The Istanbul Statement of the MacBride Round Table on Communication: 'Few Voices, Many Worlds'
The Third MacBride Round Table met at the end of a conference on 'Newsmedia and International Conflict' which critically assessed the roles the mass media played during the war in the Persian Gulf. It took place in the ancient city of Istanbul, Turkey, at the crossroads of East and West, North and South, on 21 June 1991. Thirty participants from 14 different countries and 18 non-governmental organizations endeavored to pursue the thoughts and values of the New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO) as advanced by the Non-Aligned Movement and inspired by the ideals of the late Sean MacBride. The Group made the following observations on the current state of communication and mass mediated culture.
We observe with growing concern the rapidly increasing concentration, homogenization, commercialization, and miniaturization of national and world cultures. The principles of the MacBride Report, 'Many Voices, One World', have been countered:
* by the virtual monopoly of global conglomerates over the selection, production and marketing of information and entertainment products, including crucial scientific and technical data and informational rights;
* by the transnational industrial - media complex under its American military protectorate;
* and by the weakening of multilateral relations and international organizations.
This trend has further widened the inequities of resources within and amongst nations.
We are confronted, therefore, with media coalescing into a centrally manufactured symbolic and cultural environment. That environment permeates every home in and ever-growing number of countries. It is displacing parents, schools, communities, publics and even nations as the originator of messages and images that define our lives and our relationships with each other. It serves marketing strategies and government priorities that are increasingly beyond the reach of democratic policy-making.
Great efforts must now be made to develop a culture of non-violence, of dialogue and negotiations, practicing the art of democracy , and promoting a culture of peace. This effectively means to demilitarize cultural products and processes.
Politically, alternative systems of peace and security need to be established, both on the global and regional levels. The United Nations, and especially Unesco, should play a central role in this, thus becoming what they were always meant to be, peace-making and peace-keeping bodies.
The challenge before us is to build new peoples' coalitions and constituencies that can help regain a significant measure of participation in cultural policy-making, nationally and internationally.
The coalitions should include a broad range of public groups, social movements, and organizations. They should enlist media professionals, citizen activists, consumer groups, women's minorities, religious, labor, environmental and other organizations in the new cultural struggle.
The democratization of communication should build on the strength of national coalitions entering into international co-operation on the basis of independence, equality and mutually beneficial objectives. The new frontier for the advancement of human values and rights is the cultural frontier. It is there that the principles of the MacBride Report have to be recognized as more essential than ever.
In pursuance of these and other relevant objectives, the MacBride Round Table will publish a collection of documents, support the development of and communication amongst groups concerned with media democratization, and organize future meetings to facilitate the work of the Round Table and related coalitions.