The Prague Statement of the MacBride Round Table on Communication
The second MacBride Round Table of non-governmental organizations, meeting in Prague, Czechoslovakia, 21-22 September 1990, discussed current and future communication problems in the light of changes which have recently occurred in international relations and in the social lives of many individual countries. The Round Table was attended by 30 communication professionals and academics from 20 countries representing 19 international and regional organizations or institutions. It was hosted in the ancient city of Prague by the International Organization of Journalists (IOJ).
The Round Table sent a message to the third conference of Ministers of information of Non-Aligned Countries (COMINACIII), meeting in Havana, Cuba, 25-29 September 1990.
The Round Table was greatly indebted to Czechoslovakia, a country whose policy of respecting freedom and pluralist democracy made it the first such event which was entirely in the hands of non-governmental organizations. The debate on the New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO) has thus returned to where it started. It is now in the arena of professional organizations, of communication researchers and, most importantly, in the arena of grassroots movements, representing ordinary men, women and children who are directly affected by our current cultural and communication environment.
The Round Table noted with deep satisfaction the progress made in the freedom of public communication in many parts of the world. Almost for the first time it was possible to discuss the NWICO in an atmosphere free of the old ideological polarization of the power blocs. Free from, but not unconscious of the victimization of Unesco, participants felt that the time had come to reassess and explore in depth the original meaning of NWICO.
Now that new freedoms have been won , the question which needs to be answered is: freedom for what or in the words of the MacBride Report, 'Communication for what?' The Round Table noted that the industrialized countries of both East and West have increasingly one thing in common: a sheer lack of idealism and a lack of vision of the society they wish to build. The developed world is now inhabited by increasingly valueless societies.
In the euphoria over the end of the Cold War, which has had disastrous consequences on the nations of the South for so long, the Round Table was concerned about the state of communication in the majority of developing countries. The rapid development of communication technology, which has drastically increased the capacity for information in industrialized countries, has bypassed many countries in the South. Essential technical infrastructures for communication are still not available there or are inaccessible to most of the people. Instead, foreign communication enterprises have, in alliance with many governments and elitist interests, created an artificial commercial culture which is accessible only to an affluent few. This trend prevents the achievement of cultural emancipation and sound development policies.
To reverse this situation, South-South co-operation is imperative. This calls for new structures to promote collective self-reliance and solidarity. At the same time, a new basis and new methods of North-South co- operation must be found which ensure greater equality and more genuine partnership. This should lead to the promotion of authentic cultural values, deepening the respect for human rights and dignity, and strengthening the urgent concerns about women and youth.
UNIVERSAL PROCESS OF NWICO
The Round Table noted that the principles and main recommendations of the MacBride Report are as valid today as they were ten years ago. They are as relevant for developing countries as for developed, even those entering the so-called post-industrial ear.
As Bogdan Osolnik, a former member of the MacBride Commission attending the Round Table stated, 'the NWICO is a universal process which not only includes countries of the Third World but can only be realized on a global level.'
More than ever, new thinking about national communication policies for the 1990s and beyond is now needed, reflecting both the promises and perils of the present juncture. The new thinking should encompass different structures of democratic and pluralistic media that transcend the danger of both state and commercial monopolization and are under public control.
The meeting in Prague coincided with the tenth anniversary of the 21st General Conference of Unesco in Belgrade. The fact that on that occasion 153 countries formally adopted the aims and principles of the new communication order is now a heartening memory. Since then many issues have been debated and reflected on in conferences and reports, notably at the first MacBride Round Table in Harare. But the Prague Round Table felt that some specific points needed urgent attention:
**The Round Table and its associated organizations should continue to mobilise public opinion, especially through the media, about the principles and recommendations of the MacBride Report. Although the MacBride Report has already created widespread awareness of global imbalances in communication flows, greater awareness is definitely needed of the negative effects of these imbalances on the development of the countries of the South.
**There is continuous need to promote the initiatives and efforts which are taken in the South to redress the situation and to struggle for more participation in regional and global communication. This includes efforts to improve South-South communication, especially on a regional level, and the promotion of existing initiatives.
**In an era in search of greater democracy and respect for human rights, the right to communicate should be promoted as one of the fundamental principles of a democratic order. The right to communicate is in the words of Sean MacBride, 'the very foundation of other human rights.'
**The ideas of the NWICO should be contextualized in the various regions. They sould be applied in accordance with specific cultural values, historical traditions and the social needs of particular countries and regions.
**Media professionals should study the ideas of the NWICO and appropriate them as their own. To this end a number of measures should be taken by professional organizations, such as the publication of study guides and brochures, organizing special seminars and making awards to those who excel in the implementation of NWICO values.
** Professionals and academics should also promote serious media criticism by linking together various projects and institutions engaged in analyzing the media coverage of events and issues relating to peace, development and other global problems. Such systematic monitoring of media performance by the media professionals and communications researchers -- instead of governments -- was one of the proposals made by Sean MacBride as a follow-up to the Report.
**A specific perspective on women and women's issues is needed since their voices have not been sufficiently heard in the movement for a NWICO. Although women are still under-represented in the field of communications, in most countries there is a significant development of women's alternative media which may constitute new media models and new approaches to grassroot organizations. Women should be encouraged to join the NWICO movement and future Round Tables should have more women participants with topics of special interest to them on the agenda.
**Unesco, which at one time played a pivotal role in the conceptualization of the NWICO, and later became paralyzed in this respect, should regain its role as a catalyst for new thinking and new actions in the field of communication now that the international climate is changing.
**In the current search for a new world order, it should be remembered that ordinary people still feel threatened. They are still afraid of armed conflicts, social unrest, environmental catastrophes and various manifestations of fanaticism related to race, religion, cultural and ethnic identity and economic deprivation. In the spirit of the MacBride Report, the mass media should be reminded that their most urgent task is to address these problems and mobilise public opinion for their solution.
Prague, 22 September 1990
Harare, 29 October 1989