. A corollary effect of this
British control was the centralization of most world communication act¬ ivity in London. Thus, most of the world's information routes were either British owned or controlled and led to or from London and from
London fanned out to cover the rest of the world. 13
1"Asher H. Ende, "International Communications: History of Inter¬ national Radio, Cable and Satellite Communications," Federal Communi¬ cations Bar Journal, Volume 28, Nos. 2-3 (1975): 147-179. -so¬
it was against this intricate web of international ties that an
American offensive was mounted. Conveniently, the attack could avail it¬ self of the virtuous language and objectives of "free flow of in¬ formation" and the need for world-wide access to news.
AT & T-owned Western Union led the American emergence by signing an agreement in 1911 with the Anglo-American Cable Company to lease its
New York to London cable connection for ninety-nine years at a fixed rate to be paid in British pounds (the American dollar was not thought to be, as of yet, a "safe" currency). This was followed by additional faci¬ lities that laid the first trans-Pacific cable from San Francisco to
China. The next phase saw the All-American Cable Company enter the field to challenge the British dominance of South America via Barbados.
The attack was mounted by starting in New Orleans and linking cable to the Panama Canal Zone, down the west coast of South America, touching every country there (i.e., Columbia, Ecuador, Peru and Chile). From there they crossed the Andes into Argentina, going up through Uruguay, and ending in Brazil. The northern part of South America could be touch¬ ed by breaking east in Colombia to cover Venezuela, Surinam and British and French Guyana.
Despite this massive outlay, the U.S. competitors to the British dominance in cable still held a subsidiary position. British cable communication's lead was soon to be eclipsed, however, not by the U.S. but rather by a new technology: Marconi's development of the radio telegraph. Initially the radio was not to compete with the well- established cable lines, but rather to complement its deficiencies in the area of marine communications, particularly for the safety of life at sea in the wake of the Titanic tragedy. With the rise of World War -81-
I, however, the need to have prompt, secure communications for the war effort spured a wave of ingenuity, inventiveness and development, particularly in America's communication activity. In the U.S., by the end of the war, a new technology had emerged. It was decided to con¬ solidate all wartime communication activities into one entity, RCA, which began not as a broadcasting network, but rather to handle tele¬ graph messages to various parts of the world.
Immediately the cutthroat competition became intense as RCA challenged the international cable system by reducing its rates below the standard cable charge. The cost of handling communications with radio was relatively insensitive, to distance, and signals could be transmitted anywhere with no increase in charge by mile. Not only was the war between radio and cable but also within the emerging American radio communication industry itself. As noted by Asher Ende:
RCA started international point-to-point radio service after World War I. Since this seemed to have a good business potential the Mackay companies—Mackay California and Mackay Delaware— followed promptly. Other companies also wanted to get into the act. For example, the Firestone people created U.S. Liberia to meet their private needs between Akron and Liberia. The shipping companies also entered the field. Tropical Radio was created by United Fruit to serve the Caribbean area and Central America, while the people who ran the Matson Cable Line across the Pacific created Globe Wireless to provide service to Hawaii and other transpacific points.
Yet despite the tremendous . surge in American communication ad¬
vancements, the U.S. still found itself second to Britain. It would take
another world war to alter the scenario. In fact it was in the midst
of World War II that U.S. policy and decision-makers began to focus on
14 Ibid., P. 156. -82- the future and articulate the blueprint for an "American Century" that would challenge not only fascism and totalitarianism, but also the lead still held by Britain in the international flow of information.
In 1943, two years before the war's end, it was clear that the
U.S. would emerge from the conflict physically unscathed and economically over-powering. Key elite sectors of American society began to define the prospects for the future in a world unshackled by colonial ties and generally accessible to the initiatives and undertakings of America's expanding corporate enterprises. It was an especially propitious time to extol the virtues of unrestricted movement of information and resources.
The depredations of Hitler's Nazi occupation had traumatized Europe and a large percentage of the world. Freedom of information and movement had become two of the most highly desirable and legitimate aspirations of occupied nations and people, thus making it relatively easy to con¬ fuse legitimate national goals with those in the interest of private businessmen.
The fact still remained, nonetheless, that Britain was far' ahead in its ability to control and shape the ideas in a rapidly shrinking world. James L. Fly, the chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications
Commission during the war, drew attention to this dominance and its relationship to international trade, noting that:
...Among the artificial restraints to the free development of com¬ merce throughout the world, none is more irksome and less just¬ ifiable than the control of communication facilities by one country with preferential services and rates to its own nationals.. . Great Britain owns the major portion of the cables of the world, and it is ^fair statement that this country dominates the world situation.
15 James Lawrence Fly, "A Free Flow ofNews Must Link the Nations," Free World, Volume 8, No. 2 (August 1944): 164-168. -83-
With the end of the war the public official most directly concerned with formulating and explaining U.S. communication policy was Assistant
Secretary of State William Benton. In a State Department broadcast in
January 1946, Benton outlined the official U.S. policy on the meaning and significance of freedom of information. The State Department,
Benton claimed:
...plans to do everything within its power along political or diplomatic lines to help break down the artificial barriers to the expansion of private American news agencies, magazines, motion pictures, and other media of communications throughout the world.. Freedom of the press—and freedom of exchange of inlj'grmation generally—is an integral part of our foreign policy.
U.S. raw material and heavy goods-production interests overseas had availed themselves of some communications talent in the pre-World
War II days to provide their local operation with a favorable image, but such expenditures were marginal at best. The post-war era, how¬ ever, was to witness the situation as reserved in its entirety. Mass media operations began to appear wherever American corporations operat¬ ed to promote the global expansion of American consumer goods sales and service. The economic aspects of the free flow of information policy were certainly no secret, though the American domestic side of the media neither dwelt on the self-serving nature of the proclaimed principle nor made the implications of the policy explicit to the public. Instead, an unbridled political campaign was organized by the big press associates and publishers with the support of industry to elevate the issue of free flow of information to the highest level of national and international principles.
16 U.S. Department of State Bulletin 4(344), February 3, 1946. -84-
Reuters (serving the British imperial network) and Havas
(serving the needs of France) still controlled the wire services and
thus the flow of news around the world. The two rising American wire
services, Associated Press (AP) and United Press International (UPI),
accepted somewhat of a back seat until the years immediately prior to
the war when they insisted on their own direct news exchanges with Japan. By the late 1940's the U.S. agencies had broken the tight grip
of Reuters in the interest, as suggested by Anthony Smith:
...of creating a more balanced flow of news in America, one not mediated by an organization which, although not controlled by the British government, appeared to impose a British ^t of prior¬ ities and values on the news of the entire globe.
The result of this campaign was to serve a handsome pair of objectives.
On the one hand, it served to rally public opinion to the support of
commercial goals of U.S. corporations seeking to expand into Western
Europe and European colonial markets (though expressed as an "ethical"
imperative), while simultaneously providing a highly effective ideo¬
logical club to not only rationalize the penetration of European con¬
trolled markets, but as well directed toward the Soviet Union and its
newly created neighboring zone of anti-capitalist states. As further
noted by Smith:
...Freedom of the press was deliberately made a branch and tenet of U.S. foreign policy. The media enterprises themselves worked to rally public opinion on the issue, a factor that became all the more important in the course of the early stages of the Cold War, when the course of free information aroused the imagination of the West in the struggle against the totalitarian world.
17 Anthony Smith, The Geopolitics of Information: How Western Culture Dominates the World (New York: Oxford University Press, 1980), p. 44. -85-
...It was in the context of the Cold War fervor that AP and UPI planned their massive expansion into all the news centers of the world. America thus energized her information economy in a mood of ideological stridency, in which she felt herself to be both victim and savior.
Thus the issue of "free flow of information" came to provide American policy managers with a powerful ideological weapon for creating a high degree of suspicion about alternative social formations that might challenge the growth and expansion of free enterprise and private property relations. The immediate goal sought simply to weaken all popular interest and support in war-torn Europe and Asia in one or another variety of socialism. It is in light of this moods that UNESCO emerges as the key arena of debate over which direction the issue would take.
THE UNITED STATES AND UNESCO: THE EARLY YEARS
One of the first occasions providing an opportunity for an in¬ ternational forum to espouse the free flow doctrine was the Inter-
American Conference on the Problems of War and Peace, convened in
Mexico City in February 1945. Latin America, long regarded as a primary
U.S. interest and sphere of influence, was a natural site for the test¬ ing of this doctrine. Predictably, the conference adopted a firm resolution on "free access to information" that was based substantially on an American-sponsored proposal. The conference recommended that
freedom of expression and free access to the truth be granted to all as
"...an essential condition to the development of an active and vigilant
18 Ibid. -86- 19 public opinion." A fundamental lesson to be drawn from the experiences of World War II was that there could be no freedom, peace or security as long as people were not assured of free access to the truth throucfi the various media of public information. The conference therefore recommended in section
4 of the resolution:
That the American Republics, having accepted the principle of free transmission for all, make every effort to the end that when a juridical order in the world is assured, there may be established the principle of free transmission and reception of information, oral and written, published in books or by press, broadcast by radio or disseminated by any other means, under proper re- „n sponsibility and without the need of previous censorship..."
The first step, therefore, was the achievement of that "juridical order."
With the Western Hemisphere having been successfully persuaded about the merits of "free flow", attention turned to the rest of the world. International peacekeeping structures were being established and and the U.S. made certain that the newly created United Nations and the special agency UNESCO would put great emphasis on the free flow question.
The first official conference for the establishment of UNESCO was con¬ vened by the United Kingdom in association with the government of France.
Invitations were sent out in accordance with the request of the Con¬ ference of San Francisco and upon the request of the Conference of Allied
Ministers of Education in order to promote aims set out in Article I,
19 Report of the United States Delegation to the Inter-American Con¬ ference on Problems of War and Peace, Mexico, February 21-March 8, 1945, U.S. Department of State Publication 2497, Conference Series 85, (Wash¬ ington, D.C., U.S. Government Printing Office, 1946), p. 21. 20 Preamble to the Recommendations, quoted by Robert R. Wilson, "In¬ ternational Law and Proposed Freedom of Information," American Journal of International Law, Volume 39 (October 1945), p. 792. -87- paragraph 3 of the Chapter of the United Nations:
To achieve international cooperation in solving international pro¬ blems of an economic, social, cultural or humanitarian character, and in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for.all without distinctions as to race, sex, language or religion...
Few, if any, of the attending nations knew of the preceeding sum¬ mits held by the American delegation and British Council on April A, 194A that resulted in the first draft constitution of the new international agency. Once the details of the organization were ironed out during this meeting, the draft immediately became a key item for detailed study with the U.S. Department of State and in both houses of Congress. On May 22,
19A5 the U.S. House of Representatives adopted the Mundt Resolution
(H. Res. 215) and on May 2A, the Fulbright-Taft Resolution (S. Res. 122) was passed, urging the participation of the U.S. government in the creation of "...an international education and cultural organization by 22 the nations of the free world."
Still, influential members of Congress were opposed to certain budgetary considerations which seemed likely to duplicate those associ¬ ated with the United Nations refugee relief program. Thus financial assistance required for education in war-stricken countries or others in the process of development was deemed out of order. At the London Con-
21 Charter of the United Nations, adopted in San Francisco, CA, June 26, 19A5. 22 George N. Shuster, UNESCO: Assessment and Promise, A Report published for the Council oi Foreign Relations (New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1963), pp. 118-119. -88-
ference in November of 1945, the U.S. delegation was instructed to ex¬ press direct opposition to any proposal that the new organization should busy itself in any direct and effective fashion with educational reconstruction, greatly displeasing many of the conference attendants. 23
Between the London Conference and the Paris Conference in November
1946, the U.S. Congress enacted another law which created the U.S.
National Commission to UNESCO. This commission was to have one hundred members: forty of whom were appointed by the Department of State (15 at large and 25 officials from federal, state, and local governments); and the remaining sixty being nominated in accordance with a series of voluntary provisions adopted to insure wide representation of private and public organizations presumably interested in the affairs of 24 UNESCO. The declared purpose of the Commission was to advise both the
Department of State and the nation as a whole on the issues and activi¬ ties of UNESCO.
Well-armed and advised by the Department of State and backed by
congressional legislation (in fact sixteen delegates to the Paris session
were State Department officials, joined by one Senator and a House of
Representatives member), the American Delegation to the Paris Conference
came well-prepared to play an important part in the formulation of the
final character and function UNESCO would take in post-war affairs. It
should therefore come as no real surprise that the first three reso¬
lutions adopted unanimously by the Conference were all drafted and sub¬
mitted by the U.S. Delegation charging the Preparatory Commission to take
23Ibid., p. 7.
2A Ibid., P- 98. -89- steps in areas of adult education, science and mass communication. The first resolution adopted immediately placed the doctrine of "free flow of information" squarely in the heart of UNESCO's agenda. The reso¬ lution suggested that:
In view of the paramount importance of the media of mass communica¬ tion such as the press, the radio...in advancing the purpose of the U.N....and the spread of knowledge and mutual understanding, and
In order to define...the most effective ways and means in which UNESCO can cooperate with all such media as mass communication in their effort to inform the peoples of the world about each other with truth and justice and understanding, and
In order to assist in establishing the greatest possible freedom of the instrument of international information from censorship, dis¬ criminatory economic practices, and other obstacles to the free movement of ideas by word and image among the peoples of the world,
...It is Resolved that the Prepartory Commission in drawing up the agenda of the first conference of UNESCO provide full opportunity for the discussion of the scope and opportunities of UNESCO in furthering the use of the media of mass communication for the epds of peace and for promoting friendly relations among nations...
This resolution was later carried over into the U.N. Conference on
Freedom of Information held between March and April 1948 in Geneva. It provided the ideal platform for the international ideological polar¬ ization the U.S. policy managers had expected of it. William Benton, a major architect of the resolution and chairman of the U.S. Delegation at
Geneva, explained the conference in terms of major ideological divisions
25 Department of State, Media of Mass Communication: The Place in UNESCO in Defense of Peace: Documents Relating to UNESCO (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1946), Publication 2457, Con¬ ference Series 80, p. 26 -90- in the world sphere. "The free," he explained, "are thus face to face with those who's ideology drives them toward the destruction of freedom.
To the extent that we can define the words and actions of key actors of any nation-state as geared primarily toward achieving what is termed their "national interest," then we might well assume that as re¬ presentatives of a capitalist society, Benton and the U.S. Delegation to
UNESCO had in mind the creation of an atmosphere that would suitably facilitate the expansion of capitalist surplus. Any notion emerging contrary to that stance would henceforth be deemed "totalitarian" and associated with communist expansionism. Thus the stage for the debate between two contending theories of flow of international information was set. It would take the next twentyfive years to expose the weaknesses of the two poles, but first the Soviet Union would have to join UNESCO..
This was not to occur until 1954 after the full parameters of the United
States' "containment" policy has been articulated.
The ideas reflected by Benton seemed to be an attempt to apply to international communication policy the well-accepted theory "X," as it came to be known (labeled so after the pen-name used by George F. Kennan 27 in his essay, "The Sources of Soviet Conduct").
26 William Benton, "Address Delivered Before the Anglo-American Press Club", Paris, France April 7, 1948, U.S. Department of State Bulletin, April 18, 1948, pp. 518-520 27 George F. Kennan, "The Sources of Soviet Conduct: By 'X'" originally printed in Foreign Affairs Volume XXIV, No. 4 (July 1974): 566-582. Reprinted in Harold K. Jacobson, ed., American Foreign Policy (New York: Random House, 1960), pp. 254-270. -91- In Kennan's view the major elements of and U.S. policy toward the
Soviet Union must be that of "...a long-term, patient, but firm and 28 vigilant containment of Russian expansive tendencies." Soviet pressure against the free institutions of the Western world could be contained by the vigilant application of counter-force at a series of shifting geographical and political points. Moreover, there was no real faith for America in the possibility of a permanent happy coexistence of the socialist and capitalist world; thus at best the U.S. must continue to regard the Soviet Union as an imminent rival in world affairs. 29
The key to success of this policy fit squarely in the context of the free flow of information agenda. In fact Kennon's analysis laid the basis for outright psychological warfare. Kennan concluded that:
...It is entirely possible for the U.S. to influence by its actions the internal developments both within Russia and through¬ out the international communist movement...This is not only a question of information activity which this government can conduct in the Soviet Union and elsewhere...It is rather a question of the degree to which the U.S. can create among the peoples of the world generally the impression of a country which knows what it wants, which is successfully coping with the problem of its internal life and with the responsibility of a world power that has spiritual vitality capable of holding its own among the major ideological currents of the time. To the extent that such an impression can be created and maintained, the aims of Russian Communism must ap¬ pear sterile and quixotic, the hopes and enthusiasm of Moscow's supporters must wane.
The immediate targets of America's free flow policy would thus be the Soviet Union, its Eastern European satellites and the war-torn
Western European nations. Yet the long-range plan called for world-wide
28 Ibid., p. 263
29 Ibid., p. 268
30 Ibid. -92- ideological hegemony in which the emerging Third World would be pre¬ pared for democracy.
Although the ideological lines had been clearly drawn for ensuing debates within UNESCO, by 1954 the U.S. National Commission was still struggling against its own internal weakness. Arguments began to sur¬ face indicating the futility of America's continued participation in the agency as early as 1954. What had been in the early years wide and enthusiatic support for the Commission subsequently turned into a wave of domestic opposition. This was motivated by a variety of factors, many of which were unrelated to facts about UNESCO or its work. It was part of a broader attack upon international organization, participation, and cooperation emanating from a few individuals and "professional" patriotic organizations led primarily by the American Legion.
As a consequence of the attacks upon UNESCO, President Eisenhower requested in 1953 a committee of three delegates to the Special Session of UNESCO's General Conference to appraise the organization and its work. The committee itemized six charges made against the organization on the basis of its inquiry and explicitly refuted each of them.
Secretary of State Dulles summarized the committee's conclusions as follows :
1) The top officers in the Secretariat, both American and non- American, who are responsible for administration and program ex¬ ecution, are doing so with fidelity to UNESCO's aims and purpose.
2) The influences which predominate in the Organization derive from a full regard for the Human Rights and fundamental freedom affirmed in the Charter of the U.N.
3) UNESCO does not advocate world government, or world citizen¬ ship in the political sense. The U.S. Delegation found no official expression...that gives the slightest support to this charge. They found no fear on this point among the represent.- -93-
atives of other governments who, on the contrary, find it dif- . ficult to comprehend the American fear on this matter.
4) UNESCO does not attempt, directly or indirectly, to undermine national loyalties or to encourage the substitution of loyalty to, and love for a supranational authority for loyalty to and love for one's own country...
5) ...the official bodies and personnel of UNESCO observe the provisions of the UNESCO Constitution which prohibits UNESCO from interfering in matters within the domestic jurisdiction of Member States. UNESCO does not attempt to interfere in the American school system.
6) The delegation could find no evidence of^theism or anti-religious bias in any of UNESCO's work.
Within the National Commission itself recommendations surfaced that indicated a rising tide of dissatisfaction with its role. Of primary concern was the belief that priorities once accorded to the role of UNESCO were receiving less and less high level attention within the
U.S. government bureaucracy. The role of the U.S. in UNESCO seemed to be drifting further and further away from its once clear place in the broader framework of American foreign policy. Morever, the Commission was finding it "difficult to hold the enthusiasm and interest of only a few of the persons of stature and leadership who were among its 32 original members."
31 John Foster Dulles,"An Appraisal of the United Nations Ed¬ ucational, Scientific and Cultural Organization','(September 15, 1953) U.S. Department of State Publication 5209 (Washington, D.C., U.S. Government Printing Office, 1954), pp. 2-3.
32U.S. National Commission for UNESCO, Minutes of the Fifteenth Meeting, cited in Walter H.C. Laves and Charles A. Thomson, UNESCO: Purpose, Progress and Prospects (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1957), p. 323 -94-
Two events, however, seemed to have re-ignited a more active stance by the U.S. inside UNESCO. The first was the emergence of an
American, Luther H. Evans, as the third Director General of UNESCO in
July 1953. As a political scientist and former director of the U.S.
Library of Congress, Evans had established a stable track record of con¬ tinued interest in UNESCO's growth and development. As noted by
Laves & Thomson:
He had participated as a member of the U.S. delegation in the 1945 London Conference, had served as a member of UNESCO's Executive Board since 1949, (and) had been a leading member of the U.S. National Commission, serving as a member of the Executive Com¬ mittee and as Chairman of the Commission.
During the first year of Evans' term the effort to give new shape to UNESCO's programs and the role of the Director General in implement¬
ing them, reached its peak. By the Montevideo Conference in 1954 Evans had assumed an active leadership role in developing plans for an arid- zone project, the Latin American rural education proposal and the Eastern
-Western project. He also encouraged new ideas with respect to what 34 UNESCO could do concerning the peaceful use of atomic energy.
Moreover, contend Laves and Thomson:
While discussion of program reforms went forward, Evans gave top priority (often in lieu of criticism) to establish first-hand contact with member states ...During 1953-54 he personally visited thirty-four member states and during the succeeding two years an additional thirty-five countries so that by opening of the New Delhi Conference in November 1956, all but eight of the members of UNESCO had been provided the opportunity to discuss k of the organization with Director General face-to-
33 Ibid., p. 301 34,, . , Ibid., p. 302 35Ibid., pp 302-302 -95-
THE SOVIET CHALLENGE AT UNESCO
The second impetus to a more aggressive policy toward UNESCO was the deposit of the U.S.S.R's ratification of the UNESCO Constitution in the Spring of 1954. "Both major protagonists in the Cold War were now 36 UNESCO members." Assessing the significance of this entry, Laves and
Thomson contended that:
For a period after the 1954 London Conference, the Soviet Union had ignored UNESCO. Then its attitude changed to open hostility. Soviet delegations in other United Nations bodies heaped scorn and abuse on UNESCO. They termed it an instrument of United States policy. The fact that Evans was an American, and as a member of the Executive Board had led to the fight for UNESCO's alignment against aggression in Korea, created obvious problems when the U.S.S.R. joined UNESCO.
Moreover, Laves and Thomson suggested:
...The Soviet entry into UNESCO may presage the joining of battle within the organization between the liberal democratic doctrines of the West and the authoritarian philosophy of Communism. With the U.S.S.R. as a member, UNESCO had possibly been shifted from the fringe to a central positio^gin this struggle which had given rise to the "cold war"...
Until the ratificaton of UNESCO's Constitution in 1954, the
U.S.S.R. had no direct affiliation with the organization. Its Cold War allies (i.e., Hungary, Poland and Czechoslovakia), however, had joined the organization early. Over times these allies had become more and more antagonistic toward iniatives of Western countries in UNESCO in con¬ ferences and refused to contribute to the regular budget or cooperate in agency activities."59
36 Ibid., P- 304 37 Ibid., P- 304 38 Ibid., P- 334 39 Ibid., -96- Their attempted abdication in 1952-53 was accompanied by a malign
anti-Western erudite assault but they returned to active participation
in 1954 when the U.S.S.R., Byelorussia and the Ukraine joined UNESCO.
By 1957 Bulgaria and Rumania had also become active members.^ As expected, the Soviet entry led to a series of hotly contested
debates. At the 1954 and 1956 sessions of the General Conference, the
U.S.S.R. launched a verbal assault against what were termed the "war¬
mongering" tactics among nations with socalled "free-press." They charged Great Britain, France and Israel as co-conspirators in the aggressive action toward Egypt and in the debates on mass communica¬
tions, injected an emphasis on the role of the media in facilitating
"peaceful coexistence" in a world of tensions caused by the fear of
atomic destruction. The U.S.S.R. also took "major interest in UNESCO's
activities under the U.N.'s Expanded Technical Assistance Program,
offering funds as well as technical experts," to assist developing
nations in erecting viable communications structures. 41
The ideological debate on the free flow of information also in¬
tensified. The "Western" theory, as presented by the U.S., contended
that within practical limits all points of view should be heard, under
the assumption that the best ideas will finally prevail. If the things
said, however, were of such nature as to create a clear and present
danger, they might be censored. What has been defined as the
40 Ibid. 41 Ibid., p. 335 -97-
"totalitarian" point of view suggests that the radio and press should
be used as declared in the Soviet Constitutions "...in conformity with
the interests of the working people, and in order to strengthen the
socialist system." 42 Each perspective claims to advocate freedom of
speech, although the Soviet notion emphasizes that freedom of speech
is reciprocally tied to freedom to express the truth. The starting
point of both policies was an underlying conceptual framework that was based on national policies of information flow organized primarily to support the existing order. The end result was two diametrically op¬
posed theories that sought to approximate the polarized objectives of
communist political economy on the one hand and a capitalist political
economy on the other.
From a practical standpoint, however, the Soviet critique of the
free flow policies of UNESCO carried more weight. Far from "...col¬
laborating in the work of advancing the mutual knowledge and under¬
standing of people through all means of mass communications," the early
hopes of UNESCO had not lived up to expection in the first ten years of
the organizations's work.
42 This view is derived from Chapter X of the Constitution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on the "Fundamental Rights and Duties of Citizen." Article 125 states: "In conformity with the interests of the working people, and in order to strengthen the socialist system, the citizens of the U.S.S.R. are guaranteed by law: a) freedom of speech; b) feedom of press...These civil rights are in¬ sured by placing at the disposal of the working people and their organizations printing presses, stock of paper, public buildings, the streets, communications facilities and other material requisities for the exercise of these rights." (Moscow: Izvestia Sov. Deputatou Trud. SSR, 1968) in Basil Dmytryshyn, USSR: A Concise History (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1965), p. 372 -98-
UNESCO activities in mass communication had two main objectives: a) to stimulate the free flow of informations; and b) to strengthen facilities for international communication through press, radio, film and television. 43 One of the early proposals designed to break down information exchange barriers was the 1947 General Conference reso¬ lution calling for the establishment of an International Institute of
Press and Information. The objective here was to create an inter¬ national mechanism to serve as a research center on the technical needs of press, radio and film and as a place where journalists of various countries might come together for collective study and discussion.
This idea encountered considerable opposition, however, especially from partisans of a "free flow," who feared the effects of competition from an international agency supported and controlled by governments. As a result of this opposition, the proposal was eventually dropped. But in its place a group of U.S. newspaper men took the lead in setting up an entirely private International Press Institute with headquarters at
Zurich.
Of the accomplishments made during the early years of UNESCO, all were at best marginal and failed to have any significant or noticeable impact in affecting either the volume or scope of information flow throughout the world. For example, 1953 UNESCO survey was conducted to examine the needs of individual countries for technical equipment and personnel.
43 Preamble to the Constitution of the United Nations Education and Cultural Organization. Adopted in London, November 16, 1945. -99-
The study began in war-devastated countries as part of the recon¬
struction effort, but later was extended into a five year analysis
covering 152 countries and territories. Finally published in 1956, it
ultimately included findings on over 170 states and territories.44
The survey showed that 100 countries, ninety of them in Africa
and Asia alone, possessed either inadequate facilities, or none at all,
for press or radio transmission on an independent basis. These
countries, with a combined population of over 1,500 million people (56%
of the world's total population) averaged less than ten copies of daily newspapers 45 and less than five radio receivers in working condition per 100 people.
In short, well over half (nearly 60%) of the world's population was
lacking basic means of being adequately informed of developments at
home and in neighboring communities, let alone from other countries.
Moreover, even those nations that did possess some modicum of com¬
munication facilities faced a maze of restrictions that inhibited the
"free flow of information." High and discrepant rates curtailed the
flow of press dispatches ; lack of agreement on program content and on
the distribution of radio frequencies limited the scope and ability to
broadcast between countries; inadequate methods of distribution cur¬
tailed free international circulation; and a variety of tariff and
trade restrictions delayed the flow of cultural materials of all kinds.
44 UNESCO, Appnllil of UNESCO Programmes for the Economic and Social Council (place de Fontenoy, Paris: UNESCO Publishing, 1960) p. 130. 45 Ibid. -100-
Added to this list was a rising fear among many of the smaller nations that those countries with the most expertise in using the media would employ them for "cultural imperialism": that media of small nations would be "...drowned out, their people overwhelmed, and their cultures destroyed by a flood of alien propaganda."^
In an effort to reduce these obstacles UNESCO adopted two in¬ ternational agreements under which a number of countries were to exempt information materials from customs, duties and relaxed currencies and 47 other administrative restrictions on their importation. The problem with this method, however, was that the only country that was really in a position to take advantage of the lowered barriers was the United
States. Most other countries were either attempting post-war con¬ struction (i.e., Western Europe, the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and
Japan), or were still under the yoke of colonial domination.
Between 1947 and 1958 UNESCO dispatched some fifty or more ex¬ perts to individual countries (i.e., 1956 to Haiti for development of information services and to Spain for radio and television), and awarded or administered some 150 fellowships for specialized training.
This aid was to be utilized, in particular for the development of national news agencies and for the improvement of techniques and organ- 48 ization of educational broadcasting services.
46 Leaves and Thomson, op. cit., p. 116.
47The first such agreement was The Agreement for Facilitating of International Circulation of Visual and Aduitory Materials of an Ed- cational, Scientific and Cultural Character adopted in 1948,taking force in 1954, the second was The Agreement on the Importation of Educational, Scientific and Cultural Materials, adopted in 1950, taking force in 1952. 48 UNESCO, Appraisal...op. cit., p. 132. -101-
Also instituted was UNESCO's "coupon scheme," which sought to assist individuals and private organizations within various countries without foreign exchange to purchase the necessary equipment for media development. The schemes, however, were financed outside the reqular budget of the organization. The budget for the combined mass media programs (excluding that of the coupon schemes which was self-financing and had made available by the end of 1985 some $25 million in exchange currency) had been approximately $3,448,000, of which $877,000 was pro- 49 vided under the U.N.'s Expanded Programme for Technical Assistance.
In the field of radio, UNESCO, cooperation with the International
Telecommunications Union (ITU), sought to promote agreements on program exchanges and on the distribution of frequencies of international broadcasting. A study was also proposed in collaboration with the ITU on the possible design and mass production of standardized, low cost receivers for use in underdeveloped countries.50 Yet despite these initiatives, only a mere 2% of the total anticipated resources of UNESCO
for the period 1960-1964 were to be devoted to the promotion of the free 51 flow of information and improvement of communication media.
Why so little available financing for a problem so vast?
From the UNESCO Director General's perspective in 1960:
...the problem is not only one of reducing the obstacles to the transmission of information... The many documentary studies which UNESCO has published, whether on the needs of underdeveloped
49 Appraisal of UNESCO's Programme for the Economic and Social Council (Place de Fontenoy, Paris: UNESCO Publishing, 1960), pp. 131— 133.
50 Ibid., P- 135
51 Ibid., P. 137. -102-
countries or on the shortcomings in the actual use made of exist¬ ing communications facilities have shown clearly that the flow of information is not merely a question—largely political—of laissez faire, it is likewise an economic question of development, as well as a mainly technical, but also ethical question of train¬ ing mass communication personnel and educating the public. These aspects...are likely to assume increasing weight in UNESCO's programmes by reason of the very vastness of the needs and re¬ sponsibilities created by modern civilization in the matter of in¬ formation.
The U.S., for the most part, was well aware of the economic and technical questions involved, but would continue in the ensuing years defending private ownership of the mechanism of information flow. This consensus would work to relegate the programs of UNESCO to a subsidiary position even at the expense of "ethical" isolation of the U.S. from its Western allies and the newly emerging Third World. It was a price, nonetheless, that only the U.S. could afford to pay as information came to take on more and more of a commodity form.
52Ibid., p. 179. CHAPTER V
THE EMERGENCE OF THE THIRD WORLD IN UNESCO: SEEDS OF RESISTANCE AND THE CRISIS OF U.S. LEGITIMACY
UNESCO was to enter upon the turbulent scene of the struggle for independence in the Third World in a dramatic- fashion when in 1960 the
United Nations resolved to intervene in the Congo "...to prevent the spread of civil war and to forestall possible foreign intervention, notably by the Soviet Union." President Eisenhower included assist¬ ance for education as a criterion of aid to be donated to the Civilian
Operation of the-United Nations (ONUC) effort. Since UNESCO was the international agency chartered to deal with these matters, it suddenly
found itself knee-deep in the concerns of U.S. foreign policy. At the
UNESCO General Conference of 1960, and Emergency Fund for Africa was 2 created to which the U.S. made a special appropriation of $1 million.
It was the first time that the U.S. had taken an action that so directly channeled its foreign aid funds through UNESCO.
Part of this financial contribution was to assist ONUC, while
the largest percentage helped to initiate the objectives of the U.N.
Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), of which education was a primary component. In May 1961, a conference was convened in Addis Ababa
Shuster, p. 52. 2 Ibid., p. 53 -103- -104- which in many ways constituted one of the most significant efforts of
UNESCO's history. Known as the Conference on African Education, it brought together hundreds of representatives of the basic organizations of the United Nations. Most notable was the Economic Commission for
Africa, created in 1958 to facilitate concerted action for the devel¬ opment of African states. Also present were spokesmen from British and French governments which, through the Colonial Development and
Welfare Fund and the Fonds pour le Développement Economique et Social, had for some years attempted to structure the nature and content of ed¬ ucation in Africa. The United States also sent a strong delegation and played a key role in recommending an increase over the 1960 expenditure of approximately $140 million for education in African states south of the Sahara, to a targeted $450 million by the 1965-66 biennium and
$1 billion by 1970.^
Apart from its role as educational coordinator between UNECA on the one hand and African states on the other, UNESCO was assigned a large measure of responsibility for educational planning. This gradually assumed four forms: training of educational administrators and supervisors; improvement in the quantity and quality of textbooks and the use of other instructional materials; school building; and assistance in teacher training. The U.S. contribution to initiate this program was supplemented by smaller contributions from other members including the Soviet Union which, although refusing to contri¬ bute to the ONUC effort, pledged $220,000 to the cause of education.
^Ibid., p. 54
^Ibid. -105-
Despite this outlay of financial resources the problem of in¬
creasing the literacy rate of Africans to satisfy what were essentially
Anglo-American standards appeared, like the question of communication,
an insurmountable task. Both issues were tied to the legacy of under¬
development and colonial domination that had begun nearly 300 years in
the past.5 Moreover, no one was sanguine enough to suggest that African
states could raise matching funds to successfully wipe out rampant
illiteracy, or that changes in teaching methods, such as the introduction
of audio-visual services, programmed learning, and other educational communication devices would quickly reduce, the enormity of the task at hand. UNESCO's own program (much of it made possible by technical
assistance funds outside the regular budget) remained miniscule in
financial terms. It could only be hoped, and this is still the case,
that much more substantial sums would be channelled by foreign countries
through programs offered by UNESCO than hitherto been made available.
Such an assumption, however, would not find a base in objective reality,
but rather became a "dream deferred."
Still, changes were taking place that would shake the foundation
of UNESCO and other U.N.-related agencies. Of key importance was the
rise to independent status of what came to be called the "Third World."
The territory occupied in 1945 by the colonial powers (Belgium, Denmark, Spain, United States, France, Holland, Japan, Portugal, United Kingdom
5An excellent analysis of the impact and legacy of foreign domi¬ nation can be found in the book by Walter Rodney, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (Washington, D.C.: Howard University Press, 1972). -106- and South Africa) extended over thirty-six million square kilometer.
By 1960, some fifteen years later, these figures had shrunk to include an area of only thirteen million square kilometer. UNESCO had in¬ creased in membership from forty-four to ninety-four nations with newly in¬ dependent states now constituting the majority. This trend would con¬ tinue LTiinterrLpted during the next fifteen years until, by 1975, de¬ colonization encompassed Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Sao-Tome and
Principe, and Cape Verde Islands, all former Portuguese colonies,
Surinam (former Dutch Guiana), Guyana (formerly British Guiana), and the former British island colonies of Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and
Tobago in the Western Hemisphere.
The needs and aspirations of these emerging nations were no less pressing than the original preoccupation of UNESCO with those Western
European countries whose cultural identity and dignity had been threaten¬ ed by the massive destruction of World War II. While the influence of the more developed nations remained decisive in measures adopted at the
UNESCO general conferences, the gradual entry of newly independent and sovereign states began to impact on the nature of decisions and to alter the order of priorities. In describing the origins of this new tone of international diplomacy in the U.N. General Assembly in 1960, Frantz
Fanon observed that:
The representatives of the colonial countries were aggressive and violent, and carried things to extremes, but the colonial people did not find that they exaggerated. The radicalism of African spokesmen brought the abcess to a head and showed up in the in¬ admissible nature of the veto, of the dialogue between the great , powers, and above all the tiny role reserved for the third world.
6Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth (New York: Grove Press, 1968), pp. 77-78. -107-
Inside the halls of UNESCO, however, things were slightly different.
Unlike the U.N. where substantive issues were subject to the veto of the of the Security Council, UNESCO had incorporated the democratic principle of one nation-one vote, majority rule. Hence aggressiveness in debates on topics of concern to member-states could in fact translate into the moral support needed to pass resolutions. To counter this
"wrath of the majority," the U.S., for example, had developed the prac¬ tice of sending sizeable, well-educated and informed delegations to
UNESCO general conferences appointed by the White House after con¬ sultation with Department of State. When necessary, this delegation took on the form of a pressure group canvassing the entire general conference in an effort to sway member-states toward the American way. The single individual, if vocal and articulate enough, however, could have just as much impact and in fact counter the pressure applied single-handedly.
Thus if unsuccessful in blocking the passage of resolutions and declar¬ ations antithetical to American foreign policy, the U.S. and many of its allies often threatened to resort to budgetary confinements that would cripple specific UNESCO programs.
CONSPIRACY OF ONE-WAY FLOW OF INFORMATION: THE COLONIAL LEGACY
Nonetheless, vocal enthusiasm for the hopes of improvement in com¬ munications gained increasing momentum. Newly entering UNESCO members had become conscious of the fact that post-war domination was woven into the whole structure of relations between the center and the periphery, not the least in the existing information exchange models. A frank questioning of the political effects which "one-way" flow of information
(as opposed to a "free flow") provoked in the internal affairs of -108- countries had come earlier from the Argentine government under Juan Peron
(deposed in 1953) and from Guatemalan president Jacobo Arbene (deposed in
1954). Both had denounced the U.S. wire services for news manipulation that affected their country's internal political stability. To these criticisms were added the condemnations from other continents.
This "conspiracy theory" was given further theoretical clarity with respect to Africa in the writings of Ghana's Prime Minister Kwane Nkrumah in 1965. In his analysis of the "mechanism of neo-colonialism," Nkrumah cited the United States Information Agency as the "...chief executor of
U.S. psychological warfare...for its neo-colonial aims."7 In Africa alone, Nkrumah claimed that:
...the USIA transmits about thirty territorial and national radio programmes whose content glorifies the U.S. while attempting to discredit countries with an independent foreign policy. The USIA boasts more then 120 branches in about 100 countries, 50 of which are in Africa alone...The American government backs the USIA through direct pressures on developing nations...many agreements for economic cooperation offered by the U.S. include a demand that America be granted preferential rights to disseminate informa¬ tion. At the same time, in trying to close the new nations to¬ other sources of information, it employs other pressures. For instance, after agreeing to set up USIA information centers in their countries, both Togo and Congo (Leopoldville) originally hoped to follow a non-aligned path and permit Russian information centers as a balance. But Washington threatened to stop all aid, thereby forcing these two countries to renounce their plan. In this sense the U.S. was simply continuing a legacy that had been firmly established during colonial rule. Rather than facilitating an actual exchange of information between African people, colonial com¬ munication structures and the information flowing freely within them
7Kwame Nkrumah, Neo-Colonialism: The Last State of Imperialism (New York: International Publishers, Co., 1966), p. 249.
8Ibid., p. 250. -109- served primarily to link the economic activities of the imperial state administrative apparati operating within the colonies to the métropole and the more regionalized centers of human and material exploitation: the colonial offices. What information was passed onto the general
African population of those countries tended to serve an additional or subsidiary purpose of adding to the totality of confusion already abundant.
Writing in 1960 (on the dawn of constitutional independence for many African states) James S. Coleman described this subsidiary role played by the colonial communication structures as furthering the pro¬ cess of integration of the African elite to the needs of colonial power by fostering and strengthening a sense of identification with the 9 dominant culture. In Coleman's assessment the very highly developed
European communication network stood virtually unchallenged by anything even approximating an independent African-owned information network.
Aspects of the colonial communication system, although targeted at "Bantu" Africa, were owned either by colonial governments, missionary societies, or European settlers deferential to colonial policies.
The systems catered almost exclusively to European interests, although commanding attention among the small elite sectors of African people, and were essential to European settler communities, facilitating their functioning as a semi-autonomous economic and political entities within the African context. Simultaneously, the information transmitted
9 James. Coleman, "The Politics of Sub-Saharan Africa" in Garbriel A. Almond and James S. Coleman (ed.) The Politics of Developing Areas (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1960), pp. 345-354. -110- through these media sought, in many instances, to further African ac¬ culturation to European models in style, dress, speech and social norms, supplying ceaseless affirmations of white supremacy while reminding the educated African in particular, of his subordinate, and rather hapless political and economic fate. 10 Information vital to the control and exploitation of the human and natural resources of the colonies was, for the most part, firmly lodged in the grips of the metropolitan power structure in the form of centralized administrative apparati. Part of the responsibility of the colonial state bureaucracy in managing the colonial economy on behalf of imperial interests was to sponsor dependent classes among the colonized population, enticing them to commit their energies to the maintenance of the status quo. Indigenous small proprietors, for ex¬ ample, were made dependent on the colonial state for information about credit extensions and ways to protect their business against colonial- financed economic ventures. Moreover, a significant degree of the surplus which the colonial state was able to generate was skimmed off for the conspicous consumption habits of this indigenous elite class and thus away from productive local investments. As noted by Edwin
Jones, the parcelling out of "welfare patronage" by the colonial state to the indigenous dependent clientele naturally meant that they were subject to being manipulated into supporting existing institutions and the state's definition of how local resources were to be allocated to address various social problems. 11
!j°Ibid., p. 346. Edwin Jones, "Tendencies and Change in Caribbean Administrative Systems," Social and Economic Studies,Volume 24, No. 2 (June 1975): 244-245. -111-
The larger goal, however, was the necessity of developing a system designed to enhance the overall flow of capital and increase the com¬ mercial profits of the metropolitan state. Communication systems fit this goal perfectly.
In the final years of colonization aid for development was in¬ creasingly limited to communication to and education of the African elite. Commenting on the French imperial design Walter Rodney suggests that:
...French political policy in the education sphere... forced the sons of chiefs to acquire education. It was a deliberate attempt to capture the loyalty of those persons who had previously held political power in independent Africa, and it was an attempt at continuity with the pre-colonial phase. As the Frenchmen them¬ selves put it, by educating the sons of traditional rulers, "a bond is thus established between the native cadres formed by us and those that the native community recognized..." ...France had succeeded in creating an elite of Africans in the image of Frenchmen—an elite that was helping to perpetuate French colonial rule.
Such educational aid was strategically given to Algeria and the Sahara region in.the North, and parts of tropical Africa(i.e., Ivory Coast,
Niger, Gabon, and Cameroun), where Africans brought in a greater per¬ centage of foreign exchange, were good customers for French products, 13 or served to enhance the exploitation of raw materials.
What aid did go to facilitate African communication systems was actually not for communications at all, but rather for roads, railway and cable connections that all led to the sea and from the sea to the métropole. They were built to enhance extraction of gold, manganese, iron ore, coffee, cocoa, cotton and other raw materials.
12 Walter Rodney, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, op. cit., p. 258.
13Ibid., p. 208. -112-
They were built to provide information to and access for timber com¬ panies, trading companies, agricultural and mineral concession firms, commercial banks, and for European settlers. The means of communication were not constructed in the colonial period so that Africans could com¬ municate with or visit their friends. As Rodney argues, "More important
still, they were not laid down to facilitate internal trade in African
commodities. There were no roads connecting different colonies and
different parts of the same colony in manner that made sense with regard 14 to Africa's needs and development." The information provided to even the
African elite through the media and training institutes did not enlarge
the capacity of the society to deal with the natural environment, to
adjudicate relations between members of the society, or to protect the
population from external forces. Most news and information tended
to come from the metropolitan center and was designed for reception by
Europeans or Europeanized minds among the African populace.
One indication of the hypocrisy in the assertion that aid went to¬
ward the development of communications is the level of development of
news media in the Ivory Coast and Senegal just after achieving nominal
independence. In his book entitled Muffled Drums: The News Media in
Africa, William A. Hatchten contends that Ivorian "...media are con¬
centrated, even radio does not extend effectively out to the steamy rain 15 forest and savannahs where most Ivoriens live by subsistence agriculture.
Hachten continues by noting that:
1/*Ibid., p. 209 15 William A. Hatchten, Muffled Drums: The News Media in Africa
(Ames, Iowa: The Iowa: The Iowa State University Press, 1971), p. 186. -113-
...With a 1965 per capita income of $186 and a literacy rate of 10 percent, there were only 1.7 radio sets and 0.4 daily newspapers circulated per 1000... The limited media mostly reached only the urban elites, both African and French, who by virture of their work in government and commerce influence the lives of the illiterate rural majority. Since the elite speak French (their language of ^gucation) the media operates almost entirely in that language.
In the late 1960's the number of radio sets was estimated at about 17 75,000 for a population of 3.8 million people. Television broad¬ casting began on August 7, 1963, but reception was limited to a 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. broadcast about ten kilometer from Abidjan (which has sup¬ posedly "moved ahead" of Senegal's Dakar, the old administrative capital of colonial French West Africa, as the economic, financial, and gradually the "new communication center" of Franco-phone Africa) for an estimated 1R 2,300 receivers and an audience of 12,000. "News, however," contends 19 Hatchen, "played a prominent role in both radio and television." But news also continued to reflect the colonial legacy. Radiodiffusion
Television Ivouriene (RTI) was established as a public corporation on
October 31, 1962, with a combined news staff headed by a veteran French newsman, Pierre Jean Laspeyres. On television there was a nightly half- hour news show drawn from the wire service reports distributed by Agence
France Presse (AFF) wire service plus filmed reports supplied by the 20 American United Press International(UPI).
The differences in the so-called communications systems of the
Ivory Coast and Senegal were difference in degree, not in kind. In
Senegal, radio, too, has enjoyed the largest audience for its 3.58 million citizens since independence in 1958. 21 Radio Senegal
17Ibid. , p. 186 and 191 18Ibid., p. 191. 2 1 Ibid . pp. 194-197. -114- was more "modernized", suggests Hatchen:
...perhaps because Dakar had been the center for broadcasting in French West Africa for so long. There were two services—Chaine Internationale, in French only and broadcast in both shortwave and medium wave, and Chaine Nationale, much more an instrument of rural and urban community news. Five major news bulletins were broad¬ cast each day and on Chaine Internationale the news wa^also given in English, Portuguese, and Arabic, as well as French.
The problem here, nontheless, was that the same news was carried on both services and the Senegal national news agency. Agence de Press Sénégal¬ aise (APS) was a mere reflection of the strong residual influence of 23 Agence France Presse. Thus concludes Hatchen, "APS sent out AFP first on its domestic wires (about 80% of APS's total foreign file was AFP) then transmitted some Reuters (British 20%) with the remaining news 24 occasionally reflecting UPI wire service reports."
Though the smooth transition frcm a former colonial communication structure to the new or neo-colonial arrangement caught most by surprise, the key was that its initial form began to take shape in the years of post-World War II planning. Its imperial effect is still with us now.
THE GRAND AREA AND U.S. INFORMATION POLICY
With the granting of nominal independence to the majority of the
Third World, the improvement of communication and information systems was to be facilitated by the adoption of Euro-American models of moderniza¬ tion. The underlying assumption of these models contended that African,
Asian, and Latin American integration into the global information and communication system would, in itself, promote economic growth and
22 Ibid., P- 197. 23 Ibid., P- 195. 24 Ibid. -115- 25 modernization . The key to this modernization was defined as the rapid acquisition of the appropriate technology for information transferral and exchange. The problem that immediately arose was the unavailability of capital to finance technology transfer and skills development in the areas of concern. Such capital appeared to be shifting more and more into the hands of monopoly interests that were utilizing the information base and networks established by colonial regimes to facilitate initial penetration into the Third World during the era of decolonization.
In a recent study of this corporate penetration, James F. Petras noted that between 1955 and 1969 (the heart of the era of decolonization) massive flows of private investment capital circulated throughout the globe with multinational conglomerates serving as the major vehicle superceding a reliance on state expenditures. In this era imperial state investments (i.e., those once characteristic of British and French colonialism) began to decline, with such revenue being redirected toward financing the power, communications, and transport systems, as well as new industrial facilities at home. 26
25 As noted by James S. Coleman, a leading advocate of modernization theory, "The problem of integration and the building of a consensus in Africa's new territorial political systems is largely a problem of deve¬ loping patterns of communication which transcend prevailing discontinuities and communal divisions...One major consideration is the policy of the government regarding freedom of the press,...and the degree to which gov¬ ernments seek to develop or influence the communication system." "Of even greater significance," Coleman contends, " is the creation of national radio networks,...exempted from politics, which give continuous coverage of events and developments throughtout the new national society. With the great increase in literacy, these activities have operated to create a unified communication process, transcending existing discontinu¬ ities and pluralism, at least for certain strata of the population." in The Politics of Sub-Saharan Africa, p. 325 and p. 351. ‘"kpeter Dewitt and James F. Petras, "The Political Economy of International Debt" in James F. Petras (ed.) Class, State and Power in the Third World (London: Zed Press, 1981), pp. 94-96. -116-
In the U.S., however, there emerged a powerful military-industrial com¬ plex that began to make inroads in areas of the world once dominated by
British sterling and France's franc, aiding and abetting the expansion of America's imperial design. The impetus of this changing international political economy might be viewed as multi-dimensional, but two post-Worid
War II initiatives seem to stand out: The Point Four Program and the
Marshall Plan.
For all intent and purposes the Second World War made it possible for the United States to organize an expanded "Grand Area." The notion of a more desirable world economy (first envisioned in the deliberations of the Council on Foreign Relations frcm 1939-1944) was based on the assumption that the institutions developed for the integration of the
Grand Area would yield useful experiences in meeting post-war European problems, and perhaps it would be possible simply to interweave the eco¬ nomies of European countries into that of the Grand Area. This process would, of course, be dominated by the United States and organized in such a manner as to satisfy American economic and strategic interest.
As observed by Noam Chomsky:
...A crucial feature of all such plans was that Europe must not become an independent actor on a par with the United States. Similarity, the imperial systems had to be dismantled if there was to be a world economy or even a Grand Area. During the Second World War, the United States carefully regulated lend-lease assistance to Great Britain so that British reserves would remain between $600 million and $1 billion. The effect—and, one may rationally assume, the intent as well—was to keep Britain in the war, but without the power that would permit it to maintain inde¬ pendence and imperial control. The U.S. succeeded in taking over a dominant role in crucial areas of British power and influence in the Middle East, Africa and L^tin America, in preparation for the U.S.-dominated Grand Area... 2T2 Noam Chomsky, "The Cornerstone of the American System", a for¬ ward to Yan Fitt, Alexendre Faire, and Jean-Pierre Vigier, The World Economic Crisis: U.S. Imperialism at Bay (London: Zed Press, 1980),p. 4. -117-
At the war's end, however, the hope of a united Europe was put to rest by the Soviet insistence on the creation of, and maintenance of client regimes in the regions conquered by the Red Army. With the original conception of the Grand Area thus being impossible, a divided
Europe became preferable to an independent and unified region which might very well become a real competitor in the global system. To salvage what area was left of Europe the Marshall Plan was instituted as an
Economic Recovery Program to provide assistance to a number, if not all,
European nations.
Among the first decisions made under the plan was that aid be al¬ located among the European countries on the basis of dollar deficits in their balances of payments rather than overall deficits. This had the immediate effect of increasing the legitimate British claim for assist¬ ance, since an expression in British exports of sterling and other soft currency areas was already beginning to narrow the gap in its overall balance of payments. But an important international consequence ensued from this technical decision. Britain had organized substantial debts during World War II in India, Egypt, and in other areas where British troops fought and from which British imports were drawn, but to which it was impossible during the war to send a normal flow of British exports.
The British hope in the post-war years was not merely to repay these debts and to maintain London's good name as a debtor, but also to build up through repayment new and expanded lines of trade for the long pull.
Without American assistance allocated on the basis of dollar deficits, however, it would have been impossible for Britain (France and Belgium), still in a shskey economic position, to perfom as a major capital exporter -118-
O O in the early post-war years. Thus Britain, France , and Belgium became intermediaries by which capital flowed to the underdeveloped world during the Marshall Plan period. Although at the time public attention was concentrated on European recovery in the narrow sense, and alternative perspective might see the Marshall Plan as the device by which American aid to Europe permitted a substantial and continuing flow of American capital into the underdeveloped areas of the world at a time of profound European economic weakness. The Point Four Program supported the Marshall Plan in reducing the strength of Europe's colonial empires and the opening up of the Third World to United States capital. On January 20, 1949, President Truman presented his Fourth Point in his Inaugural Address noting: Fourth: We must embark on a bold new program for making the benefits of our scientific advances and industrial progress available for the improvement and growth of underdeveloped areas... For the first time in history, humanity possesses the knowledge and skill to relieve the suffering of these people...The material resources which we can afford to use for assistance to other people are limited...new economic developments must be devised and con¬ trolled to benefit the peoples of the areas in which they are est¬ ablished. Guarantees to the investors must be balanced by guarantees in the interest of the people whose resources and whose labor go into these developments. The old imperialism—exploitation for a profit—has no place in our plans. What we envisage is a program of development based on the concepts of democratic fair play dealing... Democracy alone can supply the vitalizing force to stir the people of the world into triumphant action, not only against their human oppressors, but also against their ancient enemies—hunger,
oo W.W. Rostow, The United States in the World Arena: An Essay in Recent History (New York: Simon and Schuster Publishers, 1969),209-217. -119-
misery, and despair. 29 The impact and implications of the Point Four philosophy and the Marshall Plan can be seen by again referring to the African
setting. Before the Second World War only three percent of U.S. foreign
expenditures went to Africa and less than five percent of the continent's
trade was with the United States (Firestone's interest in Liberia and
U.S. investments in the Rhodesian and South African mining interest via
the Anglo-American Corp., accounted for most of the $200 million invest¬
ed in Africa)."50 As the war pushed into the continent itself, military
bases and trade connections became an integral part of the strings
attached to European military aid packages and served as a basis from
which Americans would pursue greater penetration after the war. With
respect to the European Recovery Program, Nkrumah explains that:
...Marshall Plan funds financed American exploration groups, sent in the best colonial tradition to prepare the way for mining com¬ panies and military expeditions. It was announced by E.C.A. in July 1949 that "...American experts with Marshall Plan aid are probing Africa from the Atlas Mountains to the Cape of Good Hope for agricultural and mineral wealth," and later on that "...opportunit¬ ies for American capital participation were disclosed in French North African lead mining, French Cameroun tin mining, French Congo lead-zinc mining..." An E.C.A. loan to Mines de Zellidja, a French concern under the aegis of the Penarroya Company, the fourth largest lead and zinc producer in the world, enabled Newmont Mining Corporation (an American mining and crude oil concern with 20 percent of its interests in South Afric^i and Canada) to buy into the company and manage its operations.
The information gathered from such expeditions was, of course,
channeled to potential investors in the U.S. In the Fall of 1949, after
29 President H.S. Truman, Inaugural Address, January 20, 1949, quoted in W.W. Rostow, p. 256. '50Nkrumah, op. cit. p. 60.
31 Ibid. -120-
America had forced currency devaluation upon the European countries, a committee of leading British, French, and American bankers was formed to push U.S. investment in Africa and other parts of the still remaining
British and French colonial empires. These meetings led to the increased penetration of such American banking institutions as Rockefeller, Morgan,
Kuhn Loeb and Dillon Reed, into big Rothschild, Banque de Paris, Banque
Worm, Credit Lyonnais, as well as leading German and Italian banks.
Direct private American investment in Africa, for example, increased be¬ tween 1945 and 1958 from $110 million to $789 million. Of the increase of $679 million, actual new money invested was only $149 million.
"Official American statistics put the gross profits made by U.S. investors in Africa between 1946-59 at $1,234 million..."^2
These profits nonetheless, represented the brighter side of a grow¬ ing dependency relationship that occasioned the rise of the American military-industrial complex. The post-war rise in consumption by Ameri¬ cans and the increased access to Western European consumer markets led to the corollary rising need to import critical resources either no longer produced in the U.S. in unlimited supplies or completely unavailable. As indicated by Richard J. Barnet:
...The United States, which in the 1920's used to be a net exporter of minerals, has in the post-war period been forced to import an increasingly major portion of its critical mineral requirements. This has been due not only to the population rise but to the dramatic changes in technology and consumption rates..."90 of the minerals most essential to the nation's industrial complex" must be imported by the United States...about three-quarters of the minerals deemed strategic enough to stockpile under government pro¬ grams come from the underdeveloped world. Those who argue that the raw material dependency of the United States is a key factor in shaping its foreign policy can cite not only the objective needs of U.S. industry but also the frequent expressions of alarm by leading political figures that our economy is to a great extent at the
^2Ibid., pp. 61-62. -121-
mercy of political developments in the poor, raw material producing countries. "The loss of any of these materials through aggression would be the equivalent of a grave military setback." An ever-expanding consumer economy in a country with serious deficiencies in natural resources can only be maintained by an ever-extending global reach.
Whether the U.S. would be successful in reducing this dependency was based on the extent to which it could establish three related information systems. The first (which we will examine in more detail in our final chapter) involved a usurpation and redirection of the former colonial information systems (designed to provide western European investors with data on raw material and mineral resources) toward U.S. multinational corporations and banking houses. The second (which has been well docu¬ mented) involved the accumulation of current and reliable information on political developments in the Third World through the use of foreign and often secret agents. These have ranged from sending Jehovah's Witnesses and peace corps personnel to gather intelligence information on foreign governments to the CIA, USIA and military attachés. At the center of this coordinated program lay the demands for an absolute U.S. monopoly on the means and mechanisms of controlling Third World nations, as well as
"...counter-acting any independent efforts by developing states in the realm of information.""5^ An underlying goal of this campaign is that of
^Richard J. Barnet, Roots of War: The Men and Institutions Behind U.S. Foreign Policy (New York: Penguin Books Ltd., 1972), pp. 217-219.
^Nkrumah, p. 247. Also see the works of Philip Agee, Inside the Company: CIA Diary (New York: Stonehill Publishing Company 1975) and Victor Marchetti and John D. Marks, The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1974). -122- countering any attempt by the Eastern bloc to gain access to the metals of these nations. As Vice President Nixon warned a conference on pri¬ vate investment in 1957, "If by a show of aid they succeed in extending the communist rule throughout Asia and Africa, the Kremlin will have won.
It would control their immense wealth in oil, uranium, copper and many other materials essential for the economic life of the free world. And the Western world would be forced to surrender without a 'shot'".'55
The third requirement in information was free communication to host countries to foster the implantation of conspicuous consumption habits, particularly among the indigenous elite and educated class of the Third
World. It is this dimension of U.S. information activities that has come under the most critical attack in recent years. Herbert I. Schiller, a leading advocate of NWICO, defined the latter component of this system as a key in the push of the U.S.'into the center of the world economy at the expense of both the former colonial empires and the Third World.
Schiller reasons that:
...though efforts to gain wide international support for the free flow concept were at best inconclusive, the two decades following the Freedom of Information Conference in 1948 saw the realization of the doctrine in fact, if not in solemn covenant... Without public pronouncement, private American-made media products and U.S. information networks blanketed the world. Especially prominent were film,...the exportation of commercial television programs, and international distribution of North American magazines. Reader's Digest, Time, Newsweek, Playboy, and Walt Disney Corporation productions reached millons of viewers and readers out¬ side the U.S. Foremost, perhaps, was the extension of the opinion poll and consumer survey, now undertaken all over the world, often under the auspices of American-owned research companies.
■^Barnet, p. 218. 36Herbert I. Schiller, "The Diplomacy of Cultural Domination and the Free Flow of Information", Freedomways, Volume 22, No. 3 (Third Quarter 1982), p. 155. -123-
TOWARD A MORE BALANCE FLOW OF INFORMATION: GUIDING PRINCIPLES Largely as a reaction to this flood of Western cultural products and the usurpation of budding national media systems, a new mood with re¬ spect to the doctrine of free flow of information became observable in the international community in the 1960's and early 1970's. Besides the free flow notion, more and more references were made to issues such as
"cultural privacy" and "cultural autonomy". Admission was made even of the possible implications of cultural imperialism. The shift of emphasis away from the "quantity" of information to the "consequences" of free flow policies indicated a paramount concern of nations for safeguarding their national and cultural sovereignty.
In 1962 this sense of urgency surfaced with the knowledge of the grow¬ ing possibility of direct satellite broadcasting (DBS) from space into home receivers without the mediation of nationally-controlled ground stations. UNESCO's General Conference petitioned the Director General to study the implications of the new technological breakthrough. In
December 1965, UNESCO sponsored an initial meeting on the implications for the underdeveloped countries of telecommunications trends and the appropriate use of satellites for mass communications. The meeting touched on the political and juridical aspects of this extraordinary technological leap and pointed to the necessity of protecting national sovereignty through various types of programming control.
From 1969 to 1972, UNESCO held a series of consultations with ex¬ pert groups including representatives of regional broadcasting and in¬ ternational news organizations. The ensuing recommendations led to the submission of a draft text to the 17th Session of the General Conference of UNESCO in 1972 entitled: "A Declaration of Guiding Principles on the -124-
Use of Satellite Broadcasting for the Free Flow of Information, The
Spread of Education and Great Cultural Exchange."'57 In the Declaration
UNESCO acknowledged that "...it is necessary that states, taking into account the principle of information, reach or promote prior agreements concerning direct satellite broadcasting to the population of countries
7Q other than the country of origin of the transmission". The U.N.
General Assembly supported this view in November 1972, by a vote of 102 to 1—the United States casting the single dissenting vote.
The primary reason given by the U.S. for its dissent was that censorship was imposed by provisions that permitted each nation to reach
"prior consent" with transmitting nations concerning the character of the broadcast. The U.S. stance went so far as to charge that the Declaration was as a dangerous and gross violation of the U.S. Constitution's pro¬
vision concerning freedom of speech. RCA's executive director Frank
Stanton elaborated on this theme in a New York Times article, noting
that: "...the rights which form the framework of our Constitution, the
principles asserted in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the
basic principle of the free movement of ideas, are thus ignored." 39 Along with the facile assumption that the U.S. Constitution was
applicable to, and a binding law for, the entire international community
was the even more questionable assumption that the U.S. constitutional
guarantee of freedom of speech to the individual was applicable to multi¬
national corporations and media conglomerates whose interests they
^UNESCO, Com-74/Conf. 616.4, October 1972. 38Ibid. 39Frank Stanton, "Will They Stop Our Satellites?" The New York Times, 22 October 1972, Section 2, pp. 23, 39. -125- strongly espouse. Freedom of speech in this sense, became a property right and was extended to the operations of all the advanced electronic
forms of communication with the expectation of universal acceptance of their interpretation of reality.
Although such reasoning may have found numerous allies in the early years of UNESCO debates, by the 1960's and 1970's the U.S. found itself, more often than not, standing alone. Even its Western European and
Japanese allies had awakened to the self-serving nature of the U.S. del¬ egation antics. The attempt to respect two seemingly contradictory principles—i.e., the sovereign rights of states regarding the flow of
information into and across national boundaries and free flow of informa¬ tion—became increasingly difficult to support within the context of in¬
ternational agreements on coherent communication policy.
There were those who, while supporting in principle the right of
individuals to have access to information regardless of frontiers, main¬
tained that as long as broadcasting by satellites remained a monopoly of
a few countries and corporations this right was meaningless and even pre¬
judicial to countries without access to satellites. Additionally, while
most agreed with the aims of having a free flow of information to ensure a
diversity of sources of news and opinions, one could not forget that the
problem for many countries was that their own economic resources were not
sufficient to support strong local competing media, particularly when
faced with the massive importation of programs from foreign sources.^
Thus the principle of a free interchange of information and opinion
AO UNESCO, Meeting of Experts on a Draft Declaration Concerning the Role of Mass Media, Com-74/Conf. 616.5, Paris, April 25, 197A. -126- simply could not operate when certain countries lacked the productive capacity to participate meaningfully in such an exchange on an equal national basis.
Nonetheless, the difficulties inherent in drafting any set of fund¬ amental principles, declarations, or resolutions intended to be ap¬ plicable to the world's mass media were evident. A primary problem was that there was no international organization in existence (the U.N. and
UNESCO included) that could or would be able to adjudicate violations in the performance of the media. The most that such existing organizations and declarations could achieve was to establish a set of moral and guid¬ ing principles which the world's media would hopefully be encouraged, 41 but not required by law, to fallow. , The task at hand, then, was to construct viable alternative information and communication systems that could negate the impact of what came to be termed "cultural imperialism".
THE CHALLENGE QF THE NON-ALIGNED MOVEMENT
The need to bridge the communication gap between the underdeveloped and advanced industrialized nations became more evident as the 1970's unfolded and the debate on the possibility of a new world information order gained momentum. With over seventy percent of the world's population living on the continents of Asia, Africa, and Latin America, all three continents were defined as below the minimum quantitative standards set by UNESCO for media and information consumption. For every 100 people
UNESCO suggested there should be ten newspaper copies, five radiosand two
John A. R. Lee, Towards Realistic Communication Policies:
Recent Trends and Ideas (Paris, France: UNESCO Publication, 1976), -127- 1x2 television sets, and two theater seats. Yet roughly ninety percent of the world news disseminated by the press, radio and television in these continents (with the exception of Japan and China) emanated from centers 43 in Paris, London or New York.
Echoing the earlier assessment of Kwame Nkrumah, Vidya Charan
Shukla (Cabinet Minister of Information and Broadcasting in India) ex¬ plained to the Conference on Non-Alignment in 1976 that:
...these imbalances are the results of the political domination of a large part of the world for several centuries by the imperialist powers... coinciding with the period of rich harvest of media development while the same was almost deliberately suppressed in the countries ruled by them. When these nations achieved their political emancipation in the present century, they were already pitted against gigantic transnational press agencies with a com¬ munications network centered in the capitals of the advanced countries. The big news agencies are still in a position to land their news in any part of the world at such throw-away cos^s that we have hardly any choice but to receive and accept these.
As the debate continued, analyses began to pay more and more at¬ tention to the marked complicity between the economic interests of the advanced industrialized nations and their instruments of cultural penetra¬ tion. The theme was strongly pushed outside the halls of UNESCO at a
42 "Communications: What Do We Know?" Research Paper No. 9 of the International Commission for the Study of Communication Problems (Paris, France: UNESCO Publication, 1968), p. 4. 43 Meroyn de Silva, "The Third World Quarrel With the Western Press," The Sunday Observer (Sri Lanka) reprinted in The World Press Review, August 1976, pp. 21-26.
4\idya Charan Shukla, "Need for News Flow Code" in A.W. Singham (ed.) The Nonaligned Movement in World Politics (Westport, Con: Lawrence, Hill and Company, 1977), p. 69. -128- series of Non-Aligned summit meetings in the 1950's and 1960's : the
Asia-African Conference in Bandung, Indonesia (1955); the Afro-Asia
People's Solidarity Conference in Cairo, Egypt (December 26, 1957-January
1, 1958); the 1962 Belgrade Non-Alignment Meeting; and a 1964 Cairo summit of forty-two countries.45
At the 1957 Afro-Asia Solidarity Conference, for instance, a resolution on Cultural Exchange and Cooperation was passed condemning racialism as a means of cultural suppression. The resolution recommended the revision of textbooks used in Afro-Asian schools with a view of re¬ moving incorrect information due to imperialist influences and the in¬ clusion of Afro-Asian studies in the school curriculm.46
By 1973, at the Fourth Non-Aligned Summit (held in Algiers with seventy-five members attending) a more exacting analysis of cultural imperialism had emerged along with a specific strategy to resist it. Under the topic "Preservation and Development", the conference resolved that
"...it is an established fact that the activities of imperialism are not confined solely to the political and economic field, but also cover the 47 cultural and social fields." There was a need, therefore, to
45 For a further historical analysis, documentation and bibliography of the Non-aligned movement Cf. ,A.W. Singham and Tran Van Dinh, From Bandung to Colombo: Conferences of the Non-Aligned Countries, 1955-1975 New York: Third Press Review, 1976).
46Afro-Asian People's Solidarity Conference, Cairo, Egypt, December 26, 1957 to January 1, 1958" (Moscow: Foreign Language Publishing House, 1958), pp. 257-263. 47 Singham and Van Dinh, p. 161. -129- reaffirm national cultural identity, and eliminate the harmful con¬ sequences of the colonial era. In Chapter XIII of the Action Program for Economic Cooperation, the conference unanimously approved a recom¬ mendation for concerted action in the field of mass communication which included the need, among other things:
a) to revise the cable tariffs for the press and to facilitate more economical and faster intercommunications;
b) to cooperate in the reorganization of communication channels which are still dependent or which constitute a colonial inheritance and obstruct direct and rapid communications among non-aligned countries ;
c) to exchange and disseminate information on mutual national achievements through newspapers, radio, T.V. and other new com¬ munication media;
d) to share experiences in connection of information media by organizing reciprocal visits of delegations of experts in informa¬ tion media...;
e) to adopt urgent measures to accelerate the process of collective acquisition of communication satellites and to prepare a code of conduct which regulates their utilization;
f) to program a joint action before the Secretary General of the U.N. so that a special chair on the policy of Non-alignment within the proposed U.N. University might be created and, in the same manner, to foster similar studies in J;ge universities and insti¬ tutions of the non-aligned countries.
This Chapter (XIII) was carried over to subsequent non-aligned meetings in Belgrade (May 1975) and Lima, Peru (August 1975) and formulated into
Resolution VI on "Cooperation in the Field of Information and Mass
Communicaticrf with eighty-one countries'signatures. One of the immediate and most significant consequences of these efforts was the creation of a pool of news agencies of non-aligned nations. The Yugoslavian agency,
TANJUNG, was placed in charge of its creation, initially linking together
48 Ibid., p. 181. -130- eleven national agencies with the goal of "decolonizing" world news. 49
Paralleling the developments within the non-aligned movement,
UNESCO began to shift from an emphasis on the free flow of information toward a "balanced flow of information" in its research, documentation and policy directives. At the 18th Session of the UNESCO General
Conference in 1974, a Soviet Union initiative led to the introduction of a draft declaration on "The Fundamental Principles Governing the Use of the Mass Media."50 Speakers and representatives from the Third World quickly aligned with the draft and stressed the need for a multidirect¬ ional flow of international information. Moreover, a virulent verbal attack was waged against the Western media representatives who were accused of sowing the seeds of national hatred, offending national feelings and conducting intolerent campaigns against national minorities and liberation struggles. Such media were criti¬ cized for not contributing to international understanding and mutual re¬ spect as suggested in UNESCO's Charter because they failed both to understand and report the legitimate concerns and aspirations of other countries and nations.
As a remedy, many felt that countries should have the right
49 Pero Ivacic, "The Non-Aligned Countries Pool Their News," UNESCO Courier (April 1977): 18-20.
^UNESCO Reports: Programme Commissions, Administrative Commission and Legal Committee, Records of the General Conference, 18th Session, Paris, October 17-November 23, 1974 (Paris, France: UNESCO Publishing, 1976), p. 127. -131- to take specific measures to protect themselves against mass media that do not act responsibly; that the state of each nation has an under¬ lying responsibility to protect its inhabitants from the self-serving private interest of foreign media monopolies; and that an international code of ethics for journalists was necessary not only nationally, but also to help determine the responsibilities of these media in the inter¬ national sphere.5"1
THE KISSINGER IMPASSE
The U.S. government strongly opposed the draft declaration in 1974 and a revised edition presented at the 1976 session at Nairobi, Kenya.
Due to this opposition of the U.S., a few of its Western allies and rep¬ resentatives of Western media associations, a showdown was averted in .
Nairobi by referring the issue to a special committee which recommended that the Director General present a revised draft based on broad con- sultation to the 20th General Conference to be held in Paris in 1978. 52
(See Appendix E for the full text of the revised draft.) From the U.S. perspective the very title of the declaration disclosed its bias: "Draft
Declaration on Fundamental Principles Governing the Use of Mass Media in
Strengthening Peace and International Understanding in Combating
Propaganda, Racism and Apartheid." Yet, instead of coming with a battle axe to the Nairobi meeting of
UNESCO, Henry Kissenger (by then Secretary of State under the Ford Administration) offered a peace pipe to the Third World. The U.S. would
„Ibid., p. 126. "of. UNESCO, Records of the General Conference, 19th Session, Nairobi, 26 October to 30 November, 1976 Volume I, Resolutions Iter. 4.14 "Free Flow of Information & Communication Policies," Paris, France Place de Fontenoy, p. 53. -132-
recognize that the Third World had legitimate claims in the sphere of
information and would accept the validity of some of the proposals aimed
at addressing them, such as the recently created Non-Aligned Agency
Distribution Pool controlled by state agencies. In exchange, however,
UNESCO would have to reincorporate the principle of free flow of informa¬
tion and shelve all proposals from the socialist camp and non-aligned movement regarding the "content" of international communication.
Specifically, the notion suggesting that states take any responsibility
for messages that leave their borders—with the exception of communica- 53 tion that incites war or racism—should be forgotten. As expressed by
Leonard H. Marks, former Director of the U.S. Information Agency:
...those that favor that provision contend that a journalist should serve the interests of his state in supporting official political, economic and moral objectives... Our view, (that is) those who support the free flow of information, defend the philosophy of a free expression of ideas. We assert that a journalist performs not as a mouthpiece for the state but as an independent voice reputing freely with the right to criticize actions of the state.
Publicly the U.S. denounced the criteria of Article XII of the
^Here Kissinger was referring to the provisions of Article XII which expressed that "...states are responsible for the activities in the international spere of all mass media under their jurisdiction." This Article was indeed dropped from the final draft of the Declaration to ap¬ pease the American delegation. Cf. Judy Butler coordinator "Let a Hundred Issues Bloom," in The North American Congress on Latin America (NQCLA) Vol. XVI, No. 4 July/August, 1982: 25. 4Leonard H. Marks, Statement before a hearing of the Subcommittee on International Operations of the Committee on Foreign Relations. U.S. Senate, 95the Congress, 1st Session on the "Implications of International Communications and Information: Overview and International Security," June 8, 1977 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1978). -133- declaration again as an attack on the First Amendment rights of the U.S.
Constitution and the beginnings of a Soviet-inspired international
censorship movement. Moreover, in Nairobi, Kissinger set the framework
for a policy toward the call for a new world information order that would 55 later be adopted by the Carter Administration. The U.S. was prepared
to pay lip-service to developing countries on the establishment of
centers for journalistic training; in the teaching of personnel; and the
adaption of U.S. governmental satellite programs (i.e., COMSAT) to Third
World needs for dissemination of education programming to people in re¬
mote rural areas. The offer also extended to the support of special
courses for technological training both in U.S. centers and similar
institutions in the developing world.
As a result of these proposals (which were later incorporated into
the U.S.-proposed International Program for the Development of Communica¬
tion [IPDC ] at the 1978 UNESCO General Conference) a revised draft
version of the declaration of the use of the mass media prepared by the
U.S. and its allies gained broad support and eventually consensus adoption. Gone from the original draft declaration, however, were all
mentions of government control, replaced by affirmations of freedom and
diversity in the flow and exchange of information.
5Cf. the discussion of U.S. proposals offered to UNESCO by George A. Dailey, Dept. Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs. UNESCO and Freedom of Information, Hearing before the Subcommittee on International Organization of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, U.S. House of Representatives, 96th Congress, 1st Session, July 19, 1979 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office 1979), pp. 9-14. -134-
There was also an encouragement of nations toward action in increasing the ability of all people to participate in the "benefits" from the 56 new communication technology, but not in control.
A simultaneous development, though not directly related to the U.S. initiatives, was the establishment in 1976 of the International Com¬ mission for the Study of Communications Problems. (The MacBride Com¬ mission, named after its chairman, Irish statesman, Nobel and Lenin
Peace Prize Recipient Sean MacBride.) Conceived by UNESCO Director
General M'Bow as a consequence of the Nairobi media debates, the sixteen member group was directed to conduct a two-year study of the "totality" of communication problems in the modern world.
No sooner had the U.S. negotiated a temporary impasse than progressive elements mxnted a new attack. The assault came within the context of what many termed the first comprehensive analysis on the dimensions of the new world information order by the Tunisian permanent delegate to
UNESCO and immediate past chairman of the Coordinating Council for
Information of the Non-Aligned Countries, Mustapha Masmoudi. At the re¬ quest of the Non-Aligned Countries Information Council meeting in Havana,
Cuba, in April 1978, Masmoudi was asked to synthesize all the media concerns of the non-aligned movement into a paper to be presented by
Masmoudi to UNESCO, the United Nations and International Telecommunica¬ tions Unions and other related interested forums. A group of media specialists from various sectors of the Third World were brought to Tunis to assist Masmoudi in the undertaking and the combined effort resulted in
56UNESC0, Records of the General Conference 20th Session, Paris, 24 October to 28 November, 1978. Volume I Resolutions. Paris, France: 7 Place de Fontenoy UNESCO; 1979: pp. 102-104. -135- an articulate discussion of the political, legalistic , and technical parameters of the quest of a new world information order.57
The projection of Masmoudi's analysis and person into the MacBride Commission thrust the issue into the forefront of the international agenda and signalled the start of a full-fledged campaign to bring the new
international system into being (in spite of U.S. efforts to the contrary).
The wide-ranging and critical analysis of Masmoudi drew together in
one package nearly every grievance the Third World and the socialist camp
had raised over the past two decades about the disparities and inequities
in world communications and set forth every remedy the developing
countries perceived to be in their own best interest. The major com¬
plaints advanced were:
1. A flagrant quantitative imbalance (of news flowing) between North & South.
2. An inequality in information resources.
3. A de facto hegemony & a will to dominate.
A. A lack of information on developing countries.
5. Survival of the colonial era...information system(s).
6. An alienating influence in the economic, social & cultural spheres.
7. Messages i^-suited to the areas in which they are dis¬ seminated.
These complaints formed the basis of a series of demands, the most
important of which called for: ...Throwing off the dominance of transnational corporations as vestiges of colonialism and as threats to sovereign cultural in¬ tegrity;
57Masmoudi, pp. 172-198. Ibid., p. 172-174. -136- .. .establishing independence and equity in access to global com¬ munication resources;
...expansion of assistance programs to speed communications development; ...promotion of the Non-Aligned News Agency Pool;
...imposition of duties, encumbrances, and responsibilities upon the media;
...a mandated right to reply when inaccuracies in the media are alleged;
...legitimizing limitations of access to news sources;
...the right to censor or restrict the flow of information across national borders; and
...the establishment of a supranational tribunal to monitor media behavior.
The U.S. response to Masmoudi's analysis was expectedly hostile.
"How should the United States react to the Third World campaign for a new world information order?" George A. Dailey rhetorically asked the House
Subcommittee on International Organizations. "First," Dailey advised,
"we must make others understand that the NWIO as proposed by Masmoudi and other militant spokesmen is not acceptable to the U.S."6^ Dailey then went on to delve into the heart of U.S. resistance to the efforts by
UNESCO and the non-aligned movement by asserting that:
The full realization of this concept could have profound con¬ sequences for the United States—not just for the media industry but also for business, government, and national security. It could lead to the loss of slots in the electronic spectrum, thus reducing the amount of information about the world upon which we g^ly for decision-making in every aspect of a democratic society.
59,, Ibid., pp. 178-179.
^Dailey, p. 12. 61 , . , xIbid., p. 11. -137-
While the U.S. policy-makers could allow themselves to at least conceptually approve of a NWIO that in practice did not yet exist, they could not adhere to concrete steps (i.e., such as reducing the dominance of multinational corporations and restricting the amount and type of in¬ formation flowing into and out of the U.S.)that would bring such an order to reality). Technological transfer proposals were seen as positive by the United States because not only would they serve as a mechanism to dole out obsolete telecommunication equipment at cost, but also most transfers would require U.S. experts and technicians to operate the equipment. At the same time, the control of the production of the technical means of communications, and the circulation of printed, audio and visual information would still remain in the hands of multinationals.
"While the discussion goes on about the disproportion of the information flow or the manipulation of content," argued Cuban special representative to UNESCO, Enrique Gonzalez Manet, "gigantic transnationals monopolize at a world level, the technology of micro-processors, satellite trans¬ missions, fiber optics, data banks, computer fabrication and logistical 62 instruments."
Instant information acquired by the U.S.-controlled communication networks on economic and political developments, opposition movements, population increases, investment opportunities, production imports and and exports, currency and commodity prices, and stock market quotations
62 Enrique Gonzalez Manet quote in "Let A Hundred Issues Bloom," Special Report on "Toward A New Information Order" Coordinated by Judy Butler for NACLA, Volume 16, No. 4 (July-August 1982): 25. -138- would all be in jeopardy if a "new order" were achieved. All the above- mentioned types of information can be controlled through micro-optic fiber cable lines or from direct broadcasting satellites using ultra and very high frequency levels of the electronic spectrum to transmit data. Other
types of satellite detectors are able to pinpoint underground and deep
sea mineral resources or above ground military installations, all un¬
beknownst to the country or geo-political region in question. Thus to challenge
the structure of this arrangement to any significant degree, was, in
fact, challenging the future survival and expansion of the American corp¬
orate empire of which the information sector has become the vital link
that holds all facets together.
In concluding his analysis, nonetheless, Masmoudi clearly initiated
the challenge. His final comments on technical and financial obstacles
to creating a new world information order linked the problem to unequal
exchange in international economic relations between the industrialized
and underdeveloped nations. In Masmoudi's view:
...the technical advances achieved during the recent decades in all sectors of economic activity have not been equitably distributed between members of the economic community. The income of the developing countries, in which 75 percent of the world's population is concentrated, at present represents only 30 percent of world income... The developing countries' share in world trade, already limited to 32 percent in 1950, has continued to diminish, dropping to a mere 17 percent...The deterioration in trade...has been at¬ tended by a considerable increase in the Third World's debt, which rose to $233,000 million in 1977. These phenomena were perceived by the developing countries as a continuation of political hegemony and an expression of the will to pursue neo-colonialist exploita¬ tion. Conscious of the grave implications of this ever-widening gulf...the United Nations proclaimed on May 1, 1974, the common determination to undertake the urgent task of establishing a new international economic order...capable of redressing, the flagrant inequalities of the present system. However, the failure of these appeals for equity to produce a response or to gain a hearing has soon proved their essential inefficacy. The media have even con¬ ditioned public opinion in the developed countries to such an ex- -139-
tent as to render it allergic to all claims and demands emanating from the Third World... Accordingly, the establishment of a new world information order must be considered as the essential corollary of the new international economic order. In order to give concrete reality to this new approach and to enable the media to ful¬ fill their task of educating and informing, measures must be taken both by the industrial and developing countries...to familiarize pub^c opinion with change and to promote a responsive awareness of
In response to Masmoudi's analysis the U.S. rather arrogantly re¬ surrected a sort of "white-man's burden" analogy to allay any fears among concerned Congressmen about the threat of the challenge posed by the debate at UNESCO. Acknowledging the tremendous gap in the ability of the advanced nations to participate in the international flow of information and the utter and dire dependency of the Third World in this area, G.A.
Dailey informed House committee members that:
...more and more Third World spokesmen recognize that it will require far more than denunciatory rhetoric and moral indignation, in particular, it will require the cooperation and involvement of the countries with advanced technological capacities—especially the United States, which is still regarded as the principal source of technical assistance. Accordingly, the developing countries—no matter what they may say for political effect—realize that if they are ever to achieve a significant improvement in their communica¬ tion capacities they need all the help and assistance they can manage from the U.S Given this circumstance, it is useful to keep pointing out to the leadership of the NWIO that the strident voicing of extreme positions is "off-putting" to those in the developed world who are in any way predisposed to respond sympathe¬ tically to thg^r more reasonable concerns and it erodes the climate of consensus.
Still the struggle was to continue. The Third World was well-aware that they were, as Indira Ghandi suggested, "...all foster children of
Western technology.1,65
63 ,,Masmoudi, 178. ^Dailey, p. 12 ^Prime Minister Indira Ghandi, Address given at a banquet in her honor by President Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, Dar es Salaam, October 17,1976,quoted in India News (Washington, D.C. : Embassy of India Information Service Publishers, October 22, 1976). -1 AO-
But , they were not as yet ready and willing to give up completely.
After the Nairobi impasse, Western diplomats and media advocates did their best to play down the implications of the Declaration on the Media
(finally endorsed in November 1978 by UNESCO's 146 member-states), and deflect its substance with offers of practical assistance to in¬ frastructures, training, and material and personnel needs of the develop¬ ing countries. However, the idea of such a Declaration and its central substance still corresponded to the fundamental interests of those who mounted the initiative.
Politically, legally, and even philosophically, it was indeed significant that the Declaration became the first official U.N. document which broadly defined the tasks, rights, and responsibilities of the mass media. Not only did it lay down general principles for mass media act¬ ivities (vague, as they may be), but it also set standards for media con¬ tent—a virtual taboo within the Western liberal tradition but central to the demands of developing and socialist countries. A similarly vital aspect of the Declaration is that it placed the mass media—content, rights and responsibilities—within a general framework of interstate relations and international law, especially in the preamble. Thus the final text indicates that the Western counter-move did not stop the ini¬ tial demands of the developing countries but did serve as a tactical means to moderate the forces challenging the existing order. In December 1976, when the "Nairobi version" of the declaration, including the much con¬ tested Article XII on "state responsibility" was presented in Paris,
Western journalists tended to greet with outraged disbelief complaints about the imbalances in the international flow of news. By 1978 this had become an accepted cliche. In 1975, most found it impossible to accept -141- complaints about Western "perspectives" in reporting the Third World as anything but governments' desires to have propaganda spread around in place of news. By 1978 the Western media were looking much more skeptically and self-critically at their own performance. In 1975, the non-aligned nations' efforts to exchange news through national agencies of their own were attacked as first steps toward censorship. By 1978, although the actual practices of these agencies were criticized, the right of developing countries to build up their own media was recognized as was the contribution and perhaps even benefits that could be derived by the West if it took the leadership in facilitating the process.
One of the clearest indications of the latter trend was the found¬ ing in 1976 of the World Press Freedom Committee. This U.S.-based organization was created to coordinate the efforts of thirty-four private sector media organizations which developed a pool of over 900 consultants and by August of 1979 had already sent thirty-five members abroad to work with Third World journalists.66 From a $500,000 fund contributed by newspaper and broadcast stations, the committee had already spent over
$240,000, mostly for training programs on the three continents of Asia,
Africa, and Latin America. Under the chairmanship of the Associate
Publisher of the Miami Herald, George Beebe, the committee appeared to be facilitating a virtual coup d'etat of UNESCO agreements. The Associated
Press, for example, began providing consultants and training journalist
66The Media Crisis...Published by the World Press Freedom Committee, Rex Rand Fund (1981), pp. 107-108. -142- from countries such as Nigeria, Ghana, and Indonesia. The United Press
International also began a Third World journalists training component and consultation with a Norwegian firm in developing a communication system in Saudi Arabia.67 Thus both wire services began a consistent drive to organize the news agencies of developing countries. As noted by Frank Tremine, UPI Senior Vice President, "We would prefer that such agencies be independent rather than controlled and/or supported by their governments. However, we also recognize that in many parts of the world today, this is impractical both economically and politically." ®
An underlying concern of the WPFC, however, was the nature of the final report to be submitted by the MacBride Commission at the 1980
UNESCO General Conference in Belgrade. State control measures proposed in the Commission's 1979 interim report elicited strong protests against
Western news organizations and governments. Thus, at the University of
Georgia (December 12-15, 1979) the WPFC, in conjunction with the U.S.
National Commission for UNESCO, conducted a special conference of U.S. media specialists in an attempt to devise "...an American agenda for a 69 new, and more effective world order of communications."
67Warren K. Agee, "State Control Would Restrict the Media's Freedom", The Atlanta Journal and Constitution (Sunday, August 19, 1979), 24-C. 68 Ibid. 69 Ibid. CHAPTER VI
BELGRADE AND BEYOND: REAGANOMICS, INFORMATICS AND THE CRISIS OF THE NWICO
INTRODUCTION
The latter months of 1980 were to mark a fundamental shift in the public posture of the United States toward UNESCO and the proposed
NWICO. The election of a former Hollywood actor to the U.S. Presidency on the wave of what came to be called the "Moral Majority" ushered in an ultra-conservative perspective on world affairs, forcing the "trilateria- 1 list" strategies of the Kissinger-Carter era to the back of the bus.
During the final week of October, the 21st Session of UNESCO at
Belgrade passed a series of resolutions that marked the successful out¬ come of what had been primarily a U.S. initiative begun at the 20th
General Conference two years earlier. Most important among these re¬ solutions was the adoption of the International Program for Development 2 of Communication. The IPDC was designed to serve as an international
i For an excellent analysis of the commonalities and continuity of foreign policy during the Kissinger years as Secretary of State and the Carter Administration which included the likes of Zbingniew Brzezinski, Cyrus Vance, Walter Mondale and Andrew Young, Cf. the work of Holly Sklar (ed). Trilaterialism: The Trialterial Commission and Elite Planning for World Management (Boston, Mass.: South End Press, 1980). zSee Appendix for the full text of the resolution in Record of the UNESCO General Conference, 21st Session, Belgrade, September 23-0ctober 28, 1980, Volume 1, Resolutions. -143- -144- clearinghouse for communications development needs, resources and priorities that would permit public and private sectors in both develop¬ ing and developed countries to cooperate more effectively in the field.
"Its primary function," as suggested by William G. Harley, member of the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO, "will be to gather and ex¬ change information and arrange consultations in respect to improving communication systems and services in developing countries.3
The IPDC was the result of a compromise between two specific proposals offered at a 1979 UNESCO meeting of thirty-five delegates 4 from representative member-states held in Washington, D.C. Both proposals were amplifications of draft resolutions introduced at
UNESCO's 20th General Conference by Roland Hornet (of the United States) and Mustapha Masmoudi (Tunisia). The stated two-fold objective of the
U.S. proposal for a Communications Development Consultative Group, was: a) to encourage and emphasize self-reliance, so that technical coopera¬ tion in the field of communication would reflect a genuine partnership between developed and developing countries; and b) to upgrade the status of communication developed to afford access to the general pool of resources.3 The Tunisian proposal for an International Institute for Informa¬ tion and Communication called for the establishment within UNESCO of an
^William G. Harley, "The U.S. Stake in the IPDC," Journal of Communications (Autumn 1981): 150.
4Ibid., p. 151.
5Ibid. -145- autonomous center administered by a Board of Directors of sixteen members. This board was to serve in a personal capacity and be headed by a director appointed by the Director General of UNESCO. This institute would combine the concepts of an international fund, a plan¬ ning body, implementation and training, and a center for applied re¬ search on communication development.
"The most significant difference between the two proposals was," suggests Harley," that the Institute, (as conceived by Masmoudi,) would be solely sponsored by UNESCO and would establish and manage an in¬ ternational fund."6 The U.S.-proposed Consultative Group, on the other hand, "...would have multi-agency sponsorship, with administrative cost underwritten by the sponsors, and project funding would come through voluntary contributions from governments, international agencies, foundations, industry and other private sources."7 Despite the U.S. desire for multi-agency management and greater emphasis on bilateral aid coordination, the Masmoudi proposal was adopted as Recommendation 78 of g the MacBride Commission final report on November 30, 1979. Unsatis¬ fied with this setback, the U.S. re-ignited the debate at the UNESCO
Intergovernmental Meeting on Communication Development Assistance in
Paris in April, 1980. When it became clear that the U.S. proposal for
6Ibid., p. 152. oIbid. See Appendix F for the full text of the MacBride Commission Report: Part V: Communication Tomorrow: Conclusions and Recommendation Social Consequences and New Tasks; Professional Integrity,- and Standards Democratization of Communications; Fostering International Cooperation; and Issues Requiring Further Study. -146- an autonomous operation was not winning support, emphasis was shifted toward attempting to persuade American allies and "moderates" in the group of non-aligned nations to seek a compromise formula that would 9 preserve as many of America's key concerns as possible.
The consensus document that emerged at Belgrade in September 1980, called for establishing the IPDC within the framework of UNESCO but also included a number of provisions or safeguards to appease the U.S. delegates. Among these include:
1) Participation is provided for U.N. agencies, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, and professional groups to be "closely associated with the UNESCO program" in an " institutional framework."
2) The Program will be directed by an Intergovernmental Council composed of thirty-five member-states elected by and responsible to the General Conference.
3) Priority will be given to seeking a consensus in deliberations of the Intergovernmental Council. (This means that the council will not act by simple majority rule, and provides some guarantee for protection of minority interests.)
4) The director of the program will be appointed by the Director General of UNESCO, on the recommendation of the Intergovernmental Council (allow¬ ing the council to nominate the candidates from among whom the Director General must make the appointment).
5) An appropriate system of resources and finances should be established and the Director General is requested "to mobilize the resources needed for the program and^to seek contributions from member-states and other parties concerned."
No mention is made of an international fund or even a pledging conference.
Thus, the IPDC emerged as the cornerstone of how the U.S. would, at least
9 Harley, op. cit., p. 152.
10 Hurley, p. 153. Also see Appendix for the full text of the Belgrade Resolutions. -147- publicly, approach the challenge posed by the quest for a new world in¬ formation and communication order.
In a word of caution Hurley urged that the U.S. and its allies must see that the IPDC moves from the start in a positive and con¬ structive manner. If the developed countries are to exert leadership in international communication, he added:
...useful and substantial contributions must be seen to come early on'from both the public and private sector in these countries. Contributions announced so far include: Netherlands $600,000; India $100,000; Iraq $100,000, and Mexico $500,000. Failure by the U.S. to support the IPDC will be seen as proving hypocrisy in its public statements, lacking of sympathy for developing countries, and a determination to protect and maintain a dominant role for Western commercial communication interest. Thus the IPDC concept might well fall into the hands of those who would destroy it to serve anti-free press purposes. In particular, perceptions by the Third World of reluctance to support the IPDC may well lead to further efforts within UNESCO to enact international restric¬ tions and restraints on the m^cjlia of the West, as well as similar responses at national levels.
THE "VOICES OF LIBERTY"?
Despite the cautionary note by Harley, however, the direction of
U.S. policy began a sharp turn for the worse. In fact, before the first
IPDC organizational meeting could be held in Paris (June 15-22, 1981), a counter-offensive emerged within the new Reagan Administration with the specific purpose of formulating a hardline opposition to IPDC, the
MacBride Report, the NWICO, and UNESCO in general.
Encouraged by the resurrected atmosphere of cold war by then
Secretary of State, Alexander Haig and the Reagan Administration as a whole, conservative representatives of various world news organizations drew up a counter-proposal to the NWICO entitled: ,fVoices of Liberty.” 12
l^lbid. ,p. Î3D ^Adopted in Talloires, France, May 17, 1981. See Appendix B for full text of the "Declaration of Independent News Organizations on Freedom of the Press." -148-
For the first time in history Western newspaper associations and broad¬
casting networks took what was projected as a collective stand against
the efforts at UNESCO to arrive at a balance in the flow of international
information.
Organized by the World Press Freedom Committee and the Fletcher
School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, some sixty leaders of
print and broadcasting organizations from twenty countries called attention
to press freedom as "a basic human right," and pledged that they were
resolved to resist "any encroachment" on it. Although they also pledged
to expand the free flow of information worldwide with the support of in¬
ternational bodies, governments and private agencies, they termed the re¬
cent trends of UNESCO "...as a politically motivated attempt by the
Soviet Union and its Third World allies to legitimize government control
of information and undermine international respect for Western press
freedom." 13 In particular, they opposed the plans of UNESCO to "license"
journalists by issuing them special identity cards; they opposed calls
for UNESCO to draw up an international code of journalistic ethics,
saying that such codes should only be formulated by the press itself and
must be voluntary; they called for the abolition of all censorship,
noting that the "people's right to news and information must not be
abridged", and demanded that journalists have access, by right, to all sources of news and information, including people who disagree with a
13 Paul Lewis, "West's News Organizations Vow to Fight UNESCO on Press Curbs," The New York Times (May 18, 1981, 1981), p. 1. -149- 14 government's policy.
Nontheless, the consensus atmosphere of the meeting split when
Murry J. Grant, editor of the Washington Star called for free news organizations to urge their respective governments to withdraw from
UNESCO if it pushed ahead with plans for NWICO. Many representatives of European and Third World news organizations said they could not support an effort to entice government withdrawal from a world body simply because its decisions did not please a small minority. To this we micfit also note that the apparent or projected notion of collectivity was significantly diminished by the absence from the Talloires con¬ ference of any representatives from the International Federation of
Journalists. The IFJ had grown to represent most of Europe's journalist unions. Although invited, the IFJ declined to attend because they, in
Lewis' view, "...had taken an ambiguous stand on the New World
Information Order because many of its Scandinavian and Dutch members 15 tend to sympathize with it."
Nonethless, the development of a comprehensive strategy at
Talloires by American representatives had been encouraged by signals from Reagan officials that they wanted a direct confrontation on these issues consonant with their approach on all fronts of international relations.
^A summary of many of the opinions expressed at the Talloires conference were combined in the context of the World Press Freedom Committee publication The Media Crisis...(Miami, Florida, 1981). 15 Lewis, p. 4. -150-
Understanding clearly the crucial role of information in the creation of a cold war atmosphere, Reagan was precise in what he expected to achieve. While energetically cutting back the domestic budget for many social programs, the White House pushed for increased funding for the
Voice of America and the Defense Department's telecommunications, electronic and information expenses. Under the guidance of Charles Wick of the International Communication Agency (ICA), a coordinated campaign was launched involving different department offices in the State Depart¬ ment which led to a briefing by Alexander Haig to the American Newspaper
Publishers Association. This effort was joined by the World Press Freedom
Committee's development of opposition plans to UNESCO and other "like- minded" institutions (i.e., the U.N.) coordinated by George Beebe and
Leonard Mark (former director of USIA, predecessor to the ICA). The
Talloires meeting was followed by Vice President Bush's attendance at the United Nations Association Banquet where the ex-msmber of the
Trilateral Commission, former CIA Director and U.N. Ambassador warned that the
United Nations should cease to be a podium from which a radical nation or movement can make propaganda. He also advised UNESCO to put an end to its efforts to set guidelines for the press, adding that efforts to establish "international censorship" was a matter that had strong opposition from President Reagan. 16
16 Fernando Reges, "The Talloires Counteroffensive: A Matter of High Politics," a presentation on Communications in the North-South Dialogue to a seminar sponsored by CIESPAL, ILDIS and Fredrick Ebert Foundation, Quito, Ecuador, November 10-13, 1981. -151- Within the United States Congress a similar campaign was launched.
Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY) introduced a sense-of-the-Senate resolution, approved 99-0, threatening UNESCO with economic blackmail if it committed funds to programs (such as the IPDC) deemed detrimental to the free flow of news and information. By a vote of 372 to 19, a similar threat emanated from the House to discourage UNESCO from putting into effect a "policy of journalistic suppression." Furthermore, as noted by
Leonard R. Sussman:
...Congress made its views clear when it amended the State Depart¬ ment authorization bill in October 1981. It passed the Beard Amendment that would deprive UNESCO of all United States funding "if that organization implements any policy or procedure the effect of which is to license journalists or their publications, to censor or otherwise restrict the free flow of information within or among countries or to impose mandatory codes of journalistic practice or ethics." The Secretary of State was instructed to tell Congress by February 1 whether UNESCO had taken such actions...
A second act, the Shamansky-Fenwich Amendment, requires the President to assess for Congress the value of UNESCO's total program in light of United States interests, and the "quality" of United States participation and representation in UNESCO.
To underscore his concern, President Reagan wrote to the House of
Representatives that it was "worrisome" that the right to personal freedom of opinion and expression and the transmission of information— vouch-safed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights—should come
17 Leonard R. Sussman, "Information Control as an International Issue" in Gerald Benjamin (ed.) The Communications Revolution in Politics, Volume 34, No. 4, (1982), p. 184. -152- under attack in UNESCO. Reagan concluded that, "we do not feel we can continue to support a UNESCO that turns its back on the high purposes 18 this organization was orginally intended to serve."
Perhaps what Reagan had in mind as an example of free flow were two new projects designed to enlist the International Communication
Agency as a leading combatant in the new cold war. One such program authorized by Reagan in August 1981, was termed "Project Truth," which, according to a memo written November 5, 1981, by project director John
Hughes, was designed specifically to refute "misleading Soviet propaganda and disinformation and undermine the Soviet threat to the stability and 19 security of various areas in the world." The program would be geared toward responding rapidly to "the Soviet-threat" by using all the re¬ sources currently available to the ICA to highlight positive aspects of the capitalist systems and the weaknesses of Marxist societies.
At the same time, the Reagan administration had moved to set up
"Radio Marti," not under the ICA jurisidiction, but designed to broad¬ cast anti-Castro propaganda to the Cuban people. Reagan asked Congress to appropriate $10 million for the operation modeled after Radio Free
Europe and designed to "tell the truth" to the Cuban people about their government's domestic mismanagement and its promotion of subversion and international terrorism. It will tell the Cuban people what these acts 20 cost in terms of living standards for them.
18 Ronald Reagan to Thomas P. O'Neill, Congressional Record, (September 17, 1981), p. H-349. 19 Sam Zuckerman, "U.S. Propaganda Plans Attacked," The Guardian (December 9, 1981), p. 4. 20 Ibid. -153-
As for the cautionary note by Hurley on the importance of U.S. contributions to the IPDC, the note, like other promises became a "dream deferred." The Reagan administration instructed a U.S. special delega¬ tion to UNESCO to draw out the debate on how funds would be channelled to recipient nations until a compromise could be struck. A solution was reached at the Acapulco, Mexico IPDC organizational meeting (July 26-
August 6, 1982). The U.S., for its part, pledged a sum of $650,000 over a two year period for IPDC projects. None of the projects involved news gathering or transmission, however, and all had to be directed by the 21 U.S. Agency of International Development. Most attendants were skep¬ tical about the sincerity of this pledge and the strings attached, be¬ cause the U.S. still had not implemented a previous pledge made in 1979
to bring teams of twelve Third World journalists to the U.S. for intern¬ ships on various newspapers. An ad hoc group set up by the American
Society of News Editors to conduct this program was supposedly attempting
to collect $100,000 or so necessary to finance the program for the first 22 twelve journalists.
A general conciliatory, but still skeptical, mood was also evident
at the outset of a UNESCO meeting in Paris in December 1981.
21 Kevin J. Kelly, "Third World Pushes Again for 'New Information Order,'" The Guardian (July 13, 1983), p. 16. See also Bernard Weinraub, "Dispute Over Broadcast to Cuba Intensifies as Antennas Are Built." The New York Time (July 27, 1982), p. 11. 22 Ibid., p. 17. -154-
Delegates from the developing countries acquiesced to more than sixty
Western-sponsored amendments to conference resolutions. Animosity grew, however, during a protracted debate over a declaration supported by the
Third World which stated that "...The international community cannot ignore the problem of the content of messages which are potentially the greatest significance to the future development of people and indeed all 23 mankind." This seemingly innocuous formulation brought strong op¬ position from u.S. representatives who objected to the "content of message" phrase which they believed would encourage attempts to regulate the sub¬ stance of news reports.
Western refusals to budge on such a seemingly minor point after repeated concessions by the Third World prompted a sharp rebuke from
UNESCO Director General Amadou Mahtar M'Bow of Senegal. "If the informa¬ tion media have the freedom to say what they like," M'Bow declared,
"then others have the right to judge what they say." 24
M'Bow asked Western representatives to recall the "Mexico City
Declaration on Cultural Policies" of which they were signatories that stated:
The modern communication media should facilitate objective information...without detriment to the freedom of creativity and cultural identity of nations... Technological progress of the last few years has led to the expansion of cultural industries. Although prodigiously increasing the dissemination of cultural goods, these industries can, nevertheless, become instruments of cultural dependence and alienation...if, whatever the way in which they are organized and controlled, they disregard the tradi¬ tional values of society and kindle hopes and aspirations which are not in keeping with the actual needs of its development.
?AIbid., p. 16. 2clbid., p. 17. "Mexico City Declaration on Cultural Policies," World Conference on Cultural Policies, Mexico, July 26-August 6, 1982 (Paris, France, UNESCO Publishing, 1983), p. 7. -155-
But the Western intransigence refused to budge. In response the
UNESCO majority tentatively adopted in April 1983 a 1984-85 budget plan
for the agency making references to studies on "codes of conduct" for
journalists. Director General M'Bow followed with an announcement that
he would commission a special study of Western press coverage of all
future UNESCO meetings to determine whether the "content" of this co- 26 verage accurately reflected the proceedings of the General Conference. Although the lines of battle had been clearly drawn, the U.S. found
a unique opportunity to further outline its agenda at the conference of
the IPDC in Tashkent, U.S.S.R. (September 1-15, 1983). Perhaps it was
because of the location that the U.S. took an initial about-face, praising
and commending the concept of the IPDC as a movement toward "...an ef¬
fective and important arena for forwarding the goals of international " 27 communications assistance. As Ambassador Dougan's opening presenta¬
tion to the conference went on, however, the modus operandi became
evident. The Reagan Administration was prepared to nearly double its
initial pledge to the IPDC of $550,000 to a total of $850,000 in 1984.
The funds could be converted to other countries as needed but $350,000
would have to be drawn from funds in trust (based upon agreed upon pro¬
posals approved by the U.S. National Commission to UNESCO). The other
$500,000 would be used to support IPDC projects "...consistent with the
26Kelly, op. cit., p. 17. 27 Ambassador Diana Lady Dougan, Head of the U.S. Delegation to the Conference of the International Program for Development of Communication (IPDC). Opening statement, September 5, 1983. U.S. Department of State, International Communications Assistance (Washington, D.C.: Bureau of Public Affairs, Public Information Series), p. 1. -156- overall objectives of the U.S. Agency for International Development
(AID)." Of this amount, $300,000 could only be used when tied to match- ing funds to projects supported by other donors. 28 "More significant,"
Dougan declared:
...is the increased interest of the U.S. private sector... the U.S. Council for World Communication Year, a private sector organization representing 109 corporations, associations and universities, has undertaken the responsibility for coordinating nongovernment support for IPDC... In fact, the great majority of U.S. assistance to date continues through channels established long before the IPDC was created... The private sector...is the very core of our society and the driving force for whatever we as a nation have been able to accomplish...particularly in the area of communication, it is not government entities which have re¬ searched and created the technology which has contributed so dramatically to the advent of satellites, telephone, and computer technology... It has been in large measures the creativity_Qf individuals and small, as well as large, private companies.
Indicative of what the U.S. had to offer Dougan noted the following programs:
1) The 1982 AID traditional assistance programs which obligated more than $91 million to projects around the world to assist in the development of communication infrastructures including the application of radio, satellite and other telecommunication technologies in support of economic development, agricultural growth, health care, and education.
2) The U.S. Telecommunications Training Institute, a joint governmental-private sector initiative launched in 1982 at the plenipotentionary meeting of the International Telecommunication Union in Nairobi. After only one year in operation the program completed its summer semester courses in which 106 professionals and technicians from 54 countries participated in free training con¬ ducted by U.S. telecommunication industry specialists.
3) IBM Corporation, in partnership with the governments of Antigua and Bermuda, has established a prototype computerized storm warning system for the Caribbean,scheduled for completion in 1985.
4) GTE Corporation has donated ultra-high frequency radio and multiplex equipment for communications between Mozambique and Zimbabwe providing not only a vital communication link between Mutare and Beire, but also designed to provide a major addition to
„gIbid., p. 2. z^Ibid., pp. 1-2. -157-
the Pan African Telecommunications Network.313
By the close of Ambassador Dougan's remarks a vivid picture had been drawn. If the Third World wanted its New World Information and
Communication Order in the near future they would do best to play by
U.S. rules allowing the private sector to take the lead. If they did not like these rules the U.S. would entangle all of its limited govern¬ ment assistance to agencies like UNESCO so as to make its programs virtually inoperable. If a particular country still posed a threat to the existing order, the Iranian situation served as an example of what the future might hold.
Thus achieving a free flow of information, or even a balanced flow would not be an easy task. If one were to take as an example the disparities in just the wire services, the task appears nearly insur¬ mountable. In one of the richest regions of the Third World, the
Federation of Arab Republics (with eighteen-member-nations), there is a combined total of 130 foreign correspondents that transmit 200,000 words daily back to their respective countries. In comparison, the Associated Press alone has 559 correspondents and more than 2,000 stringers in sixty-two international offices. With an annual budget of $90 million, the AP transmits seventeen million words daily for 5,720 subscribers. 31
Or one might even compare the national efforts of the Arab League with that of the United States sponsored International Communication
Agency. The USICA appropriations for fiscal year 1980 amounted to $427 million and included a staff of 8,158 employees consisting of 4,384
30Ibid., p. 2.
31 Smith, pp. 108-109. -158- Americans(1,014 or which are assigned to overseas posts principally to
assist the broadcasting operations of Voice of American), and 3,774 non-
Americans hired locally in foreign nations. Utilizing its network of do¬
mestic and overseas transmitters (101 currently employed generating a to¬
tal power production of 20,590,000 watts), VOA transmits 911k hours of
programming weekly via short- and medium-wave currencies to an estimated
103 million listeners in forty-two languages. For its "African Service"
alone the USICA has 456 staff positions with a 1983 budget of $17,946,000 32 and an estimated increase in 1984 of over $20,650,000. Add to this the
USICA "Wireless File," a radioteletype network which sends five regional
press transmissions five days a week, of policy statements and interpre¬
tive material to 159 USICA posts overseas. Each regional transmission
averages 16,000 to 18,000 words in English, and is also available in
Spanish, French and Arabic languages upon demand. The File also regular¬
ly transmits features, by-line articles, reprints from U.S. publications
and photographs. This information is then used for background informa¬
tion of U.S. Mission personnel abroad, for distribution to foreign opin¬
ion leaders, and for placement in locally-controlled media.^
With such a massive outlay of financial, personal, and technical re¬
sources it should seem rather obvious that a "balance" or "new world in¬ formation and communication order" as proposed by UNESCO would indeed be
a threat to the status quo. The benefits being derived from just the
U.S. government's ideological operations are enormous, not to mention, as
we will suggest in our concluding discussion, the rewarding incentives en¬ joyed by multinational corporations and banking magnets.
■52USICA, Program and Budget in Brief: Fiscal Year 1984, (Washington, D.C.: ..USICA Office of Congressional and Public Liaison, 1984). Ibid., P. 5 -159-
THE REAL NWICO: THE AMERICAN ECONOMIC AGENDA
It is impossible, suggests Anthony Smith, to understand the im¬ plications of the current international information order if one fails to perceive its parameters within the shadow of the capitalist system itself. For capitalism, Smith argues:
...was an information system, as well as a financial and pro¬ ductive system; its development necessitated bringing one un¬ exploited part of the world after another into a single market in which social classes, companies, transportation methods and stock markets became inextricably combined into a single, com¬ plicated and variegated, evergrowing and interdependent system. At the heart of it there had to be information, for the central concept of capitalism is the market, and, in a global system, physical markets had to be replaced by national markets or various markets in which prices and values are assesse^j through the distribution of regular reliable information . 35 As indicated earlier, news and other cultural products, although ful¬ filling the valuable role of ideological socialization within capitalist societies, constitues at best only 10% of the total flow of information required for capitalism's international expansion. The remaining balance consists of what is termed "informatics." This concept is used to define computer-based information -services from telephone and telegraph services to direct satellite broadcasting, transborder data flows and electronic fund transfer. In fact, informatics constitutes the world's third largest and fastest growing industry. The problem here, however, as with
^Smith, p. 73. 35 Cf. our discussion in Chapter Two of the contributions of Sheila Smith-Hobson's "The New World Information Order" in Freedomways, Volume 21, No. 2 (1981): 106-113. Also see "Transborder Data Flow: New Frontiers—or None?" Special Edition in Journal of Communication, Volume 29, No. 3 (Summer 1979), particularly the essay by Cees J. Hamelink, "Informatics: Third World Call for New Order," pp. 144-148. -160- news flow is that the production of the highly technological facilities needed to share in the benefits of the use and services of informatics also lies under the total monopoly of a select few American-based multi¬ national corporations and banks. Within American society itself, an in- formation-based economy has been developing since the end of the Second
World War. By 1970, nearly half of the entire U.S. workforce could be classified as holding jobs in which the main activity was the production, processing and distribution of information. This sector of the labor force earned over 53% of all national labor income.^6
The real new international information order envisioned by the U.S. was slightly different from that perceived by the members of UNESCO.
Already firmly in control of the world's wire services, radio and tele¬ vision production, and newspaper, the concern of the U.S. was more so on how to foster the expansion of international finance capital, the accumulation of assets and the extensions of loans to finance the further penetration of MNC's into the Third World. The need for an elaborate in¬ ternational information network was prefaced on activities of the U.S. private multinational banks in particular. Between 1960 and the mid-
1970's, for example, the total assets of the overseas branches of U.S. banks had increased from $3.5 billion to $181 billion. By December 1976 the overall Third World external debt was estimated at nearly $200
6Smith-Hobson, pp. 106-107. Also cf. Pat Choate and Noel Epstein, "The Work Force of the Future," Nations's Business (November 1982): 58-60 and Anthony Smith, "Telecommunications and the Fading of the Industrial Age," The Political Quarterly, Volume 54, No. 2 (April- June 1983): 127-136. -161- billion, of which over $75 billion was owed to U.S. banks (including an estimated $50 billion owed to private banks alone)."57 This new found "global reach" of the American banking community tended to ex¬ acerbate an already rising debt service burden under which most peripheral governments labored, necessitating further loans and an ever- spiraling debt ceiling. Most, if not all, of the extension and servicing of this debt was facilitated along communications and information lines controlled by the key components of the international telecommunication industry.
THE STRUCTURE OF THE INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATION SYSTEM
The international telecommunication industry consists of several major components, all of which primarily serve profits motives of pri¬ vate corporate interest. The first is the American Telephone and Tele¬ graph Company (AT & T) which provides, in cooperation with independent
U.S. telephone companies and AT & T's foreign correspondents, all in¬ ternational voice telephone services to and from the U.S. mainland as an extension of the domestic telephone service. International telephone service from U.S. points other than the mainland is provided by the
Hawaiian Telephone Company in Hawaii, All-American Cables and Radio in
Puerto Rico, ITT Communications-Virgin Islands, and RCA Global Communica- 33 in Guam.
7U.S. Senate, International Debt, the 3anks and U.S. Foreign Policy. Hearings before the Subcommittee on Foreign Economic Policy of the Committee on Foreign Relations (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, August 1977), p. 1. 38 Despite the divestiture of AT & T's domestic operations in 1982, the corporation could still report some $149.5 billion in total assets in December 1983. See American Telephone and Telegraph Company 1983 Annual Report (New York: AT & T, 1984), p. 8. -162-
The International Record Carriers (IRCs)—which includes ITT, RCA,
TRT, WUI, French Cable, and U.S.-Liberia—comprise the second component of the industry. These carriers provide non-voice or "record" services such as telegraph, telex, data, and leased channels to overseas points in cooperation with their foreign correspondents. Their operations are limited to designated "gateway" cities in the ILS., where they both solicit business directly and interconnect with domestic carriers such as Western Union for the pick-up and delivery of international record 39 traffic outside the gateway cities.
The third component of the industry consists of foreign telephone and telegraph entities, who participate with the U.S. carriers in the planning, establishment, ownership, and use of jointly-owned inter¬ national transmission facilities: in the provision of both voice and
39 The 1974 and 1975 figures for operating revenues of the four major IRC's (i.e., ITT, RCA, WUI, and TRT) illustrates the relative market monopoly of these carrier. Their combined total in 1974 was $257 million and increased in 1975 by over 30% to $273 million. ITT Worldcom, for example, employs the latest in computer technology to meet the special telegraphic, telex and lease requirements of customers. To meet this requirement ITT Worldcom has entered into working agreement with a number of computer information management systems including, Telenet Communication Corp., Tymnet, Inc., and Graphnet Systems, Inc. See the George F. Knapp, President, ITT World Communications, Inc., Statement before the Hearing of the Subcommittee on Communications on Inter¬ national Telecommunication Policies of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. U.S. Senate 95th Congress, First Session July 13, 1977 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1978), p. 21. -163- record services; and in the setting of rates and the sharing of revenue for these services. For the most part, each foreign country has vested the responsibility of handling all domestic and international telecom¬ munications in a single government-chartered entity, the Postal Telephone and Telegraph or PTT organization. This single entity deals with each
U.S. international carrier on matters such as facility planning and ownership service offerings, tariff rates and conditions.
The Communications Satellite Corporation (COMSAT) forms the fourth industry component. Pursuant to the Communications Satellite Act of
1962, 40 COMSAT was created as a "for-profit" mechanism and given sole
U.S. responsibility for participation in the ownership of the global 41 communications satellite system. It thus became the only authorized
U.S. participant in the International Telecommunication Satellite
Consortium (INTELSAT) mentioned below. COMSAT owns a proportionate share of the total INTELSAT system and 50% of the U.S. earth stations used to access that system. The remaining earth station ownership is held by AT & T and the IRC's. COMSAT is the only entity entitled to deal directly with INTELSAT. It leases satellite "half-circuits" (i.e., transmission links between the U.S. earth station and the INTELSAT satellites) to other U.S. carriers (in conjunction with matching satellite half-circuits provided by foreign PTT's) to provide international voice and record ser¬ vice to the U.S. public. COMSAT is thus limited primarily to the role of a "carrier's carrier," and may not provide international communications services directly to the public. More importantly, the "carrier's
^Pub. L No. 87-624, 76 Stat. 419 (1962). Codified, with amend¬ ments, at 47 U.S.C. 701-744 (1970). Satellite Act 310, 47 U.S.C. 731 (1970). -164- carrier," role prescribed to COMSAT does not afford the American public either of the benefits from participation in effective planning and regulation. 42
The fifth industry component is INTELSAT. This satellite consort¬ ium is a partly governmental, partly commercial entity whose sole func¬ tion is to plan, establish, own, and operate satellites used for inter¬ national telecommunication services. Its membership consists of foreign
PTT's (or affiliated bodies) plus COMSAT. INTELSAT does not own or operate the earth stations used to access the satellite system. This remains the responsiblility of each individual nation or regional con¬ sortium. INTELSAT members contribute to its investment and operating costs in proportion to their relative use of the total satellite system's circuit capacity, and derive a proportionate return on their investments.
INTELSAT, in return, charges a uniform globally averaged rate for the lease of satellite capacity, which may tend to overprice statellite service on high density routes and underprice satellite service on low density routes. 43
With respect to the satellite system, COMSAT, as mentioned does not provide its services in the INTELSAT system freely or directly to the public. Instead, it provides them to other communication carriers who,
42 James L. Weeks, "COMSAT: The Technology for Ruling Global Com¬ munications" in Marvin Surkin and Alan WolfeCeds.) An End to Political Science: The Caucus Papers (New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1970),pp. 215—
2^0- 43 Joseph V. Charyk, President. Pmmnicaticns Satellite Corp. Back¬ ground Supplemental Statement of Testimony Before U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Communications, hearings on International Tele-communication Policies, Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, 95th Congress, First Session July 13, 1977 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1978), pp. 63-65. -165- in turn, resale the satellite service to the public. COMSAT'S customers, therefore, are few in number and tend to mirror the same monopoly in¬ terests already in the business: AT & T the largest customer, RCA, ITT
Worldcom, Western Union International, French Cable and TRT Communica- tions.. . 44
The INTELSAT system itself has experienced a remarkable growth rate. Created in 1964, the system initially included only eleven coun¬ tries. In 1965, the world's first commercial satellite, Early Bird, was launched with 240 circuits that more than doubled overnight the total existing transatlantic telecommunications capacity of undersea cables and high-frequency (HF) radio. By 1976 the first of six satellites in the
INTELSAT IV-A series was launched over the Atlantic with the capacity of approximately 6,500 circuits by incorporating new techniques called
"frequency reuse": the ability to have multiple destinations transmit and
receive simultaneously. Today the INTELSAT system represents ninety-six
member-countries and provides the majority of the world's intercontinent¬
al communication through more than 8,000 satellite circuits over more
than 500 direct communication paths among earth stations in 100 coun¬
tries. In addition, the system has back-up satellite capacity designed
not only to ensure the continuation of its own services if a satellite
were to fail, but has also restored, on many occasions, the services of 45 undersea cables when they have failed.
44 Ibid., p. 64. 45 Ibid., p. 64. -166-
COMPUTER COMMUNICATION: THE "SIXTH SENSE" OF THE REAL ORDER
To the five above-mentioned components of the international tele¬ communication industry has been added another dimension that, in recent years, has significantly multiplied the industry';s ability to send larger and larger amounts of information and data around the world almost instantaneously. What might be termed the "sixth sense" of the tele¬ communication industry is found in the increased utilization of 46 "computer" communication. Ithiel de Sola Pool has defined this dis- mension as:
.. .any cnrminicaticn in which, [there is] at least [at] one point, [a] message... stored in computer memory and then processed or transmitted under computer control. This definition includes computer-to-computer communication, as in computer networks, man-to-computer or computer-to-man(as when a person works on a computer from a remote terminal) communication, and man-to-man communication if computers that store, address, and forward the message are p^ced between the men, as in message-switched communication systems.
Generally speaking, Pool is referring to the ever-growing array of machines that can be attached to pre-established communication lines for transmitting an increased amount and array of information across or
"trans borders." These can be devices into which information is entered by human operators or devices which are programmed to collect data auto¬ matically from instruments. Two basic components of computer communica¬ tion (or teleprocessing) are the hardware and software packages. The former refers to computer mainframe terminals and its peripherals that attach directly to a communication line to facilitate information exchange. To the mainframe computer can be added tele-typewriters or
46Ithiel de Sola Pool, "International Aspects of Computer Com¬ munication, Telecommunication Policy (December 1976): 33. 47 Ibid. -167- wordprocessor, or keyboard and screen display creating a conversion terminal. With a control console, they can perform "off-line" data preparations (where telecommunication data do not go directly into the computer but are written onto magnetic tape or disk or key-punched into cards and stored for later processing). Or with a cluster of manual in¬ put devices, they become data collection systems providing "on-line" telecommunications (going directly into the computer, with the computer controlling the transmission and the intermediate stage of keypunching data onto cards or teletyping on magnetic tape is avoioed). Tape cartridges or small disks can be added. Logic circuitry and memory devices, microprogramming or store-programming on mini-computers, and endless variations of terminal possibilities are available. Other notable features include such developments as "message switching systems" for delivering multiple messages or cables tradition¬ ally handled by slower mail, delivery vans, air transportation, tele¬ type or telephone systems. "Time-sharing communications" is also an im¬ portant component. The rationale employed here contends that human key rates and reading rates are much slower than computer speeds. Since human beings require lengthy pauses to think between transactions, the key to using the computer efficiently for "real-time" dialogue operations is to program it to divide its time between many users. The same is true with telecommunications. A voice line could transmit many more bits than an operator generally employs it to carry. The key to using it efficient¬ ly is to time share the line between many users. Without computerized
48 James Martin, Introduction to Teleprocessing (Englewood Cliffs, N.J. : Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1972), pp. 1-18. -168- time-sharing, however, at most the common telephone lines carry data at rates of 2,400 or 4,800 bits per second. With the merging of tradition¬ al telecommunication and computers the telephone voice channel is 49 equivalent to 56,000 bits per second.
The "software" component or package, relieves the computer pro¬ grammers of the continual need to assemble bits of information into characters and characters into messages, or converting codes into under¬ standable language. Among the functions of the software package, the following can be noted:
1 ) The software accepts messages from distant terminals and and computer.
2) On receipt of a message, it analyzes the message's header to determine the destination(s) to which the message must be sent.
3) The system detects any errors in transmission of the incoming message and requests a retransmission (which may be automatic) of faulty messages.
4) The system stores all the messages arriving and protects them from possible subsequent damage.
5) It may take messages from one store and transmit them to the desired address.
6) Systems in use store messages for several hours, or for several days, accessible immediately for this period of time.
7) The system may also maintain a permanent log of messages received.
8) If messages are sent to a destination at which the terminal is temporarily inoperative, the system intercepts these messages and may automatically reroute them to alternative terminals, or store them until the inoperative terminal is working again.
9) The system may be programmed to divert messages of a person moving from one place to another, to the address of his projected destination(s).
49 Ibid., p. 15. -169-
10) At given intervals, perhaps once an hour, the system may send messages to each terminal, quoting the serial number of the last message it received from that terminal.
11) The system may conduct a statistical analysis of the traffic it is handling.
12) It produces periodic reports of its operation from its op¬ erator. These may include reports on the status of all facilities, error statistics, reports giving the number of messages in each queue, message counts, etc.
13) It may also be programmed to bill the users for the messages sent. It may, for example, make a small charge per character sent from each terminal and j^ll the terminal location appropriately.
All of the above functions of the software package can be summariz¬ ed as the creation of "data bases." Constructed for many purposes, the most familiar to the public are the academic-technical-scientific data bases. These are sets of data in specific categories or areas (i.e., chemistry, physics, medicine, and psychology,) which have been stored in some suitably accessible form. The size of the base many vary but it may contain as many as a million or more bits of information.
Other data bases are organized for the production and marketing needs of large, private corporations (for payrolls, raw material flows, property accounting, and customer profiles,) and for governmental and private administrative units (i.e., social security rolls, credit ratings, police records, health statistics and information). Considering the costs of assembling information and putting a data base into operation, it would require the equivalent of 30 man-years of work, an initial cash outlay of
$ .08 million to $1 million and an annual operating expenditure of $120,
000 to $200,000.51
c.Ibid., p. 229. Information Hot-Line, Volume 8, No. 9 (October 1976): 1-2. -170- In assessing these trends and technological developments that have emerged to facilitate what some call the "information age," one fact that immediately surfaces is the "lack of freedom" and equality in the ownership, operation and benefits derived from the system. "Do these instantaneous and world-girdling information networks and systems now being installed," asked Herbert I. Schiller, "have either the design, the capabilities or, with respect to their administrators, the intention of assisting people and nations to overcome cultural and economic im- poverishment?" 52 If they tend to differ from communications facilities of the past, they might. However, this does not appear to be the case.
With respect to data bases Schiller contends that:
In a market economy, the question of costs and prices inevitably play the most important, if not determining a role in what kind of bases will be constructed and the category of users the base is intended to serve (and be paid for). The selection of material that goes into a data base is closely linked to the need for and the marketability of the operation worldwide can only be provision¬ al, as new bases are being created continually,... (However) with respect to "organized" data—the essential prerequisite for utilization in an information-based economy—the U.S. in 1975 was far ahead of other industrialized nations; almost nine-tenths of the records held in organized data banks were located in U.S. data bases. Of these, the U.S. government accounted for 25 percent and the private sector for 75 percent... In addition, corporate data banks, which comprise the^bulk of data bases now in use...are not accessible to the public.
As we pointed out earlier (Chapter V), much of the current supply of assembled data originated in the U.S. military and military-related research and development after World War II using Marshall Plan dollars.
Since then, a few corporations or corporate subsidiaries in the under¬ developed world have emerged as significant data base organizers and
52 Herbert I. Schiller, "Computer Systems: Power for Wnom and for What?"^journal of Communication, Volume 28. No. 4 (Autumn 1978): 190. 5JIbid., p. 187^ -171- data suppliers. Lockheed International, for example, with its DIALOG information retrieval system, contends that it is "the largest and most extensive collection of on-line (interactive) bases in the world.At the end of 1975, it was estimated that there were 2,000 organizational users of"or>-line search services" world wide of which thirty-two percent were commercial and twenty-one percent governmental agencies. Of the overall total user, Lockheed claimed that its customers exceeded 1,000 or more than half the world's use. But it might be noted that these data bank- search services, however concentrated, handle only a tiny fraction of the current data storage, processing and transmission. The bulk is in the service needs of multinational corporations and banks.
Moreover the utilization of data bases, data base networks, and private and governmental computerized information systems are dependent ultimately on some form of transmission—telephone, cable, microwave, or communications satellites. These conduits, however, are the properties of the same U.S. corporations that dominate the computer and telecom¬ munications industries", AT&T and IBM, and to a lesser extent General
Electric, Xerox, ITT, RCA, and other more recent entrants.
We previously mentioned AT & T's monopoly of the international voice telephone service and considerable influence over COMSAT. IBM is for computers, what AT & T is for the telephone and, in fact, has organized its resources to challenge the AT & T empire. IBM alone is responsible for over seventy percent of all computer installations worldwide. In 1977, for example, sales in computer equipment brought IBM nearly $10 billion
^Advanced Technology/Libraries, Volume 6, No. 1 (January 1977): 7. -172- in revenues, half of its revenue for the year, and more than half of its profits. Until 1978, IBM was prohibited from offering domestic computer service (data processing and access to proprietory data base), so out of necessity it had to build a profitable service business overseas. IBM's gross revenue from this service has been estimated at over $1 billion annually.^ In nearly all of the developed countries IBM has at least fifty percent of the total computer market. "Even in Japan," notes Anthony
Smith, "which is well on the way to self-sufficiency in computer hard¬ ware, IBM still has over quarter of the market. It is the power of IBM which helps to explain the extra-ordinary predominance of the USA in the information field.
Still, to control the ability to create data bases through a monopoly on computer installations was not enough to elevate IBM to the top of the ladder of the information empire. Thus, to supplement its dominance in computer technology IBM began in the mid-1970's to develop its own Satellite Business System (SBS) in conjunction with COMSAT and
Aetna Life Insurance Company. SBS became the latest phase in the long struggle between AT & T, the principle American carrier of public tele¬ communication services and IBM. The new system would offer large corp¬ orations the chance to send all their messages (i.e., letters, invoices,
55Edward K. Yaski, "IBM Back in 1980?" Datamation, Volume 23, No. 12 (December 1977): 192-194.
56Smith, p. 134. See also Robert E. Jacobson, "The Hidden Issues: What Kind of Order?" Journal of Communication, Volume 29, No. 3 (Summer 1979): 149-135. -173- filing systems, computer data, telex and telephone service) by way of satellite to small ground stations situated on the premises of the companies concerned. From these locations, telephone calls could be sent through AT & T normal domestic channels. Thus, SBS would be capable of
transmitting an enormous volume of traffic, all of which, in effect, had been under the monopoly of the U.S. postal system and AT & T.57
The Catch-22, especially for competitors of IBM that have sprung up in Europe, Japan and the developing countries, is that all companies using the new internal communications based on SBS would have to use
IBM's computer installations. The new minicomputer movement would also
be affected, since it will become cheaper to use the capacity of a dis¬
tant mainframe computer of the kind IBM specializes in, once the heavy
costs of normal telecommunications links (as previously provided only 58 through AT & T) are eliminated.
FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS
Thus far we have discussed the structure of the telecommunications
industry and a few of the key actors that control the networks. What
remains is to provide a general overview of how the system is used, who
benefits from its usage, and the implications derived from non-usage
7The most recent phase of this competition between IBM and AT & T was seen with the successful launching of three commercial satellites by space shuttle Discovery. Satellite Business System and AT & T paid NASA $10 million each to launch their satellites. TELSTAR 3, the AT & T satel¬ lite, is to be used to expand television, data transmission and other communication services. It's cost was $65 million. Also lainched was the 15,000 pound Syncom IV satellite manufactured by Hughes Aircraft. The U.S. naval Space Command Operations Center in Norfolk, Va., will lease the satellite from Hughes for $16 million a year. See Mike Toner "Astronauts Play CelestialFrisbee, Enjoy the View," Tie Daytcn Journal Herald,(September 1, 1984), p. 2; "Satellite a Success for Shuttle," TheDaytcn Jcumal Herald (August 31, 1984), p. 1 agçj "Discovery Makes It 3 for 3 Satellites," Daytcn Daily News (Septenrber 2,1984),4-A. Smith, pp. 135-136. -174- by those locked outside the system. The larger issues involved speak to the present crisis in the problem of financing Third World development that has been increasingly dropped in the laps of major Western banks. Such banks have been emulating giant corporations by going international. Additionally, there is a dialectical relationship between this process and the changing nature of the basis of America's domestic political economy, that is, a shift frcm an: industrial to an information or high- tech base. In the last decade and a half, the U.S. banking system has followed MNC's abroad, establishing a complex global network of branches, sub¬ sidiaries and offshore financing affiliates. In 1960 only eight U.S. banks had branches abroad. By the mid-1970's U.S. bank assets could be found in hundreds of banks and branches overseas. In fact, international banking operations for the thirteen largest U.S. multinational banks pro¬ duced a ninety-five percent increase in the total earnings of such banks in just the brief period between 1970 and 1975. 59 International finance initially held a tertiary position to state and corporate foreign invest¬ ments, but was rapidly expanding to finance new import requirements of the Third World, to organize capital markets for MNC's and to facilitate transactions among the multiplying number of "speculators" on the world market. Prior to this rush of international finance capital, the most im¬ mediate option offered to the Third World to finance development plans were debt traps and peonage terms offered by multilateral public financial institutions such as the IMF and World Bank. These debt traps
^DeWitt and Petras, p. 97. -175- both overlapped and complemented periods of corporate and state ex- penditories, and finance capital flows on a worldwide basis. Averaging less than $1 billion annually during the 1950's, and rising to approxi¬ mately $2 billion annually during the 1960's such loans peaked in the mid-1970's in excess of $4 billion annually. Playing a two-fold role, this assistance first allowed all capitalist governments to assume some degree of responsibility (on a consortium basis) for financing con¬ ditions for private capital expansion; and secondly, such loans and grants helped to raise the debt ceiling of the Third World that further en¬
trenched these nations in dependency relationships, setting the stage
for further penetration of external capital in-flow.60
Thus, debt problems that were initially created during the era
of colonialism and perpetuated in the era of decolonizatin by bilateral
and multilateral lending practices resulted in a series of problems in
the financial sphere of Third World domestic relations.
It is a well-known fact that in almost all Third World countries
there is a scarcity of local savings available to be channeled into
financial capital for productive investments. This scarcity of savings
is due not only to the Third World's low level of income, but also to the
fact that a certain portion of savings leaves the country. MNC's oper¬ ating within a respective country, for example, repatriate a significant
portion of their profits. Indigenous wealth-holders have also found it
lucrative to channel a part of their savings out of their countries
60For an excellent analysis of the IMF imposed "debt trap" on newly emerging Third World nations cf. Cheryl Payer, The Debt Trap: The Inter¬ national Monetary Fund and the Third World, (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1974). -176- through MNC's and banks (i.s., "capital flight"). Adding to the outflow of savings are the increasing debt-repayments to bilateral and multi- 61 lateral aid agencies on loans grantedin the 1960's
The result of the financial outflows from the Third World resulted in a growing gap between the supply of available local savings and the demand for investment funds to alleviate growing poverty. Moreover, the so-called "modernization" schemes that were supposedly cure-all designs to alleviate these problems were not only expensive, but most often had to be paid for in foreign exchange, and not local currency. Add to this dilemma the relative reduction in Third World exports in the mid-1970's recession that not only reduced their ability to generate foreign ex¬ change from internal production, but also increased the outflows of the remaining limited supplies of foreign exchange designated to cover ex¬ penditures in the rising cost of oil. These factors all combined to bring about the heightening problem of the "foreign exchange bottleneck"
for Third World nations. Thus, even when there was sufficient saving to
finance investment projects, the investment often never took place be¬ cause savings in local currency could not be translated into foreign
61Ronald Muller, "The Multinational Corporation and the Under¬ development of the Third World," in The Political Economy of Development and Underdevelopment, ed. by Charles K. Wilber (New York: Random House, 1979), p. 156. Also see Samir Admin, Accumulation on a World Scale: A Critique of the Theory of Underdevelopment, Volume 1 and 2 (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1974) particularly Volume 2, Chapter 3, "The Monetary Mechanism in the Periphery and the World Monetary System," pp. 395-484. -177- exchange for the purchase of imported technology required for development projects.
This dilemma produced a rather perverse form of non-competitive financing patterns in most of the underdeveloped world. Contrary to ac¬ cepted Western notions about MNC's in poor countries, these firms did not bring a significant portion of their own finance capital from abroad.
Rather, they derived the majority of the financing from local (or host country) sources, and increasingly from subsidiary branches of private multinational banks, such as Bank of America, First National City Bank of New York and Citi-Bank. In essence, branches of MNC's borrowed from
local financial institutions with the credit rating and financial re¬
sources backed up by the global network of the parent MNC of which they
are a part. This is in contrast to the credit and financial backp of a
typical local business in the Third World when they attempt to obtain
finance capital. The local financial institution, faced with a limited
loan capacity relative to the demand placed on it by MNC's like any
other business interested in risk-minimization and profit-maximization,
has inevitably shown a lending pattern biased toward the subsidiaries of MNC's. The conclusion is even more obvious when the major financial institutions are, in fact, a branch or subsidiary of a multinational bank.
Such banks are playing a powerful role in the financial structures of
the Third World where in many instances they control close to fifty per¬
cent of the private deposits of a country. The Third World operation of a multinational bank will prefer lending to the subsidiaries of
MNC's for the same reasons that locally controlled financial institu¬
tions do. In addition, in such lending operations there is more at
stake than simply the particular profitability of one or a series of -178- loans in a single country. Ronald Muller speaks to the importance of the stakes when he notes the fact that:
...the world wide parent network of banks and corporations are not two distinct entities. Instead there are interlocking in¬ terests of common ownership, management, and technical personnel in the groups that control banks and corporations. ...whatever the consequences of these interlocking interests may be,...there is... a near perfect correlation between the world¬ wide expansion of MNC's and the commensurate expansions by multi¬ national banks... The commonalities lock together in a theme of expansion, where the expansion is based on the facilitation of an industrialization model most particularly suited to the comparative advantages of the MNC and, therefore, to the multinational banks. Thus, even if domestic businesses in LDC's could offer the branch offices of multinational banks better borrowing terms than MNC's it is highly unlikely that these banks would forego their long-range global ^Qterests for the short-range local interests of a branch office.
The vicious circles emanating from the financial structures operating
in the underdeveloped world results in the greater bargaining power for
the MNC's to obtain finance capital than for local competitors. The
relatively greater bargaining power in finance becomes the equivalent
of oligarchic power, meaning the power to erect "barriers to entry" against potential new competitors or, on the other side of the same
coin, the power to eliminate existing competition usually through the
absorption of or buying into local (host or indigenous) firms.
Although the movement of finance capital abroad is not a new phe¬
nomenon, its drastic increase also sheds light on the dialectical
relationship between developments in the Third World and the relative
decline in profits for investors in the metropolitan centers. The merg¬
ing of the technologies of computer programming and telecommunication to
62 Ibid., pp. 155-157. Also see Richard J. Barnet and Ronald E. Muller, Global Reach: The Power of Multinational Corporations (New York: Simon and Schuster, VTTGT, particularly chapter 6 entitled "The Global Cor¬ porations and the Underdeveloped World," pp. 123-147. -179- create the new field of endeavor called informatics, created the ideal mechanism needed to grapple with both questions.
In the 25th Anniversary edition of Fortune Magazine Linda Synder-
Hayes reveals what can be termed the shifting basis of America's advanc¬ ed capitalist society away from the older "basic" industries such as steel manufacturing, rubber, textiles, auto and food toward the "high- technology" sector of computer hardware and software, telecommunications and information management which has been making conspicuous gains in sales for over the last twenty-five years.63 Xerox, for example, has expanded from a- 1955 sales level of $77 million to a 1980 level of over
$7 billion. Five of the computer companies on the 1980 Fortune top 500
listing—Control Data, Digital Equipment, Memorex, Data General and
Storage Technology—did not even exist in 1955 when the first 500 list
was put together. The total combined sales of these five companies in
1979 was over $5.9 billion.6Z| Add to this sum the 1979 sales of the
traditional information-oriented companies like IEM ($22.8 billion.), General Electric
($22.8 billion), ITT ($17.2 billion), and Western Electric (wholly owned
by American Telephone and Telegraph with $10.9 billion in sales) and one
gets a fairly good idea of the rising sales and profits made in the high-
tech arena.65 Synder-Hayes compares these growth rates in the area of high-tech with what she terms the "champion money losers." Immediately
63Linda Synder-Haynes, "Twenty-Five Years of Change in the Fortune 500," Fortune, Volume 101, No. 9 (May 5, 1980): 89-96. 64 Ibid., p. 91.
63"The Fortune Directory of the Largest U.S. Industrial Corpora¬ tions," Fortune, Volume 101, No. 9 (May 5, 1980): 297. -180- noticeable is the near complete domination of this list by the auto¬ motive (i.e., Chrysler, American Motors) and steel industries (i.e.,
Bethlehem Steel, Youngstown Sheet and Tube).66
In the declining years of the Nixon Administration a powerful group of U.S. state and industrial decision-makers, began to adopt the philos- sphical orientation that the best way of relating to the future world economy would be to garner control of the export of ideas and knowledge based on sophisticated information tools. In this view publications, news, business items and data, computer hardware and software could all be sold abroad for export revenue while the knowledge and domestic con¬ trol of such resources still remained at home. Thus, one could sell in¬ formation over and over again to those that can afford it and still pos¬ sess it as capital with continuing (although declining) value.67 The long range goal of these individuals urged an acceleration in the transformation of the U.S. domestic economy, eliminating as quickly as possible the older "basic," less profitable manufacturing indus- tries. 68 This vision encompassed a massively reorganized division of labor, world wide, in which U.S. multinational banks would provide the vital information function while older industries would be forced to shift production sites to the periphery (a process also arranged and
6Synder-Hayes, p. 93. For an analysis of how this decline in the older industries has impacted on the U.S. Labor force cf. Marillyn A. Hewson and Michael A. Urquhart, "The Nation's Employment Situation Wor¬ sens in the First Half of 1982," Monthly Labor Review Volume 103, No. 8 (August 1982): 3-12. 67Herbert I. Schiller, "Whose New International Economic and Infor¬ mation Order?" Communications, volume 5 (1980): 304. 68 Ibid. John Eger, former director of the now defunct White House Office of Telecommunication Policy under the Nixon Administration was a particularly avid supporter of this view. -181- financed by the banking information networks to take advantage of neo¬ colonial regimes exemplifying specific characteristics. Among these in¬ clude:
a) a deep-commitment to an open-door policy to foreign flows of capital (of all sorts);
b) strategic resources and policies which promote easy access to raw materials;
c) large internal markets with little hinderance to foreign pene¬ tration; and
d) substantial surplus (cheap) labor pools agçj a willingness to promote export platforms for foreign capital. That such an approach would necessitate difficult political decisions by the U.S. did not go uncounted. For the U.S. decision to proceed to move toward an information-oriented economy meant it had to be prepared to make trade concessions to Western European and Japanese corporations in other areas where its technological advantage was smaller and labor cost greater. The end result of such policy initiatives, as the planners predicted would occur as early as 1976, would be spiraling unemployment as a result of the loss of jobs in the older basic industries in exchange
for guarantees that the growing information sector would continue its expansion. 70
Hence, the cumulative problems facing U.S. banks presented by a
declining industrial base, projected trends of high unemployment, and
declining reserves would all be resolved through the fostering of move¬
ment of capital abroad. This extension would then, in turn, remove the
69 Dewitt and Petros, p. 100.
70John M. Eger "Protest of Global Information War Poses Biggest Threat to U.S." The Washington Post, January 15, 1978. quoted in Herbert I. Schiller's "Whose New International Economics and Information Order?" Communication Vol. 5 1980 p. 304. -182- heightening contradictions of capitalism to the Third World. The key to the process necessitated, as could be expected: the "free flow of information." Information, in this sense, came to mean economic power.
Thus those who were to control this power had to fulfill one or another specific criterion.
The first involves those who controlled the means of producing
(gathering and creating) information. This power has fallen, for the most part, in the hands of multinational corporations (through their research departments operating through subsidiaries in the underdeveloped world) and government sponsored research teams. The information generated from
these efforts tends nearly always to be either of raw material extraction opportunities, market analyses for resale of products developed from such materials, or military-strategic related. Once this raw data is
collected (or produced) the information is either stored on file or im¬ mediately transmitted via telecommunications networks.
Hence, the second concern relates to who controls the means of
communicating information. Again, the multinational firm enters the
scenario. Having produced the information, the subsidiary firm can
transmit the information intra-firm to maximize confidentiality over
leased private telecommunication channels; it can use the traditional IRC; or it can buy access to satellite services through the COMSAT/INTELSAT
system. In each case the company will have to go through either AT & T, IBM or their rivals, at costs generally non-affordable to many nation¬ states, much less the general public.
A third concern involves those who control the means of receiving
the information once transmitted. Usually the parent firm located in a -183- metropolitan center has established the necessary computer facilities
(i.e., hardware and software) to receive this information. Such firms may also have satellite reception technology to maximize the speed of reception, side-stepping a reliance on slower cable, telex, or telephone relay lines. However, this is a relatively new breakthrough with most companies still relying upon traditional reception equipment. Moreover, unless the company has leased a private line for reception of intra-firm information, there is also the possiblility that other companies and particularly banks and investment finance companies can intercept the
information. In fact many corporations may time-share information lines
specifically with banks to facilitate the quickest possible financing
for potentially lucrative business ventures.
Thus, the fourth concern involves the question of who controls the means of processing information once it is received. Because of cost
factors, many corporations may not have the personnel or technology
readily on hand to process raw data and information received. One in¬
dication of this problem is the rise of hundreds of firms that specialize
in computer analysis and processing. The larger corporations and banks
have no problem here either. The comparative advantage of corporations
like AT & T that have multiple headquarters and thousands of employees "manag¬ ing information" is obvious. International banks such as Citicorp and
Chase Manhattan also provide this "service" to their customers.
Fifth, and perhaps most important, involves the question of who
determines the value of the information in its processed form.
Here, the multinational bank takes the lead. What these banks can do by
determining the value of certain types of information is far and above
what even some of the largest MNC's hope to achieve. -184- Many corporations may decide, for example, that information initially produced or generated for extraction of strategic raw materials should best be kept secret. Having reached this decision, it may decide to finance this process internally to insure monopoly control. If, on the other hand, this information is passed on to an investment company or bank the value of information may lead to a figure that will not only assure the extraction of the raw material at a guaranteed profit for the corporation, but also enough finance can be organized so that the corp¬ oration may not have to invest even a fraction of the cost it would have initially doled out to ensure monopoly control, and still maintain majority control of mining rights.
Once the information is passed on to international banks, a corp¬ orate loan can return not only for extraction, but also for further ex¬ ploration and expansion of the project itself. This is made possible by the bank's notification to other potential investors of the valuable information received. Even before actual extraction occurs, the particu¬ lar MNC may have access not only to the financing for the venture but a projected profit margin enough to pay off the loan and a forecast surplus
—a percentage of which goes back to initial investors, a percentage to development and the possible option of capital investment in another pro¬ fitable venture based on information provided by the same bank or invest¬ ment house.
As indicative of this trend, we began this analysis with a quote from Robert B. White, executive vice president of Citibank. As mentioned, global exports in 1976 were $980 billion, 12.6% higher than in 1975, the midst of the recessionary years. As White indicated, "A large part of the total was financed through trade credits arranged by banks, and all of it -185- triggered some kind of international financial transaction which de- 71 pended on the world communication media."
The essential role of banking in the world economy is to help the private individual, businesses and government obtain credit and move funds in support of world wide trade and commerce. In addition to lend¬ ing money that is required to expand economic activity throughout the world, banks also provide a variety of transaction services such as: international currency transfer; foreign exchange transactions; letters of credit (which banks provided to assure exporters that the importers' credit is good); and international collection services (in which banks help overseas parties- collect funds on drafts, notes or checks drawn on 72 U.S. banks, or help U.S. customers collect funds from a foreign banks).
Not too long ago all these services were transacted by mail with some use of telegraph services to initiate funds transfers. But as a result of technological breakthrcucfis the complexity afforded to inter¬ national banking operations has placed a premium on speed and accuracy.
Exchange rates and commodity prices fluctuate rapidly. Competitive bids are made for limted . supplies. Banking customers often require credit or transfers completed and advice issued in a matter of hours, not days.
"This is why," White Concedes:
71 Robert B. White. Statement before the Subcommittee on Inter¬ national Operations of the Committee on Foreign Relations. U.S. Senate 95th Congress, First Session on International Communication and Informa¬ tion July 8, 9, and 10, 1977 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1977), p. 251. 72 Lawrence 3. Gitman, Principles of Managerial Finance. 2nd ed. (New York: Harper and Row, Publishers, Inc., 1979) p. VS and Chapter 19, "Financial Intermediaries and Markets," pp. 344-472. -186-
. ..we are primarily dependent on electronic media for international communication, both in providing services to our customers and in administrative communication between our branches. Today, we are using automated systems that rely on cable, telex, and telephone networks. Without them, the timely and ^ccurate execution of our business transactions would be difficult.x
Several trends have emerged to enhance the activities of these banks. One important development is the Society for Worldwide Inter¬ bank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) with a membership roster that includes over 500 American, Canadian, and European banks in fifteen countries.7^ SWIFT was conceived in 1971 by a consortium of sixty-eight banks from North America and Europe. These banks commissioned a study to explore the feasibility of establishing a private communication network for the transmission of international payments and related messages. Con¬ cluding that such a network was both technically and economically feasible, SWIFT was established as a "not-for-profit" cooperative society by Belgian law in April 1973, and is wholly-owned by the member banks. Shares are distributed according to each bank's anticipated use of the system, but each member-bank owns at least one share. SWIFT is essentially a "message-switching" system with computer centers in
Amsterdam, Brussels, and New York. The system offers a general improve¬ ment in convenience and reliability over telex and mail service. One of the intended advantages of SWIFT is the reduced and stable cost of leasing a shared private line processing some 300,000 financial trans¬ actions each day.75
75 White, P- 252. 74 . , TkIbid., pp. 252-253 75., Ibid., P- 253. -187- Citibank, although a charter member of SWIFT, has decided to establish its own private, automated global communications network referred to as
Globe Com.76 With 50.9 percent of its total assets held in foreign branches, the very nature of Citibank's business required that it be able to transmit data from one area of the world to another quickly. Hence
Global Com links Citibank's branches in seventy-nine cities and sixty- five countries by teleprinter, twenty-four hours a day, over leased private lines that pass through computer switches in London, Bahrain, Hong Kong, and New York. The backbone of Globe Com is a series of leased circuits
(including satellite transmission) that circles the earth and carries telephone as well as cable and teletype communication. Globe Com handles about 325,000 financial transmissions per day.77
The primary business of SWIFT and Globe Com and the earlier mentioned IBM and SBS involves "electronic funds transfer." EFT systems facilitate the transfer of money by allowing computers to exchange financial data over telephone circuits. The larger banks contend that
EFT's are the most cost effective way to handle massive numbers of checks that flow through the mail. The potential for these systems in financial transactions account for an estimated one half of all first-class mail.
76William H. Read, "Communications Policy: An Agenda." Prepared statement submitted for Record of the Hearings Before the Subcommittee on International Operations of the Committee on Foreign Relations. Ninety- Fifth Congress, First Session, June 8,9, and 10, 1977 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1977), p. 43. 77 Ibid. -188-
In the U.S., for example, some six million monthly payments by such government check writing agencies as the Social Security Administration 78 are made in EFT instead of being sent by mail.
One final trend in EFT's should be mentioned: offshore financial centers. OFC's are distinguished from their domestic counterparts by three important characteristics:
1) They deal in external currencies which are not the currency of the country where the center is located. Therefore, financial transactions in the center are not directly linked with the domestic banking system. 2) Offshore centers are generally free of the taxes and exchange controls that are imposed on domestic financial markets...(provid¬ ing) one of the major reasons for the phenomenal growth in the Euro-currency market...over the past two decades.
3) OFC's are primarily but not exclusively for non-resident clients. The potential for interface between residents ^d their OFC is rather closely controlled by the host government.
OFC's are said to be a "natural response" by banking institutions to benefits from economies of scale in their international operations.
Like SWIFT and Globe Com, these centers also require sophisticated and costly infrastructure, such as telecommunications, accounting and legal services. By locating most international banking and financial infra¬ structures in one central place, banks can spread their overhead cost in servicing clients in various countries.
Additionally, a sufficient number of banking and financial institu¬ tions must be located in one financial center to provide the critical mass needed to service international clientele effectively and efficiently.
78Ibid., p. A4 79 Y.S. Park, "The Economics of Offshore Financial Centers," The
Columbia Journal of World Business, Volume 17, No. A (Winter 1982): 32. -189-
In this sense, international banking requires both sophisticated financial expertise and up-to-date market information. Such knowledge cannot be generated in a vacuum; it needs constant innovation and cross- fertilization of ideas among bankers and other financial analysts. OFC's provide the ideal atmosphere for this interaction.
The OFC's serve not only as a place for banks to invest surplus funds in the interbank market (from which other banks obtain funding to finance their operation), but also serve as havens for international savings and pools of liquidity seeking profitable investments free from monetary and exchange control restrictions. OFC's also provide bankers with contacts to potential borrowers for marketing purposes and for packaging and negotiating customer loans.
Due to their convenience, offshore centers have been used for pur¬ poses other than simply international banking activities. They are often used as holding company domiciles through which MNC's own and operate overseas subsidiaries in the most advantageous fiscal and exchange control climate. They also serve as locations for financial subsidiaries of MNC's employed in tapping international money and capital markets with a freedom of action greater than that possible in their home countries.
Numerous U.S. MNC's, for example, have financial subsidiaries in OFC's 80 to issue Eurobonds free of the 30% U.S. with-holding tax. In sum, the collective impact of recent trends in the free flow of information are introducing new dimensions of dependency in much of the world. For those who control the new technological developments in communication the rewards amount to billions of dollars in sales and
80 Ibid., p. 34. -190- profits. Yet for those who remain effectively locked outside the reigns of control, the consequences are enormous. Although the principles of a more balanced and equitable flow of information is applicable to trans- border data flows, criticisms of the implications of this process in¬ volving essentially economic and technical data has gained far less notoriety than critiques of news and other forms of public communication.
As suggested earlier, we believe the latter concern to merely represent an ideological camouflage of a more fundamental crisis. Thus, the extent to which these economic questions can be side-stepped or evaded al¬ together only allows MNC's and banks more time to stretch the tenacles of capitalist expansion.
Transborder data flows have become the backbone and central nervous system of international business and banking. But the increasing volumes of information flowing freely across national boundaries not only vio¬ lates the sovereignty of nations, but also works to deprive nations of key natural resources that could be used domestically for developmental needs. One of the clearest examples of both violations is the phenomena of "remote sensing" by photo-satellites. These "spy in the sky" satel¬ lites, as termed by Cees J. Hamelink;
...can remotely sense the earth's surface of a country and by doing this "impede the exercise of the sovereignty of any state over its natural resources" (UN Resolution 626 VII). Data extracted by these satellite explorations are processed by computer systems and stored in data banks, all controlled by the major Western transnational corporations...Information has an economic value, and the ability to store and process certain types of data may well give one country political and technological advantage over other countries. This, in turn, may lead to a loss of nation¬ al sovereignity through supranational data flows ...whatever pro¬ gress is made in redressing inequalities in international news exchange, without self-reliance and sovereign control in the in¬ formatics field, equality and independence will remain diplomatic -191-
phrases for the presently dependent nations.8"'
Remote sensing satellites can now make field-by-field analyses of crop¬ lands, blight, and drought, all of which can be easily obtained but processed only by those with the capacity to do so. The U.S., for in¬ stance, launched LANDSAT under the auspices of NASA in 1972 as part of a broader agricultural resource monitoring and assessment system. Raw data on all countries generated by this series in the Earth Resource
Satellite Program is then disseminated to governments, firms, or in¬ dividuals at a low cost. Data which have been processed and analyzed are made available at a much higher cost. While potentially serving the general global interest, suggest O'Brien and Helleiner;
...this information is not at present obviously being so used. Differential capacity to interpret and use the data, combined with the considerable resources of private firms (especially .dealers in agricultural commodities) can place the less well- informed developing countries at a potentially serigujs dis¬ advantage in world agricultural commodity markets..
Remote sensing satellites have also been used to detect mineral resources with potentially important effects on negotiations between host countries and mineral transnationals. The U.S. STEROSAT satellite is one of the more recent developments in the field, and is jointly funded by the U.S. government and a consortium of mineral and petroleum companies. Such companies have already invested several hund¬ red million dollars on space hardware and data products for the next decade. Ocean data users are also forming committees to coordinate their interest (i.e., GEOSAT Committee, Inc.). All these activities increase
31Cees J. Harrelink, "Informatics: Third World Call for. New Order," Journal of CofTTTu~iipption,Volume 29, No. 3 (Sumer 1979): 147. GTRita Cruise O'Brien and G.K. Helleiner, "The Political Economy of Information in a Chanqinq International Economic Order," International Organization, VOIUTE 34, 4(Autum 1980): 457-458. -192- the efficiency and hence the power of private firms in negotiations with the ruling class of both the underdeveloped and developed world.
The fact that these satellites may also be "time-shared" for military reconnaissance and/or controlled by military authorities adds further complexity to the issue of information flow, dissemination and national sovereignty.83
Given the above, an underdeveloped country like Mozambique, for example, may have ample unexploited mineral resources below its surface and not even know it. A major MNC, however, with access to the data banks of remote sensing satellites can buy the raw data, process it, and then negotiate with FRELIMO to explore for "possible" mineral wealth with preconditions that further extraction and processing be done only if the majority contol of mining rights is granted. Meanwhile, FRELIMO can only sit back and wait to see what develops, not knowing that "gold"
(or some other essential strategic mineral) may be right under its feet.
"In other words," contend O'Brien and Helleiner,
...the inequality of access to information adds a new dimension to asymmetry which may have been originally based on political and economic divergence—it is a divergence in the capacity of the parties involved. Having better access to and control of information in a negotiating situation is an important factor of power; having poor access to information tends to impose present and future costs on the more vulnerable parties... There is a growing concern that the lack of information to permit adequate preparation on the part of developing countries for intergovern¬ mental negotiations makes the bargaining process unworkable... And because of the resulting incapacity to sustain and specify negotiating positions in meetings which take place at certain intervals, it may also jeopardize results previously achieved.
^William H. Read, "Communication Policy..." op. cit., p. 45. 84Ibid. pp. 455-456. As recent examples of this particulary acute political problem, and especially the hiatus between declared demands and coherent negotiating power, the authors cite the Lome II negotiations between the ACP states and.the EEC, in 1979. As we noted earlier, this was also a problem in negotiations over the final shape that the IPDC would take. -193- Discussions on the reform of the international monetary system, or on
the allocation of resources of the sea and space have thus often been preempted by the more powerful nations, leaving the developing countries with only a "yes, but..." role or encouraging them to politicize issues
as a substitute for critical dialogue between technical expertise which many do not possess. 85 The end result is a form of de facto hegemony
by those countries, corporations and banks which already have negotia¬
tion capacity on such matters while those lacking this capacity must
rely on outside expertise usually from the same country or firm the
negotiations are being conducted with. In this relationship the question
also rises as to whether advice and/or information provided to the non¬
expert can be validated and proved reliable or may be, in and of itself,
of a distorted nature. In either case the dependency position of the
developing nation is self evident.
One might also consider the implications of the transborder data
flows of the international banking system. A recent report in Business
Week higlighted one TDF-generated phenomenon termed "stateless money,"
also fraught with catastrophic possibilities:
Tying together the vast new supranational banking system is a new technology that has outpaced not only the ability of nations to deal with it but even the perception by government officials that a new banking order has been created. A computerized system... allows banks to buy and sell deposits ig^a unified global market and to make loans anywhere and anytime.
O c G.R. Winham, "The Mediation of Multilateral Negotiations," Journal of World Trade Law, Volume 13, No. 3 (June 1979): 199.
^"Stateless Money," Business Week (August 21, 1978): 76-80. -194-
The very existence of the banking system encourages currency volatility.
The system increases the efficiency of moving cash around the world, and at the same time this ease in money movement encourages foreign ex¬ change crises by creating a vicious cycle of currency instability.
The increasing high rates of return on investments by MCS's and banks deriving benefits from the new information order entail a whole series of consequences for the underdeveloped countries. Multinational banks and corporations keep substantial liquid sums in the metropolitan countries in the intervals between investing their profits. These sums support a money market that is always overflowing. This is one reason for the chronically low level of interest in the developed countries, comparatively speaking. It is precisely because the rate of interest is low in the developed countries that these liquid sums awaiting invest¬ ment prefer to feed the speculative circuits in the economy both at home and abroad. Among these circuits, operations of temporary deposits abroad are especially important. Investment in portfolio, in contrast to direct investments, facilitate speculative operations. The investor profits for a certain period for the relatively high reward of capital in this form, and then, when liquid capital is needed for investment at home, these shares are sold. These speculative operations of temporary deposit of liquid capital help to make the external balance of an under¬ developed country highly unstable. All these transactions take place only in relations between sectors of the dominant advanced countries and the dominated economies with a certain degree of development, that 87 is, where there is a market for stock and shares.
Colin D. Campbell and Rosemary G. Campbell, An Introduction to Money and Banking, (Hinsdale, ILL.: The Dryden Press, 1981), pp. 126— 130. -195-
The computerized electronic funds transfers of multinational banks facilitate this entire process. Banker's Trust, for example, has merged its overseas investment operations with the computer technology of Digital Equipment Corporation. This network enables Banker's Trust to handle an average of over 12,000 transactions a day totalling over 88 $25 billion. Chem-Sphere, a unique Chemical Bank service offers a
24-hour software information package, supposedly free of "human error" that automatically creates a complete, accurate audit trail for each transaction made. This service is only offered, however, to corpora¬ tions with at least a portfolio of $30 million to over $1 billion or 89 more. Another example is found in "the Innovators," the International
Monetary Market (a division of Chicago Mercantile Exchange with offices in New York and London). IMM was founded on May 26, 1972, and is based on the idea of creating an exchange to trade exclusively in financial instruments—foreign exchange, interest rates and gold. Trading volume in the first twelve months of operation was a "respectable" 255,163 contracts. By 1979 volume had exceeded 7,730,000 contracts in eight major foreign currencies, 90-day Treasury Bills, 1-year Treasury Bills, and gold. Planned contracts will include Euro-dollar Time Deposits, 90 Domestic CD's and the Standard and Poor's 500 Stock Index.
QQ Ibid. See Appendix G for the advertisments of the multi¬ national investment and banking houses.
89Ibid. (Appendix G)
Qfl Ibid. (Appendix G). -196-
Other key actors in this game include the likes of Dun and Bradstreet,
Manufacturers Hanover, Kidder, Peabody and Company and First Chicago.
With respect to how this process impacts on underdeveloped African states
Seidman and Makgetla note that the big banks do play a predominant role.
However, the writers argues:
...in none did they contribute much to the moblization and reinvestment of capital to build up the local economy. They rare¬ ly provided credit needed for local projects. They almost never set up branch networks in rural areas which might serve peasant farmers or small scale industrial establishments. Nor did they provide significant assistance to African governments seeking to restructure the political economies to attain industrial development and self-sustaining growth. Instead, they mainly financed pro¬ duction for export and import trade, and served to facilitate the drain of investable surpluses in the form of pro¬ fits, interests, dividends, and high salaries by transnational firms engaged in extracting crude materials and selling manufactur¬ ed goods.
The finance capital that does "flow freely" to the underdeveloped world, tends to flow predominantly toward regimes with a favorable orientation . to the stipulations "recommended" by banks before investments are made.
Most of these regimes, with very rare exception, have been authoritarian and/or highly repressive. The pursuit of policies that encourage the
flow of foreign capital, suggest Petras and DeWitt.
...preclude regimes from securing the support of popular majorities through welfare ideological appeals. At best, paternalistic measures (job security) and horizontal mobility (rural to urban movements) complement the use of force. The bulk of the loans are concentrated among three groups: multi-national corporations, local monopoly capital (rural or urban based), and the state. Most of the latter's investments are used to promote low-cost infrastructure facilities that enhance the spread of private activity. Hence, the prime beneficiaries of private bank loans are the economically powerful who control productive state or financial resources. In
91 Ann Seidman and Neva Seigman Maketla, Outposts of Monopoly Capitalism: Southern Africa in the Changing Global Economy (Wesport, Conn.: Lawrence Hill and Company Publishers, Inc., 1980), p. 204. -197-
such cases, the bank loans serve to strengthen their social, economic and political power and contribute to widening the in¬ equalities within society.
Moreover, contend Petras and DeWitt:
While loans are specifically channeled into particular classes and groups, the foreign currency used to repay those debts is earned or squeezed from the population at large. Thus regardless whether the loans went into urban real estate speculation, some¬ one's Swiss bank account, or into building a factory, the debt payments are assumed by the society at large. When the private banks or IMF demand "austerity" (cutbacks in public spending, wage freezes, credit squeezes) and price freedom as a condition for loans...the burden is borne by the classes that least benefit from the initial loan. Thus,...while in the economic sphere bank capital contributes to economic dependency, in the social structure it leads to a reconcentration of income at the top; and in the political sphere ^ts policies contribute to increasingly authoritarian practices. One of the saddening trends that results from this "reconcentration of income" in the hand of the ruling elite in the underdeveloped world is the sifting off of potentially investible finance capital into foreign accounts in New York, Paris, France and Switzerland. "Poor countries," suggest Jean Ziegler, "have virtually no weapons to prevent their own wealthy classes from sending capital out of the country. This is nowhere truer than in the case of a banking system that amasses wealth untold in the Swiss mausoleums of international finance—out of the 94 surplus-value created by starving people." The admirable Swiss in¬ stitutions that make all these profitable operations possible (i.e., illegal transfer, tax frauds, the complex financing of complex arms and drug dealing, speculation in foodstuffs, international currency fiddles, hiding stolen funds, and the rest) is called "banking secrecy." The
Dewitt and Petras, op. cit., p. 108 Ibid., p.108 4 Jean Ziegler,Switzerland: The Awful Truth (New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1979), p. 46. -198- legal basis for it is encoded in Article 47 of the federal law governing banks and saving banks. 95 What happens to the illegal capital deposited in Switzerland and other investment havens (i.e., such as offshore finance centers mention¬ ed earlier)? Either it becomes a numbered account translated into local currency (i.e., sterling, francs, dollars) or it goes into "fiduciary ac¬ counts." These are accounts in foreign currency held by banks and used to finance operations in other countries. In theory, then, "dirty" or illegal money passes to Switzerland, New York, London and other finance havens to be reinvested aboard, where it helps to finance the expansion of multinational corporations headquartered where the bank is located. In practice, anything may happen to the money. In fact it would be hard to think of any human activity that is not either directly or indirectly financed by one or another of the great banks, ordinary banks, and fi¬ nance brokers floating illicit funds along information lines. It is these same banks and information networks which continue the drainage of Third World financial resources that, in turn, have used these investible surpluses to finance the industrial transformation of the apartheid political economy of South Africa. They provided the fi¬ nancial networks that played a crucial role in helping South Africa emerge as a regional sub-imperial outpost in the international capital¬ ist order. Citibank and its Globe Com network, for example, set up operations in South Africa in 1958 and by the 1970's had emerged as the fourth largest foreign bank in terms of assets in the country. As noted by Seidman and Makgetla:
95 Ibid., p. 47 -199-
— Citibank, in 1963 purchased 16 2/3 of the shares of the U.K. firm M. Samuels. This gave it access to the Hill Samuels Group's South African and Rhodesian affiliates. In this way, Citibank, the leading Rockefeller bank in the U.S., established the South African contacts it used to aid U.S. industrial firms to finance their South African investments. Almost all the major U.S. trans¬ nationals with investments in South Africa had directors sitting on Citibank's board, as well as important links with U.S. govern¬ ments agencies... Citibank's overseas holding corporation, Citi¬ corp... also purchased 40 percent of the Banque d' Afrique de l'Ouest, a big French bank with affiliates in almost every former French African colony. But Citibank financed significant indus¬ trial growth only in South Africa and, to a lesser extent, in Southern Rhodesia. In the independent African states, most of its loans went primarily to foster the extraction of crude materials and the sale of goods manufactured in its clients' home factor¬ ies.
There is presently no organized international mechanism (UNESCO, the
U.N., the IMF, the World 3ank included) with the design to correct or even ameliorate the workings of the international flow of information.
To the contrary, such institutions and practices that do exist 'give further impetus to the growth of inequalities between nations and the misuse of the world's resources for high living by a few rather than their use for the basic needs of the masses. For the Third World debt traps have become a way of life. By the end of 1982 developing countries and the Soviet
Union owed Western banks and governments over $776 billion. By 1984 this 97 debt had swollen to $810 billion. Brazil alone has $95.3 billion in
foreign loans. The austerity measures imposed by the IMF and private
lending agencies have thrown hundreds of thousands of people out of work,
not counting "underemployment," wage cuts, inflationary prices and re¬
duced government spending for social programs. In Mexico, working class
families have had to give up meat and survive on beans and corn tortil-
96 Seidman and Makgetla, p. 208. 97Charles J. Hanley, "World 'Debt Bomb' Still Ticking," The Dayton Journal Herald, (March 1, 1984) p. 28. -200- 98 las. All agree that poor countries need a constant supply of fresh capital to develop, but in 1983 the Third World paid back $11 billion more than it received in new borrowing and still found itself $44 billion 99 more in debt than the year before.
What options are available to ameliorate this crisis? From the
Reagan Administration point of view a five-part strategy is necessary:
1) ...restore sustainable non-inflationary growth in the United States and preserve and strengthen the free trading system;
2) ...get borrowing countries to adjust their economic policies. They must get their economies back on a stable course and make sure that their development programs are within their means:
3) ...official balance-of-payments financing must be available to help see borrowers through the adjustment process. The IMF is the key to this;
4) ...it is necessary to consider immediate and substantial short¬ term financing to tide countries over their negotiations with the IMF and discussion with other creditors...lending of this sort is very short-term and can only facilitate, not supplant, other ar¬ rangements; and
5) —encourage continuation of lending by commercial.banks to countries that are pursuing sound adjustment programs.
In essence, Reagan would remedy the crisis by continuing the policy that created it. Other recommendations range from re-scheduling new loans for debt payments that are technically in default, to the lowering of banking interest rates. Developing countries themselves have even toyed with the idea of forming a "debtors cartel" that would dictate its own terms for repaying the rich—possibly including a collective freeze on repayments. At a debt crisis sutmit in Quito, Ecuador, however, leaders of
99 , . , Tbld io6Allen- Walles, Under Secretary for Economic Affairs, "Bankers and the Debt Crisis: An International Melodrama ?" An address before the International Summer School of the American Banker's Association, Washington, D.C., August 25, 1983. Current Policy No. 505, U.S. Depart¬ ment of State, Bureau of Public Affairs Washington, D.C., August 1982, p. 2. -201- the Latin American nations, the world's largest debtors, rejected the notion of the cartel and resorted to pleas to their creditors for
'more flexibility and negotiations." 101
In the final analysis the social transformation necessary to alleviate these problems does not appear to be a necessary component of present or future agenda of the ruling elite in much of the Third World.
Most seem bent on perpetuating an endless cycle of debt, dependency and social inequality that fuels their Mercedes Benz and fattens their Swiss bank accounts. Despite the verbal attacks on the policies of the West, the U.S., and multinational corporations and banks, concrete reality sug¬ gests that charity begins at home. Yet the current class of military and civilian regimes, bureaucracies and newly-educated technocrats still seem virtually blind to the illusionary fascade of "free flow" with all its accompanying implications. Thus, even if we were to witness a modi¬ cum or even significant change in economic and informational exchange re¬ lations toward a more balanced and equitable order, several questions remain as to whether the ensuing benefits would actually trickle down to affectively remedy the host of wretched conditions besetting the masses in the underdeveloped world. The advances in technology must be brought under control and redirected to serve the interest of "mankind" and not the few. Until this is done the struggle will continue.
101 Hanley, p. 28. CHAPTER VII
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
Throughout this disscussion we have sought to highlight for the reader what we consider to be the most crucial dimensions surrounding the quest by the Third World and non-aligned nations for a New World
Information and Communication Order (NWICO). Utilizing the lens of historical materialism we have traced the origins and the evolution of the concept of the free flow of information. It has been a convenient ideological weapon employed by the United States to achieve its foreign policy objectives in the area of information and communications both prior to the formation of the United Nations Education, Scientific and
Cultural Organization, and throughout the thirty-year history of this
United Nations special agency. With the methodology of dialectical materialism we have presented opposing tendencies in the quest for a new order and have sought to expose the contradictions inherent in the stance taken by the U.S., and also the weaknesses in positions advanced by the representatives of the underdeveloped world.
One key irony that emerges from the foregoing analysis is the some¬ what questionable sincerity of communist nations like the U.S.S.R. The
Soviet Union, although instrumental in sponsoring many of the key re¬ solutions and declarations that have led to the radicalization and legiti-
-202- -203- mization of the Third World concerns in UNESCO debates, have yet
(to our somewhat limited knowledge) offered a concrete alternative to the initiatives of the U.S. government, corporations or banks. Perhaps
this is indicative of the fact that the U.S.S.R., despite its ideologic¬ al condemnation of imperialist acts by the West, has also fallen prey to established dependency relationships and international debt traps. Al¬ though the Soviet Union is far behind the West in technological develop¬ ments of computer programming and micro-processing it has developed a rather sophisticated series of communication satellites. Currently the short-range fear of the U.S. is over the Soviet's resumed testing of anti-satellite devices, known as "hunter" or "killer" satellites. This
fear stems from the Pentagon's increasing dependence on communication
satellites as military surveillance sensors, air, space and sea naviga¬
tion signals and for communication relays between military installations worldwide. In response the U.S. has taken tentative steps both to
develop a satellite destruction program of its own and also to experi¬ ment with ways of "hardening" military satellites to a level sufficient
i to withstand anything but a "dedicated" attack.
The long-range concern of the U.S., however, stems from the
economic ramifications of the communication satellite picture if the
Soviet Union were to create a global telecommunication satellite system
to compete with INTELSAT. The U.S. fear in this area, as expressed by
William H. Read, is that:
...If the Kremlin decided to engage in a price war with INTELSAT and offered access to the Russian Stationar or satellite system through neutral countries, a number of multinational companies with heavy communication traffic might be tempted to cut cost by q For a background report cf. Lawrence Freedom, "The Soviet Union and 'Anti-Space Defense'," Survival (January/February 1977): 7-F-12-F. -204-
using the Soviet system. The day may well come when Washington will have to decide whether the U.S. should allow a vital in¬ dustry like banking to become dependent on a Soviet-controlled communications satellite system... That day, of course, is not yet here. But to assume that the non-technological question of tele-communications policy can be neglected much longer is a mis¬ take. The potential foreign policy implications—strategic, economic, political—are too great.
Further details on this matter nonetheless, lies beyond the scope of
this analysis, but does prove to be a worthy topic for future research.
Ihe impact and changing nature of international information and
communication techniques has also drawn more and more of the attention
of the world's oppressed population and has heightened a level of ex¬
pectancy about what benefits can be derived from its usage. Most
nations are still in the early stages of grappling with the political,
legal, economic and psycho-social ramifications of the "information age"
for their own populace. Of those personalities in these societies that
are conscious of the dilemma, there is a growing awareness that the
underdeveloped world can seriously affect the nature of the international
political economy if they would collectively resort to restricting trans-
border data flows, imposing higher tariffs on these flows, or indigenize communication facilities."5
Yet another key irony that emerges from all the resolutions, con¬
ferences, declarations, and condemnations presented by apparently pro¬
gressive forces within UNESCO, is that a significant portion of the
criticism eminates from nations that are in theory and practice governed
by neo-colonial regimes. This is not to excuse the self-serving motives
2 Read, p. 44. ^Hamelink, p. 148. -205- of the U.S. and its national, foreign, corporate and banking allies.
It is to suggest, however, that the greatest enemy we often face is ourselves. Thus the struggle for NWICO is also a war to overcome the internal weaknesses within each of the respective national boundaries of the underdeveloped world as a vital precondition for any hope of achiev¬ ing this long-range goal.
It has been a major contention of this analysis that the evolu¬ tionary development in theory and practice of international information and communication systems has introduced new forms of dependency and an increasing array of ways to penetrate the underdeveloped world and ex¬ tract its resources. This process is, in turn, generating corollary mechanisms of both political and psycho-social manipulation that more or less sanction and promote the ensuing international unequal economic arrangements. For those affected, the trend appears to be toward the useless squandering of natural resources and increased conspicuous con¬ sumption by ruling elites in spite of the vital areas of drastic human need within their respective nations. Viewed in this light, the current
"free flow" of information" can be appropriately classified as a con¬ temporary manifestation of the full dimensions and interrelatedness of the mechanism of cultural imperialism—political, economic and psycho¬ social. The validity of this assertion is based upon a conception of the usefulness of information systems for authentic cultural development.
This vantage point contends that the degree to which an individual, group, or nation of people can control the flow of major ideas and in¬ formation in their political community contributes significantly to the -206- success they will have in ensuring that self-defined developmental goals and objectives will be institutionalized and continually addressed in daily social praxis. The internal control of such ideas and informa¬ tion thus becomes the essential ingredient for any reliable degree or
form of progressive growth this society will achieve in the future.
This is particularly true when the major ideas, information, and systems of organized thought through which such data are transmitted are free
from external control and based upon a cultural synthesis of a sovereign
independent people.
Yet, for the vast majority of mankind such a freely designed and authentic cultural synthesis remains a dream deferred. But "What happens
to a dream deferred?" Langston Hughes once asked:
Does it dry up Like a raisin the sun? Or fester like a sore - And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over - like a syrupy sweet? Maybe it just sags ^ike a heavy load, or does it explode?
Although no explosion has occured yet, shifts in the personalities
in power through coups and counter-coups are occuring every day. Elite
classes in the underdeveloped world are being tied more closely to their
decision-making counterparts in the advanced industrialized states.
Simultaneously, the new communication and information technology rather
than diminishing, seems to be widening the communication gaps inside the
Third World nations and accentuating economic disparities simultaneously
Langston Hughes, Selected Poems of Langston Hughes, (New York: Knopf, 1959) quoted in Howard Zinn, The Twentieth Century: A People's History (New York: Harper and Row Publishers, Inc., 1984), p. 146. -207- between classes.5 A very significant part of what is now regarded as vital data bank development requiring vast amounts of information processing and telecommunication hardware could be dispensed with entirely in a society with different social objectives and different underlying social structures and practices. One may agree that the new information technologies are of potential benefit in any social system.
The assumption that they are necessary and urgent as they are currently functioning is another matter entirely. "Operationalism," suggest
Herbert I. Schiller;
—the policy of installing and operating the equipment first and considering its regulation and social impact later— has been the American approach in forums concerned with economic development and international communications. In promoting "operationalism," the U.S. representatives argue that "premature" regulation of direct satellite broadcasting, for example, might hamper its development and delay technical progress. Similarly with computer communications and transnational border data flows, the U.S. position is that any international accord calling for restriction of data transmission across national boundaries, whether for reasons of protecting individual privacy or otherwise, (is) either unnecessary or premature." The U.S. economic interests in pursuing such an international communi¬ cations policy is obvious. The military-industrial complex relies on adequate information and reliable communications; large corporations have become increasingly dependent on world-wide computerized circuits.
Moreover, the U.S. is the world's largest producer and consumer of tele¬ communication equipment and services. Technologically, the U.S. holds a lead in most areas of satellite communication, in fiber optic com¬ munications (along with Japan) and in very large electronic switching systems. In other areas such as microwave transmission systems or satellite earth stations, the U.S., Japan and Western Europe are rough-
5Schiller, pp. 192-193. Ibid., p. 192. -208- ly equivalent technologically. In computer and data communications and in their applications, the U.S. is commercially dominant.
U.S. policy statements, whether at UNESCO or other intergovern¬ mental conferences, reiterate America's pre-eminence. Such statements reflect the coodinated efforts of a task force that includes the FCC,
Department of Defense, Department of State, the National Telecommunica¬ tion and Information Administration (NTIA), and the International
Communication Agency (ICA) and other businesses and professional groups.
This task force operates according to broad imperial objectives that include the following:
1) to assure U.S. multinationals and others of nondiscriminatory access to low cost, efficient systems.
2) to assure nondiscriminatory commercial opportunity for U.S. firms that are marketing international data processing and data bank services.
3) to participate in developing international computer, data processing, software and encryption standards.
4) to protect the privacy of personal data of U.S. nationals.
5) to respond to international concern about U.S. domination of international computer and data processing and the reliability of access to U.S. bases.
6) to encourage U.S. access to foreign advances in hardware and software technologies. 7) to encourage foreign governments to restrict their privacy laws to coverage of natural persons.
8) to provide a functional system for government-to-government exchange^of data with due regard to national security and personal privacy.
American initiatives in supporting and sustaining a consistent inter-
7G. Russell Pipe, "National Policies, International Debates," Journal of Communication, Volume 29, No. 3 (Summer 1979): 117. -209- national communication policy have thus far been relatively successful.
In fact U.S. international communication policy could be a useful frame¬ work for other nations desirous of effective means for achieving their own nationally respective goals. This policy illustrates the justifica¬ tion for initiating national strategies and policies aimed at building stronger domestic economic and social systems. In the international arena, it also posits a strong ideological, political, economic, and social philosophy to be defended in negotiations on both a bilateral and multilateral basis. Were it not for the accompanying contradictions and imperialistic goals such directives would indeed be instructive.
The issue, nonetheless, is whether each country, and not a select few, will be free to determine its future, based on its own history, culture and values, without manipulation or the imposition of others.
The core of this issue is the possibility of self-reliant development.
In this light, the NWICO can be defined as an international exchange of information in which nations, which develop their cultural systems in an autonomous way and with complete control of resources, fully and effect¬ ively participate as independent members in the international community.
The new international information order so defined encompasses the totality of international goods and services that are produced and dis¬ tributed (i.e., news, informatics, remote-sensing, direct satellite broadcasting, trans-border data flows, etc.).
This call for a NWICO is not an accident. It must be viewed with¬ in the context of an effort to realize political, economic and psycho¬ social freedom. The "decolonization" of information is perhaps the final and most difficult frontier in the struggle for liberation. The dilemma, however, is that the controlling crust of the advanced industrial state -210- calls on the current communication and information networks to resist social reorganization that must precede reorganization of the technology
for human needs.®
One of the key aims of having a free and balanced flow of informa¬
tion is to ensure a diversity of sources of news and opinions, but the problem (as mentioned) for many countries is that their own economic
resources are not sufficient to support strong local competing media.
Thus the principle of a free and balanced interchange of information
and opinions simply cannot operate when the vast majority of countries
lack the production capacity to participate meaningfully in such ex¬
changes on an equitable national basis. This latter problem, of course,
is itself, part and parcel of the legacy of underdevelopment currently
enhanced by advances in the telecommunication industry. In this sense,
the Third World is caught between "a rock and a hardplace."
When UNESCO's 20th Session of the General Conference expressed a
concern with the present unsatisfactory international communication sys¬
tem and called for a new, more just and balanced world information and
communication order, the concern was not simply that of increasing the
amount of items transferred or the amount of technology available.
"Access" and "participation" were seen as key factors in the proper use
of communication for promoting culture, development and human advancement
and the notion of "the right to communicate" emerged. As noted in the
Final Report of the MacBride Commission:
Communication, nowadays, is a matter of human rights. But it is increasingly interpreted as the right to communicate, going be¬ yond the right to receive communication or to be given, in which the partners—individual and collective—carry on a democratic Q Herbert I. Schiller, Mass Communication and the American Empire (Boston, Mass.: Beacon Press, 1969), pp. 150-151. -211-
balanced dialogue. The idea of dialogue, in contrast to monologue, is at the heart of much contemporary thinking, which is leading towards a process of developing a new area of social rights. ...Indeed, the idea of the right to communicate lifts the whole debate on "free flow" to a higher level, and gives promise to bringing it out of^the deadlock to which it was confined for the last thirty years.
Still, the process of change is a complex one, and transformation will take time. "What is essential," reasons Masmoudi:
is to familiarize public opinion with change and to promote a responsive awareness of it. For the developing countries, self- reliance must be the watchword: this they can achieve by develop¬ ing cooperation on the horizontal level so as to enable them to establish a balanced flow with developed countries.
Moreover,advises Ricardo A.C. Saur, the key is to develop a local capacity to avoid dependence on outside sources for computer power, to confine data flow within borders, and to provide protection for those 11 local development efforts. Free competition and hence, a free flow of information between foreign and local suppliers can never be achieved on an equitable basis, Saur contends, because of:
a) disparities in economic development unrelated to the technology in question;
b) indirect or even direct 'duping' practices derived from al¬ ready paid development costs more often than not having been originally projects funded by defense contracts or governmental- sponsored research;
c) greater financial help from international banks or local in¬ terdependent banks that offer special conditions; and
d) smaller sales volumes because the international market on high- technology prcjipjucts is closed to non-memoers of the interdepen¬ dents' group.
g Many Voices, One World. Report of the International Commission for the Study of Communication Problems. Paris, France: UNESCO Publishing, 1980, pp. 172-173. '^Masmoudi, p. 185 Ricardo A.C. Saur," Ftotection Without Protectionism," Journal of CcnrTLnicaticn, Volume 29, No. 3 (Sumner 1979): 138. Tbid., p. 140 -212-
Thus, protection is a needed tool to bridge the dependence gap, and is to be removed gradually as indigenous capacity is able to face out¬ side competition.
Whether UNESCO will be able to help provide this protection to address these problems is now rather questionable. The IPDC appeared to possess all of the necessary prerequisites to help the underdeveloped world create its own local capacity to begin avoiding a dependency on the West. The U.S.-proposed withdrawal, however, may force not only a complete re-evaluation of the benefits of horizontal and regional re¬ lations, but also increase initiatives by the Third World to seek assist- tance from the Soviet Union and other Eastern bloc nations. These two options stand as the only viable alternative to Reagan's effort to piegeon-hole the world into bilateral negotiations. On this latter note it might be appropriate to raise a few final questions about the U.S.-proposed withdrawal from UNESCO and the con¬ tradictions therein. Are the charges listed by the U.S. rationalizing
its withdrawal valid? Does the U.S. derive any real or substantive benefits from its membership in UNESCO? What are the real issues
surrounding the decision to leave the organization? These and other
inquires were put before Dr. Herschell Challenor, Director of the UNESCO Washington Liaison Office..13 Her responses are instructive and again
serve notice to the hypocritical stance of U.S. foreign policy toward
UNESCO and the international flow of information in general. Among the allegations against UNESCO that were said to have spurred
the decision of the U.S. to withdraw were: extraneous politicization;
13Herschell Challenor, "The U.S. and UNESCO, " Interview conducted by TransAfrica Forum (February-March 1984): 1 & 2. -213-
UNESCO's support of a "statist" approach; unrestrained budgetary ex¬ pansion; an overpaid UNESCO staff; and charges of nepotism. In
Challenor's view, each of these assertions were "unfounded" and served as a shield covering an underlying retreat in Reagan's foreign policy from multilateralism reflected not only at UNESCO, but also in the decision not to ratify the Law of the Sea Treaty and to cut the U.S. con¬ tribution to the seventh replenishment of the International Development
Agency (IDA). "One must recognize", Challenor reasons:
...that any intergovernmental organization is of necessity political because the positions articulated in those fbra are the policies of member states living in a divergent world where different state interests abound. Because of the nature of these issues which fall within UNESCO's competence politically sensitive questions necessarily are brought before the organization...
Moreover, Challenor continues:
...It is important to note that in 1954 the U.S., joined by Great Britain, successfully sought a change from independent in¬ tellectuals to government representatives as UNESCO Executive Board Members. One could argue, therefore, that some of the politicization, whj^gh the Reagan administration criticizes, was caused by the U.S.
The most difficult allegation for Challenor to accept was the notion of
"unrestrained budgetary expansion." "The figures simply belie the charge," she argues:
The UNESCO 1982-1983 budget was $430.6 million dollars. The 1984-1985 budget approved in the General Conference in November is for $374.4 million. This represents a decrease of nearly $57 million. In addition because of the devaluation of the French franc, $70 million worth of savings will be returned to member states based on the percentage of their contribution to the UNESCO budget. The U.S. now contributes 25 percent of the UNESCO budget and so will receive almost $17 million dollars. The U.S.
14Ibid., p. 1 15 Ibid. -214-
annual contribution to UNESCO will fall from between $43 and $40 million.to about $25 million. How is this unrestrained budgetary growth?
Challenor went on to challenge the allegations of overpaid staff and nepotism by noting that UNESCO policy on salaries grew out of the 1920
League of Nations decision that salaries of International Civil
Servants should be slightly higher than those of the best paid civil servants of the member states. In fact, UNESCO salaries tend to be very much in line with those of the U.S. civil service. The system is also designed to take into consideration geographic distribution in recognition of the needs for all member states to be adequately represented, but grants favor to nations based on the percentage of their contribution to
UNESCO. In this way the U.S. still comes out on top. As the largest contributor (paying25% of the budget), the U.S. has the largest pro¬ fessional staff (89), while the Soviet Union, the second largest, con¬ tributor (paying 12.9%) has 37 professional staffers at UNESCO. The allegations of "nepotism" stem from charges that Director General M'Bow from Senegal has hired more Africans. While this is true, it is as it should be, refecting an effort to maintain the equitable geographic distribuiton principle which should naturally tend to reflect the recent influx of new member states from Africa, the Caribbean and Asia.
With respect to the question, "What benefits does the U.S. derive from its membership and why should it stay in UNESCO?" Challenor had this to say:
First, the U.S is the principle actor in the international community and it has interest in participating in any international organization...
16 Ibid. -215-
Second, UNESCO is the forum for ideas... This country's ideas are important and ought to be articulated within the international forum.
Third,...UNESCO has certain more tangible benefits. UNESCO pro¬ vides $2 million in fellowship assistance to persons that study at American universities every year. Approximately 50 percent of all UNESCO fellows study in the U.S., Great Britain, and France. The U.S. pre-eminence in tTQD's science and educational programs creates markets for our scientific and educational goods and materials. UNESCO has a coupon program which reimburses persons who want to sell educational materials, books and audio-visuals to developing countries which do not have convertible currencies. Of course, the U.S. is the largest book seller and other educational materials in the world, and the UNESCO copyright convention pro¬ tects U.S. exports that amounts to $1 billion a year.
Fourth, over the past ten years, over 2,000 Americans have parti¬ cipated in UNESCO programs as paid consultants, as persons attend¬ ing our meetings, as advisors on operational activities in the field, and as writers for UNESCO publications.
Fifth, the U.S. will lose participation in the international ex¬ change of academicians and researchers in UNESCO's field of com¬ petence. The organization has fifteen intergovernmental com¬ mittees. . .that discuss global issues in which the U.S. has an interest.
Because UNESCO works with the Ministers of Culture and Education of its member states, very often these discussions have a direct iïïpact on government policy. Thus, the U.S. will lose an opportunity to advance some of its own programs and its own values within the system if it withdraws.
Ramdame Sadmi of Algeria shares a similar view of U.S. policy to-
1R ward UNESCO. Sadmi contends that for the past several years the U.S. has been extremely critical of UNESCO and in 1975 froze its contribution to the budget, hoping to paralyze operations or even bring about the organization's collapse. "The organization's vitality and U.S. loss of influence over it became clear," Sadmi suggests, "when UNESCO raised the
17Ibid., p. 2 1R Ramdame Sadmi, "An Imperialist Act?" Revolution Africaino Reprinted in World Press Review (March 1984): 39-40. -216- issue of a New World Information Order, condemned Israel for destruction of historic sites in Jerusalem, and held that Zionism is a form of
racism."„ 19
Others have cited Reagan's problems with financial arrangements,
Washington believes the influence of each member should depend on its
financial contribution. Hence, there is no longer an advantage seen in
continuing to subsidize an organization whose machinery the U.S. no
longer controls.
Wherever one lays the blame, the problem appears to be that the
U.S. under Reagan, has shown an increasing unwillingness to participate
in international forums where majority decisions do not reflect its point
of view. Although Third World leaders recognize the implications of this
surge toward bilateralism, most are either unwilling to stand firm to the
'challenge and maintain nonalignment because of their historic dependency on the West, or actively seek to entangle their countries in imperialist
ventures because of the personal benefits to be derived. Given the above, we believe that it is highly unlikely that a NWICO
will be achieved in the near future. Unless there is near total trans¬ formation of the political economy and leadership in the underdeveloped
world, those who currently control the major means of producing, dis¬
seminating, processing, and distributing the world's vital information
will continue to have a free hand at dominating the minds, labor and
resources of the rest of the world. Whether the dream of a NWICO will
"explode" is dependent itself on whether the majority of mankind receives
the necessary information so as to first adopt a critical posture toward
these issues, and secondly, create an action repertoire necessary for in Ibid., p. 39. -217- change. Education for liberation is the key. Who will have the courage to remove the "mind-shackles" to conduct it is the dilemma.
CONCLUSIONS:
In the final analysis, we have sought to accentuate that the con¬ trol of the flow of ideas, information, data—the communication process itself—is an issue of extreme relevancy to the serious black political scientist. If it is our foremost objective to provide an exacting analysis of the barriers that obstruct a clear path to the liberation of our people, then an accurate information base upon which we can build and rely to provide us with timely facts and data on the nature and dimensions of our problem is a vital necessity. Furthermore, if after having carefully analyzed such problems our objective is to share or communicate our findings to the oppressed in such a manner as to facili¬ tate conflict-resolution, cultural action or change, then we must have a communication network through which these theories, remedies and solu¬ tions can be exchanged in an unrestrained and non-distorting manner.
The absence of such an information base and network in the past and present has been occasioned by a piecemeal approach to the resolution of the problems of black life. To a large extent this can be attributed to the fact that answers to our problems have been sought under the rubric of artificial divisions in the quest for knowledge as symbolized by such separate disciplines as black economics, black history, black politics, black psychology and black business administration. These separate dis¬ ciplines have been guided throughout most of their existence by what
Jones and Willingham have appropriately termed the "White Custodians of -218- 20 the Black Experience." More recently, however, and perhaps more im¬ portantly, such disciplines continue to suffer from the influence of 21 those we can term "Lone Rangers"—black skin, white mask intellectuals.
The sterile instruction and intellectual guidance of these two groups has led a vast majority of promising black scholars to adopt a "Catholic" approach in their analysis of black life that has gone no further than the artificial limits of the dominant Euro-American value system.
Hence, it is a rare case indeed to find a coherent and consistent cross synthesis of major findings, information and concerns in the various disciplines of political science, for example, and information system management, or economics, communications theory and psychology.
Internationally speaking the absence of an Afro-centric information network suggests that we as a dispersed people have had to, and will continue to rely, by default, on information provided for us and com¬ municated to us by those whan DuBois correctly characterized as the "White 22 Masters of the World." That is we have had to. rely upon an internation¬ al communication network bent on perpetuating a white world view, one that is biased and distorting in its projection of the image and realit¬ ies of black life. The inference here is that in no way can the informa¬ tion, knowledge and views expressed by the present information and com¬ munication system be relied upon by people of African descent for an ac¬ curate account of the facts and full dimensions of the predicaments of
on Alex Willingham and Mack H. Jones, "The White Custodians of the Black Experience: A Reply to Rudiwick and Meier", Social Science Quarterly, Volume 51, No. 1 (June 1970): 31-36 Frantz Fanon, Black Skin White Masks (New York Grove FTess, Inc., 1967) ^w.E.B. Dubois, "The White Masters of the World" in The World and Africa (New York: International Publishers, 1965), pp. 16-43. -219- our people. Thus the serious African or black political scientist, leader, activist, or public servant will have to either search for al¬ ternative means of gathering and disseminating of crucial concerns of our people or develop the mechanism ourselves. To continue to rely upon the present structure is akin to falling prey to a series of myths and half-truths that serve to confuse and baffle the recipient of such information rather than add clarity to the issues at hand.
TOWARD AN AFRO-CENTRIC TRANSNATIONAL INFORMATION OUTREACH NETWORK: THE A.C.T.I.O.N. MODEL.
It is in view of these trends that we propose the creation of an
Afro-Centric Transnational Information Outreach Network as a model to
facilitate an accurate and consistent exchange of information concerning the problems, goals and developmental objectives among three respective groups of people: African-Americans, Caribbean and African nationals.
The ACTION Model recognizes the necessity of constructing a computer-based Afro-centric information and communications network that would serve as a linkage between selected Black universities in the
United States and compatible entities on the Continent of Africa and
the Caribbean Islands. By building upon existing facilities available
on historical and/or predominantly Black college campuses in the U.S.,
the ACTION Model would take the form of an "institution" that would per¬
form several important task.
I. Data Compilation, Analysis and Resource Enhancement
Data Compilation should be carried out in three broad areas. These
areas include the development of a library of printed resources (i.e.,
periodicals and books) that would allow faculty, students and staff of -220-
Black colleges easy access to the most up-to-date and detailed informa¬ tion available on African and Caribbean affairs. Media packages (in the
form of audio, video film and slide presentations), news information and magazines will also be identified and placed on reserve.
Informational Exchange Packages should also be solicited from respective
African and Caribbean nations whose university(s) would be asked to make a commitment to participate in developing the ACTION Model. These in¬ formation packages should include the exchange of data on a continuing basis in each of the following categories:
1) Historical/Geo graphical A) Cultural (Music, Religion, Art etc, ) 2) Economic Development & Trade 5) Education and Health
3) Political Developments 6) Books and Media and Resources
This in-coming information would be organized, analyzed and pack¬ aged by the staff of the ACTION Institute and made available to other educational institutions and interested parties through workshops, semi¬ nars, educational packages and visits to the Institute.
In exchange for this information received from African and Caribbean
Universities, the American-based ACTION Institute would provide the
following data from the U.S.:
1) Job Skills/Internship Data Bank Listing by portifolio of Black College seniors and graduates that are interested in employment and internship positions in African and Caribbean countries (see below for details of the Internship Program).
2) Audio-Visual Media Packages a) Educational: Emphasis on Classroom Instruction Media and Educational Techniques for children, youth and adult classes.
b) Cultural: Emphasis on Music, Dance, Sports, etc.
c) Political : Emphasis on past and present political developments -221- affecting Black American, African and Caribbean life.
d) Technical: Emphasis on skill development in the areas of computer programming, of electronics, mechanical engineering and repair, construction, agricultural science and other selected fields.
II. Curriculum Enhancement
This activity is designed to obtain release time for university faculty from their regular teaching responsiblities to conduct research and con¬ sultation necessary for identifying and organizing the content of a curriculum for use in courses on African and Caribbean Affairs. The resulting syllabi from the activity would allow the ACTION
Institute to lay the foundation for an interdisciplinary program in
African and Caribbean studies as an integral part of the university's general curriculum.
III. Workshops, Seminars and Public Forums
The ACTION Institute would hold a minimum of six (6) seminars with ac¬ companying workshops per year and one annual conference. The six semi¬ nars (2 per seasonal quarter, Fall, Winter and Spring) would be designed to serve as a showcase for the Institute, covering various aspects of the multi-faceted work involved and the overall orientation and direction of the research being conducted. Local, national and international re¬ presentatives would be invited to participate in these sessions. Each of the seminars and workshops would be audio and video taped and placed on file for curriculum enhancement, international exchange, or for review by local and national educational and media personnel.
IV. The ACTION Institute of Student Developmental Exchange
The major thrust here is to supplement our data collection, workshop series and curriculum enhancement with a program designed specifically to create formal internship and exchange positions for African-American -222- young adults in African and Caribbean states. The focus of this effort is to develop teams of fifteen Afro-American students from selected academic disciplines to travel to host states in Africa and the Caribbean Islands to share the benefits of their educational experiences in America. These students would be chosen from among recent recipients of bachelor degrees and/or graduating seniors from historically or pre¬ dominantly Black colleges. Each student of the team would represent one of the following disciplines on the list below (tentative):
1) Computer Science 11) Education 2) Telecommunications 12) Psychology/Sociology
3) Agricultural Tech. 13) Business Finance/Accounting
A) Electrical Engineering 14) Business Marketing
5) Industrial Engineering 15) Foreign Language/Art/Music
6) Architectural Design
7) Biological Science
8) Physical Science
9) Political Science
10) History/Philosophy
Each of the 15 students would be placed in internship positions for one year, 9 months of which would be spent in the African host country.
The initial 3 months would be spent at the Summer Institute for
African Studies (SIAS). V. The Summer Institute for African Studies (SIAS) would provide an
8-week preliminary orientation specifically designed for the interns and other interested undergraduate and graduate students. The objective of the Institute is to provide each prospective intern with a thorough over¬ view of the country they will be working in and how their skills and -223- acquired knowledge might best benefit particular development projects already in progress. Each student would be assigned to a faculty advisor to guide the preparation for this practicum. This preparation would involve a rigorous 40-day schedule of course activities designed to orient each intern to the special problems faced in the history, cul¬ ture, economic, psycho-social domestic and international status of the respective country. Upon the completion of the 8-week period each stu¬ dent would receive a certificate from the Institute acknowledging 8 academic credit hours of work for the Summer Session.
VI. Student Development Exchanqe/Internship: The 9-month program is designed to provide each of the 15 students (as a team with one faculty advisor) with on-site experience in their respective disciplines. Upon arrival in the host country, each student would be assigned to a public or private agency and be required to observe and assist that entity in the overall development of specific projects. This practicum would in¬ clude a variety of work options ranging from data collection, tutorial assistance and general instruction to training and actual implementation of development projects. Upon the completion of the internship period, each student would be required to submit a full type-written report of their respective experiences to their faculty advisor and the Institutes
Executive Director; be required to conduct 4 workshops with the next year's interns; and partake in recruitment activities to help in identi¬ fying future interns.
ST flFF/PERSONNEL :
Personnel needs to initiate the Institute are minimal. However, as the Institute develops there would arise the necessity to expand upon -224- selected areas to handle the needs and complexities of an e/er-increas- ing number of interns pursuing practicums in host countries. Initially the Institute can manage with one person in each of the following pro¬ fessional categories: A. Executive Director The Executive Director is responsible for the overall implementa¬ tion and development of the Institute's program as a whole. This re¬ sponsibility includes overseeing the Summer Institute; data compilation, analysis and exports; resource, curriculum and faculty development; and seminars. This responsibility also includes recruitment and selection of internship awards, faculty advisor/stipend recipients and other per¬ sonnel required for the Institute management. B. Administrative Coordinator/Special Assistant to the Executive Director This person is responsible for assisting in the coordination of the activities of the Institute as a whole. This entails the develop¬ ment and implementation of a computerized filing system for all informa¬ tional sources utilized within the Institute; the production of bi¬ weekly updates of the collective activities of all personnel; the pub¬ lication of a monthly newsletter on Institute developments; the organiza¬ tion of staff meetings, workshops, seminars and annual conference. C. Director of Research and Development The responsiblilities of the Director of R. & D. include the coordination of research projects within the Institute on African Affairs. This, will entail establishing, maintaining and expanding a reference library of timely bibliographic entries, including books, periodicals, journals, newspapers and magazines relating to various di¬ mensions of African Life. Special consideration and attention will -225- also be paid to those contacts (personal and informational sources) that speak to means and mechanisms of enhancing personnel exchange relations between Black communities, universities and businesses in the U.S. with those of African states; identifying sustaining sponsors at the federal, state and local level; securing funds from host countries, foundations; collaborating universities,
D. Computer Programmer/Analysts
The responsibility of the computer programmer/analysts is to manage the influx and outflow of information/data of the Institute.
This will entail identifying appropriate hardware systems and software packages, programming and analysis of information on African trade and development; Black college seniors and graduates; from host countries, returning interns and faculty.
E. Telecommunications Director
This person is responsible for monitoring, assessing and organiz¬ ing incoming media material for the Institute. This will entail the maintenance and development of a media catalogue and reference library of audio and video resources on African and African-American affairs.
This will also include the production of slides, film-strips, soundtracks and audio-video instructional aides for dissemination to public and pri¬ vate institutions reflecting trends and developments at the Institute.
This person will also be responsible for the purchase, up keep and con¬ tinuing usage of all telecommunication equipment.
F. Internship Travel Coordinator/Director of Academic Affairs
This person is primarily responsible for recruitment, selection and travel itinerary of each intern from their hometown to the Insti¬ tute, and round trip from the Institute to the Continent of Africa. -226-
Upon arrival at the Institute, this person is also responsible for housing arrangements, classroom, and course scheduling and book pur¬ chasing for each student. This person also coordinates the faculty stipend recipients, providing a basic orientation as to their prospec¬ tive experiences and student interns.
It is our firm belief that the proposed ACTION Model would pro¬ vide the first is a series of important steps that African-American can take leading toward the goal of a new international information order.
Not only would this model help to initiate a formalized institutional arrangement specifically designed to address current imbalances in the flow of vital information between African-American, Caribbean & African nationals, but it would also provide an organized means of identifying young and talented African-American students with specific skills and information potentially useful to the success of many developmental pro¬ jects currently being pursued by Third World nations.
With the ACTION Institute utilizing the campuses of historical and/ or predominantly Black colleges and universities as its base, it would become a virtual haven for scholarly research and publications, in¬ formational exchange and public media distribution on an ever-increasing scale. Thus, as the activities and research projects of the Institute ex¬ pand, so too should the public's awareness of the multi-faceted dimens¬ ions of African-American, Caribbean and continental African history, economics, political life and psycho-social relations. The interrelated¬ ness of the plight of each respective group would be a central concern and the degree to which we can share knowledge that would be useful to each other's developmental objectives would determine the continuing relevance of the ACTION Model as a whole. APPENDIX A RECORDS OF THE GENERAL CONFERENCE
Twenty-first Session Belgrade, 23 September to 28 October 1980
Volume 1 RESOLUTIONS
International Commission for the Study of Communication Problems
The General Conference, Reaffirming its attachment to the principles proclaimed in the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Constitution of Unesco and the Declaration cn Fundamental Principles concerning the Contribution of the Mass Media to Strengthening Peace and International Understanding, to the Promotion of Human Rights and to Countering Racialism, Apartheid and Incitement to War, Recalling more particularly Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which provides that ‘Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers' and Article 29, which stipulates that, like all others, 'These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrat^ to the purposes and principles of the United Nations', Recalling also Articles 19 and 20 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Recalling also the declaration in the Constitution of Unesco that ‘the States Parties to this Constitution, believing in ... the unrestricted pursuit of objective truth, and in the free exchange of ideas and knowledge, are agreed and determined to develop and to increase the means of communication between their peoples and to employ these means for the purpose of mutual understanding and a truer and more perfect knowledge of each other s lives’, Recalling moreover that the purpose of Unesco is ‘to contribute to peace and security by promoting collaboration among the nations through education, science and culture in order to further universal respect for justice, for the rule of law and for the human rights and fundamental freedoms which are affirmed for the peoples of the world, without distinction of race, sex, language or religion, by the Charter of the United Nations’ (Article 1 of the Constitution), Reaffirming the responsibilities of Unesco and its role in the field of communication and recalling previous General Conference debates on this subject, including resolutions 4/9.1/2 and 4/9.1/3 adopted at its twentieth session (1978), Noting the increasing attention devoted to communication problems and needs by other inter¬ governmental organizations, both regional and international, notably the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries which, in the Declaration of the Colombo Summit (1976), stated that ’a new international order in the fields of information and mass communications is as vital is a new international economic order’ and, in the Declaration of the Havana Summit (1979), noting progress in the development of national information media, stressed that ‘co-opcration in the field of information is an integral part of the struggle for the creation of new inter¬ national relations in general and a new international information order in particular’, Recalling that the Director-General in pursuance of resolution 100 adopted by the General Conference at its nineteenth session (Nairobi, 1976), set up the International Commission for the Study of Communication Problems, composed of sixteen eminent persons acting in an individual capacity, that the Commission was able to carry out its work in total independence and that it prepared a final report published under the title Many Voices, One World. Considering that the publication by Unesco of the Report of the International Commission for the Study of Communication Problenls is not only stimulating a discussion of considerable breadth and intensity, but is, at the same time, encouraging professional circles and the general public to join in the debate. Noting with satisfaction that the report of the Director-General on the findings of the International -228-
Commission for the Study of Communication Problems (21 C/85) has greatly facilitated the discussions devoted to communication problems and to the différent aspects of the Organ¬ ization’s programme related to them. Conscious that communication among individuals, nations and peoples, as well as among national minorities and different social, ethnic and cultural groups can and must, provided that its means are increased and its practices improved, make a greater contribution to individual and collective development, the strengthening of national and cultural identity, the consolidation of democracy and the advancement of education, science and culture, as well as to the positive transformation of international relations and the expansion of international co-operation.
I
1. Expresses its thanks to the Director-General for having put at the disposal of the International Commission for the Study of Communication Problems the means necessary for its work; 2. Addresses its appreciation and thanks to the Chairman, Mr Sean MacBride, and to the members of the International Commission for the Study of Communication Problems, and congratulates them on the quality of the work carried out, the breadth of vision they have shown and the praiseworthy efforts they have made to fulfil their mandate in the allotted time; n
3. Considers the publication of the Report of the International Commission for the Study of Communication Problems as a valuable contribution to the study of information and communication problems; 4. Recognises that that Report has succeeded in identifying-a large number of the most significant information and communication problems, examining certain questions posed in this field at different levels and pointing to a number of directions in which action with a view to settling those questions in the short, medium and long term might be taken; i. Emphasizes that the debate to which the Report has given rise up to now shows that the inter¬ national community is becoming aware of the univenality of the problems of information and communication, of the growing interdependence of countries and of the community of interests in this field; 6. Hopes that this debate will continue and become more searching, drawing in all those to whom the Report's recommendations were addressed, including 'governments and international organizations, policy-makers and planners, the media and professional organizations, researchers, communication practitioners, organized social groups and the public at large', bearing in mind that communication takes diverse forms and involves large sectors of all societies; 7. Welcomes the steps taken by the Director-General to ensure the widest possible distribution of the Final Report of the International Commission for the Study of Communication Problems; 3. Approves the comments of the Director-General concerning the Final Report of the Commission, notably those in which he affirms that ‘it should be possible to give effect to some' of its recommendations ‘in the immediate future, whereas others call for resources or studies which would take varying lengths of time to provide'; 9. Considers that the Report and its recommendations also constitute valuable encouragement for the continuing examination, analysis and study of information and communication problems within the Secretariat, and in Member States and professional associations; m 10. Invites Member States: (a) to circulate the Report widely and to study the conclusions and recommendations approved by the Commission, which merit the attention of all Member States; (b) to study the Final Report in detail, particularly the recommendations it contains, and to communicate their comments and observations on those recommendations to the Director- General of Unesco in time for him to be able to make use of them in the preparation of the second Medium-Term Plan (1984-1989); -229-
(c) to take the Commission’s recommendations into consideration in the preparation and strengthening of their national communication capabilities, without losing sight of the fact that differing social, cultural and economic circumstances call for a variety of approaches to the definition and implementation of national policies and systems and to the identification and overcoming of the obstacles to development in the field of information and communication: (d) to bear in mind also the fundamental need to safeguard freedom of opinion, expression and information; to ensure that the peoples are given the widest and most democratic access possible to the functioning of the mass media; and to make communication an integral part of all development strategy; (e) to further the development of communication infrastructures, paying special attention to the establishment of fairer telecommunication, postal and other tariffs, and to define in liaison with the International Telecommunication Union and other competent organizations of the United Nations system the conditions necessary for a more equitable utilization of limited natural resources such as the electromagnetic spectrum and geostationary orbits;
IV
11. Invites interested international and regional intergovernmental, non-govemmental and professional organizations: (a) to take note of the recommendations approved by the International Commission for the Study of Communication Problems and to convey their comments and observations to the Director- General; (b) particularly if they belong to the United Nations system, to expand their co-operation so as to contribute to the solution of the most pressing information and communication problems;
V
12. Reaffirms that Unesco, which has been particularly active in the field of information and communication within the United Nations system, plays a major role in the examination and solution of problems in this domain; 13. Invites the Director-General to take the necessary measures to follow up the suggestions presented in his report on the findings of the International Commission for the Study of Communication Problems, and in particular: (a) to continue to promote dissemination of the Commission's Report, within the limits of the regular programme and budget, by providing assistance for this purpose to countries which request it; (b) to communicate the Commission’s Final Report and recommendations to the international and regional intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations concerned in order that they may examine measures that they might be able to carry out; (c) to take into consideration to the greatest possible extent, in implementing the Programme for 1981-1983, those recommendations of the Commission that lend themselves to rapid application: (d) to provide in forthcoming programmes for the continuation of studies-on those problems of communication about which data are still incomplete, which did not receive sufficient attention from the Commission, or which deserve attention as a possible basis for procedures for implementing national, regional and international action; (e) to examine how Unesco could help professional journalists to acquire a better knowledge of the-cultures and the economic, political and social realities of different Member States, for instance by holding seminars for journalists on the cultures, societies and history of these countries; (f) to examine the possibility of giving the programme sector concerned a place and a position in keeping with the growing importance which Member States appear to be attaching to it; (g) to take into account as far as possible in the preparation of the next Medium-Term Plan the comments and observations made by Member States and international intergovernmental and non-govemmental organizations on the conclusions and recommendations of the Inter- -230-
national Commission for the Study of Communication Problems and any other suggestions received from other organizations professionally concerned with communication problems; (h) to undertake or sponsor, in particular, the studies and analyses necessary for the formulation of specific and practical proposals for the establishment of a new world information and commumcation order, and to convene an international meeting of experts for that purpose;
VI 14. Considers that: (a) this new world information and communication order could be based, among other considerations, on: (i) elimination of the imbalances and inequalities which characterize the present situation; (ii) * elimination of the negative effects of certain monopolies, public or private, and excessive concentrations; (iii) removal of the intemaf“ttntf&«ernal obstacles to a free flow and wider and better balanced dissemination of information and ideas; (rv) plurality of sources and channels of information; (v) .freedom- of the press and information; (vi) the freedom of journalists and all professionals in the communication media, a freedom inseparable from responsibility; (vii) - the capacity of developing countries to achieve improvement of their own situations, notably by providing their own equipment, by training their personnel, by improving their infrastructures and by making their information and communication media suitable to their needs and aspirations; (viii) the sincere will of developed countries to help them attain these objectives; (ix) respect for each people's cultural identity and for the right of each nation to inform the world public about its interests, its aspirations and its social and cultural values; (x) respect for the right of all peoples to participate in international exchanges of information on the basis of equality, justice and mutual benefit; (xi) respect for the right of the public, of ethnic and social groups and of individuals to have access to information sources and to participate actively in the communication process; (b) this new world information and communication order should be based on the fundamental principles of international law, as laid down in the Charter of the United Nations; (c) diverse solutions to information and communication problems are required because social, political, cultural and economic problems differ from one country to another and, within a given country, from one group to another; 15. Expresses the wish that Unesco demonstrate its willingness m its short-term and medium-term activities to contribute to the clarification, elaboration and application of the concept of a new world information and communication order.
4/20 Application of the Declaration on Fundamental Principles concerning the Contribution of the Mass Media to Strengthening Peace and International Understanding, to the Promotion of Human Rights and to Countering Racialism, Apartheid and Incitement to War
The General Conference, Realizing the enormous and growing part played by the modern mass media in the lives of individuals and nations in the fields of communication, education and information, as well as in the achievement of the noble aims assigned to Unesco by its Constitution, Talcing account of the Unesco Declaration on Fundamental Principles concerning the Contribution of the Mass Media to Strengthening Peace and International Understanding, to the Promotion of Human Rights and to Countering Racialism, Apartheid and Incitement to War, which was adopted at its twentieth session. Considering that, if communication between nations and individuals is to become a reciprocal process beneficial to all, Unesco must not only contribute to the maintenance of peace and security but must also promote the free flow of ideas by word and image and access by ail nations to whatever is published in each of them, -231-
1. Calls upon Member States to take all necessary steps to ensure that public opinion, journalists and othen working in the mass media in their countries become even more conversant with the aforesaid Declaration, and to publish it in as many languages as possible, if they have not already done so; 2. Calls upon Member States, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, journalists and other professionals working in the mass media, as well as their professional associations, to contribute actively to the implementation of the aforesaid Declaration of Unesco; 3. Calls upon Member States, in accordance with their constitutional provisions, and governmental and non-govemmental organizations having co-operative relations with Unesco to provide the Director-General with any information at their disposal concerning the way in which the principles set forth in the aforesaid Declaration have been put into effect; 4. Invites the Director-General: (a) to have the 1978 Declaration concerning the mass media circulated as widely as possible and in as many languages as possible; (b) to ensure that Unesco’s programmes in the field of communication are based upon the fundamental principles stated therein; (c) to convene in 1983, on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration, an international congress (Category IV), to be financed from extra-budgetary funds, to further the application of the Declaration; 5. Invites the Director-General to prepare, on the basis of data collected and any other information in his possession, a comprehensive study on the implementation of the principles set forth in the Declaration and to include that study in the report on the activities of the Organization which he will submit to the General Conference for consideration at its twenty-second session.
4/21 International Programme for the Development of Commnnication
The General Conference, Recalling resolution 4/9.1/3 adopted at its twentieth session, calling for the establishment of 'a new, more just and more effective world information and communication order’, Conscious of the Declaration on Fundamental Principles concerning the Contribution of the Mass Media to the Strengthening of Peace and International Understanding, to the Promotion of Human Rights and to Countering Racialism, Apartheid aod Incitement to War, ■ Taking note of the declarations and recommendations of the Intergovernmental Conferences on Communication Policies held at San José in July 1976, Kuala Lumpur in February 1979 and Yaounde in July 1980, Recalling also resolution 4/9.4/2 adopted at its twentieth session, requesting the Director-General to encourage and intensify communication development and to convene for this purpose a planning meeting of the representatives of governments to develop a proposal for institutional arrangements to systematize collaborative consultation on communications development activities, needs and plans. Appreciating the Director-General's prompt action in convening the Intergovernmental Conference for Co-operation on Activities. Needs and Programmes for Communication Development (DEVCOM), held in Paris in April 1980, Taking note of the recommendation of the Intergovernmental Conference inviting the Director- General to submit to the General Conference a project for the establishment, within the framework of Unesco, of an International Programme for the Development of Communi¬ cation (IPDQ, Taking fully into account the line of action suggested in the document submitted to this session and entitled ‘Intergovernmental Conference for Co-operation on Activities, Needs and Programmes for Communication Development—Director-General's Report and Proposals' (21C/S6), Stressing that this international programme, aiming to increase co-operation and assistance for the development of communication infrastructures and to reduce the gap between various countries in the communication field, must form part of the efforts for the establishment of a new, more just and more effective world information and communication order. -232-
I 1. Approves the recommendation on the International Programme for the Development of Communi¬ cation, adopted by consensus at the Intergovernmental Conference, the text of which is reproduced in Annex I;
(a) to establish, within the framework of Unesco, an International Programme for the Development of Communication (IP DC) in accordance with the provisions of Pans HI to VI of the aforementioned recommendation, which define the objectives, competence and measures necessary for the effective functioning of the programme; (b) to set up without delay the appropriate system of financing and resources, referred to in Parts V and VI of the recommendation; (c) to adopt the Statutes_of the Intergovernmental Council of the International Programme for the Development of Communication, the text of which is contained in Annex II: (d) to_eiect the Intergovernmental Council composed of thirty-five Member States, on the basis of equitable geographical distribution and applying the principles of rotation, as a co-ordinating body responsible to the General Conference of Unesco, with the task of implementing the objectives of the TPnC- HI
3. Invites Member States to take appropriate self-reliant measures for the more intensive devel¬ opment of communication facilities and activities, and further invites them, as well as various international organizations and relevant non-govcmmental and professional associations, to collaborate extensively between themselves and with Unesco in the fields of communication development and to lend their support to the activities of the IPDC, bearing in mind that implementation of the objectives of the International Programme for the Development of Communication needs the co-opetation of all those interested and concerned;
IV 4. Invites the Director-General: fa) to take appropriate measures and make necessary arrangements, in the context of existing programme activities and staffing (more particularly in the framework of Objective 9.4), which will facilitate the establishment, development and efficient implementation of the IPDC; (b) to set up the necessary secretariat to assist the Intergovernmental Council as soon as possible, in accordance with the Statutes of the Council; (c) to make available within the framework of the approved regular budget for 1981—1933 the sum of 31,750,000 for launching and implementing the initial phase of the IPDC; (d) to take necessary action leading to the establishment of an inter-agency working group of the appropriate organizations in the United Nations system, bearing in mind that wider co-operation between Unesco, the United Nations and the various Specialized Agencies and other bodies having competence in this field is vital for the satisfactory implementation of the IPDC; (e) to make the appropriate arrangements, in consultation with the Intergovernmental Council, to mobilize resources needed for the International Programme and to seek contributions from Member States and other parties concerned; (f) to explore, in consultation with the Intergovernmental Council, among other alternatives, the possibilities of elevating the appropriate system of financing and resources to the status of an international fund within the framework of Unesco;
V
5. Expresses its hope that all developed and developing countries, organizations and agencies of the United Nations system as well as other intergovernmental and non-governmental organ¬ izations, professional groups and other available sources will lend their support to the -233-
expansion of IPDC resources, in the form of finances, manpower, materials, technology and training, for a speedy and satisfactory implementation of the International Programme for the Development of Communication; 6. Invites the Intergovernmental Council to submit to the General Conference of Unesco at its twenty- second session the first report on its activities, in conformity with Article 11 of the Statutes; 7. Expresses the conviction that the progressive implementation of these recommendations constitutes an essential stage towards the establishment of a new, more just and more effective world information and communication order;
VI
3. Elects,1 in accordance with paragraph 1 of Article 2 of the Statutes of the Intergovernmental Council of the International Programme for the Development of Communication, the following Member States to be members of the Council;
Argentina India Sri Lanka Austria Indonesia Tunisia Bangladesh Iraq Union of Soviet Benin Japan Socialist Republics Canada Mexico United Republic China Mozambique of Cameroon Cuba Netherlands United Republic Democratic Yemen Nicaragua of Tanzania Egypt Nigeria United States of America France Norway Venezuela Gabon Peru Yugoslavia German Democratic Republic Saudi Arabia Zaire Federal Republic of Germany Senegal
9. Decides,' in accordance with paragraph 3 of Article 2 of the Statutes of the Intergovernmental Council of the International Programme for the Development of Communication, that the term of office of the following members of the Council shall cease at the end of the twenty- second session of the General Conference:
Argentina Mozambique Tunisia Benin Netherlands United Republic Canada Nigeria of Cameroon Cuba Norway United Republic Egypt Saudi Arabia of Tanzania France Senegal Yugoslavia Federal Republic of Germany
Annex I. Recommendation on the International Programme for the Development of Communication adopted by the Intergovernmental Conference for Co-operation on Activities, Needs and Programmes for Communication Development (Paris, 14—21 April 1980)
The Conference, improving mutual understanding, strength¬ 1. Conscious of the increasing role of communi¬ ening international peace and safeguarding cation among peoples and nations in promoting national sovereignty and cultural identity, political, economic, social, scientific, edu¬ 2. Conscious of the close relationship linking the cational and cultural progress, as well as in concepts, objectives and results of the overall
1. This part of the resolution was adopted on the report of the Nominations Committee at the thirty-ninth plenary meeting, on 2S October 1980. 2/ This part of the resolution was adopted st the thirty-ointh plenary meeting, on 28 October 1980. -234-
development of each country and of all countries and expand, and to co-operate both among with the systems, practices, means and infra¬ themselves and with the mass media in devel¬ structures of social communication, oped countries’, 3. 'Noting the deplorable situations of dependence 11. Recalling resolution 4/9.4/2 adopted at the and the significant inequalities of a techno¬ twentieth session of the General Conference of logical, professional, material and financial Unesco, requesting the Director-General to nature which exist between developed countries intensify and encourage communications devel¬ and developing countries in most fields of opment and to hold consultations designed to communication, and further noting calls for lead to the provision to developing countries of larger participation in, and democratization of, technological and other means for promoting international relations in the field of information a free flow and a wider and better balanced and for the overcoming of vestiges of col¬ exchange of information of all kinds, and onialism, inviting him, for this purpose, to convene as 4i. Observing also that the circulation of infor¬ early as possible after the conclusion of its mation among countries still shows numerous twentieth session a planning meeting of represen¬ deficiencies, tatives of governments, to develop a proposal 5. Reaffirming that it is indispensable to change the for institutional arrangements to systematize state of dependency of developing countries in collaborative consultation on communications the field of information and communication by development activities, needs and plans, assuring a wider and better balanced circulation 12. Recalling propositions made by the delegates of and dissemination of information among all certain developed countries during the twen¬ partners and by guaranteeing the diversity of tieth session of Unesco's General Conference sources and free access to information, to engage in technical co-operation and prac¬ 6. Underlining that pursuit of the objectives and tical assistance, elimination of the obstacles cited above depends 13. Recalling also the resolutions adopted by the on strengthening the potential of developing General Assembly of the United Nations at countries in the different fields of communi¬ its 33rd and 34th sessions, supporting the action cation, undertaken by Unesco and the orientations it 7. Underlining the need to establish a new inter¬ has adopted in the field of communication, national information and communication order, 14. Recalling resolution 34/181 adopted by the as indicated in the relevant resolutions adopted 34th session of the General Assembly of the by the General Conference of Unesco at its United Nations which asks the Director- twentieth session, General of Une. .o to study, among other 8. Considering that international co-operation in alternatives, the possibility of creating, under the field of communication development should the auspices of Unesco, an international fund take place on the basis of equality, justice, for the development of communication, mutual advantage and the principles of inter¬ 15. Recoiling also resolution 34/182 adopted by the national law, and mindful of the fundamental General Assembly of the United Nations at its contribution that the information media and 34th session recognizing in particular the central mass communications can make to the estab¬ and important role of Unesco in the field of lishment of a new international economic order, information and mass communications and in the strengthening of peace and international the implementation of decisions relating thereto, understanding, the realization of the goal of 16. Reaffirming the need to strengthen the co¬ general and complete disarmament under operation and co-ordination between the insti¬ effective international control, the promotion tutions of the United Nations system which deaf of universal respect for human rights and the with different aspects of communication and struggle against racism, apartheid and col¬ contribute to operational action for the devel¬ onialism, opment of communication systems, 9. Considering that assistance to developing 17. Recoiling in this context the notable role already countries should not be politically tied and that played in communications development by favourable conditions should be enhanced to several agencies of the United Nations system facilitate better access to modem communi¬ and particularly the International Telecommu¬ cation technology for developing countries, nication Union (TTU), which has been given 10. Rthe responsibility for establishingecalling thean integrated'Declaration on Fundamental Principles concerning the Contribution of the worldwide telecommunications network. Mass Media to Strengthening Peace and In¬ IS. Reaffirming that in order to reduce the existing ternational Understanding, to the Promotion gaps in communication within, as well as among, of Human Rights and to Countering Racialism, nations it is indispensable to develop appro¬ Apartheid and Incitement to SVar\ adopted by priate infrastructures, equipment, training pro¬ the General Conference of Unesco at its twen¬ grammes, resources and means in developing tieth session, in particular Article VT, which countries in order to increase their indigenous states that in order to achieve a new equilibrium capacity for the production and distribution of and assure greater reciprocity in the flow of messages, information it is essential that the mass media 19. Recognizing the necessity for all countries in developing countries 'should have conditions to utilize fully all possible forms of mutual and resources enabling them to gain strength consultation, co-operation and assistance, both -235-
tnultilateral and bilateral, to accelerate the devel¬ training as well as to the setting up of pro¬ opment and improvement of communication duction structures to ensure a more balanced and information systems, exchange of information and cultural products; 20. Observing that signs of solidarity are appearing (viii) to intensify substantially their efforts in the within the international community to correct various fields of technical assistance in the in different fields, including communication, the form of training, expertise, equipment, etc.; present disequilibrium between developed and developing countries, and anxious to transform n these signs of constructive solidarity into con¬ crete actions, Recommends international and regional organiz¬ 21. Recalling that the existing disparity in communi¬ ations, and especially those belonging to the cation among different countries will not be United Nations system: eliminated by the mere material development of (i) to intensify their reciprocal co-operation with infrastructures and professional resources and a view to the more effective utilization of their by the transfer of know-how and technologies existing or potential human and material re¬ but that the solution depends also on the elim¬ sources, in the communication development ination of all political, ideological, psycho¬ field, in support of the common aims which logical, economic and technical obstacles which these organizations pursue; run counter to the development of independent (if) to provide additional resources to information national communication systems and to a freer, and communication development programmes, wider and more balanced circulation of infor¬ and to support efforts made by developing mation, countries to set up infrastructures and facilities I for social communication, telecommunication or informatics which will enable them to Recommends Member States, taking into account transmit or receive information of all kinds at the objectives of their national communication an acceptable cost; development policies and priorities: (iii) to contribute to the development of the training (i) to promote the formulation, at national and of specialized professionals and skilled person¬ regional levels, of general communication nel so as to master different communication development policies in order to facilitate the technologies; mobilization of available human and material resources, while ensuring the coherent co¬ in ordination and planning of their use; (ii) to identify the priority areas in national in¬ Invites the Director-General of Unesco, in conform¬ vestment plans and communication develop¬ ity with resolution 4/9.4/2 adopted at the ment programmes which justify support and twentieth session of the General Conference, financing by competent national or inter¬ to submit to the General Conference, at its national bodies; next session, a project for the establishment, (iii) to make provision in economic, social and within the framework of Unesco, of an Inter¬ cultural development projects for the necessary national Programme for the Development of facilities for the acquisition, installation and Communication; operation of different means of information and Recommends that the main objectives of this pro¬ communication to meet professional needs, as gramme should be: well as for the production of telecommunication (0 to assist developing countries, at their request, and information material and equipment; in the elaboration and implementation of their (iv) to contribute to the creation and consolidation information and communication development of appropriate systems of communication at plans, as well as in the identification of needs the material and logistic level, taking into and priority areas; account the requirements of endogenous de¬ (ii) to promote in developing countries, in accord¬ velopment; ance with their communication policies and (v) to take appropriate measures to overcome, development plans, the creation or extension more effectively than in the past, the different of infrastructures for the different communi¬ political, economic, commercial, financial and cation sectors, in order, in particular, to technical obstacles which hamper the intro¬ increase the contribution of the means of duction of conditions conducive to the freer communication to endogenous economic, social and better balanced exchange of information; and cultural development, as well as to pro¬ (vi) to undertake measures such as will stimulate mote improved international exchange of in¬ the efforts of the developing countries, by formation; increasing resources from various countries (iii) to proceed with the analysis of technical and and ensuring the harmonious utilization of financial needs and resources in the fields of available national and international means: information and communication at national (vii) to give highest priority, in their co-operation and international levels; agreements, to the creation or development (iv) to ensure reciprocal consultation and better of the national and regional infrastructures co-ordination among the parties interested in which are necessary for communication, to the development of communication and in the improvement of professional and technical various related programmes of co-operation; -236-
(v) to pursue all available avenues, both public of Unesco on the basis of equitable geo¬ and private, for the securing of funds and other graphical distribution and applying the prin¬ resources to support projects or classes of ciple of rotation. It will be the task of the projects of communications development; Intergovernmental Council to implement the (vi) to bring together proposed projects with objectives set out in this recommendation. In sources of financial and other help that it may its deliberations, priority should be given to have obtained or identified; seeking a consensus. The Intergovernmental (vii) to encourage contributions to these projects Council will administer funds which may be from ail possible financing sources, in accord¬ contributed to the programme to promote ance with such plans and common interests as communication development in the developing may emerge; countries and allocate them to projects and (visa) to strengthen co-operation and co-ordination programmes in accordance with criteria and of Unesco’s activities with other Specialized priorities it will define; Agencies concerned, especially with the Inter¬ (if) the organizations and agencies of the United national Telecommunication Union (TCU); Nations system, as well as other intergovern¬ Ça) to give particular attention, at an early stage mental and non-govemmental organizations of its activities, to the promotion of viable and professional groups which are active in the regional institutional arrangements which field of communication development, should should assist the programme in pursuing the be closely associated with the activities of the above-mentioned objectives, through integrated Intergovernmental Council so as to play a regional co-operation in the field of com¬ significant role in the accomplishment of its munication development; in this connection, objectives; regional communication institutions estab¬ Invites the Director-General of Unesco: lished with Unesco’s assistance should be (a) to take the necessary steps to facilitate the encouraged to play an extensive role in the establishment and functioning of the Inter¬ planning and execution of regional projects national Programme for the Development of within the programme; Communication; (x) to provide consultative and advisory services (b) to consult with appropriate organizations of to the developing countries in the field of the United Nations system with a view to communications development, with a view to establishing a consultative framework in which making optimum use of available resources; to co-ordinate and harmonize the communi¬ (xi) to take measures to promote the awareness of cation development efforts of each; ail parties concerned (be they developing or (c) to put at the disposal of the Intergovernmental developed countries, international organiz¬ Council the necessary secretariat. The director ations and agencies of the United Nations of the secretariat will be appointed by the system, non-governmental organizations or Director-General on the recommendation of other public and private bodies active in this the Intergovernmental Council, following those field) of the important role that communication provisions of the Constitution of Unesco and plays in the development process, thus con¬ of prevailing procedures that lead towards tributing to mobilize technical and financial this end; resources necessary to the pursuance of the V objectives of the programme; (xii) to encourage maximum co-operation, co¬ Recommends that, to secure satisfactory implemen¬ ordination and concentration of efforts among tation of the International Programme for the all who are interested in national or inter¬ Development of Communication, additional national communications development; resources should be sought from all possible (xiiii) to support, particularly among developing sources—developing and developed countries, countries, the conclusion of arrangements on international organizations and agencies of the the exchange of information, programmes United Nations system as well as other inter¬ and experience and on co-operation and governmental and non-govemmental organ¬ co-production between radio and television izations, professional groups and other avail¬ organizations, news agencies and journalists' able sources—in the form of financial means, associations; manpower, materials, technology and training (xiv) to prepare studies based on experience gained for the development of communication. To this in international co-operation in the field of effect an appropriate system of financing and information and communication development, resources should be established; particularly between developing and developed countries; VI IV Recommends that: Requests the Director-General to make the appro¬ (i) the International Programme for the Devel¬ priate arrangements, in consultation with the opment of Communication should be co¬ Intergovernmental Council, to mobilize the ordinated by an Intergovernmental Council resources needed for the International Pro¬ composed of thirty-five Member States elected gramme, and to seek contributions from by and responsible to the General Conference Member States and other parties concerned; -237-
vn an essential stage on the way to the establish¬ ment of a new, more just and more effec¬ Expresses the conviction that the gradual implemen¬ tive world information and communication tation of these recommendations constitutes order.
Annex II. Statutes of the Intergovernmental Council of the International Programme for the Development of Communication
Article 1 tive of any State member of the Council may be assisted by one or more advisers, a list of whom An Intergovernmental Council of the International shall be communicated to the Secretariat, pref¬ Programme for the Development of Communication erably before the opening of the Council's is hereby established within the United Nations proceedings. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Article 4
Article 2 1. The Council shall adopt its own Rules of Procedure. 1. The Council shall be composed of thirty-five 2. Under its Rules of Procedure, the Council may Member States of the United Nations Edu¬ establish whatever subsidiary bodies it considers cational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, appropriate, provided that the necessary financial elected by the General Conference, taking into resources are available. account the need to ensure equitable geographi¬ cal distribution and appropriate rotation. 2. The term of office of Members of the Council Article 3 shall extend from the end of the ordinary session Within the framework of the decisions of the General of the General Conference during which they are Conference concerning the International Programme elected until the end of its second subsequent for the Development of Communication, the Council ordinary session. shall be responsible for 3. Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph 2 (a) guiding the planning and implementation of the above, the term of office of seventeen members International Programme; designated at the time of the first election shall (b) considering proposals concerning the develop¬ cease at the end of the first ordinary session of ment and adaptation of the Programme; the General Conference following that at which (c) recommending priorities among the various ac¬ they were elected. The names of these members tivities or groups of activities constituting that shall be chosen by lot by the President of the Programme; General Conference after the first election. The (d) reviewing and assessing achievements and de¬ retiring members shall be replaced by members fining the basic areas requiring increased inter¬ belonging to the same regional group. national co-operation; 4. Members of the Council shall be immediately (e) reviewing ways and means whereby Member eligible for re-election. States might participate more effectively in the 5. The Council may make recommendations con¬ International Programme for the Development cerning its own membership to the General of Communication; Conference. (0 devising an appropriate system of financing for 6. The persons appointed by Member States as the Programme; their representatives on the Council shall pref¬ (g) seeking the necessary resources for the implemen¬ erably be specialists in the fields covered by the tation of the Programme and for the develop¬ International Programme for the Development ment of communication for the benefit of of Communication. They shall be selected par¬ countries requesting assistance from the Pro¬ ticularly from persons employed in various fields gramme. of communication, especially those connected with planning, research or the application of national policies or with activities conducted Article 6 under international co-operation in those same 1. At the beginning of its first session, and sub¬ fields. sequently whenever the membership of the Coun¬ cil is changed by the General Conference in Article 3 accordance with Article 2 above, the Council shall elect a Chairman, three Vice-Chairmen, a 1. The Council shall normally meet in regular ple¬ Rapporteur and three other members; these nary session once a year. Extraordinary sessions shall form the Council’s Bureau. may be convened as specified in the Council’s 2. The Bureau shall discharge such duties as the Rules of Procedure. Council may lay upon it. 2. When votes are taken, each member of the 3. Meetings of the Bureau may be convened be¬ Council shall have one vote, but the representa¬ tween meetings of the Council at the request of -238-
an absolute majority of the Council's members, of the International Programme for the Develop¬ at the request of the Director-General of Unesco ment of Communication and for the sessions of or at the request of half the members of the the Council or the meetings of its Bureau. Bureau. Article 9 Article 7 1. The running expenses of the Council and its 1. Member States and Associate Members of subsidiary bodies shall be covered by appro¬ Unesco which are not members of the Council priations voted for this purpose by the General may send observers to all meetings of the Council Conference of the United Nations Educational, or its subsidiary bodies. Scientific and Cultural Organization. 2. Representatives of the United Nations and other 2. The expenses incurred by the participation of organizations of the United Nations system representatives of Member States in sessions of supporting the Programme may take part, with¬ the Council and its subsidiary bodies shall be out the right to vote, in all meetings of the Coun¬ covered by appropriations voted for this purpose cil and its subsidiary bodies. by the General Conference of the United Nations 3. The Council shall lay down the conditions under Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organiz¬ which other international governmental or non¬ ation. governmental organizations may be invited to 3. Voluntary contributions shall be accepted in participate in its proceedings without the right accordance with the Financial Regulations of the to vote. The Council shall also lay down the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cul¬ conditions under which certain particularly well tural Organization. qualified persons might be consulted on matters within their competence. Article 10
Article S The Director-General shall submit to the Council, 1. The International Programme for the Develop¬ at each of its sessions, a report on the implemen¬ ment of Communication shall be administered tation of the International Programme for the De¬ by the Director-General, who shall make the velopment of Communication. He shall report to necessary secretariat and facilities available to the General Conference on the implementation of the the Council. The director of the Programme shall Programme, particularly as it relates to the Regular be appointed by the Director-General on the Programme of the Organization and the activities of recommendation of the Council, pursuant to the other agencies of the United Nations system. provisions of the Constitution of Unesco and in accordance with the procedures in force Article 11 governing the appointment of the Organization's staff which are applicable to this end. The Council shall submit reports on its activities to 2. The secretariat, under the authority of the the General Conference of the United Nations Edu¬ Director-General, shall carry out the admin¬ cational. Scientific and Cultural Organization at istrative work necessary for the implementation each of its ordinary sessions.
4/22 International telecommunication tariffs
The General Conference, Convinced that a new world information and communication order requires a larger and more balanced flow of news, particularly from the developing countries to other developing countries and the developed world, Believing that a low tariff structure that the average developing country can afford is the key to the successful establishment of widespread news exchanges internationally and more particularly among countries of the developing world, Realizing, on the basis of experience, that the high charges levied by the telecommunication services in various countries are the greatest obstacle to the widespread exchange of information and knowledge about each other, ^tvare that the present commercial tariffs, including the current Press Bulletin Service Tariffs for news, are beyond the financial capacity of the media in the average developing country, including their domestic news agencies. Convinced that the introduction of special low tariffs for the transmission of information of all kinds is a precondition for providing most media in the developing world with the financial capacity to receive and transmit information regionally and internationally, Recalling the proposal of the Ministers of Information of Non-Aligned Countries in New Delhi -239-
in July 1976 that non-aligned governments introduce ‘Suitable and concessional tariff struc¬ tures for the fast flow of information among non-aligned countries’, which proposal was adopted for implementation at the Summit Meeting of Heads of States/Governments of Non- Aligned Countries, meeting in Colombo in August 1976 and in Havana in September 1979 (paragraph 287 of the Declaration), Recalling also Recommendation 15 of the Intergovernmental Conference on Communication Policies in Asia and Oceania held under the auspices of Unesco in Kuala Lumpur in February 1979, which inter alia also made the recommendation that ‘A tariff not exceeding USS200 a month for a two-way dedicated full-time circuit be offered as a guide'. Recalling the report on telecommunication tariffs unanimously adopted at the Second Conference, of the Non-Aligned News Agencies Pool held in Belgrade (22-24 November 1979), which was approved at the Fourth Session of the Intergovernmental Council for the Co-ordination of Information at Baghdad (June 1980) and reiterated at the Fifth Regular Meeting of the Non-Aligned Newspooi in Managua (August 1980), Drawing attention to the report of the Working Group of Unesco on International Telecommunication Tariff Structure (Paris, June 1980) and its basic recommendation that lower Development Press Bulletin Service (DPBS) tariffs be introduced, inter alia for the developing countries, at least in the following categories: (a) a DPBS tariff for a dedicated teleprinter circuit of duplex 50 to 75 bauds operating con¬ tinuously (for news transmission); (b) a DPBS tariff for a telephone type circuit (for the transmission of data, pictures, voice, facsimile or a combination thereof); (c) a DPBS tariff for television news exchanges as follows: (i) occasional transmissions, (ii) special events, (iii) regular daily transmission and news exchanges, 1. Recommends to the Member States that, in the exercise of their sovereignty, they take the necessary policy decisions at the highest levels to afford to bona fide media, particularly from the devel¬ oping countries, low tariffs as much as practicable along the lines of the tariff categories suggested in the report of the above-mentioned Working Group of Unesco; 2. Invites the Director-General to communicate this resolution to the International Telecommuni¬ cation Union and to the INTELSAT and INTERSPUTNIK organizations, and to seek their collaboration. APPENDIX 8 /VtT TALLOIRES. Franc». May 17 (AP) pledged themselves to foster "freer tad financial Independence, the press mulated. Imposed or monitored L gov- ou (ion worldwide. We oetlevc the tints — Following Is lhé lui of lha Déclara¬ how and wider dissemination of Infor¬ Hi ho* come within Unesco and other In¬ y/g fuels! Um ff tw .rrqi by lbs peo¬ cannot be Indepemlent ernmsnts without becoming ae hr fro¬ tion of Tallolres, adopted by Icotlert of ma I Ion of all kinds, to encourage coop¬ ment of official control of the pros and ter governmental bodies to abandon at¬ Independent news organ Liai Ions from eration In (he field of Information and ple and the press, to ail sources ol Infor¬ tempts to regulate nears content and mation. both official and unofficial, therefore a denial of presa freedoh. M countries at thé Volcés of Free i; • ft ■■}., • Total lor Executive Offices 4 Or ganizational Structure 01 Unesco Secretar iat Dlreolor UUDGEr.SU/ Giino.al EMPLOYEES «4. Roilyol llgurus aio lor IUR4-R5. In millions ol Aniadou- Puili: 133 ilollurs. Fluid: S îr/rS.Ji'ï Mahldr V « PROJECTS; Rattaalli ilia Olioclor ûonurul ara olllcea M'Davy ' anil uociutarlala tor Ilia following: Gunurql EXECUTIVE OFFICE Conloiuncù, Execulivu Rouit 1, Rudgul Division. Pinginininimj Division, Lugul Allan o. floulonul Ast.lulxni On|iii(y Dirgclor Ouiiurul Coonliimlors (Aliicu. Lutin Amorka. Arab Statua. Asia Oil fccior Uvnmul ami Pacilic), Insjiocloiuld-Gonarul. Moiilalor. Siuiili>4 oml prpufammlng C AuûsInni Dliur.loi Qermrnl/ Dilùiilor ol Uxucullvo Ollica J . Ai.ult.lunl AsaUianl Asvialant AaaiiiUnl Asulimnl. Aailalnnt Ausisluol Y AçaiflUfH Wm Dlinr.lorOunciul Dlipuloi (.îcrntiul Director Oonarol Dlrpcior General Oiruclor Outrera) Olibcinr (leriutul Oirucioi Ganornl Oiruclor Oonoini Education Niltnal «eloncou Social and, Culluro CommUnlcullon Coopumlion lar Prouram -Y Qgnoial r'-Xh; dcvuloinmml , i ; -241 liornun ucluncus Jiuppoil >- ■ udmlAiaRailon tmleiliiinul lliulljut; $11(1.6 Uudggl; $!M.7 lludgut: J25 i OudoectIC.U lolaliunt Rudgot; $00<1 Employons Employa *Q |ludu In aildllloii lo Ihu uilinlnlelrullvo olllcoe llslud uniior tlio Olroctor Qonural, a “Gonural Infomiullon Program" concornud with piorpollng new r.niiiniiiniculloii loclinology hue u sepuroto budgol ol SUM rniillon und a ul ai f ol 43 ornployoue In Purls, and ono In Iho fluid. :i.,llil.u lltU.LCO th„ly)OHUl'l U S)-K*ua. ll.sNsw Y Oak fUUM/l>cC. M. IMJ APPENDIX D CONSTITUTION of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation TIII: GOVERNMENTS OK TIIK STATES PARTIES TO THIS CONSTITUTION ON UEHALF OP TH Cl H PEOPLES OEClJUtE thaï since win's begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men Lliui the defences of pence must be constructed; tlint, ignorance of each other’s ways and lives has been u common cause, throughout I lie history of mankind, of that aiispicioit and mis¬ trust between the people* of (he world through which their ditrcreiic.es have all too often broken into war j - 2 4 that- the great and terrible war which bus now ended was a war made possible hy the denial of ihc democratic principles of the dignity, equality and mutual reaped of men. and hy the propagation, in their place, through' ignorance and prejudice, of the doctrine of the inequal¬ ity of men ami races J that the wide dillusion of culture, and the education of Immunity for just ice and lilierly ami peace are iiidispcit.-uihlc to the dignity of man and constiime a sacred duty which all the. nations must, fullill in a spirit «if mutuaI assistance ami concern; that a |iea 07KOU1* - |il -3 |.injures of iniiliiiii understanding and a truer a uJ more perfect knowl¬ tional exchange of persons active in the fields of education, edge of each « - 2 4 3 Article X of (his Constitution, States not members of the United (a) collaborate in the* work of advancing the miiiual knowledge Nations Organisation may he admitted to membership of the Organi¬ ami understanding of peoples, through all means of mass sation, upon recommendation of (lie Executive Hoard, by a two-thuds coiuiiiiiiiicaiion ami to that end recommend Mich inlcrna- majority vote of the General Conference. lioiial agreements as may hi* uece.-.-wiry to prouiote the five 3. MCIUIH*rs of the Organisation which arc suspended from the llow of ideas hy word and image; exerei.se of the rights and privileges of meinlicrship of the United (/‘i give fresh impulse to popular education and fo the spread Nations Organisation shall, upon the rc*|iiest of the latter, be sus¬ of cull un: : pended from the rights and privileges of this Organisation. hy collahoi at iug with Mcnih.iat their reipicst, ill the ■I. Meiulicrsof the Organisation which are ex|>elled from the. United dc velopuieiit of educa i ional activities; Nations Organisation shall automatically ccuae to lie utciuliers of this Organisai lull. hy iiisl it ill ing collahoralioii among (he nations to advance Mie ideal of eipialilv of ediicalioi;aI opportunity without Aimci.t: III. regard I• > race, sex or any distinctions, économie or sm ial; Organ J hy sllgge.-1 iug educational methods liesl suited to prepare I lie children ol the. world for (lie res poiisihilit les of freedom ; The Organisation shall include a General Conference, an Executive Hoard and a Secretariat. (c) ma iota in. increase and illlfuse knowledge; Airrtoi.t: IV. hy assuring the conservai ion and protection of the world's inheritance of hooks’, works of ait and monuments of The General Conference history and science, and recommending to the nations con¬ .1. Com position cerned l lie necessary internal ional eon tent ions ; 1. The. General Conference shall consist of the representatives of hy encouraging eonperalion among (lie nations in all the States Meiulicrs of the Organisation. The Government of each hrandie:. of intellectual activity, including Mie inter'na¬ Member State shall appoint uoL more Mian five delegates, who shall lie selected ii fier cunsnll.iii.in ivilli the National Commission, if estab¬ 12. The (uncial Cmiferenee shall cause arrangements to lie made lished, III' wit Ii educational, sciculiiii: an.I cult'.iral bodies. fur public aeeesS to meetings, subject to such regulations as it shall It. E unr tin ns prescribe. -■ I Int I H'liiT'il * '.HI fiTiMii'i* shall dclci'iniur1 lut policies a in I the main 1C. Observer* lin.'s uf Hurl; ni l In- Orenm-.ii mu. It shall lain: . lis ’ la inns mi pro¬ til. Tim General Con ferrure, on the recommendation uf the Execu¬ grammes dut» n U11 III llu: Kxcrtllivo lïnar.l. tive Boat’ll ami by a Iwn-tliirils inajurily may, subject to its rules of I he (i.-in-ral t *01»shall, ivln-n il. deems it desirable. £11111- procedure, invite as observers at. S|>et:ilh:il sessions of the Conference IIIIIII ilili iiialiiili.il ciiiil'i riairi s nil I'll 11 .'.Iliun, the scirmcx ami hniiiaii- or of its commissions representatives of internal innal organisations, ilii-s ami I hr ili-'-i-iiiiiiafiiin uf I.'IIII» h‘i|ni:. such as those referred to in Article XI, paragraph 4. I. I In: lii-iii'i'al (amfm III'I* shall, in ailii|i(ini' |n'n|in.aals fur snh- inissinii in ihr M .'ii 11 H* r Siatrs. « I i : ,| niniii -Il ln:t»i*i:n eecuuiiucud.iliinis AKTKUS V. anil inl.'i iial innal . niu . in l.m,. -iil ini 11. < I fm- I In i r .11.| 111 is aI. tn lIn; fnrini'i' l'asi1 a ma jin iiy vuie : hall -ulli. r : in I In: l.iltir .na: a iwn-lliirdn Executive Hoard majority .hall I..: i'i'i|iin . .1. I '.ai h .if 1 In: Mi'inliei' Stales shall snliniit J. Composition l ia ninnii nil.ii Inns m- . nnei.nlinns in il s . iini|i.:li:iit mill.a illes within 1. Tin: Executive Board shall consist of «ighlæn uwmbarir-el&oted a |M'H...| ..f nil., year frnin the eln-e ..f I In: session uf the (ieneral bv..tlm.üauuHtL-'b!t,M^ertllir‘' from among lliu delegates appointed by < mi Ieretii'i: at wliieli they wen: ai|u|in:i|. the Member .Slates, together with the President of the Conference 5 The (Ieneral t in lei erne -hall aileise the Ihiileil Nations Organ¬ who shall sit CM u/fit io in an advisory capacity. isation mi tile eilneal innal, .seieiil ilie anil enllnral aspects ..f malt.as 2. Ill electing the members of the Executive Board the (ieneral nf iiimern In the laller. In aeenr.lame will. I In: terms ami |irni'eihirc Conference shall endeavour to include .persons competent ill the arts, anni'.l II 1.1 III helwian the appropriate .nil Iinril ie.s nil he two Organisa- the litunauilicb, the sciences, education 11ml the dilfnsion nf ideas, ami - 2 4 lion<. qualilied liv their experience and capacity to fullil the administrative (». I ll** <.i»M»u :»i (’.ml. ii ntv bull iv.viv,: anti . nusi,|rj (be reports and executive duties of the Board. It shall also have regard to the submit l«*i| pt i itwli, ally by Mriulk r Stai.-s ;is pruvitbtl l»y Aiiiclt» VI 11. diversity uf cultures end a balanced geographical distribution. Not 7. I lir (jfiirial <‘onit rt iifc; Iiall »tl«i*t lint iurmbri> of ib«* more than one national uf an)' Member Stale shall serve nil the Bnurd im* IMKH'II ami. on l hit rrt oiiiiuviiilal ion of (hit lioai tl. shall appoint, at any une lime, the President uf the Cunfereuce excepted. lut I hrrrtoi ( if nr ral. a. The elected members uf the Executive Buard shall serve for a I ’nt iii// term uf three veins, and shall he immediately eligible fur a second term. Imt .hall not nerve consecutively for move than two terms. At S. huh Mtmlur SI.ih shall hav.t oiut volt: in (hi- (icintml COII- the first elect ion eighteen iiieiulu-rs shall IH: elected of whom onu third 1 •• nci'. hf-inoii- shall hf niatlf l»y a snnpiit majority except in shall retire at the end uf the lirst year and one third at the end of the M s ' •** "I'i'h a tv.oihinls niajorily i> n*«111 ir«>«I liy tint provisions second year, the order of rr.lirciueiit being determined immediately <1 this ( .uiislilnl inn. A majority shall h«r a majority of lint Members after the elect inn by the drawing uf lots. Thereafter six iiieniheis shall • ifstmt ami voting. be elected eaeli year. /*nnu i/n/v 4. In I be event uf I lie death nr resignation of one of its members, the :l. '1 In* < «••lierai Conference shall meet annually in ordinary session; Executive Board shall appoint, from aiming (he delegates uf the Mem¬ • t may nutitL in extraordinary M*S .ion on rb«* call of llu: Kxendivc ber Stale cnni'crned, a substitute, wlm shall serve until the next session Ünard. At each session (In- location of its ni*xt session shall In: des- of the General Conférence which shall elect a mendier fur the remain¬ •jnaled hy (In*, (b-ueral (.ou («-reine aiul shall vary from year to year. der uf the term. |0. I In* ( ifiicral ( oiifi'ivuee shall, at rarli session, elect a President 'It. Function* ■id olhfi olliffrs and adopt rule- of pnuvdnre. 5. The Executive Board, acting under the authority of the General II. I In- t if in-ral < oiiffifiiff hill s.t up special and teebuie.'il COIII- Conference, shall be inapouxibla-focMtaaJXeatl.WlbXiitfiitcUUIUsamnie oHifs .oui sii. h oilier iilioidinalc bodies as may be necessary for its minuted liy. lllU-CmifatsiUci: ami shall prepare its agenda and pro¬ • llpo.sf:». gramme of work. (i. ill»’ Iwirrill | \'c I \* *111*41 ->b;i II I'Bl'iiJUUHiiul |- i fartflHc, refrain frnm ally union which might prejudice llieir position as intcr- ilu* ailini.-.iim <•f iifw .MCIIIIMTS 1» (lit* Oiir.iiii>alinn. nalioiiul officials. Kaeh Stale Member of the Organisation undertakes 7. Snl»ji, - 2 4 5 1. i In: .Secretarial shall consist of a Oirectur-Cjcneral ami such slalf as may he rnpiired. in all mailers of interest to it. 3. 'I'lie Organisation may, on the request of a Mendier State, dele¬ -■ 11“' I'ii'ciinr-General shall In- nominated liy t in- li.vt-outiv<- Hoard ami .i|>|nI hv I In: General Coulrivnve fur a period .,f six years. gate, r.ither temporarily or permanently, a nn-uilier of ils Secretariat to serve on Ihe National Commission nf that Slate, in order to assist II"** 'ittiilil inns as I In- Cun fermer may approve, ami shall I»; eligible. f..r rr-ii|.|Hiiii|ii„.ni. lie shall I.C Ihe ehi.-f administrative in the development nf its work. • >ii' ihe l li'irinisalImi. AiiTiri.u VIII. :l. The Din-dor General. or a deputy dcsig hy him. shall par¬ ticipate, -.Millo,„ ill., light lo vole, in all meel mgs ,,f i|„. General Con Rt fioiU hy il< :nh. r Statua l. rem e, of Ihe Kxrriilive Hoanl, ami .if ||,.: einniiiillees of lie- Organi¬ sation. lie shall I’onimlaie prnj.osal* for appropriate union hy thu Each Mendiée Stale shall lc[M>rt periodically In the Organisation, in (.'mi ferrnn* and llic Hoanl. a manner lo la: determined by the General Conference, on its laws, regulations and statistics relaiiug to educational, scientific ami cul¬ I llh' I'lreelnr General shall a|i|...im Ihe stall’ nf Ihe Secretariat tural life and institutions, and oil the action taken II|>OII the recom¬ "•'••'"l.iiin’ «ill, si a If régulai inns In he a|.|»rnye.| hy Ihe (ieneral ( onferrure. .Subject In Ihe |iarainnnni consideration nf securing the mendations and conventions referred lo in Article IV, paragraph 4. hiohesl standards nf integrity, i-nieieney ami leehnieal cnnii.elenee Ainici.e IX. <•* lll,! !«■ »n .is wide a geographical basis as’ | usable. lUuUjet •V The rrsponsilnlii ies of the Direelor (ieneral ami nf (lie staff shall 1 he exclusively interHal ional in vhararl.r. In i|,e discharge nf their . The budget shall he administered hy the Organisation. 2. The General Conference shall approve and give filin I effect to the 111 ll " "> "‘.I »•••!; or rereive instruct ion» from any govern- budget and to the apportionment of financial i-csponsiliiliiy among the "» "l or from any anlImnly external In Ihe (liganisulion. They shall States Members nf the Organisai inn subject lo such arrangement with llh: I'nil",I Xalinns as y I»' |ir.)viili il in ill" agi-ci im-nt In li" "ilkr.-.l 3. This Organisation inuy make appropriate arrangements with into |imviiaiii in Aiiii.lt- X. other inter governmental organisations for reciprocal representation U. ’I I»; Oin;i;tin- (Juin ral, will, (In; a |t|irm si I of tin- Kxiiail ivi; Jl.iar.l, at meetings. mav nisiv. "ifl.s, lullin',Is. ami siiliuailinns ,lit,icily frnm ifovi-ni- 4. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organi¬ ini'iits, 1 ni I >1 ii ; ami |irival.: instil nl inns, assmial inns ami (n ivati; (Hirsous. sation may make .su it able arrangements for consultation and co-opera¬ tion with non-governmental international organisations concerned Aia iri.t: X. with matters within its competence, and may invite them to undertake, lit latians irilh tIn' l ml, tl Xil,uns Oi't/iiui.tiilttjn specific tasks. Such co-operation may also include appropriate par ticipatiuu hy representatives of such organisations oil advisory eoin- I Ills Organisai inn sliall In; lii'nii"lil into tvlnlinn will, Urn IJnili-il uiit.teessci up hy the délierai Conference. Nfalimi:. Oinanisali.in, as sunn as jn-a. lii-al.li-, as nm; of 111.- 'p.-.:is>li.~.«al a"i-i" n;s I’.;ii-rr.-il In in Aili.li: .‘,7 nf I In l .’lianm- nf tin- Unit",I Na¬ Aimci.i: XII. um,s. Tins ri-laiinnslii|i .-.I,all In- i:ll'.. l..l ilimnali an a^m-inini wiili l.tujuL r.totua of the Ort/uifixation tin; linili-il Nalinns Oi’t'anisalinn nmln An i"l" Id nf tin; Cliarli-r, wl.i.:l, aj;,,-. i„i-„i - liaII I,.; snliji-"l In III.; a|i|im,al nf tin; ( J.amial l.'nn- Thu provisions of Articles 101 and 105 of the Charter of the United f.a i ""i; ni tins I Irisanisal inn. Tin; ann-i-iin-lil shall |nnviili; fn|- ,-l|t;<-- Nations Organisation concerning - 2 4 6 Anrna.K XI. two-third.-* majority; provided, however, thal those amendments /,, /"/lUu.t until of lti:r ;,jirtiu/n~, il ini, niatiuna/ (hijunisaluuii ami which involve fundamental alterations in the aims of the Organisa¬ tion or new obligations for the Member Slates shall require subse¬ Ufjtrncn's quent accept mice on the part of two-thirds of the Member States be¬ I Till- < haanis.al inn may rnn|«-ialr i. llh ..I Ini' S|i,',iali | j,,,,.,, fore they come into force. The draft, lexis of proposed amendments nn, la inn. ni.il ni aani-al inns ami a-ni.-i. s i,l,n-r im.-i'i-Is ami a. liviii. s shall lie commiinicaled by the Uirector-General to the Memlier Stales an- l'.-Jsi I i'll in ils |inr|in.-".-i. Tn I his. i-ml I In- I >i i<-.t. .1- I hana al. arlina at- Icasi six mouths in advance of their consideration hy the General 1 nml, lln- ""iii-ral iiilhni ily „f I In- K.-..-,:III m- itnanl. may .rslahlish Conference. ,11",lit,- uinhinn ri-lal innsl,i|.s mil, nil, m aani.-ai inn, ami aanlin's 2. The General Conference shall have power to udopi hy a two- ami I'Slnhlish an h jninl l'iiminilli'i's as may l„: mvi-ssaiy In assnn; thirds nui joui y rules of procedure for carrying out the provisions • lh-. lii.' in n|M-ralinn. Any fnnnal ariann.'iinaiis i nli-i'.-il inln mil, of this Aniolc. h nrnani.-.aliniis nr ani-nrins shall h" Mihjivl In tin; a|i|iinval nf lln; Aimci.n XIV. I AO III i\ c 15.Mill. 1 nterpretntiun -• " I"'"1'V|-I I1"' (h ni ial .,f ||,is Oinaiiisalinn ami lln: I'niii|ii-(|'||L aiilhm ilii's nf any nllna' S|n rialisiil inli i-"in r: nim nlal ,n - 1. The English and French texts of this Constitution shall he re¬ nanissil mils nr il if m i.'s u Inis" |iin|ins"s ami fun. linns lii; within lln: garded as equally authoritative. , , s . ,.|Hl.Mi..- nf I his Olnanialinn. ,I""III il il.-siiahl.: l„ .-ir.a-t a |i„„sfi:|- 2. Any question or dispute concerning the interpretation of this nf llirii' I.'S,mi.is ami a.aivili.s In lliis Oinaiiisalinn, lliu Diiv.lni'- Const it uu on shall he referred for determination to the International I ii ni'i al. snhji i l In tl." a|i|,rnval nf I In- ( ’nnfi-mitc, may i-nli'i' inln Court of Justice or to mi arbitral tribunal, as the General Conference nml ii.illy >|*iI•!«* n i nii^i iiu nis for il?. purpose. may determine under its rules of pr«jcrdtirc. AHTI. I.I; XV. Entry into force I. lliis (.oust i t III ion >li;ill I». su I. to m:cc|)tajicft. Tin; instru- 1111111.; i l 0 sloill I,,. u ill, till! (joVIMTIilinilt of tllll l'it.l.-.l Kinaijom. INSTRUMENT J. Hit.- (.OIIHI il ution -li.ill iTinnih O|..;II for sigiiaiuri; ia lliaarchivra of lia; (i.niTtoiii-nl of lia- Uainal Kiao.loai. iÜL'aalara may lain; establishing a |il;a-r "Tllo-r IH-IIIIT- oi'afl. r lia; ilr|io.-il ..f lia; laslraiiaail of a:cr|ilaia:u. No u.rr|,lali. .. ala.Il I..- rail.I uniras |ini:.;tlr.| f„llmv.;1| I,y -.ioaatan;. Preparatory Educational, Scientific • i. Il.i;, ( oust a al ion .alias 11 I.oiia; au., foin; ulira it lois liriai ar¬ ia-).lu I lay I w.ai I y of US siyaalmirs. S.ili-..|il.al acia-|iiau.a;s .-.hall and Cultural Commission lain- I'lfriT lunar.liali-ly. Tlu! - 2 4 7 .•o|.y, III III.; I'-aylKh ami I'Yuiirli laiijfiiairrs, of «hi. li rrnili.-.l roia.-s 1. Pending the coming into force of the Constitution and the estab¬ «•ill ha ia>iaaaiai..alc,l I,y lia; Oovrramrat of the Unit.;,I ICi.,.r.|„a. lishment of (he Organisation provided for therein, there shall be estab¬ la lia; (jovrnm.rals of all lia; M. ailiers of lia; tiiiiio.i Xatjoas. lished a Preparatory Commission to make arrangements for the first Ill.ri: foil..» lia; sifjaal liras of tla; liua.ls of lia; .lalaoal ions. J Session of ihe General Conference of the Organisation, and to take such other steps as are indicated below. 2 For this purpose the Commission shall:— (/*) Convoke the First Session of the General Conference. (l>) Prepare the provisional agenda for the First Session of the General Conference ami prepare documents and recom¬ mendations relating to all matters on the agenda including such matters as tin* possible transfer of functions, activities and assets of existing international agencies, the specific arrangements between this Organisation and the United Nation* Organisation, and arrangements for the Secretariat of the Organisation and the appointment of its Oireetor- Gcucrnl. (c) Make studies and prepare recommendations concerning the programme and the budget of ihu Organisation for pres¬ entation to the General Conference at its First Session. (d) Provide without delay for immediate action on urgent needs of educational, seiculific, and cultural reconstruction in devastated countries as indicated in Paragraphs 0 and 7. A. 1 lin ( ’oiimii.s.sinii .sh.ill consist of one icprcscnhili vi*. of each of the 11. During siirli po.riml us tin: Cnininission is in London, tin: ex¬ (jovcrniiiciiis sijriiiilory to this liisiiwiuoiil. penses nf its maintenance slmll bu mut by tliu Gnvurnmcnt of the •I. Tim Commission shall appoint an Kxccut ivu Committee composai Unilnd Kingdom on tliu understanding : of fifteen members to hr selectcil at tin? first meetiIILç of tin* Commission. 'I In- Ivwniiivr ( 'ommnti i: shall exeirise any or all powers of the Com (1 ) that Lhc uinonnt uf tin: expenses so ineniTud will be deducted mission as tin; Commission may ilcItTininc. from llie cuntriliuiinns of that Govenuneiit to tbe new f). 1 lut Commission shall cslahiish its oun rules of procedure and Organisation until lliey liuve been recovered, und shall appoint, sin h other commit ices and consult with MI<|» specialists (2) I but it will lie. open to (lie Commission, if cireuiiislniieca so as may In* ilc.-i ruble to lacililaic its work. warrant, to seek contributions from other governments. I». I lie (. oinmissioii shall appoint a special (cell idea I sub-committee, AV lien (lie Commission is trims furred to l'uris, the tinunciul responsi¬ to examine the problems ndaiiu«r i«. the educational, scieiildie and «ail bility will pass In tliu Ereneli Government on tliu samu terms. tnral nceils of the count ries devastate! hy the war, hacimr rcifar.l to 12. The Commission slmll cease to exist upon tin: assumption uf the information already <:olh« ted and I in: work lining done hr other iijliuu nf tin: Director-General nf tin: Organisai inn. at which time its iniernat ioual organisai mus. and t<\ prepare as eninpleie a eonspeet us as property uu.l records slmll lie I runs furred to Ihu Organisation. possible of the extent ami nature of the problems for the informal ion In. Thu Government of the United Kingdom slmll IK: the temporary of the ()r«pii»i.sation at the l>*irsL •Session of the Conference. deposilary and slmll have custody uf the original document embody¬ 7. \\ hen tin: technical siih-roinmilicu is satisfied that any nmelior- ing (base inlcriin arrangements in lln: English and French languages. ative measures are immediately prarlhahle to meet any educaliunal, Tin: Government of I In: United Kingdom slmll transfer Llic original [o scientific or cultural needs it shall report, to the Commission accord- the Director-General on bis assumption of ollice. in.-1Y :“»‘l ll“i Commission shall, if it approves, take steps to bring 14. This Instrument. slmll be eireelive us from (his date, und slmll Mi«-h needs lo tin* attention of •'uvcriimimls. organisations, and persons remain open for signal un: on bclnilf of the States entitled lo lie the - 2 4 8 wishing lo assist hy eoul rihm ing money, supplies or services in order original Members uf the I'niicd Nations Educational, Scient dir and that co-ordinated relief may he given either directly hy the donors to Cultural Organisation, until the Cnininission is dissolves! in accord - the countries mpnriiig aid or indirectly through existing interna¬ uiu.'c with paragrapli 12. tional relief organisations. to failli whereof, the undersigned ruprcsunlativcs having lieen duly * • Commission shall appoint an Kxernlivc Secretary who shall uniImrised for that purpose, have signed this Instrument in Ihu Eng- exercise Mich powers ami perform Mich duties as I hit ( a»m mission may list, and Ereneh languages. Imlli texts being eipially aiitlientic. détermine, with MHII internal it.mil stall as inav he. iv.pbivd. The Dune, in r.undnu (be Sixteenth day nf November, 11)4.1, in a single stall* shall he composeil as far as possible of ollicials ami specialists copy, in the English and Ereneh languages, of which ccrtilicd copies made available l«»r this purpose hy ill.: part icipaling (iuveriiiiienf s will Im cnnuminicstl-d liv (lie. Giivei nme.iil of the United Kingdom to •»n tin* invitation »,f the Kxecnlnv .Secretarv. tin: Governments of all the Stales Members of (lie United Nations. !) The providons of Articles III I and III.'» of Ihe Charter of the 1 Here follow tin: signatures uf tliu beads of the delegations.] I odicd Nations Organisation cnurrruiiig the legal status of (hat Or¬ ganisation, its privileges and ininniniiics shall apply in th«: same wav to this ('oniinis-iion. I<). I he {.«jinmissinn shall hold its first meeting in London inline- »t‘«,:»* ,l“: conclusion nf tin: pn-a. nl ('miftrion.-i- .in.I shall rnn- 111.1... In sil in I..HI.1.1II nul il sill'll linn: us I In: Const ilut inn nf I In: Or ganisal inn 11.1:. linin' inln fni'i'ii. The ( 'mu mission ska 11 | In'll I runs fi: r In l'uris Hin'ri'. (In: permanent Organisation is In In: lnrul.il. lishcd with the various agencies and organisations operating in the bolds of mass communication. 3. That the Preparatory Commission shall advise with specialists and representatives of agencies and organisations interested in these matters with a view to the organisation of discussions of the mutual RESOLUTIONS interests of UNESCO and the media of mass commun ica! ion and of ADOPTED BY THE CONFERENCE the ways in which they can work together for their common ends. Media of Maas Communication and Their Place in UNESCO' Plans for a Working- Arrangement Between UNESCO and the international Council Ili view «if j^n> of Scientific Unions1 JiiUidiailiuiiiinioli. iia the L'lidjy and the cinema, tn*ftdvM'iiring lin1 purpose ni' lla*, United Nations U) maintain international peace Considering the urgency of restoring and extending the means through which the scientists of nil lands may exchange information ami and work together for the. advancement of knowledge and its appli¬ In order In dclinc. at I lie earliest- possible moment, I lie most ellcirti ve cation to human needs, and ways ami means in wliicli l-i ESI -* 1 nun wilh-itlliilhil.lAiiy.ljv lu view of the opportunity offered by (lie meeting of ibu Executive ei.iiuiss^coirtnuimcaLÎuin in Liiiuit^ellLUL-iii inform the peouliij xii. J.lm Committee of the Internalional Council of Scientific Unions on De¬ world about euclrulhct' with Dulh and juancumidimileniLaiidii^r. ami cember 3 and 1 in London to begin the practical consideration of nays - 2 4 9 in order In assist in csl aid tailing I lie greatest possible k£uxdu*u of in which that organization and the United Nations Educational, Sci¬ (lie inslriiimmts nf international informal ion 1ipor¥i*Aon£oiiship,dujta:i|o- entific and Cultural Organization cun cooperate to their mutual • tutU>ty tuuuuiiiia-praeüms, 4ml ulhUP oLatuclua tu the ftco-uuixiAhy• »1 advantage. UIMIW by word-ami image among ibii-puupJea ul.lllli.ttWtId, 4*d In order 1 o duimmiimmnroud»*npljM.h*t.degEeo-nnd-type.nf pui;tici|*t- Jr is KKSor.vKn Ljnt-uf LlnTimijuf.JiUüiUi-tiacuLui>tüàTiuuijnanmuLiv'':«peivai^_auiiiiUbU^-', That the Preparatory Commission of tin; United Nations Educa¬ in I lie work of UNESCO, tional, Scientilic and Cullural Organization lie requested by this IT IS in sni.xio Conference to instruct its Executive Committee to consult with the International < 'oiiucil of Scient die Unions on methods of collaboration 1. Thai, the 1'ivpar.ilnry <’«'inmi--ion in drawing up the anemia of to strengthen the programs of both bodies in the area of their coituium the lii>1 conference of UNESCO provide lull opportunity for the concern, and di-eus'.ion of the wnpe ami oppnrlunities of UNESCO in furl licring Thai tin* plans thus formulated be reported to the first Conference of tin: use. of the media nf mass communiruiimi for tlm ends of peace and the United Nations Educatmnal, Scientific ami Cultural Organization, for promoting friendly relalions among nations in accordance with with recominenda!ions for a suitable working arrangement with the the purposes and principles of the charier of San Francisco. International Council of Scientific Unions. Ü. 'That in working out the internal arrangements of UNESCO, and particularly itscomimllte -tim iiuc and Secretarial, tin: Prépara 1 l*ro{M»sc«l by the American Delegation. lui) Coiuinirsinn give special ulleiiiinn to the relationships to be cslab- ‘ l,i‘i»|ios»*«| by (b<- Amerii .111 Delegation. Adult Education1 WIIKIJK.VS the strength and stability of democratic government depends upon tin* force of t!iili^rlil<*n«r«| pulilii* opinion, ami W 11Liei \s Adult Educalion lia-, an mondiale coinrilmtion to make to iIn: ctdigiiiciuiictii of (In: citizens of ihe world DELEGATION IT is !{I:>OI.\KO of the 1 liai I • X ES( () bo ui’i'i'd to r.'.labli.di close working niai ion.diips , , uiili ila* carious adult education aj.i!in:ii.s. public and private, and United States of America 1 bat (la: Preparatory (’oiiiuii>siou, in élaborai mi' proposals for lia-, conuuil.hu structure and tins Secretariat of UNESCO. lake full UcLujatxn: acconul ol (lie nccl for adéquate machinery designed lo protiioio such cooperative relut toiisliips. A iM'iiiit.vl.n , Chairman Wii.ia.vAi 1 ftrifrA M, Assistant Secretary of Slate 1 l»y ili«- Aiiicrieiiu I ri>>II. CIIKSTKU E. Miaotow, 1 louse of Kcprcscululivcs, Con unit tee oil For¬ eign A Hairs •J vAIKS E. Minaev v, United Stales Senate ; Chairman, Committee on Kdin ahon anti Labor Il vtu.ow Sii.vri.Kr, Director, Harvard College Observatory f jKoiaiK D. STOOD vuu, New York Slate Commissioner of Education ; i President-Désignaie. Universily of Illinois - 250 C. .MliaJUKU TUOAII'SOM, Dean, Vassal* College Atf visent: UAKIIIKT W. Ei.uorr, Dean of Women, Women’s College, University of North Carolina HKUIIKUT EiiMiauiai, Director, Public Ailniiuistration Clearing House Librarian of Congress fiuAVsON* N. Ktpvuvnu. Consultant, Department of State; United States Delegate co (In* Conference of Allied Ministers of Educa¬ tion YV vi.no LKI.ANII. Director, American Council of Learned Societies Ai.Kx.vNnr.it AIKIKI.IUOIIN, Former President, Amherst College FHANIV Lt.si.ir. Sian.AUi.K, President, Xatiotial Fdueatiou Associa¬ tion ; Superintendent of Schools, Kansas City, Kansas UlSQKüts_MzLfc?uütn,iaic, President, Hunter College MAUK STAIIU, Director, Education Bureau, Tulernutiouul Ladies liarinent Workers Union, New York, New York Secretary (»ancra! : W A in* K.M IvKi.ctiNKU, Chief, Division of Interiiatioual Conferences, Dcpartinciil of Slate Ti’clt mml Si'i'iY/nrii's : IbauKt, DONOVAN, Division of Foreign Service Planning, Depart¬ Huv.\'.rm.rJ. Iluvm:, ( oiisnilaiiL Olliee <>f fin«tniui ional Information ment of State ami ( Jill oral Alfairs. Department of Slate BKATRIZ Cj.vu.viJ>otf, Division of Cultural Cooperation, Department WAITII: M. KOIsrnMO, Asociale Chief. Division of International of State Organi/atimi Adairs, Depart mom of State UI,AN<;UK C. IIAKSI.Y, Commodities Division, Department, of Statu JOSKPIIINK I. LAFI.AMMK, Division of Interitatioual Conferences, J, chni/ail /'. .)■ jh i t-v .* Department of State II vaoi.o BI.N.IA MIN'. Ihiilcd Slater, Olliee of Education FRANCKS MOI:UT:U, Central Translating*Division, Department of Fair II. liiooi i:, I (rail, Inm an of (In- Budget's Minion, Loudon Stare K.vrnia: C. Ilia N\U:I:, As.^i.-tant on Intel national Organisai ion, LUKLI.A Oil.IS. Division of International Conferences, Department, I>ivision nf International Organization Alfair.s. Department of of State Stale. Lois Wti.i.iAMs, Division of Protocol. Department of State (i. Ki.wi.ru I It >i i. '.MI. President. InlcrAuicman Educational Fouudaiion, Ine. o DON.VI.O t\ Sri INK, Assistant Direeior in Charge of Administrative. Management. Bureau of tin* Budget. CII.\I:I.i:s A. Tu»aisox. Adviser, Olliee of luleriialional luforuialioii and Cultural Adairs, Department of State /i/v;.v Ill iniums (tjjit'c.r: Vti"rou WnviiiMour, United States Information Service .1 ■s.'.'iluni l*/uw.v Jit ht!inns Offh »•/•.* ,Io.si:ni Poi. vicm i\ United Stales Information Service -251- Hi’whtric.s of IK /n/olion: DON M.n B. Knnv, Divisional Assistant. Division of International Coitlcrenees. Department of Stale Ko ’ll.vim A. JOHNSON, 1 lord Secretary, American Embassy, London .l.vw.'/i/«/ »V< /■/'*'/urn's nf f>4J, thU 'inn ; J1I.IMO.KTJ. AUKAII.V.U. Informai ion ami Liaison Olliecr, Croup Ivelu- • ions Branch. Division of Public Liaison. Depart incut of Stale MVKV STI:\\\U:I FIM:\« II. Divisional AsOstanl. Division of Cultural Cooperation. Department of State .•I ilmhi/sinil//•/* . 1 ss/s.'iint : I'u.vN* i:.s Iv PIMNOI.I:, Division of Interuational Conferences, Depart- lueut of Stale SicnoijntftJiir unit ('h-riml Staff ; liions A M. BVKI’.V, Division of Cultural Cooperation, Department of Slate VIISMM.V ( OI*:;I.ANII. Division of Economic Security Control ;, Department of Slate Jo.-aem\r DINKIN, Division ol Depart mental Personnel, Depart nielli of Stale APPENDIX E TEXT OE Diut-r DECIAHATION ON FUNDAMENTAL PRINOH-LES CONOEBN- 1NO THE CoNTUIUUTlON Or TUB MASB UEDIA TO STRENUTHENINU PEACE AND INTEUNATIONAL UNDEIIETANDINO, TUB PUOUOTION or HUMAN RIUIITS AND TO COUNTERINQ RACIALISM, APARTHEID, AND INCITEMENT TO WAU, UNESCO GENERAL CONEEURNOR, TWEN¬ TIETH SESSION, PARIS, 1078 INTUODUOTION 1. Bluce U ivAM Issued on 0 Bcptoiubor, the Draft Declaration lu document 20 0/20 baa u roused keen Interest aiul generated much discussion, which the impor¬ tance of tha subject fully Just tiles. 2. Not ouly were slutemeuta concerning tha text of tha Draft Declaration niadn hr moat of tha heada of delegation in tha Ûonaral Policy Debate; Ita content waa also extensively discussed during tha numerous dlacuaaiona which the Director- Oeneral held with the licuda of delegation of Member States and with the obsorv- er» atteudlug the Ucuerul Conference. 3. lu tho light of these statements and couaultalloua aud of tha dlacuaaiona which ha haa held lu particular with tho different regional grout*, tha Dlrector- Ceueral hue felt able to submit to tho Qeneral Conference a uew text which la In hla view likely lo coiumand tha broad ugreuineut which tha Oenerul Confer¬ ence deemed dealmIdo ut Ita iduelcenth cession. -J. As tta title ludlcatea, tlda uew text la a compromise text. Tha reault of lengthy and initient negotiations It tabes Into account I he Idcua underlying tho |uo|tOaed aiueudiucula, uml Ita wording la deaigned to dldpel the inlsglvtuga generated by certain uilwuuderstunUlugs. 5. The Dlrcctor-deueral auhudta tlda revised text lu Ilia firm hope that It will - 252 he |»oasthle for It to he adopted by consensus by the Ueueral Conference. DRAFT DKCUIATION ON I'UNUAUKNTIL PsiNOtrucs CoNOxaNiNa TUK OONTMIMUTION Ok- THIS MAOS MKIUA TU BTIUCNGTIIKNINU I'KACK ANU INTKUNATIONAL UNULS- BTANUINU, TUK PMOUOTION Of HUMAN UlOIITS ANU TO CotlNTKUNQ RACIALISM, APAIATIIKIU ANU INOITKUENT TO WAU raüAUUuc The (louerai Conference, 1. Recalling that by its Constitution the purpose of UNIâSCÛ ta to “contribute to tieuca and security by prouiotlug collaboration aiuoug tba nutiona through cducutinu. ocleiica and cuilura In order to further universal resitoct for Justice, for the rule of law and for the human rights and fundamental freedoms” (Art. 1, 11. and tliut to realize this pur|>osu tho Organization will strive "to promote tba free llow of Ideas by word uud Image” (Art. 1.2), 2. Vin t her recalling that under ilia Constitution tba Member Blutas of UNbSOO, '‘believing In full and eiiirnl opiiortuidllca for cducatlou for all. lu the unrestricted pursuit uf oh|cc!tve truth, uud In the tree exchange of Ideas aud knowledge, are agreed aud determined to develop and tu Increase tho ineaue of communication between their peoples and to employ these means for Ilia pur|»oscs of mutual understanding and a truer aud more |>erfoct knowledge of each other's lives” (sixth preambular paragraph), 3. Recalling the purposes und principles of the United Nutiona, as speciAed In the Charter, 4. Recalling the tlulversul Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the dou¬ erai Assembly of tho United Nations lu ID-18 und particularly Article 1Û which provldca that “everyone bus tha right to freedom of otdnlou and expression; thla right lucludca freedom to hold opinions without Interference aud to seek, recel vu mal et !n Hou deas igü i cdla rogai of f Artlo l|cra»; and tho International Covenant on Civil and Poluieui Rights, uuopleu uy Tlie strengthening of pcaco and luioruatloual understanding, the promotion of Hie (Jenerul Assembly of tho United Nutioua In lÛUtt, Artlela 10 of wliieb pro¬ human rights and the countering of racialism, apartheid and Incitement to war claims tho samo principles und Artlclo 20 of which condemns incitement to war. demand u free How uud a wider and better balanced dissemination Of Informa¬ the udvocacy of nulioual, racial or religious hatred und any form of discrimina* tion. To this und, Iho maos media have a leadlug contribution to muke. This tioii, hostility or violeucc, , , .. . ,, . contribution will he the more effective to ihe extent that the luformatlou re dec ta f» Keen (ling Article -1 of tho International Convention on the Elimination of tho different uspccta of Ihe subject deult with. all Forms of Ituclal Discrimination adopted by the Oencrul Assembly of the Article II United Nations in li)05. und thu Intcrnutlonul Convention on the Suppression and l'lmishmcnl of Ihu Crime of Apartheid adopted by (ho Conclul Assembly of 1. 'llm exercise of freedom of O|dnlon, expression and Information, recognized the United Nations in li)7:t. whereby the blutes acceding to these Conventions ns an integral nn > c nf mi mn n r 1 iffn g nir fl fund a rffèfil aTTK^onfar ia~mvl tnrrac t o r undertook to udopl iiumudiale uml |M>silive measures designed to erodieuto all In the strengthening ut fieuce and International understanding. Im-itenienl to. or acts of. racial discrimination, and agreed to prevent uny en¬ 2. Access by tho public to Information should be guaranteed by the diversity couragement of thu crime of upartheid and similar segregationist policies pr their of the sources and means of information available to It, Fima enabling each inanifesiations. Imllylihiul to check the accuracy of facts uml to annraiso events objectively «. It mil ling ihu Declaration on the Promotion among Youth of the Ideuls or To ililtt eud, journalists must have freedom to renort and thtTl'uncat possible Peace. Mutual UUS|MS t uud Uuderstuiuliug laitweeu Peoples, adopted by Urn facilities of access to information. Slmllarlr. it la 1 mportanTlEirrn>efliasg~ïded 1 a Ucuerol Assembly of llm United Nations in 11H15. lp rmifmmiivA t(] concerna of lieonles and Itnllvldiiala. I bus promoting the partlcipa- 1. Itlou oftccalliug the public ihu Indee tue la ruliouselaboration uml ofresolutions Information. adopted by tho various orguiis of the United Nullons concerning the establishment of a New International Economic 3. With a view to the strengthening of penca and International understanding, Order and the role UNESCO is culled upon to pluy In lids respect, to promoting human rights und to countering racialism, apurtheld and Incitement 8. Hecolllng Hie Declaration of tl»e Principles of Inlernalimidl Cultural Co¬ to war, ihejuuss media throughout the world, by reason of tholr role, contribute operation, adopted by the ticnerul Conference of UNESCO in lObO, ■fiXTailyidy lo pro moling human rights. In particular by giving expression'to 1). liecalling ItesoluHou of Urn Oencrul Assembly of (lie United Nations, 1 JUHircashtL pcunlciu who strmrglo against colonlullain, neo colonialism, Foreign adopted in It) Id uud declaring ... , qccu palimi aml.nll forms nf. racial-discrimination.ana oppr{:saloir~aiid who a re Freedom of iufoi uiulioii Is u fimdameolul human right and Is tho toucb- yimliln to mn^u their voices heard within jhclr own territories. stonc of all I lie freedoms lo which (lie United Nutloos Is eoiisccruied ; 4. If tho mass media are to be in a position to pYOûïüte the principles of this Freedom of luforniulion rcipiircs us UII indispensable cloiueut llie willing¬ Doclurutlou lu their ucUvItlcs, It la essential (hat tourna Hula and other weeuta ness uud cii|Mtciiy to employ Us privileges wllbout ulmse. It requires us u Of ihe mass media. In their own country or abroad, he a sail red of protection basic discipline Ihe uiorul ohllgution to seek the fuels without projudlce uud CUiUaufuiilng tinaiijQIilicat roiitllilMmlûr.Uiii exercise of tbclr profession?" to spread knowledge without malicious intent; Arllcle 111 1». liecalling Itcsolullon llO(II) of Urn Ccneral Assembly of the United 1. The muss media huve an Important contribution to make to the strengthen- Nations adopted in PJ-47 condemning all forms of propuganda which are dcuigued lug of i>eacu uud International understanding and In countering ruclallsiu, apart¬ or likely lo provoke or cucoiirago uny threat to the i»ouee, breuch of the peace, or ad of aggression, heid ami incitement to wur. 11. U entiling liesolutiou 127(11), also udopted by llie Cencrul Assembly in I1H7, 2. In countering ngurpsslvo war. racialism, apartheid and other violations of width iuviles Member SI it I es lo lake measures, within the limits of constitutional humun rl gfl la which aro In ter alla flpawned"~by prëTOtt f eg~an(î~Tgtiora nee, tho procedures, to conduit Htu diffusion of fulso or dlstorlcd reports likely to injure qinns media, by disseminating information on the alma. napTratlouaTcuHureaand - 253 friendly relations betweeu Stales, us well us tho other resolutions of the Oen¬ needs of all neoniêTcûntrlbuFo to eliminate lenoranco und inTsunderslaudrnVbe¬ crul Assembly concerning Ihe mass uicdlu and their contribution to strengthen¬ tween i>eoplcs, to muke uaUouala of a country sensitive to the needs and desires ing |H*ace, lbus eoulithitllng lo thu growth of trust and friendly relations uiuoug of others, to ensure the reaiwct of the rights and dignity of all nations, all Stales. peoples and all Individuals without distinction of race, sex, language, religion or 12. Iiecalllug Itcsolullon 0.12 adopted by Ihe Ccneral Conference of UNESCO in nationality und to draw attention to the grout evils ivhffh afflict humanity, such ItHiS reituraUug UNESCO's objective (o help to eradicate culunlullsm uud racial¬ as poverty, iimlnùtrïtlon and' dlann.«s>H ïhêreGy" promoting the formulation by ism, ami resolution 12.1 adopted by the Cciierut Conference of UNESCO lu ll>7U ~BLtlca ~«3f~poiicia3~licst uhlo to nromoto tho reduction of International tension which proclaims Unit colonialism, iiuo-coloulitiism ami ruclulism lu ull Its forms and the peaceful and the'"equitable' settlement of International disputes. and manifeslntious are incompatible with tho fundamental aims of UNESCO. Article IV i:;. Itccalliug resolution •1.3111 adopted in 1070 by llm Oeiiorul Conference of The mass media have an essentiel part to ploy In the education of young UNESCO on thu contribution of lliu iuforiiiiiUou media lo furthering luteriiuUoual people lu a spirit of peuce, Justice, freedom, mutual respect and understanding. uudcrsttindbig uml eo-o|ierutlmi in the Interests of |icuce and human welfare, uud In order lo prmuete humun rights, equality of rights us between all human beings lo countering propaganda on behalf of war. racialism, upaiihcid uml hatred uiuoug and all natlous, uud ccouomic and social progress. Equally they have un Impor¬ mil ions, mid aware of Iho fundamental contribution that muss media cuu mukc to tant role to play lu making known the views and asplratious of tho youuger (he realization of these objectives. generation. 14. liccullJug Hie Declaration on Ituce and ltuciui Prejudice udopted by llm Ceuenil Conference of UNESCO ut its twentieth session. Article V 15. Conscious of llm complexity of llm problems of luformutiou in modern In order to respect freedom of opinion, expression and Information uml In society, of Ihe diversity of solutions which have been offered to them, us cvldcnecd qrilcr that Information may reflect all is)li((a.üI_YlflW. It Is lm|M>rtaut lliafilifr in particular by considérai ion given lo (hem willdn UNESCO as well us of the ualnUjif~Ÿlcw nrrecnlfii !■> Hiose wlio consider JbntUie Infonnntlpn iiubllshed legitimate desire of all parlies concerned (hat their uspirulious, |ioiiils of view or disseminated about them has seriously prejudiced their effort to strengthen and cuilurul identity he tukeu into due consideration, pence npiVInVcrnnUonQl noTlershnidfiig. to proinotë~ÏÏiiinqn rights counter ill. Conscious of Hie usptrnHons of Urn developing countries for tho establish¬ racialism, apartheid uud Incitement to war be'dlssemlhatcd. ment of a new, more just and more effective world information und communica¬ tion order, Article VI 17. Proclaims on this day of 1078 this Declaration For the fslnhllslunciit of n new equilibrium and greater reciprocity In llie flow on Fiiudiimeuliil Principles concerning Ihu Contribution of the Muss Media to of "information, which will bo comluclvëTô tho lnflllirnfffri~ôfa just and lastlug Siri'iiglhcuiug Pence uud JulcruaUoiiul Uiiderslnding. to the Promotion of Quuiuu peaco and to the economic and |S>lUlcal Independence of the develO|>iug coun¬ lUghls and to Countering Racialism, Apuiiheid and Incitement to Wur. tries, It la necessary to correct tho Inequalities In the flow of Information to -254- ■and from developing countries. and h»rw»»n To tills end. It Is ^**nnHi' y-5.Ac rlftir m».« MNlia *nnnM hnr» lŸmrllHnn* *nri ggflflgga enabling them to gain strength and >™nri, ^nri m <«o-op»rita both among themselves and *TTTi Cflg UJUlHTIWlia III dBTwiuuKl countries. Article 711 By disseminating morn widely ail of the Information concerning the object!res and principles universally accepted which are die bases of die resolutions adopted by die different organs of die United Mutions, die mass media contribute etfec* tlreiy to die strengthening of pence and International understanding, to die promotion of human rights, as well as to the establishment of a more Just and equitable International economic order. Article 7U1 Professional organizations, and people who participate In the professional training of journalists and other agents of the mass media and who assist them In performing their functions In a responsible manner should attach special Im¬ portance to the principles of this Declaration when drawing up ana ensuring aPPUC&Roa o* meir coqea ot euuca. Artielt IZ In the spirit of this Declaration. It Is for the International community to con¬ tribute to the-creation of -he conditions tor -i free low and wujfef ma Chore hniflnr*#-SB SZ5Z5S 133 ,n eSZSIiZH 555555 r^ose waicn nave different economic and social systems be encouraged and developed. Article Z1 For this Declaration to be fully effective It is necessary, with due respect for the legislative and administrative provisions and the other obligations of Member States, to guarantee the existence of favourable conditions for the operation of the mass media. In conformity with the provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and with the corresponding principles proclaimed la the Inter¬ national Covenant on Civil and Political Rights adopted by the General Assembly of the United Mations In 1960. APPENDIX F MacBride Commission Report: Part V: Communication Tomorrow A. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS THE SURVEY contained in (his report has recorded a dramatic expansion of communication resources and possibilities. It is an expansion that promises ureal opportunities, but also raises an¬ xieties and uncertainties. Everylhinu will depend on the use made of the new resources - that is, on crucial decisions, and on the question of who will make the decisions. Communication can be an instru¬ ment of power, a revolutionary weapon, a commercial product, or a means of education; it can serve the ends of either liberation or of - 255 oppression, of either the growth of the individual personality or of drilling human beings into uniformity. Each society must choose the best way to approach the task facing all of us and to find the means to overcome the material, social and political constraints that impede progress. We Itave already considered many suggestions for further development. Without repealing them it might be useful to begin our recommendations by summarizing previous main conclusions: I. Our review of communication the world over reveals a variety uf solutions adopted in different countries - in accordance with diverse traditions, patterns of social, economic and cultural life, needs and possibilities. This diversity is valuable and should be respected; there is no place for the universal application of precon¬ ceived models. Yet it should be possible to establish, in broad outline, common aims ami common values in the sphere of communication, based on common interest in a world of interdependence. The wltole human race is threatened by the arms race and by the persistence of unacceptable global inequalities, both of which generate tensions and which jeopardize its future and even its survival. The contemporary as disturbing and unacceptable as social, economic, cultural and situation iluiiNiiitls better. inure just and more social n lknmciatk technological, both national and international disparities. Indeed, iin 1er, mid line realization »t fundamental liuin.in ritjhts. These goals rectification of (he latter is inconceivable in any true or lasting sense run lie achieved nnly through understanding and tolerance, gained in without elimination of the former. Crucial decisions concerning In rue part by free, ■ >|H:II and biilnnceil ciiiiiinniiieiiliiins. communication development need lo be taken urgently, at both 2. The review hns also shown lltal the uiinosl ininorliince national and international levels. These decisions are not merely the should he given In eliminating iinhnhiiiees and (lis|inrilies in niiii- concern of professionals, researchers or scholars, nor can they be niunimtinii mid ils slruclures, mid |);iriienl;irlv in information flows. (lie sole prerogative of those luilding political or economic power. Tlie I love loping countries need lo reduce llieir dependence, and claim a decision-making process has to invulve social participation at all new, more jus! and more c(|uilahlc order in llie field of cominunica- levels. This calls for new attitudes for overcoming stereotyped think¬ Iu>11 This issue has been hilly debated in various sellings; the time ing and to promote more understanding of diversity and plurality, lias* now come In move from principles lo substantive reforms and with full respect for the dignity and equality of peoples living in concrete action. different conditions and acting in different ways. 3. Our conclusions are founded on the firm conviction that Thus our call for reflect ton and action is addressed broadly to communication is a basic individual right, as well as a collective one governments and international organizations, lo policy-makers and required by all communities and nations. Freedom of information - planners, to the media and professional organizations, lo resear- and, more siiecilically the unlit to seek, receive and impart informa¬ cliers, communication practitioners, to organized social groups and tion - is a fundamental hniiian rich!: indeed, a niereniiisite for many the public at large. oTTicrs The inherent nature id communicaliiin means that its fullest possible exercise and |Kitenlial depend on the surrounding political, social and economic conditions, the most vital of these being democ¬ I. STRENGTHENING INDEPENDENCE racy within countries mid equal, democratic relations between them. AND SELF-RELIANCE It is in this context that the democratization of communication at national anti international levels, as well as the buyer role of cum- - 256 iiiunicalion in democratizing society, acquires utmost importance. Communication Policies 4. For these purposes, it is essential to develop comprehen¬ sive national communication policies linked lo overall social, cultural All individuals awl people collectively have an inalienable and economic development objectives. Such policies should evolve right to a better life which, howsoever conceived, must ensure a from broad consultations with all sectors concerned and adequate social minimum, nationally and globally. This calls for a iiiechanisms for wide participation of organized social groups in their strengthening of capacities and the elimination of gross in¬ dclinition and implementation. National governments as much as (he equalities: such defects may threaten social harmony and even international couimuuily should recognize the urgency of according international peace. There must be a measured movement from communications higher priority in planning and funding, livery coun¬ disadvantage and dependence lo self-reliance and the creation of try should develop its communication patterns in accordance willies more equal opportunities. Since communication is interwoven owncûïïrtitions. needs and traditions, thus strengthening its integrity, with every aspect of life, it is clearly of the utmost importance that independence and self reliance. the existing “communication gap" be rapidly narrowed and even¬ 5 Tin- basic considerations which are developed at length in tually eliminated. the body of our re(ioH are intended lo provide a framework for die development of a new information and communication order. We see We recommend: its implementation as an on-going process of change in (he nature of 1. Communication be no longer regarded merely as an inci¬ relations between and within nations in the field of cominunicalions. dental service and its development left to chance. Recognition of its Imbalances in national information and communication systems are¬ ixilcnli.il warrants the formulation by all nations, ami particularly nelabmenl of tlllennglr ni/iyo/rii,-tiiiai- lef«..inda mlf. reliantcoiiiiii»i|j. developing countries, of comprehensive commun leal inn policies t (liions capacity. linked to overall social, cultural, economic and political goals. Snell We recommend: ixilicies should he based on inlermmislerial and inter-disciplinary 5. Developing countries take specific measures lo establish or consultations with broad public participation. The object must be to develop essential elements ol their communications systems: print utilize Ihe imi(|Ue capacities of each form of communication, from media, broadcasting and telecommunications along with the related inlci|>cisniini and traditional to Ihe most modern, to make men and training and production facilities. societies aware of llieir rights, harmonize unity in diversity, and 6. Strong national news agencies are vital for improving each foster Ihe growth of individuals and communities within Ihe wider country's national and international reporting. Where viable, regional frame of national development ill an iuierdependenl world. networks should he set un to increase news Hows and serve all Ihe I. Ai/tniiciinceX'inlKibieK ihe mlliiml expiTlinri- of people ,ill major language groups in the area. Nationally, the agencies sltould languages should lie adennalelv developed to serve the complex and buttress Ihe growth of both urban and rural newspapers lo serve as diverse reiimreinenls of model lU'onimunicalipn. Developing nations the core of a country's news collection and distribution system. anil nuillilmuual socielies need In evolve lanenaee nolicies that pro- 7. National btxik production should be encouraged and accom¬ mule all naliooal laill.'naees even while seleclim» some, where ncccs- panied by ihe establishment of a distribution network for books, sai y, for more widesnread use in coniinnnicalion, higher ediicalinn newspapers and periodicals. The stimulation of works by national and adniioistration. There is also need in certain situations for the authors in various languages should be promoted. adaptation, simplification, and standardization ol scripts and de¬ 8. The development of comprehensive national radio net¬ velopment of keyboards, preparation of dictionaries and modernized works, capable of leaching remote areas, should take priority over systems of language learning, transcript ion of literature in widely- Ihe development of television, which, however, shixild be encouraged spokcu national languages. The provision of simultaneous interpreta¬ where appropriate. Special attention should be given to areas where tion and automated translation facililies now under experimentation illiteracy is prevalent. - 257 for cross-cultural communication to bridge linguistic divides should 9. National capacity for producing broadcast materials is also be envisaged. necessary lo obviate dependence on external sources over and d. A primary policy objective should be lo make elementary beyond desirable programme exchange. This capacity should include education available lo all and In wine mil illileracv. supplementing iiatinnal or regional broadcasting, film and documentary production formai schonlini; systems willi non-furioal edocalum anil i ni iclnnenl centres with a basic distribution network. williIII a|i|iiiipri.ate Munîmes of continuing and dislance learning 10. Adequate educational and training facilities are required to (through radio, television and corres|xiuilence). supply iiersonnel for ihe media and production organizations, as well ■I. Within the framework of national development ixilicies, as managers, technicians and maintenance personnel. In this regard, each country will have lo work mil its own set of priorities, lieanop in cixiperation between neighbouring countries and within regions miiiil thaï il will not be |xissible lo move in all directions at the same should be encouraged. lime. Hut, as far as resources allow, ciimmunicatiun policies should aim at slimulnliiig and encouraging all means of couimtmicalion. Uaslc Needs Strengthcniii}' Capacities All iiulions have In make ihones in iiivtslnw.nl Priorities. In Coniiiiitnii alum policies shoiihl ullrr 1I imnle lo Ihe .lelennum- ileiielopinp culmines, in particular, iniisl ewe brionlv In satisfying llieir him III hi/tn milium mill nieiliii hriiiiihes anil lu the selection iihitilnoli- people's essential needs. Cunnniu.iculion is mil until a system uf Public riale tcchnnlaiucs. Tim is réunirait lo lilan Ihe inslallalion mill ile- information, but also un integral purl of education anil ilevetopnient. We recommend: finance must be identified. Among these could be differential com¬ 11. The eomniuniealkui component in all development pro¬ munication pricing policies that would place larger burdens on more jects should receive adequate financing. So-called "development prosperous urban and elite groups; the taxing of commercial advertis summit commnnicalioiis" are essential for mobilizing initiative and mg may also be envisaged for this purpose. providing informal ion required for action in all fields of development - agriculture, health and family planning, education, religion, indus¬ try and so on. Particular Challenges 12. Iisscini.il cm n mu i neat ion needs to be met include the extension of basic postal services and telecommunication networks We have focussed on national efforts which must be made to lead through small rural electronic exchanges. to greater independence and self-reliance. Bui there are three major III. I'lie development of a community press in rural areas and challenges to this goal that require concerted international action. small towns would not only provide print support for economic and Simply put, these ure paper, tariff structures a ml the electromagnetic social extension activities. This would also facilitate the production of spectrum. functional literature for neo-lilerales as well. 14. Utilization of local radio, low-cosl small formal television We recommend: and video systems anil other appropriate technologies would facili- 19. A major international research and development effort to late production of programmes relevant to community development increase (he supply of paper. The worldwide shortage of paper, eIloris, stimulate participation and inovide onnorlunilv for diver¬ including newsprint, and its escalating cost impose crushing burdens sified cultural expression. upon struggling newspapers, periodicals and the publication industry, 15. I'he educational and informational use of communication above all in the developing countries. Certain ecological constraints should he given equal priority with entertainment. At the same lime. have also emerged. UNESCO, in collaboration with PAO, should lake education systems should prepare vonne neonle lor rnniiiiunic.uion urgent measures to identify and encourage production of paper and activities. Introduction of pupils at primary and secondary levels to newsprint either by recycling paper nr from new sources of - 258 tile hu ms and uses of the means of communication (how to read feedstock in addition to the wood pulp presently produced largely by newspapers, evaluate radio and television programmes, use elemen¬ certain northern countries. Kenaf, bagasse, tropical woods and gras¬ tal y audio visual techniques and apparatus) should permit the young ses could ixissibly provide alternative sutirccs. Initial experiments to understand reality heller and enrich their knowledge of current are encouraging and need to be supported and multiplied. affairs and problems. 20. Tariffs for news transmission, lelernnimimirniinns rgti-s Ili. Organization of eoninninilv listening and viewing groups and air mail charges for the dissemination of news, transport of cI11iId in cei lain circumstances widen Until entertainment nn - 259 The lechnolouical explosion in communication has both great II. SOCIAL CONSKQUENCKS ANO NIÎW TASKS potential and ureal danger. The outcome depends on crucial decisions and on where and by whom they are taken. Thus, it is a priority to Integrating Communication into Development organize the decision -making Process in a partiabutarv manner on Die basis of u full awareness ol the social impact of different nllcnmtwrs. Development strategies should incoipuriite communication policies as an integral part m the diagnosis of neats anil in the design We recommend: anti implementation of selected priorities. In this respectxummumcsi - 24. Devising policy instruments at the national level in order to lion should be considered a minor ilevelotiment resource, a vehicle to evaluate the positive and negative social implications of the introduc¬ ensure real political parlicipalton in ilension-mnkint!. a central infor¬ tion of powerful new communication technologies. The preparation mation hose tor de (uu oe luiliiv options, and an instrument for créai ini; of the technological impact surveys can be a useful tool In assess the awareness oj national priorities consequences for life styles, relevance for underprivileged sectors for society, cultural influence, effects on employment patterns, and We leconunend: similar factors. This is particularly important when making choices 22. I'romolmii of dialogue for development as a central cum- with respect to the development of communication infrastructures. IHiuenl of both communication and development policies. Implemen¬ 25. Setting up national mechanisms to promote participation tation of national policies should be carried out llironeh three com¬ and discussion of social priorities in the acquisition or extension of plementary coimniimcalion patterns: first, from decision-makers new communication technologies. Decisions with respect to the orientation given to research and development should come under radio by people of different cultures should be studied. Such experi¬ closer public scrutiny. ments constitute a basis for continuing cultural dialogue, which could 2li. In developing countries the promotion of autonomous re¬ be furthered by agreements between countries and through interna¬ search and development should be linked to specific projects and tional support. programmes at the national,'regional and inter regional levels, which 30. Introduction of guidelines with resned In advertising con¬ are often geared to the satisfaction of basic needs. More funds are tent and the values and attitudes it fosters, in accordance with necessary to stimulate and support adaptive technological research. national standards and practices. Such guidelines should he consis¬ This might also help these countries to avoid problems of obsoles¬ tent with national development policies and efforts. In preserve cence and problems arising from the non-availability of particular cultural identity. Particular attention should be given to the impact on types of equipment, related spare parts and components from the children and adolescents. In this connection, various mechanisms advanced industrial nations. such as complaint boards or consumer review committees might be 27. The concentration of communications technology in a established to afford I lie public ihe nossihlilv of reading against relatively few developed countries and transnational corpoialions adverlising which they feel inappropriate. has led to virtual monopoly situations in (his field. I'o counteract these tendencies national and international measures are required, Reducing the Commercialization among them reform of existing patent laws and conventions, approp¬ Of Communication riate legislation and international agreements. The social elfccls of Ihe coinmercialUaliun of the mass media are a major concern in policy furmululion and decision-making by private Strengthening Cultural Identity and public bodies. I'romoling conditions for llie preservation of the cultural identity We recommend: of every society is necessary to enable il lo enjoy a harmonious and - 260 31. In expanding communication systems, preference should creative inter-relationship with oilier cultures. Il is ctjuully necessary to be given to non-commercial forms of mass cmiuminication. Promo¬ modify situations in many developed and developing countries which tion of such types of communication sliould be integrated with Ihe suffer from cullurul dominance. traditions, culture, development objectives and socio-political sys¬ tem of each country. As in the field of education, public funds might We recommend: he made available fnr Ibis purpose. 2B. Kstablishmcnl id national cultural policies, which should 32. While acknowledging the need of the media fnr revenues, foster cultural identity and creativity, and involve the media in these ways and means should be considered lo reduce Ihe negative effects tasks. Such policies should also conlain guidelines for safeguarding that (he influence of market and commercial considerations have in national cultural development while promoting knowledge of other the organization and content of national and international communi¬ endures. It is in relation to olllcrs that each culture enhances Us own cation flows.") ulelll it v.“) ">Cominenl by Mr. K. Abel: "At no lime lias llie commission seen 2‘J. Communication and cultural policies should ensure that evidence adduced in support ol die notion that market and coninierical creative artists and various grass-roots groups can make their voices considerations necessarily exert a negative effect upon coiiiiuunicalioii heard through the media, file innovative uses ol him, television fir Hows On Ihe contrary, llie commission has praised elsewliere in this report courageous investigative journalism uf die surl dial can he sustained unly by uiCoiuiiieui liy Mr S. MacUridc; "I wish lo add dial owing to the iude|iendenl media whose survival depends upon iheir acceptance in die t ullural nn|niitaucc of spiiilual ami religious values and also in older lo marketplace, rather tliau llie favors of political leaders. 3'lie coinmisskm also rcstoic moral values, |silicy guidelines should lake into accmlul teligious is aware licit market mecliamsms play an increasingly important role (uday beliefs anil traditions." even in so-called planned economies." 33. Thai consideration lie given to changing existing funding inter-disciplinary) which would inter alia (a) assess technological patterns of commençai mass media. In this connection, reviews alternatives; (b) centralize purchases: (c) encourage local production could be made of Ihc way in which the relative role of advertising of software; (d) promote regional and sub regional cooperative (in volume and costs pricing policies, voluntary contributions, subsidies, various fields, including education, health and consumer services). taxes, financial incentives and supports could be modified to enhance 37. At the international level, consideration should be given to the social function of mass media and improve their service to the action with-respect to: © a systematic identification of existing community. organized data processing infrastructures in various snerinliyed fields; {£) agreement on measures for effective multi-country par¬ ticipation in the programmes, planning and administration of existing Access to Technical Information or developing data infrastructures; (cj analysis of commercial'and technical measures likely to improve the use of informatics by de¬ rli ‘- [him "I taJmiutl wfotwuliuu within nations, and arrow veloping countries; (til) agreement on international priorities for national boundaries is a minor resource for development. Aççessto research and development that is of interest to all l oiiniries in the inch iajonnalian, which countries gauL far technicaldecisiauanaking field of informatics. III all levels, is as crucial in access to news sources. This type of 38. (transnational corporalions^bhould supply to the au¬ information is fate rally mil easihi luiuikihlc. and is most often üuiSJ» - thorities of the countries in which they operate, upon request and on trntcil HI Itiri'e tcchnustnuturns Dev,■toped countries ore not Jim»»/. a regular basis as specified by local laws and regulations, all informa¬ ing adequate information of this tvbe to developing countries. tion required for legislative and administrative purposes relevant to their activities and specifically needed to assess the performance of We recommend: such entities. They should also provide the public, trade unions anti 34. Developing countries should pay particular attention to (a) other interested sectors of the countries in which they operate with (he correlation between educational, scientific and communication information needed to understand the global structure, activities and (Milicies, because their practical application frequently overlaps: (b) policies of the transnational corporation and their significance for the - 261 Il|C créai ion in each niimlrv of one of several centres for the collec- country concerned. tion and utilization of technical information and data, both from within the ctMinlry and front abroad; (c) to secure Ihc basic couin- uicnt necessary for essential data processing activities: (d) the III. PROFESSIONAL INTEGRITY AND STANDARDS development ol skills and facilities for computer processing and ailiilysisol data obtained Irom remote sensini’. 33. Developed count ries should foster exchanges of technical llcsitonsihlllty of Journalists information on the principle that all countries have equal i ighls to full access to available information. It is increasingly necessary, in order For the journalist, freedom and responsibility are indivisible. to reduce inequalities in this held, to promote cooperative arrange¬ Freedom without responsibility invites distortion and other abuses. ments for collection, retrieval, processing and diffusion of technolog¬ Ilut in the absence of freedom there can be no exercise of responsibility. ical information through various networks, regardless of geographi¬ 7 he concept of freedom with responsibility necessarily includes a con¬ cal or institutional frontiers. IINISIST wlticlt provides basic cern for professional ethics, demanding an equitable approach to guidelines for voluntary cooperation among and heuitceainformation events, situations or processes with due attention to their diverse systems and services, should further develop its arlivilies. aspects. This is not always the case today. 36. Developing countries should adopt national informatics pplicies innîTër ot pnqritv. I liese should orimanlvTelatc to the We recommend: establishment of decision-making rennes (inter-departmental anil 39. The importance of the journalist's mission in the content- pornry world demands steps to enhance his standing in society. In 43. Codes of professional ethics exist in all parts of tire world, many countries even today, journalists are not regarded as members adopted voluntarily in many countries by professional groups. The of an acknowledged profession and they are treated accordingly. To adoption of codes of ethics at national and, in some cases, at the overcome this situation, journalism needs to raise its standards and regional level is desirable, provided that such codes are prepared and quality for recognition everywhere as a genuine profession. adopted by the profession itself- without government interference. 40. To be treated as professionals, journalists require broad educational preparation and specific professional training. Prog¬ rammes of instruction need to be developed not only for entry-level Towards Improved imernalional deponing recruits, but also (or experienced personnel who from time to time would benefit from special seminars and conferences designed to The full and factual presentation of neivs about one country to refresh and enrich their qualifications. Basically, programmes of others is a continuing problem. The reasons for this are manifold: instruction and training should be conducted on national and regional principal among them are correspondents' working conditions, their levels. skills and attitudes, varying conceptions of news and information 41. Such values as truthfulness, accuracy and respect for values and government viewpoints. Remedies for the situation will human rights are not universally applied at present. Higher profes¬ require long-term, evolutionary action towards improving the exchange sional standards and responsibility cannot be imposed by decree, nor of news around the world. do they depend solely on the goodwill of individual journalists, who are employed by institutions which can improve or handicap their We recommend: professional performance. The self-respect of journalists, their in¬ 44. All countries should lake steps to assure admittance at tegrity and inner drive to turn out work of high quality are of foreign correspondents and facilitate their collection and transmis¬ paramount iuqKirtance. It is this level of professional dedication, sion of news. Special obligations in this regard, undertaken by the making for responsibility, that should be fostered by news media and signatories to the Final Act of the Helsinki conference, should be joui nalisls' organizations. In this framework, a distinction may have lionoured and, indeed, liberally applied. Free access to news sources - 262 to be drawn between media institutions, owners and managers on the by journalists is an indispensable requirement for accurate, faithful one hand and journalists on the other. and balanced reporting. This necessarily involves access to unoffi¬ 42. As in other professions, journalists and media organiza¬ cial, as well as official sources of information, that is. access to the tions serve the public directly and the public, in turn, is entitled to entire spectrum of opinion within any country.1» hold them accountable for their actions. Among the mechanisms 45. Conventional standards of news selection and reporting, devised up to now in various count I ics for assuring accountability, the and many accepted news values, need to be reassessed if readers Commission sees merit in press or media councils, the institution of and listeners around the world are to receive a more faithful and the press ombudsman and peer group criticism of the sort practiced compreliensive account of events, movements and trends in both by journalism reviews in several countries. In addition, communities developing and developed countries. The inescapable need to inler- served by particular media can accomplish significant reforms through citizen action. Specific forms of community involvement in inConunciit by S. Losev: This paragraph doesn't correspond to the decision-making will vary, of course, from country to country. Public Helsinki Final Act (see section 2 - information, point (cl), contradicts the broadcasting stations, (or example, can be governed by representa¬ interests of developing nations, and therefore is completely unacceptable and I object against it being included. I suggest to replace this recommenda¬ tive boards drawn from the community. Voluntary measures of this tion by the following text: "All countries should take appropriate measures to sort can do much to influence media performance. Nevertheless, it improve die conditions for foreign correspondents to carry out their profes¬ appears necessary to develop further effective ways by which the sional activities in lire host countries in accordance with the provisions ill the right to assess mass media performance can be exercised by the Helsinki Final Act and with due respect to lire national sovereignly and the public. national identity of die host country.* prêt unfamiliar situations in terms that will be understood by a according lo its journalistic practices and national legal framework; distant audience should not blind reporters or editors to the hazards (b) the United Nations, in consultation with all concerned bodies, of narrow ethnocentric thinking. The first step towards overcoming explore the conditions under which this right could be perfected at this bias is to acknowledge that it colours the thinking of virtually all the international levels, taking into account the cumbersome opera¬ human livings, journalists included, for the most part without delib¬ tion of the 1952 Convention nil the International Right of Correction; erate intent. The act of selecting certain news items for publication, (c) media institutions with an international reach define on a volun¬ while rejecting others, produces in the minds of the audience a tary basis internal standards for llie exercise of this right and make picture of the world that may well be incomplete or distorted. Higher them publicly available. professional standards are needed for journalists to be able to illumi¬ 49. Intelligence services of many nations have at one time or nate the diverse cultures and beliefs of the modern world, without other recruited journalists to commit espionage under the cover of their presuming to judge the ultimate validity of any foreign nation's their professional duties. This practice must be condemned. It un¬ experience and traditions. dermines the integrity of the profession and, in some circumstances, •Hi. To this end, re|>orters being assigned to foreign posts can expose other journalists to unjustified suspicion or physical should have the benefit of language training and acquaintance with threat. The Commission urges journalists and their employers to be the history, institutions, politics, economics and cultural environ¬ on guard against possible attempts of this kind. We also urge govern¬ ment of the country or region in which they will be serving. ments to refrain from using journalists for purposes of espionage. 47. Tile press and broadcasters in the industrialized world should allot inure space and time to reporting events in and background material about foreign countries in general and news Protection of Journalists from Ibe developing world in particular. Also, the media in developed countries - especially the "gatekeepers," editors and producers of Daily reports from around the world allesl lo dangers that print and broadcasting media who select the news items to be journalists are subject to in the exercise of their profession: harass¬ ment. threats, imprisonment, physical violence, assassination. Con¬ published or broadcast - should become more familiar with the cultures and conditions in developing countries. Allliough the pre¬ tinual vigilance is required to focus the world's attention on such sent imbalance in news Hows calls for strengthening capacities ill assuulls to human rights. 263 developing countries, the media of the industrialized countries have their contribution lo make towards the correction of these in¬ We recommend: equalities. 50. The professional independence and integrity of all those 48. To offset the negative effects of inaccurate or malicious involved in the collection and dissemination of news, information and retaining of international news, the right of reply and correction views lo the public should be safeguarded. However, the Cotnmisskin should lie further considered. While these concepts are recognized in does not propose special privileges to protect journalists in the many countries, their nature and scope vary so widely that it would performance of their duties, although journalism is often a dangerous be neither expedient nor realistic to propose the adoption of any profession. Far from constituting a special category, journalists are international regulations for their purpose. False or distorted news citizens of their respective countries, entitled to the same range of accounts can lie harmful, but the voluntary publication of corrections human rights as other citizens. One exception is provided in the or replies is preferable lo international normative action. Since the additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, manner in which the right of reply and correction as applied in which applies only to journalists on perilous missions, such as in different countries varies significantly, it is further suggested that: areas of armed conflict. To propose additional measures would invite (a) the exercise of the international right of reply and correction be the dangers entailed in a licensing system since it would require considered lor application on a voluntary basis in each country somebody to stipulate who should be entitled lo claim such prolec- lion. Journalists will bo fully protected only whun everyone's human subject lo pressure or who suffer adverse consequences from their rights are guaranteed.1" dedication to the defence of human rights. 51. That Unesco should convene a series of round tables at 53. The media should contribute lo promoting the just cause which journalists, media executives, researchers and jurists can of peoples struggling for freedom and independence and their right |ieriodically review problems related to the protection of journalists to live in peace and equality witliout foreign interference. This is and prnjmsc additional appropriate measures to this end.1'1 especially important for all oppressed peoples who, while struggling against colonialism, religious and racial discrimination, are deprived of opportunity to make their voices heard within their own countries. IV DFMOCKATIZATION OF COMMUNICATION 54. Communication needs in a democratic society should he met by the extension of specific rights such as llie right to he IIIIIIIUII flights informed, the right lo inform, the right lo privacy, (lie right lo participate in public communication - all elements of a new concept, p'reciltnn of speech, of the press, of information anti oj assembly the right lo communicate. In developing what might be called a new are allai Jar the realization uj human rights. Extension oj these com¬ era of social rights, we suggest all the implications uf the right to munication freedoms to a broader individual and collective right to communicate be further explored. communicate is an evolving principle in the democratization process. Among the human rights to be emphasized are those oj equality for women untl between races. Defence oj all human rights is one oj the Iteinckvnl of Obstacles media's mast vital tasks. Communication, with its immense possibilities for influencing We recommend: the minds and behaviour of peuple, can be a powerful means ofpromot¬ 5Ü. All those win kin); in the mass media should contribute to ing democratization of society and oj widening public participation in the fulfillment of human rights. IKIIII individual and collective, in the the decision -making process. This depends on the structures and prac¬ - 264 spirit of (he Unesco Declaration on llie mass media and die Helsinki tices of the media and llieir management and to what extent they Final Act, and the International Dill of Human bights. The contribu¬ facilitate broader access and open the communication process lo a free tion of llie media in this renard is not only to losler these principles, interchange of ideas, information and experience among equuls. with¬ bul also lo expose all infringements, wherever they occur, and lo out dominance or discrimination. support lliose whose 1 iglils have been neglected or violated. Profes¬ sional associations and public opinion should support journalists We recommend: 55. All countries adopt measures to enlarge sources of infor¬ uiCoinmciil by Mr. S Maclhidc: "I consider Ibis paragraph quite mation needed by citizens in their everyday life. A careful review uf inailet|uale lo ileal willi wliui is a serious IHISIIIOII. llcrausc of die importance existing laws and regulations should be undertaken with the aim of of llie role of pair nalisis and others win I provide or control llie How of news 10 reducing limitations, secrecy provisions and other constraints in die media. I urge dial they should lie granted a special status and protection. I also urge dial piovisions should lie made tu enable a journalist lo a|i|>eal information practices. against a refusal of reasonable facilities. My views oil lliese issues are 5 - 265 ment ownership.'/! intcgrailon and Participation mCoiuinent by Mr. S. Macltride: “I also wish to draw attention to Ihe provisions of Article 111 of die hurujicaii Convention for die I’rnieclion of lhinian Nights winch I consirler as wholly inadequate. I urge thaï Articles hi To be able to communicate in contemporary society, man must and If "I die Inler-Ainei lean Conveiiliou on Human Nights (PJ7(J) are much dispose of appropriate communication tools. New technologies offer inoie comprehensive and effective than die equivalent pinviskuis of die him many devices for individualized information unit entertainment, Kurnpcan Convenlmii. The mailer is discussed in paragraphs ihi-211 of my but often fail to provide appropriate tools for communication within his pa|ier on / /a I'liila /lull of Journalists (CIC Document No. IK)) community or social or cultural group. Hence, alternative means of mComment hy Mr. h Aliel: "Negardiug (a) and (c). anti-moiuipoly communication are often required. legislation, whedier more in less effective, is relevant only in countries where a degree of competition can lie said lo exist. It is a Iravesiy In speak of We recommend: measures against rimrciurulmii and inonnpnlizalkiu in couutiies wliere die media are llieinselves established as stale iinuHi|iolies, or iqierate as an arm 62. Much more attention be devoted to use of the media in of die only aullmrucd political party, (h) Transitaiumal cor|Hiratioiis are living and working environments. Instead of isolating men and wo¬ ex|iecled In comply vviih die laws of llie countries in which iliey do business, men. the media should help integrate them into Ihe community. (d) Where it can lie shown In exist, Ihe influence of advertisers upon editorial 63. Readers, listeners and viewers have generally been coulent or broadcast programming would warrant careful sludy. Hut a treated as passive receivers of information. Those in charge of Ihe sweeping ilemand dial such influence lie reduced, without pausing to examine or attempting lo measure dial iuttuencc in particular cir¬ media should encourage lltutr audiences to play a more active role in cumstances, is a symptom of ideological prejudice.’’ communication by allocating more newspaper space, or broadcasting lime, for the views of imiivitliial members of the public or organized We recommend: social groups. 66. The progressive implementation of national and interna¬ (id. The creation of appropriate communication facilities at all tional measures thai will foster the setting upof a new world informa¬ levels, leading towards new forms of public involvement in the man¬ tion and communication order. The proposals contained in this report agement of the media and new modalities for their funding. can serve as a contribution to develop the varied actions necessary to fi5. Communication policy-makers should (jive far creator im¬ move in that direction. portance to devising ways whereby the management of the media 67. International cooperation for the development of com¬ could he democratized - while respecting national customs and munications he given equal priority with and within other sectors characteristics - by associating the following categories: (a) jour¬ (e.g. health, agriculture, industry, science, education, etc.) as infor¬ nalists and professional communicators; (h) creative artists; (c) mation is a basic resource for individual and collective advancement technicians; (d) media owners and managers; (e) representatives of and for all-round development. This may be achieved by utilizing the public. Such democratization of the media needs the full support funds provided through bilateral governmental agreements and from and understanding of all those working in them, and this process international and regional organizations, which should plan a consid¬ should lead to their having a more active role in editorial |ailicy and erable increase in their allocations for communication, infrastruc¬ management. tures, equipment and programme development. Care should be taken that assistance is compatible with developing countries' priorities. Consideration should also be given to provisions of assis¬ V. 1'OSTERING INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION tance on a programme rather Ilian on a strict project basis. 66. The close relationship between the establishment of a new international economic order and the new world information and Partners fur Development communicat ion order should be carefully considered by the technical bodies dealing with these issues. Concrete plans of action linking - 266 1 Ilcq uu til us in communication facilities, which exist both processes should be implemented within llie United Nations everywhere, arc line hi economic discrepancies or to pohticul and system. The United Nations in approving llie international develop¬ economic design, still others to cultural imposition or neglect. Hut ment strategy should consider the communications sector as an whatever the source or reason for them. Hross inequalities should no integral element of it and not merely as an instrument of public longer be countenanced. The very notion of a new world information information. and communication order presupposes fostering international coopera¬ tion. who h includes two nunn areas: international assistance and contributions to winds international understanding. The international Sirciicihcnliii; Collective Self-reliance dimensions of communication are today of such importance that it lias In-come crue ml lo develop cooperation on a world wale scale ll is for the Developing countries have a primary responsibility for undertak¬ international community to lake the appropriate steps to replace depen¬ ing necessary changes to overcome their dependence in the field of dence. dominance and inequality by more fruitful ami more open communications. The uctions needed begin at the national level, but relations of interdependence and complementarity based on mutual must be complemented by forceful and decisive agreements at llie interest and llie equal dignity oj nations and peoples. Such cooperation bilateral, sub-regional, regional, and inter regional levels. Collective requires a major international commitment lo redress the present self-reliance is llie cornerstone of a new world information and com¬ situations. This clear commitment is a need no! only for developing munication order. countries but also for the inlcrnutiunut community as a whole. The tensions and disruptions that will come from lack of action are far We recommend: greater Ilian the problems posed by necessary changes. 69. The communication dimension should be incorporated into existing programmes and agreements for economic cooperation concern and therefore of importance to international organizations, between developing countries. where all Member Stales can fully debate the issues involved and decide 70. Joint activities in the held of communication, which are upon multi-national action. Governments should therefore attentively umler way between developing countries, should be developed review the structures and programmes of international agencies in the further ill the light of tile overall analysis and recommendations of communications field and point to changes required to meet evolving Ibis Report. In particular, attention should be given to cooperation needs. among national news agencies. to the further development of the News Agencies i‘ool and broadcast my organizations of the non- aligned countries, as well as to the general exchange on a regular We recommend: basis of radio, TV programmes and lilms. 75. The Member States of Unesco should increase their sup¬ 71. With lespecl to cooperation in the held of technical infor¬ port to the Organization's programme in this area. Consideration mation, the establishment of regional and sub regional data banks should be given to organizing a distinct communication sector, not and information processing centres anil specialized documentation simply in order to underline its importance, but to empliasize that its centres should be given a high primity. They should be conceived and activities are inter-related with the other major components of Un- organized, both in terms of software and management, according to esco’s work - education, science and culture.»! In its communications the particular ncctls of coo|>orating countries. Choices of technology activities, Unesco should concentrate on priority areas. Among and selection of foreign enterprises should Ire made so as not to these are assistance to national policy formulation and planning, increase de|ienilence in this held. technical development, organizing professional meetings and ex¬ Tl. Mechanisms for sharing information of a lion-strategic changes, promotion and coordination of research, and elaboration of nature could be established particularly m economic matters. Ar¬ international norms. rangements of this nature could be of value in areas such as multilat¬ 7G. Uetier coordination of the various communication ac¬ eral trade negotiations, dealings with transnational corporations and tivities within Unesco and lliose throughout the United Natkins - 267 banks, economic forecasting, and medium- and long-term planning System. A thorough inventory and assessment of all communications and other similar helds. development and related programmes of the various agencies should 7:i. Particular efforts should be undertaken to ensure that be undertaken as a basis for designing appropriate mechanisms to news abmil other developing countries within or outside their region carry out the necessary consultations, cooperation and coordination. receive more attention and space ill the media. Special projects could 77. It would be desirable for the United Nations family to be be develo|ied to ensure a steady How of attractive and interesting equipped with a more effective information system, including a material inspired by news values which meet developing countries' broadcast capability of its own and imssibly a communication satel¬ iulormalimi needs. lite. The would enable the United Nations to follow more ckisely 71. Measures to promote links and agreements between pro¬ world affairs and transmit its message more effectively to all (lie fessional organizations and communication researchers of different peoples of the earth. Although such a proposal would require licavy countries should be fostered. It is necessary to develop networks of investment and raise some complex issues, a feasibility study slmuld institutions and people working in the held of communication in order to share and exchange experiences and implement joint projects of common interest with concrete operational eonlciils. Iillcriiniioitnl Mechanisms "•Cumulent by Mr. M. kubis: "I strongly believe that tile present set-up in Unescu (Sector of Culture and Communication) is adequate to deal with the problems of communication." Cooperation for the development uj communications is 1/ global be undertaken so that a carefully designed project could be prepared UNESCO should undertake further study uf this proposal for con¬ for deliberation and decision. m sideration at the 1980 session of the General Conferenced» 78. Consideration might be given to establishing within the framework of Unesco an International Centre for the Study and rianning of Information and Communication. Its main tasks would be Towards International Understanding to: (a) promote the development of national communication systems in developing countries and the balance and reciprocity in interna¬ The strengthening of peace, international security and coopera¬ tional information Hows; (b) mobilize resources required for that tion and the lessening of international tensions are the common con¬ purpose and manage the funds put at its disposal; and (c) assure cern of all nations. The mass media can make a substantial contribu¬ coordination among parlies interested in communication develop¬ tion towards achieving these goals. The special session of the United ment and involved in various coo|>crnlinu programmes and evaluate Nations General Assembly on disarmament called for increased efforts results of bilateral and multilateral activities in this held; (d) organize by the mass media to mobilize public opinion in favour of disarmament round tables, seminars, and conferences for the training of com¬ and of ending the arms race. This Declaration together with the Unesco munication planners, researchers and journalists, particularly those Declaration on fumtamental principles concerning the contribution of socializing in international problems; and (e) keep under review the mass media to strengthening peace and international understand¬ communications technology transfers between developed and de¬ ing. to the promotion of human rights and to countering racialism, veloping countries so that they aie carried out in the most suitable apartheid and incitement to war should be the foundation of new conditions. The Centre may he guided by a tripartite coordinating council composed of representatives of developing and developed countries and of interested international organizations. We suggest “'Comment by Ms. 11. Zimmerman: "Allltough 1 agree dial a coor¬ dinating body in the field of communication development could serve a useful purpose I cannot support this precise recommendation. All members of the Commission did not have the opportunity to discuss thoroughly the advan¬ tages and disadvantages of various objectives and structures for such a - 2 68 coordinating body. As a Unesco Intergovernmental Conference is to be held in 1980 to cover that topic, I feel the Commission sltould welcome the careful study that the Unesco Conference is in a position to give the matter, rather than offering any recommendation at this tune." “'Comment by Mr. M. I.uhis: "I am of the opinion that the present communication potential of ihc UN system lias not l>een effectively and efficiently used and managed. And I cannot foresee for a long time to come Comment by Mr. It. Abel: “This projiosal is premature, unnecessary that the UN system will lie able to speak with one voice on the ically relevant and unwise, 't he design of an appropriate mechanism for promoting and issues of the world, disarmament, peace, freedom, human rights. However, 1 coordinating communications development demands more time and re¬ supiNirt the suggestion about a feasibility study, contained in the same sources than this Commission possesses. Essentially the same proposal paragraph." here advanced was one of two submitted to a Unesco experts meeting in November; neither one was endorsed. This question is on the agenda for an intergovernmental meeting al Unesco in April. The UN General Assembly ‘-'Comment hy Mr. S. Maclinde: “I would point out that the pheno¬ has now taken a strong interest in the matter and has requested the menal growth of international broadcasting highlights the absence of a UN Secretary-General to intervene. As it stands, this proposal can only deter Intel national broadcasting System. Some thirty countries broadcast a total llie necessary cooperation of both (lie competent UN bodies and the de¬ of 12.1HHf hours |>ef week in one bundled different languages. 1 urge dial the veloped nations whose coo|>eralion is indispensable to further progress." UN siiould establish a broadcasting system of its own that would broadcast 2d hours round the clock in not less than dU different languages. See my Comment hy Mr. S. Macliride: "I suggest that if any steps are taken in pa|K*r on'/7/e I’roiulum of Journaliste (CIC Document No. DO, paragraph 40) this du eel ion prior consultation and accord should be reached with jour¬ and llie paper on Ittlrriuiliomil liiomlatsting (CIC Document No. fit))." nalists' organizations and other NGOs involved in the mass media." communication policies lu /usler international understanding. /I new all peoples to benefit. The awareness already created on certain wiirlil information and communication order requires and must be¬ issues, such as global imbalances in information flows, suggests that a come the instrument for peaceful cooperation between nations. process uf change has resulted and is under way. The power and promise of ever- new communication technologies and systems are, We recommend: however, such as to demand deliberate measures to ensure that I'd. National communication policies should be consistent with existing communication disparities do not widen. The objective adopted international communication principles and should seek to should be to ensure dial men and women are enabled to lead richer create a climate of mutual understanding and peaceful coexistence and more satisfying lives. amont: nations. Countries should also encourage their broadcast and other means of international communication to make the fullest contribution towards peace and international cooperation and to B. ISSUES REQUIRING FURTHER STUDY refrain from advocating national, racial or religious hatred, and in¬ citement to discrimination, hostility, violence or war. We have suggested some actions which may help lead towards a dll. Due attention should be paid to the problems of |>eace and new world information and communication order. Some of them are disarmament, human rights, development and (he creation of a new for immediate undertaking; others will lake more time to prepare and communication order. Mass media both printed and audiovisual, implement. The important thing is to start moving towards a change in should be encouraged to publicise significant documents of the Un¬ the present situation. ited Nations, of Unesco, of the world peace movements, and of However, there are other issues that require examination, but the various other international and national organizations devoted to International Commission lucked lime or sufficient data or expertise to peace and disarmament, file curricula of schools in journalism deal with them. The proposals listed below have not been approved by the should include study of these international problems and the views Commission; several were not, in fact, even discussed. Members felt expressed on them within the United Nations. free, nevertheless, to submit individual or group proposals which, in 81. All forms of cooperation among the media, the profession¬ their judgement, called for study in the future. While these suggestions - 269 als and their associations, which contribute to the better knowledge have not been endorsed by the Commission, they may still indicate some uf other nations and cultures, should be encouraged and promoted. preliminary ideas about issues to be pursued, if and when they arouse 82. Reporting on international events or developments in indi¬ interest. vidual countries in situations of crisis and tension requires extreme care and responsibility. In such situations the media often constitute one of the few, if not the sole, link between combatants or hostile I. Increased Interdependence groups. This clearly casts on them a special role which they should seek to discharge with objectivity and sensitivity. 1. Studies are necessary to define more precisely the inter¬ file recommendations and suggestions contained ill our Re¬ dependence of interests of rich and poor countries, as well as of port do not presume to cover all topics and issues calling for reflec¬ countries belonging to different socio-political systems. Research tions anil action. Nevertheless, they indicate the importance and undertaken to dale has not adequately explored this community of scale of the tasks which face every country in the field of information interest; more substantial findings are desirable as background for and communication, as well as their international dimensions which eventual future measures leading to wider cooperation. Similar pose a formidable challenge to the community of nations. studies are necessary to prepare mure diversified cooperative ef¬ Our study indicates clearly the direction in which the world forts among developing countries themselves. must move to attain a new informal km and communication order - 2. For the same purpose, indicators should be worked out lu essentially a series of new relationships arising from the advances facilitate comparison of the results obtained through various media in promised by new conimunirnlinn technologies which should enable different countries. 3. As international coo|)eralinn depends un mutual under¬ IV. Collection aiul Dissemination of News standing, language barriers are a continuing problem. There is a certain imbalance in the use id international languages and studies 8. The scojie of the round tables, mentioned in Recommenda¬ might be undertaken with a view to improving the situation. tion SI above, could be enlarged, after appropriate studies, to include other major problems related to the collection and dissemination of international news, particularly professional, ethical and juridical II. Improved Coordination aspects. 4. A new information and communication order cannot be developed on the basis of sporadic projects and initiatives, and without a solid research base. Feasibility studies are needed to V. Protection of Journalists ensure belter coordination of activities in many fields, particularly at an initial stage, involving (a) news collection and supply; (b) data 9. Further studies should be made for the safeguarding of banks; (c) broadcast programme banks for exchange purposes; (d) journalists in (he exercise of their profession. The possibility might exchange of data gathered by remote sensing. be explored for setting up some mechanism whereby when a jour¬ nalist is either refused or deprived of his identity card he would have a right of appeal to a professional body, ideally with adequate judicial III. lotcroaiioital Standards and Instruments authority to rectify the |iosi(ion. Such studies should also louk into the jiossibilily of the creation of an international body to which a - 270 â. The texts of international instruments (of the League of further appeal could be made in the Anal resort. Nations, the United Nations and UN Agencies, intergovernmental organizations, etc.) as well as draft texts which have long run up against political barriers should be reviewed in order to promote further international legislation in this area, since only by extending its scope will it lie |mssible to overcome certain difficulties and to VI. Greater Attention to Neglected Areas regulate certain aspects of the new world communication order. It. Studies should be undertaken to identify, if possible, princi¬ 10. The concentration of the media in the developed regions, ples generally recognised by the profession of journalism and which and the control of or access to (hem enjoyed by the affluent categories lake into account the public interest. This could also encompass of the population, should lie corrected by giving particular attention fin ther consideration by journalists' organizations themselves, of (he to the needs of (he less developed countries and tliose of rural areas. concc|il of an international code of ethics. Some fundamental ele¬ Studies should be undertaken to evaluate these needs, to determine ments for this code might lie found m the Unesco Declaration on the priorities and to measure the likely rale of return of future invest¬ mass media, as well as in |irovisions common to tile majority of ments, Consideration might be given (or example to (a) (he feasibility existing national and regional codes. of generalizing sound and television broadcasting and expanding 7. Studiestelephone should benetworks undertaken in rural on theareas; social, (b) theeconomic efficacy and of possible gov¬ cultural effects of advertising to identify problems, and to suggest ernment measures to expand distributions of receiving sets (e.g., solutions, at the national and international levels, possibly including through special facilities, tax exemptions, low-interest loans, sub¬ study of the practicability of an international advertising code, which sidies, etc.) and (c) technological |iossibili(ies and innovations (e.g., could have as its basts the preservation of cultural identity anil the production of high-jjower generators for areas wilhuut electricity, liroiection of moral values. etc.) -271- vu. More Extensive Financial Resources 1L The scarcity of available resources for communication development, both at national and international levels, highlights the need for further studies in three different areas: (a) identification of country priorities for national and international financing; (b) evalua¬ tion of the cost-effectiveness of existing investments: (c) the search for new financial resources. 12. As far as new resources are concerned, several pos¬ sibilities might be explored: (a) marshalling of resources deriving from surplus profits on raw materials: (b) establishment of an inter¬ national duty on the use of the electromagnetic spectrum and geos¬ tationary orbit space for the benefit of developing countries; (c) levying of an international duty» on the profits of transnational corporations producing transmission facilities and equipment for the benefit of developing countries and for the partial financing of the cost of using international communication facilities (cable, telecom- municatons networks, satellites, etc.) Responding to its wide mandate, the Commission has sought to identify major problems and trends and has recommended certain lines of action. Apart from recommendations coming from the Commission as a whole, some of its members made additional suggestions, considering, that the interest for new issues will con¬ tinue to grow. It is important to realise that the new order we seek is not only a goal but a stage in a journey. It is a continuing quest for ever more free, more equal more just relations within ail socieites and among all nations and peoples. This report represents what we believe we have learned. And this, above all. is what we wish to communicate. '"Comment by Mr. 5. Losev: "The idea of an international tax for whatever good reason or causes does not seem just or justifiable to me. " Comment by Mr. S. Macflnde and Ms. 8. Zimmerman: "The exam¬ ples cited, particularly those proposing international duties, seem to have been insufficiently considered in terms of their validity or practicability in the international sphere, and indicate the need for further careful study in this area." APPENDIX G -272- Dattheir Trust edge And the reason both here and abroad, as the bank adds Bankers Trust can offer this edge is new functions to the network and con¬ Digital. A gnawing network of Digital tinues to increase its share of the funds PDP-U/70 computers currently handles transfer market. OV*T 12.000 transactions a day totaling If YOU re looking for a computer over25billion dollars, irrrmammotn strategy to match vour business strate¬ :ee plausibility gies. talk to Digital. Call or wnte rodav. That's whv Bankers Trust looked OtqiLM gawoawowt CtH-poretxxr Pim*» Street Wl*"«nJ 01 Ceo*rrre>»rt MI# 5 -iOOt»n 1 hard at price/perrormance. reliability, ser¬ n• eotju»o '2 »* CM «ty?»fi 2* 3 •’rfit-u/'O' ■jee’ee»- vice ana programming costs. The choice •<* CütMt CUT** ÉdUKjment of t:a. of the PDP-lI/TOs turned out to be ideal. The first eight systems went on-line ahead of schedule and under budget, while system up-dme has held at over 99.5*0. On the strength of this success, new Digital systems are being added. SB1SQ1D -273- Are you managing your company's 4 portfolio? Or is it managing you? ChemSpheré Portfolio Management System is the proven answer. You can analvre pom olio inform a don mi (he system au toman call v creates a complete, accurate in the dme vou now spend just collecting it. iud«r«*uo*un The Innovators. How one exchange created the entire financial futures industry and continues to lead it- On the International Monetary idea whose time has come' and Individuals who use the Market we don t just exchange lMM do it for us. We are dis¬ futures contracta, we ex¬ The events of the past eight cussed and reported upon in change ideas. Out firat idea years have more than sub¬ die media daily The-iMM hes was ta cieat* an. exchange to stantiated that statement become the pre-eminent Trading volume in the first trade cxchisfyety m finançai finançai futures exchange. instrumenta», a totally new peeÉve months <* ooeraoon wes eresoectaole 253.163 concept lot futures trading at We are not through innovat¬ theflmw Thawdeecarae a contracts. In J97£volume ing. We presently oiler con¬ long time before the finit trade exceeded 7»23Q£QOcontra«ts. tracts. in eight major foreign currencies. 90-day-Treasury was executed. There followed- Today the iMM continues to ya»erd years of intensive Bills. 1-year Treasury Bills. trade financial futures con¬ 4-year. Treasury Motes and rejaaretr. feasibility studies, tracts exclusively and offers gold. But that may be just the cocsdtador* with Industry more of them, covering a leaders-and other prepara¬ tip of the iceberg. Contraça wide spectrum of the financial already planned include Euro¬ tions. The effort paid off. world. It d Opening new paths for financial officers who find the old ones closing. Thats Kidder, Peabody. Rams*capital when owua are the ns* aimcuit is * Kiddec. Peabody wecuirv. Ptmibiy no oth— nam» tn in*«unou banking tocay naa been so idannhed with oiveioptng chat dull. 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Because Oun agers of the sub|ect company. wuh reports on more than Sc Bradstreet is the world's lead¬ Inrormanon regarding individ¬ 4.000.000 U.S. companies in ing source ot information on uals is limited to that necessarv our computerized hies and w ith which credit decisions are based. in evaluating the firm. over 1.600 reporters constantly What makes the intormanon Contact bv a D-SeB reporter gatnenng new and updated so complete and reliable is that it tells you that a D&B Business intormanon. is gathered largely through per¬ Report is being prepared on your Imagine doing business sonal interviews with companv companv. usually at the request without effective credit checks, management bv Die3 reporters of a DieB subscriber. Your co¬ and we think you will agree: and is then verified with outside operation could well lead to a Dun Sc 3radstreet is indeed business sources. 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Member F D.I.C. -278- ^HEN YOU VvANTA BANK THAT CAN FUTTOGEIHER MONEY FOR MAJOR PROJECTS OUR SOLUTION: | In major apitsi investment evenr ——^~»andcheinkai i project is unique, !3a«niiwi«Demnark. every« loan caiormade. Now, when you wane a bank char can fit the soludon to the So, p*«» Some examples: f ■■— ^ mcoAdÉAopkai chcnecess^ry ÆcfirwatèxDesase. * TU* *n«rwnw «nil ■ n n i^r,. à Maouàcuiran Haoo^erijxLiheioed put cogecher caüvfcoro. d*3<**/million (US.) tmed Besides La Gndad. Bank of “■o^T^e^Opmenf of'me Montreal last year ^**fMri'Mnn(jr We inrend to live up to the -5nt^ d>*r(li*aaexoppenTU!«. urtiie hn,*WT,,9,,^i*2wn»oeTxivaie in The First Canadian Bank, ’^wkk^lg'm i.Cs La C^mA ir| gc,n Mn rr , r> < / ^ *^ "* * *T * Sry « *>nnijn ’ worldwide. mw&m .wliüàfâffifii -279- The marketplace demands speed, worldwide. Manufacturers Hanover moves. From Tokyo « Topeka, .Manu facturera Hanover keeo* money moving 2A hours a dav. ;or ousmesses. governments. and financial institutions v/ondwidfc Cur global network of more man ! 00 facilities ■working with some a 700 domestic and overseas corresoondeot banks, provides a kev 'ink to 1 30 countries around the v-odd Our services range from import/ export financing snd foreign exchange transacocns "5C -280- BIBLIOGRAPHY Books Agee, Philip. Inside the Company: CIA Diary. New York: Stonehill Publishing Co., 1975. Amin, Samir. Accumulation on a World Scale: A Critique of the Theory of Underdevelopment. 2 vols. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1974. Arrighi, Giovanni, and Saul, John, S. Essays on the Political Economy of Africa. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1973. Bachrach, Peter, and Baratz, Morton S. "Two Faces of Power", in Politics in the Metropolis, pp. 423-433. 2nd ed. Edited by Thomas R. Dye and Brett W. Hawkins. Columbus, Ohio: Charles E. Merrill Publishing Company, 1974. 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