Setting the Global News Agenda

The West and particularly the US dominates

the world information and entertainment
networks. These major corporations are the
key players in shaping the direction of the
media— news agencies, international
newspapers, magazines, news and
entertainment channels, radio, music,
advertising, and film. The evidence suggests
that the West dominates and controls the
flow of news and information to the world
and they have the ability to set the agenda of
international communication. During the
80s, it was believed that the West has
controlled the international flow of
communication only but, now, with the
expansion of television, the globalization of
the western way of life is the main concern.
Though, there are more producers of
information and images like India, China
and some other Asian countries but the
global flow of information between Africa,
Latin America and Asia is still mediated by
content provided by the Western news
agencies. They share information, visuals
and even journalists. The corporate nature of
the global media affects the content and
sometimes the broadcasters themselves
exercise self-censor when dealing with
sensitive issues.

Information is power in framing and shaping

the foreign policies and the flow of
information to the system is used just like
other tools are used in this regard. The radio
waves and television screen are used to
promote their viewpoint. They redefined
their public diplomacy for their national and
international interests. They do not care if
such shaping and reshaping of the content
jeopardize the interests of other nations.
Wars in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan
were sold out across the world by the
Western media but the reality was not told.
Majority of the facts were presented in the
twisted form to secure their interests at the
cast of other nations’ interests. The drama of
weapons of mass destruction was played
successfully. The war against terror is being
successfully marketed. To serve these
purposes, information is fully controlled and
censored. The American media discuss the
military policy of the government but the
journalists rarely criticize these military
interventions in the light in the UN charter.
The use of NATO forces in Afghanistan is
the clear violation of its constitution but the
matter was tone down in the Western media.
The media always extend full support to the
foreign policy and military adventures of the
US State Department and Pentagon. The
media paint these military interventions as
the introduction of democracy and helping
the masses against their undemocratic rulers.
They never discuss that their governments
are fully supporting the Kings, the Royals
and dictators in the Muslim World. They
never tell the world that the war against
terror in the war of occupation of the natural
resources of the poor nations. Similarly,
they provide full justification to the war
against Palestine and never condemn Israel
for its barbaric actions against humanities.

The New World Information and

Communication Order (NWICO)
The protagonist of the NWICO believed that
the international information system has
strengthened inequality in the economic and
socio-political development. The developing
countries are heavily dependent on the
technologically advanced countries for soft
and hardware in the information sectors.
Leaders of the Third World argued that
through their control of information
channels, the Western media were giving the
distorted view of their countries. The
existing information order has created
negative effects on the economy and society
of the developing countries. Their demands
were expressed by Tunisian Information
Minister, Mustapha Masmoudi. The main
points were as follows:
1. socio-technological imbalances
has developed one way flow of information
which created a wide gap between the poor
and the rich countries;
2. the information rich countries are
in a position to dictate their terms and
conditions on the poor countries, creating
severe socioeconomic and political
implications for poor countries;
3. the vertical flow of information
was imposed by the Western transnational
corporations;
4. information was treated by the
transnational media as a commodity;
5. the existing international
information order has expedited inequality
resulting a new form of colonialism.
Masmoudi believed that events in the
developing countries are reported by
transnational media. They transmit the
information to developing countries after
filtering, cutting and distorting and impose
their own version of the event upon them.
These problems were also identified by
other scholars who evaluated the
international information system. They
pointed out that the existing information
system projects the economic and political
interests of the West.

The proposal for NWICO came from a

series of meeting on the Non-Aligned
Movement, especially Algiers and Tunis. An
agreement was signed with UNESCO in
1978 and General Assembly of the United
Nations adopted a resolution in favor of the
proposal. As a result, in 1979 the
International Commission for the study of
communication problems was set up. The
commission submitted its report to
UNESCO in 1980 that brought information
and communication related issues on the
world agenda.

The MacBride Commission

The International Commission for the study
of communication problems under the
chairmanship of Sean MacBride occupies a
prominent place in the debate regarding
NWICO. The commission report commonly
known as MacBride Report provided
justification for a new global information
order. The commission was formed in
response to resolution passed by UNESCO
in 1976 and took four years to submit its
report in 1980. The commission had 16
members and was established to study four
main aspects of global communication:
1. the current state of the world
communication;
2. the problems surrounding a free
and balanced flow of information and how
the needs of the developing countries link
with the flow;
3. how a NWICO could be created;
and
4. how the media could become a
vehicle for educating public opinion about
the world problems.

The report created a heated controversy

because it had legitimized the
recommendation and establishment of the
NWICO. It built a case against the Western
wire services for their distorted coverage of
the Third World. The report generated high
level interest of the international community
that provided more insights to the problems.
The most important recommendations were
those dealing with democratization of
communication. The commission agreed
that democratization is impeded by
undemocratic political systems, bureaucratic
administration, technology controlled and
understood only by a few.

The report pointed out that the freedom for

the rich had undesirable consequences for
the poor and called for the abolition of
censorship. The report suggested self-
censorship by the communicators
themselves. The report was critical of the
constraints imposed by commercialization,
pressure from advertisers and concentration
of the ownership of the media. It criticized
the growth of transnational corporation and
made it responsible for one way flow of
information. The report also criticized some
transnational media corporations which were
reluctant to open up flow to share scientific
and technological information to educate the
audiences. The commission charged that in
the guise of freedom of expression and flow
of information, some governments and
transnational media undermine the internal
stability and integrity of the other countries
that disturb their national development.

The MacBride report received a mixed

response. The Third World communication
leaders welcomed the report while the West
criticized it. The American based news
organizations and international media was
critical and thought that it is a subjective
view about flow of information. They
believed that it was biased towards the
private ownership of the media and
communication. The UNESCO passed a
resolution demanding the implementation of
the report. The resolution proposed:
1. elimination of the imbalance and
inequalities in information which
characterize the present situation;
2. elimination of negative effects of
the communication monopoly;
3. improvement in the free flow of
information among the nations;
4. plurality of sources and channels
of information;
5. increasing the capacity of the
developing countries to improve their own
situation;
6. the devotion of the developed
countries to help them attain these
objectives;
7. respect for each other’s cultural
identity.

The West believed that the new information

order is a Soviet inspired model of flow of
news. It is designed to control the mass
media through state authority. They thought
that this idea is basically in conflict with the
liberal Western values and the principle of
flow of information. Its opponents argue that
NWICO was a pretext for the Third World
dictators to harm media freedom, impose
censorship and keep away foreign
journalists from covering the events in the
Third World region. The West contended
that the slogan of cultural self-
determination, media imperialism and
regulation was designed to control channels
of communication. The West maintained
that they were reporting the reality of the life
in the Third World—political instability,
economic backwardness, natural disasters.
They criticized the role of UNESCO in
producing and promoting of this report. The
West media viewed the NWICO demands of
national communication policy and
democratization of communication as
increasing the state powers to intervene the
flow of news and the exclusion of the
foreign press. To summarize the argument
and debate against NWICO put forward by
the Western governments and the media
reveals that the debate was examined only in
terms of curtailing freedom of the press by
the Third World governments.