MacBride report

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Many Voices One World, also known as the MacBride report, was a 1980 UNESCO publication written by the International Commission for the Study of Communication Problems, chaired by Irish Nobel laureate Seán MacBride. Its aim was to analyze communication problems in modern societies, particularly relating to mass media and news, and to suggest a new communication order to solve these problems to further peace and human development.

Among the problems the report identified were concentration of the media, commercialization of the media, and unequal access to information and communication. The commission called for democratization of communication and strengthening of national media to avoid dependence on external sources, among others.

While the report had strong international support, it was condemned by the United States and the United Kingdom as an attack on the freedom of the press, and both countries withdrew from UNESCO in protest in 1984 and 1985, respectively (and later rejoined in 2003 and 1997, respectively).

[edit] The MacBride Commission

The International Commission for the Study of Communication Problems was set up in 1977 by then director of UNESCO Ahmadou-Mahtar M’Bow, under suggestion by the USA delegation. It was agreed that the commission would be chaired by Seán MacBride from Ireland and representatives from 15 other countries, invited due to their roles in national and international communication activities and picked among media activists, journalists, scholars, and media executives.

The members of the MacBride Commission were:

Alie Abel (USA)
Hubert Beuve-Méry (France)
Elebe Ma Ekonzo (Zaire)
Gabriel García Márquez (Colombia)
Sergey Losev (Soviet Union)
Mochtar Lubis (Indonesia)
Mustapha Masmoudi (Tunisia)
Michio Nagai (Japan)
Fred Isaac Akporuaro Omu (Nigeria)
Bogdan Osolnik (Yugoslavia)
Gamal El Oteifi (Egypt)
Johannes Pieter Pronk (Netherlands)
Juan Somavía (Chile)
Boobli George Verghese (India)
Betty Zimmerman (Canada)

The commission presented a preliminary report in October 1978 at the 20th General Conference of UNESCO in Paris. The final report was delivered to M’Bow in April 1980 and was approved by consensus in the 21st General Conference of UNESCO in Belgrade. The commission dissolved after presenting the report.

See also: New World Information Order

[edit] External link

The Macbride report Communication and Society Today and Tomorrow, Many Voices One World, Towards a new more just and more efficient world information and communication order. Kogan Page, London/Uniput, New York/Unesco, Paris. Unesco, 1980.