MacBride Commission : its background and present reality

Preface

This paper reviews the background history of MacBride Commission and its application in world communication and information system. Besides this, some more relevant topics and some criticism of world communication order will also be discussed in this paper.

“International Programme for the Development of

Communication: its background and present reality”

The International Programme for the Development of Communication is a United Nation Educational, Scientific and Culture Organization (UNESCO) programme aimed at reducing the technological and other differences regarding mass media between developed and developing countries and strengthening the development of mass media in developing countries.

Background:

In 1970s and early 1980s there was a debate over media representations, communication and information flow. American media scholar Wilbur Schramm wrote that the flow of news among nations is little and much attention is given to developed countries and little to developing ones as well as important events are ignored and reality is distorted (Schramm, 1964).

In another word world media serve the western interest and people see the world from western perspectives through media.  

From a radical perspective, Herbert Schiller observed that developing countries had hardly any meaningful input into decisions about radio frequency allocations for satellites. Schiller pointed out that many satellites had military applications, though those satellites weren’t set for military activities. As example, ‘Intelsat’ which was set up for international co-operation in satellite communication, was also dominated by the United States (Schiller, 1969).

In 1970s third world or developing countries started raising questions about this imbalance flow of communication and culture. Firstly they went to United Nation Educational, Scientific and Culture Organization (UNESCO) then International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) for resolving these problems.

Responding this question, in 1977 United Nation Educational, Scientific and Culture Organization (UNSCO) introduced ‘The International Commission for the study of Communication Problems’ popularly known as the ‘McBride commission’ for studying the communication problems in modern societies, particularly relating to mass media and news, consider the emergence of new technologies, and to suggest a kind of communication order to diminish imbalance flow of information as well as to further peace and human development.

Noble laureate Irish politician Sean MacBride (1904-1988) was the chair of the committee. In 1980 the MacBride Commission produced a report titled ‘Many Voices, One World’ also known as ‘MacBride Report’, which identified the problems regarding world communication and suggested solution of those problems. The most important work of MacBride commission was proposing the idea of ‘New World Information Communication Order (NWICO).’ The United States was hostile to NWICO.

Allegations about Communication Order:  

Third world criticized the imbalance flow of information and communication. And made some allegations about world media system and demanded to resolve those problems. The main allegations made by Third World were:   

·         Broadcast mass media was dominated by few developed countries America, England and France mainly. There was almost a one-sided flow of information from developed countries to poorer countries. Very little news flowed the other way, and often news about developing countries was distorted or rejected by media houses. Thus these countries were not represented in the media broadcasts.

·         These poor populations saw mostly American channels and were influenced by it. Their culture was not reflected in the media thus there were culture shocks, disparities and trends in developing countries started aping the ‘west’.

·         Most of the radio frequency almost 90% of the band was taken by the US! It was mainly used for military purposes.

·         The developed countries were quickly sending satellites in space, and taking up the few positions in space where it is cheap and easy to keep satellites. In a few years when developing countries would need to send satellites these places would be filled up making it even more difficult for them to bridge the gap.

·         Many of these satellites sent up had military, commercial and analytic abilities which allowed the developed nation to figure out natural resources of poorer countries.

Impact of MacBride commission and present world:

The MacBride Report was written in a much different global context than we witness today. In 1980, the Cold War had a pronounced influence on geopolitical alliances, and the choice to be “non-aligned” was in reference to this great polarity. The MacBride Report, and the call for a “new world information and communication order” created a huge political reaction. (Calabrese, 2005)

In 1980s world was divided into three Blocs. One was America lead Capitalist bloc another was former Soviet Union lead Socialist bloc and the rest one was Neutral bloc popularly known as non-aligned countries, members of non-aligned movement.

MacBride commission report was published in 1980 with 82 suggestions named ‘Many Voices, One World’, 72 suggestions were passed unanimously but other 10 were opposed by several countries. (হক, ২০১৪)

Socialist bloc wasn’t agree to deregulate the media on the other hand capitalist bloc had objections regarding the suggestions that proposed to reduce corporate influence over media.

As a result of the MacBride report, UNESCO launched the “International Programme for the Development of Communication” (IPDC). According to website of IPDC, ‘it exists to strengthen the means of mass communication in developing countries, by increasing technical and human resources for the media, by developing community media and by modernizing news agencies and broadcasting organizations’ (International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC), 2005).

In 1983 Following the MacBride report especially for proposing ‘New World Information Communication Order’ (NWICO), U.S. government decided to withdraw its membership from UNESCO. In a letter dated December 28, 1983 from Reagan administration Secretary of State George Schultz to UNESCO director-general Amadou-Mahtar M’Bow, the reasons for the U.S. withdrawal were given. Equal emphasis was given to issues of mismanagement and “the injection of political goals beyond the scope of the cooperative enterprise”. What was clear to all involved was that the decision was made on behalf of big mass media and telecommunications industry interests in the United States. Stating that the U.S. government, “along with the American people generally” believe in UNESCO’s constitution, Schultz stated that “We plan to use the resources we presently devote to UNESCO to support such other means of cooperation”. A key effect of withdrawal was to undermine the legitimacy of efforts to articulate multilateral principles of global media governance that were not guided entirely by market logic (Calabrese, 2005).

After quitting from UNSCEO, Mark Fowler, Chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said our govt. believes “culture in general, including the media, should not give any special consideration or treatment by governments in comparison with other areas of commerce” (Mayer, 1993).

The logic behind this view is that governments should play no role in the shaping or nurturing of culture, and that it is the marketplace alone that should govern culture. If only market governs the culture and communication industry then what’ll happen to the culture of the third world countries as they don’t control the flow of information. Market will govern all it supports Darwin’s view ‘survival for the fittest’. But we can’t simply let any culture destroy by competing with others as every culture has enormous impact. And most importantly in this competition every culture don’t have equal opportunity to compete.

As Wilbur Schramm pointed out that the flow of news among nations is little and much attention is given to developed countries and little to developing ones as well as important events are ignored and reality is distorted. Through news and different program media is selling western culture and ideology to third world countries and creating cultural gap between west and third world.

To reduce this hegemonic cultural gap between West and Third World UNESCO launched the ‘International Programme for the Development of Communication’.

After 20 years USA rejoined UNESCO in 2003. The website of U.S. Department of States says, “The United States joined UNESCO at its founding but later withdrew in 1984 because of a growing disparity between U.S. foreign policy and UNESCO goals. After an almost twenty-year absence from the organization, the United States rejoined the organization in October 2003. In announcing that the U.S. would rejoin UNESCO, President George W. Bush stated, “As a symbol of our commitment to human dignity, the United States will return to UNESCO. This organization has been reformed and America will participate fully in its mission to advance human rights and tolerance and learning.” (U.S. Department of States, 2011)

Modern technologies made the world smaller. Particularly internet and satellite communication are the tool that has made possible a new global market system and a new context for the spread of political, economic and cultural ideas.

Emerging with different new technologies have come opportunities for the elimination of global poverty and the greater capacity for citizens of the world to bear witness to and fight against violations of human rights, wherever they may happen. But alongside the many positive changes are the perils that must be avoided, not least of which are the uses of these new means of communication by some to violate the dignity and humanity of others through public deception, economic exploitation, political surveillance and repression, and other abuses of power (Calabrese, 2005).

MacBride Commission created tremendous hope in Third World that the imbalance flow for communication and information will be reduced but unfortunately this hope didn’t last very long.

From 1985 UNESCO started to skip the sensitive issues like imbalance flow of communication or freedom of media. Instead of this UNESCO started to emphasis infrastructural development and different training programmes in third world, which were less important (হক, ২০১৪).

In this present world only five multinational media giants control almost 80% of world information and media sector. Those media giants are AOL Time-Warner, Disney, News Corp, Viacom and Bertelsmann (হক, ২০১৪).

MacBride Commission wanted to stop media monopoly. They tried to build a world where information flow will be two way not one way. West send their culture, lifestyle, information etc. through media to third world, but we hardly have any chance to send our information to west. Though theoretically we have opportunity to send our information to west via online and satellite communication. But unfortunately this theory doesn’t work in real life.

MacBride Commission had a noble intention to make world communication system better and more participatory. But, with sadness I have to say that the MacBride Commission fail to achieve its goal.

The World Tread Organization (WTO) officially commenced on 1 January 1995 under the Marrakesh Agreement, signed in 1994, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which commenced in 1948. After emergence of WTO, it became the key organization which controls and regulates business across the world including culture, education and information technology and world media.

IPDC’s main priorities:

IPDC’s main priorities are as follows:

·  Supporting media pluralism and independence (improving self-regulation and professional standards).

·         Promoting the safety of journalists

·         Countering hate speech in media and social media, promoting conflict-sensitive journalism practice and/or promoting cross-cultural/cross-religious dialogue among journalists

·         Supporting law reform fostering media independence

·         Conducting media assessments and research based on UNESCO's Media Development Indicators (MDIs), the Gender Sensitive Indicators for the Media (GSIM) or the Journalists' Safety Indicators.

·         Capacity building for journalists and media managers, including improving journalism education. Particular attention is always given to proposals from least developed, land locked and small island countries, as well as those in conflict or post-conflict situations (International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC), 2005).

Conclusion:

International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC) is the result of a political proposal concerning media and communication issues emerging from international debates in the late 1970s. The term originated in discussions within the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), and later became the expression of the aspirations of many countries in the global south to democratize the international communication system and rebalance information flows worldwide. UNESCO played a major role in keeping the debate until the early 1980s, especially through the work of an independent commission chaired by Sean MacBride. The commission's report, Many voices, one world outlined the main international problems in communication and summarized NWICO's basic philosophical thrust. In that time MacBride Commission Report created a movement all over the world, though the movement didn’t succeed, it has enormous historical value.

References

Calabrese, A. (2005). Retrieved Novemebr 7, 2016, from www.colorado.edu: http://spot.colorado.edu/~calabres/Calabrese%20(Quaderns%20del%20CAC).htm

International Programme for the Development of Communication. (n.d.). Retrieved November 8, 2016, from Wikipedia.com: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Programme_for_the_Development_of_Communication

International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC). (2005). Retrieved November 9, 2016, from http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/about-us/how-we-work/institutes-and-centres-linked-to-communication-and-information/#topPage

Mayer, E. C. (1993, February 6). FCC chief's fears: Fowler sees threat in regulation. Washington Post.

New World Information and Communication Order. (n.d.). Retrieved November 5, 2016, from Wikipedia.com: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_World_Information_and_Communication_Order

Schiller, H. (1969). Mass Communications and American Empire. Boston: Beacon Press.

Schramm, W. (1964). Mass Media and National Development. California: Stanford University Press.

U.S. Department of States. (2011, September 29). Retrieved November 9, 2016, from http://www.state.gov/p/io/unesco/usunesco/

হক, ফ. (২০১৪)। নব্যউদারবাদ, বিশ্বায়ন ও পরিবর্তিত বৈশ্বিক মিডিয়া। দক্ষিণ এশিয়ায় নব্যউদারবাদ। ঢাকা: বাঙলার পাঠশালা।