Information Policy Louiza Patsis
Dr. Charles Hildreth May 3, 2005

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UNESCO and Information Policy: The US Withdrawal
and the IGOs IFAP and IPDC

The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was founded on November 16, 1945, as a specialized United Nations Agency. Its offices are in Paris, and its biggest purpose was and is to foster global peace. On the first page of its Constitution, it states that wars begin the “minds of men” and “It is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed”. This can be done by spreading word on the democratic principles of dignity, human rights, freedom, equality and justice, and by promoting collaboration among nations through education, science and culture. Information and communication are of central importance to UNESCO. UNESCO is interested in: furthering the reality of an information society; increasing information access and equity of information access; decreasing the digital divide and the divide between the information rich and poor; furthering development in science, technology, culture, education and communities; increasing information freedom, in creating databases and other methods of storage and retrieval of indigenous knowledge as well as new knowledge; and in furthering world partnerships. In a sense, the huge task that UNESCO has taken on is transforming the attitudes and values of the world’s diverse population.
The two main areas of UNESCO’s information policy (IP) are the division of the free flow of information, mostly encompassed by the IGO IFAP, and the division of development of communication systems, mostly encompassed by the IGO IPDC. (Giffard 1989, 15) An example of an action of the first division is to help lower postal charges for publication. An example of the latter is to help set up national press, radio or information agencies such as the Latin American Special Information Agency o the Pan-African News Agency. UNESCO’s role is that of a catalyst – to promote studies and educational research through competent local groups and through other organizations and governments, to assist in promoting innovation and experimentation and to provide study grants to less-developed nations (LDCs) to enable them to become familiar with information networks, and scientific and technological methods. (Thinking Ahead 1977, 193) LDCs are often “have-nots” and “know-nots”, lacking equitable access to information, such as useful health and education to countries of the world, especially LDCs. (Brown-Syed, 1992, 31) It does not refer to the flood of advertising, for instance, in which many LDCs find themselves.
Article 19 of the UNESCO Declaration of Human Rights states: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless frontiers". The free flow of information, including the availability and access to specialists and technology, provides the key to a nation’s ability to direct its own development, for its own purposes and in its own ways. To further the free flow of information, UNESCO works with individuals, governments, corporations, intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) such as the Council of Europe and the European Economic Community and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as Amnesty International, the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), the International Council for Scientific Unions (ICSU), and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).
Under Article I of the Constitution, “Purposes and Functions”, is stated “The purpose of the Organization is to contribute to peace and security by promoting collaboration among the nations through education, science and culture in order to further universal respect for justice, for the rule of law and for the human rights and fundamental freedoms which are affirmed for the peoples of the world, without distinction of race, sex, language or religion, by the Charter of the United Nations.” Purposes related to the exchange of information are also stated: “a. collaborate in the work of advancing the mutual knowledge and understanding of peoples, through all means of mass communication…to promote the free flow of ideas by word and image” and c. “maintain, increase and diffuse knowledge by assuring the conservation and protection of the world’s inheritance of books, works of art and monuments of history and science…by encouraging cooperation among the nations in all branches of intellectual activity, including the international exchange of persons active in the fields of education, science and culture and the exchange of publications, objects of artistic and scientific interest and other materials of information, by initiating methods of international cooperation calculated to give the people of all countries access to the printed and published materials produced by any of them.”
UNESCO always had ideal goals. Maheu (1974, 114-115) wrote that the four aspects of UNESCO’s action are: respect for human rights and the establishment for the rule of peace; the advance of knowledge, exchange of information and communication; the development of people and society; and the balance and harmony between people and nature. He wrote that all of these exist side by side, in a mutually self-supporting multidimensional manner. These aspects influence quality of life, and information is a crucial link in the recipe. As Mayor, the Director General of UNESCO, wrote, (Mayor 1997, 35), in order for democracy to be absorbed, political standards, administrative practices and mental attitudes are needed, and information plays a huge role.
Richard Hoggart (1978, 32), former assistant Director-General of UNESCO, wrote that UNESCO was engaged in a “Robin Hood” act, taking money from the rich and giving it to the poor. Hoggart (1978, 36) wrote that UNESCO is “a great market for the traffic of knowledge”, and an important center for international dialogue among experts of all kinds. However, UNESCO policy does not have the force of law. He wrote that the instruments that UNESCO had were declarations, or international statements of good intent, recommendations and conventions, binding to the governments that sign them. UNESCO cannot draw up IP, but has a key role in promoting the concept of communication policies and in assisting to establish mechanisms for their formulation, implementation and evaluation, keeping the users in mind.
Education, science, culture and information are interrelated. Cultural diversity and multilingualism are to be encouraged. Efforts are being made to identify, understand, digitize and mainstream indigenous systems so that they can be regionally and universally accessible. Mayor (1997, 109-110) wrote that UNESCO aims to maintain, increase and diffuse knowledge in the following ways: assuring the conservation and protection of books, works of art and historical monuments; carry out the task by encouraging the cooperation among nations in all branches of intellectual activity, such as the exchange of experts and publications; promoting even exchange of knowledge and information. For instance (Mayor 1997, 110), UNESCO helped to revive the Library of Alexandria in Egypt and to restore collections damaged by fire at the Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Saint Petersburg. Regarding experts, qualified personnel often go from LDCs to more developed nations in search for jobs, a higher standard of living, scientific excellence, democracy and the possibility of upward mobility. In promoting the free flow of information and information sharing, one of UNESCO’s aims is to heighten the respect of individual nations and their cultures, and to heighten appreciation of different peoples among the world. As Maheu wrote (1974, 27) culture epitomizes what is most essential in the motivations of individuals and peoples: and “it merges with the consciousness of the national individuality”. He wrote that development encompasses the motivations and the national community.

Stakeholders

The stakeholders in regards to UNESCO and IP are: the poor of the world, including children, who have low access to information such as health, media, education and more; the citizens of every nation of UNESCO; private owners of information and media agencies; libraries and academic institutions cooperating with and benefiting from UNESCO; governments; UNESCO officials; taxpayers; individual, private, and government fundraisers.
Hoggart (1978, 114) wrote that UNESCO tends to attract people of “high sensitivity, idealism artistic and intellectual inclinations”, yet it needs to be taken seriously by all stakeholders, including the UN and superpowers. Some people and nations look at UNESCO as a “rhetorical, aesthetic, artistic and symbolic” organization.

The MacBride Report, the New World Information and Communications Order (NWICO), and the United States Departure from UNESCO

The United States withdrew from UNESCO on December 31, 1984, largely due to differences around information and media. It re-entered UNESCO in October 2003. A history of UNESCO and the United States’ role in it will reveal much about UNESCO, its IP, and the importance of agendas of member states, politics and budget.
Until 1960, the UN had dealt with international issues of information and communication. (Dutt 1995, 197-198). As Harold Innis wrote in 1951, there is a bias in communication. People, groups and countries that have the most money get to control the creation, access, distribution and selection of information. A bias of a communication technology can be that the poor cannot afford electronic communication technologies. Furthermore, those with money and power can define and structure social agendas and priorities of nations and the world. The issue of information equality and freedom is complicated further because, generally, it is more costly to develop information systems than to import mass technologies. This is felt especially in poor places such as certain African LDCs, where much of the information infrastructure remains from colonial times and most information is imported. Here there is not much information reciprocity. Anthony Smith, in the Geopolitics of Information: How Western Culture Dominates the World, published the same year as the MacBride Report, wrote that Western audiences have become conditioned to a view of the Third World which is founded upon wrong that is often exaggerated, distorted and condescending. (1980, 15)
Information control is a key issue with UNESCO. The First World Nations have more money and technology and a greater global information control. Especially with the advent of satellites, the LDCs were under a constant state of deluge of information from the West. Giffard (1995, 37) wrote that other countries would have to invest $50 billion a year for 30 years to bring their communications systems up to present standards in the US. In addition, technology can increase information flow, but will not make up for regular and information illiteracy and inequitable access.
Hoggart (1978, 45) wrote that a neutral news service is characteristic of Western nations that are often “drab, neutralizing, mechanical and ratiocinative”. Four main news agencies control world media flow: Associated Press (AP), Reuters, United Press International (UPI) and Agence France Press (AFP). (Smith 1980) Hoggart called this neocolonialism. LDCs complained that they were depicted in a dark light in international communication. They were either not talked about, or, if they were, it was only to notify people of a natural catastrophe or other calamity in their nation. Often, however, these nations were less concerned with news independent of government than of at least having a say in international news. Many nations do not believe in privacy and the rights of the individual, especially the right to information, knowledge and communication. (Hoggart, 1978, 53) As Hoggart wrote (1978, 54) “…very few governments respect the objective search for truth, free speculation or the integrity of the individual conscience.” To some people and states, the right of the state to communicate its beliefs was the extent to their communication freedom. For some citizens it is the water in which they swim. Also for many cultures, community and obligation come before individual rights. The original task of free flow, which involves ridding the world of the technical, political, economic and legal barriers to the free flow of information, was difficult enough. The different cultures and political ideologies of Member States made UNESCO’s goal of a free flow of information difficult.
A huge part of the world does not have the means for the transmission and reception of information. Western countries can benefit from selling their technology, and spreading their media messages, advertising and news. This may provide some good like news of world events and spread of technical knowledge to some extent, but LDCs may become culturally dependent on the West and experience technological dependence. LDCs need to eventually become independent, with their own news services and technology, experts and training to transmit their own information to their own people and to the world at large. There is not much opportunity for individual or group audiences to become involved in the business of production and management, to have access to media tools and materials, and to have an explicit choice in the selection of media programs.
Often, media companies care more about profit than the impact of their messages and the audience and socio-cultural environment in which they fall. Information and communication disseminated in the world tends to be monolithic, with limited developments at the local or community level and considerable imbalances between North and South and urban and rural environments. This does not help in the preservation of culture and languages, or in the communication of different cultural values and needs. (Thinking Ahead 1977, 19) Culture is highly regarded by UNESCO as the “fundamental component of the vitality of any society...the sum total of a people’s creative activities, its methods of production and of appropriation of material assets, its form of origin, beliefs and sufferings, its work and leisure, dreams and successes.” (Thinking Ahead 1977, 19) LDCs would often like information about their cultures transmitted to the world, and would like to be more in control of what they receive. In return, important information on human rights can be disseminated to LDCs if they have the means to receive it. This includes trained personnel, equipment, information technology and networks and user information literacy.
Some LDCs thought of Western media as empowering neocolonialism. For instance, some saw the call for population control in their countries, which often goes against cultural value of fertility, as a means of neocolonialism aiming to control populations or as a self-justification, attributing the poverty of their nations to population instead of the West’s and North’s economic policies. (Hoggart 1978, 165) The goal of the West in regard to media seemed to be the practical and profitable. (Hoggart 1978, 193) Some believed that the US used information as a means of psychological warfare and information aggression. (Preston 1989, 71) The US government subsidized many groups often responsible for propaganda: Foreign News Service, Radio Liberty, Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia, and Radio SWAN. (Preston 1989, 75)

1970s UNESCO Meetings

Singh wrote (1988, 83) that as early as the 1970s, the importance of information was realized by many leaders at UNESCO. For instance, Makaminar Makagiansar, assistant director general of culture and communication, wrote: “…Information today means power- technological power and political power – both within countries and at the international level…Cultural policies as well as communication policies (and, indeed, the two are inseparable) should be incorporated in all development efforts.” (Singh 1988, 83)
At the UNESCO general conference in 1970, a Byelorussian resolution was passed that affirmed the “inadmissibility of using information media for propaganda on behalf of war, racialism and hatred among nations”. (Singh 1988, 78) At the 1972 conference, a “Declaration of Guiding Principles for the use of satellite broadcasting for the free use of information, the extension of education and the spread of greater cultural exchanges” was passed with United States and United Kingdom objections. These two countries feared a threat to their dominance of global media, and a threat to the profits of the media corporation lobbyists in their countries. In the 1972 general conference, two forms of resolution submitted by the Soviet Union alarmed the US. (Giffard 1989, 20) The first one called for prior consent to be applied to satellite-transmitted television programs. Only the US opposed this, which seemed to them to indicate support for the statutory control of information flow. The second proposal called for the preparation for a declaration on the fundamental principles governing the use of mass media. Between 1972 and 1978, the West succeeded in changing the language of the draft, eliminating references to state control of media, an international code of media ethics, and responsibility or duty of media. The media themselves get to determine how to implement a free flow of information. The declaration did include that “journalist must have freedom to report and the fullest possible facilities of access to information.” (Giffard 1989, 24)
At the 1976 Nairobi conference, Director General Amadou-Mahtar M’Bow set up the sixteen-member International Commission for the Study of Communications Problems under the presidency of the Nobel and Lenin Peace Prize winner Sean MacBride. The draft was ready for the 1978 general conference. The draft often mentioned the new world information and communication order, (NWICO), a term widely used by UNESCO starting in the late 1970s. UNESCO accepted NWICO as an official goal of the organization, and helped to place it on the UN agenda. Nevertheless, NWICO was a label signifying aspirations of the LDCs. It was not a clearly defined set of goals. At the 1976 Nairobi conference, a Tunisian-sponsored resolution was passed. It recommended that UNESCO should support the nonaligned activities* on communications. (Singh 1988, 83) The draft declaration did insinuate that there should be some state control of media, and ignored basic needs of LDCs. (Dutt 1995, 202)
The 1978 Media Declaration began with the Declaration on the Fundamental Principles Concerning the Contribution of the Mass Media to Strengthening Peace and International Understanding, to the Promotion of Human Rights, and to Countering Racialism, Apartheid and Incitement to War. The declaration had fourteen clauses and eleven articles alluding to the UNESCO constitution and to the UN charter, and to world information and communication problems. Articles were about the rights of opinion , expression and information. The declaration called for information freedom and reciprocity. The document called for conditions to guarantee journalists the best conditions for their profession, although it was not specific. It called for equitable

* A meeting of representatives of 29 African and Asian nations was held at Bandung, Indonesia, in 1955. The aim was to promote economic and cultural cooperation and to oppose colonialism, and it led to the non aligned movement of 1961. This movement was an organized movement of mostly third world nations that attempted to form a force through a policy of nonalignment with the United States and Soviet Union in different affairs, including information and media. Representatives of 58 countries met in New Delhi, India in 1976 to establish the Nonaligned News Agencies’ Pool as an IGO with headquarters in Tunis, Tunisia, with the goal to promote free and balanced flow of information.

distribution of world wealth, but was not socialistic in nature, although some interpreted it thus.
A New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO) and New International Economic Order (NIEO)

Talk of a NIEO started at the Havana Conference in 1948 and stemmed from economic and political tensions that had been building between the developing and developed nations. Talks of NIEO continued at a summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in 1973. Talk of a NWICO coincided with NIEO. Information was explicitly recognized in the UNESCO Media Declaration and MacBride Report as a prerequisite for economic development. By corollary, the structure of world information flow must necessarily be viewed as supportive of the global economy. In Non-Alignment and Information, the Yugoslavian writer Bulatovic asserted that the imbalance in communication flow was merely an extension of economic inequity: "The existing imbalance and inequality in the sphere of political and economic relations has also gained full expression within the domain of information, the non-aligned countries having noted with concern `the vast and ever growing gap between communication capacities in the non-aligned countries and in the advanced countries which is a legacy of their colonial past' at the summit conference in Colombo." (Bulatovic 1978, 10)
Singh (1974, 75) wrote that the impetus of NWICO was economic. It asserted that, in order for there to be a New International Economic Order (NIEO), there must be reform in the world’s communication sector. LDCs wanted to be free of the West’s media dominance, and did not see government-run media as a problem. Russia especially did not like the West’s dominance of the media, as seen in Radio Liberty and Radio Free Europe. With satellite technology, radio broadcasts were becoming more eminent
The West tended to deal with the communication and information problems of LDCs in a quantitative, not a qualitative or normative way. (Dutt 1995, 207). They thought that technical support was what was needed.
The major documents of NWICO include (6/34) the UNESCO Media Declaration of 1978 , the report of the International Commission for the Study of Communications Problems (MacBride Report) of 1980, and UNESCO’s Statement on Journalistic Ethics.
The MacBride Report

UNESCO led the initiative for NWICO and NIEO. The MacBride Report Many Voices, One World included a resolution on NWICO, that it could be based on the elimination of the imbalances and inequalities which characterizes the present situation; removal of internal and external boundaries to a free flow and wider and better balanced dissemination of information ad ideas; plurality of sources and channels of information; free access to news sources by journalists; freedom of press and information; freedom of journalists and professionals in media; Third World power to have their own personnel, training and equipment; and the abolishment of censorship and arbitrary control of information. The MacBride Report called for information freedom: freedom to seek, receive and impart information. For LDCs, and for most people in the world compared to governments or huge corporations, to have this freedom in a significant way is not usual. (MacBride 1980) According to Singh (1988, 87), areas not approved were: increased interdependence, improved coordination, international standards and instruments, collection and dissemination of news, protection of journalists, greater attention to neglected areas and more extensive financial resources.”
Members of the commission emphasized the following in the report: communication should no longer be an incidental service and its development left to chance; all languages should be developed to serve the requirements for modern communication; illiteracy should be wiped out; and each country should set up its own priorities, strong national news agencies and distribution networks for books, newspapers and periodicals. The commission called for the development of radio networks; an increase in national capacity for producing broadcast materials; adequate educational and training facilities to supply personnel for the media and production organizations; and the financing of information networks, including in rural areas; and communication education.
For journalists
The following were stressed for journalists: applying of values of truthfulness, accuracy and respect for human rights; promoting human rights and the just cause of people struggling for freedom; higher professional standards and responsibility; the adoption of international code of ethics; and the setting up of press ombudsmen and peer group review. The commission recommended that countries should take steps to assure the admittance of foreign correspondents and facilitate the collection and transmission of news. The commission recommended that there be no special protection for journalists, other than that afforded by their citizenship. MacBride thought this was inadequate.
Recommendations for the future
Recommendations for the future included: and international effort to increase the supply of paper; a decrease in tariffs for the dissemination of information; a more equitable sharing in the electro-magnetic and geostationary orbit as common property of human beings; the development policies as a central component of communication and
development policy; legislation and patent laws for decreasing communication monopolies; a decrease in the digital divide; the fostering of cultural identity and creativity, and the advertising industry’s sensitivity to this; and transnational corporations supplying the public and governments of countries in which they do business.
The commission called for the setting up of information data banks and processing centers, collaboration of Member States and news agencies of different countries, and peace and disarmament. It also recommended the establishment of an international duty on the use of electromagnetic spectrum and geostationary orbit space for the benefit of developing countries, and the levying of an international duty on the profits of transnational corporations producing transmission facilities and equipment for the benefit of developing countries and for the partial financing of the cost of using international communication facilities.
Some criticisms of the MacBride Report included the failure to: fulfill the mandate to delineate NWICO, to analyze the experience of communication practices in socialist countries, to specifically describe technological developments and their future implications, to emphasize the role of broadcasting in information systems and to provide concrete recommendations. (Dutt 1995, 209) Others said that this was due to the enormity of the task in a short time period. MacBride himself said that the report was the first stage in a long journey.

Reaction Against UNESCO by Countries and Think Tanks

The US had first seen UNESCO as an opportunity for overseas markets and investment. (Preston 1989, 40) The American public were misinformed or uninformed about the UNESCO ordeal, and the lobbyists going to Congress – media, journalist groups, some think tanks – were huge. The US government and press, for the most part, thought that UNESCO was out to control media countries and journalists, and did not like the commission’s suggestion of duties.
The British response to the MacBride Report was the language was “obscure” and the unacceptable impression left by the report was that communication imbalances should be corrected by increased state intervention or by international directives. (Singh 1988, 88) The MacBride Report’s call for paying attention to peace and disarmament could well have been interpreted by the West as a Soviet code-word for the unilateral dismemberment of NATO's nuclear capabilities
Several think tanks were antagonistic to UNESCO. One was the Heritage Foundation. This organization, as others like it, had large resources at its disposal. It was backed by millionaires Joseph Coors and Richard Mellon Scaife. According to Preston (1989, 139), its annual budget was $10 million in 1982,and it had a staff of 90 and a network of 450 research groups and 1,600 scholars and public policy experts. The Heritage Foundation produced dozens of books, pamphlets and conferences to attack the UN, UNICEF and UNESCO. The Heritage Foundation Backgrounder contained anti-education issues as well as number 253: “The IPDC: UNESCO vs. the Free Press”. In this Backgrounder, the Heritage Foundation accuses NWICO of preaching the redistribution of Western mass communication wealth.
Other countries also had grievances against UNESCO. They submitted “The Crisis in UNESCO” in March 1984. These countries were: Australia, Canada, Iceland, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Turkey. (Giffard 1989, 74-75)
The NWICO formula; proving veracity of claims; the UNESCO forum of discussion; bad will from stridency in language; and ideological differences between basic concepts.

Pro-UNESCO Reaction
There were some objections to US departure. In June 1982 at the University of South Carolina, M’Bow, members of the US National Commission, and media experts met and agreed that the US role in UNESCO should be greater. George Gerbner, Dean of the Annenberg School of Communication, conducted a study in 1982 to analyze news reports of the 1982 UNESCO general conference meeting. The meeting was not widely covered. When it was, there was usually a negative focus on UNESCO communication policies. (Giffard 1989, 49)
Some people and organizations, such as media historian and first amendment scholar Margaret Blanchard and the US National Commission were on UNESCO’s side. Blanchard said that The US knew how to combine “noble intentions” and “nobility of purpose” with “self-interest” and “commercial advantage”. (Preston 1989, 29) Edmund P. Hennelly, vice-president of Mobile Corporation, headed the US National Commission during the Reagan administration. He was a staunch Republican, yet he concluded that the US should have no concerns with UNESCO regarding communication, politicization, human rights, bureaucratic centralization and budget. (Perkin 1989, 168-169) The US National Commission was composed of NGOs such as the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts, some local governments and press organizations such as the American Newspaper Publishers Association. The budget and staff for organizations such as the UN National Commission were often not as great as those of antagonistic organizations. For instance, the staff of the US National Commission had dropped to about five in 1978. (Preston 1989, 141) The US National Commission reported in 1984 that UNESCO used only one percent of its budget for programs such as disarmament studies that could be considered politicized. The commission also reported that UNESCO was not an advocate for state control of media or for controlling journalists. (Giffard 1989, 90-92)

Media Reaction
The mass media controls huge amounts of information. Entry into the mass media is difficult, even for those with millions of dollars. Sustaining power and competing in the industry is also difficult. The transmission of noncorporate views to the public often requires that these vies pass through corporate gatekeepers. (Preston 1989, 206) Often the idea of the free flow of information is supported by corporations because it blends corporate advantage, media domination and the yearnings of people everywhere for contact and full self-expression, although it may mask that information often becomes drab and bland, and people have little control over it. (Preston 1989, 293) Some corporations were alarmed by the phrase “free flow of information”, because to them information is a commodity and they make a profit.
American press had issues with the “right to communicate” and “protection of journalists”. UNESCO explored the “right to communicate” as an individual right and as a collective right to all communities and nations, and it still is guided by this value in helping to formulate information policies. Many in the Western press thought that this would mean an abrogation of some of their rights or a whole new set of rules of foreign countries to work by. The International Press Institute and the World Press Freedom Committee asked UNESCO to suspend work in the area of communication. Members of the Western press were concerned with protection of journalists, as in the Indo-China War. However, they did not want UNESCO in charge of handing out identity cards or safety cards. The International Press Institute concluded that a journalist in a battlefield or other dangerous area would inevitably be in harm’s way in spite of any paperwork they may have with them, and that the handing out of identity cards by governments may lead to a breach in the freedom of the press.
Media experts meetings were held in 1974 in Bogotá, Colombia and 1975 in Quitó, Ecuador, stirring negative reaction from the United States. During a 1974 meeting in Paris, the Draft Declaration on the Fundamental Principles on the Role of Mass Media in Strengthening the Peace and International Understanding and Combating War Propaganda. (Dutt 1995, 200) Conservative think tanks such as Freedom House and the Heritage Foundation, and NGOs such as the Inter-American Press and the Inter-American Association of Broadcasters, mounted an attack on experts’ reports (Singh 1988, 91). Many American journalists started becoming suspicious of UNESCO. As early as 1976, it was written in the Washington Post: “UNESCO is at it again, trampling on the high principles it was created to serve…The Russian and the other communist states, of course, have long treated news as a state commodity – that is to say as propaganda. What is new and unfortunate is the degree to which large parts of the Third World are moving toward the Russian position.” (Singh 1988, 82) Western press organizations accused UNESCO of: wanting to license journalists; advocating government control of news; restricting eth rights of journalists to gather information from private and public sources of information; legitimizing the concept of orbital sovereignty for LDCs; criticizing advertising; and advocating for the media the obligation to undertake special social tasks. (Giffard 1989, 251)
The media were huge stakeholders in the US involvement with UNESCO. Most members of the media thought that withdrawal was the best option. Media coverage of UNESCO in the early 1980s involved selection of news and experts that would be against the favor of UNESCO, and would imply or support that UNESCO is a politicized organization that would hamper the free flow of information. Often, experts that were pro-UNESCO were quoted at the end of columns, or were not quoted at all. (Giffard 1989, 117-135, Preston 1989, 217-240) The premises, frames of references and agenda of the US government and media were the same, and corporate interests were not divulged. Questions were often chosen by the media to reflect that. The two most common frames of reference were the charges against UNESCO and the Cold War backdrop. Some of these experts were chosen to be from the Soviet Union, which consciously or subconsciously for readers would not score points for the UNESCO side. Politicization was often not defined. (Preston 1989, 237) No specific instances of corruption were listed. (Preston 1989, 241) Ideological language and tone, such as vituperation and innuendo were used. Editorials were often canned editorials of popular news services such as the Copley News Service, Scripps-Howard News Service and the Hearst News and Feature Service. In fact, over 300 editorials were duplicates. (Giffard 1989, 269) Accusations were mostly of the following (Giffard 1989, 117-135): politicization, mismanagement, reforms needed; too little change in the past; M’Bow criticism; budget and US contribution to budget; and that US credibility was at stake if officials would not keep their word and pull out. M’Bow, who was from Senagal, was accused of being anti-US, anti-Israeli and of nepotism, mismanagement and favoring Third World personnel. In a “60 Minutes” interview of M’Bow on April 22, 1984, Ed Bradley acted like a prosecuting attorney and baited the witness. (Giffard 1989, 216-217). In addition, problems of translation (M’Bow spoke in French) and highly selective editing did not provide an objective representation of the interview. In several newspaper articles, M’Bow’s salary and expenses were misrepresented. Federico Mayor, the next Director-General, was thought of by many, including in the West, as a potential saviour of UNESCO. UNESCO was transformed in the media as an organization that at least had a chance to improve the cultural and intellectual life of people. (Giffard 1989, 241) Ironically, the media and US government were in a symbiotic relationship, while the press protested that UNESCO wanted state control of media.
Representatives of about 60 print and broadcast organizations from 24 countries met in Tailloires, France in May 1981 and adopted the Declaration of Taillores. This affirmed their commitment in the following: free flow of information, the universal human right to be fully informed, free access to all sources of information, and to international efforts at correcting imbalances. They stated opposition to censorship, a journalist code of ethics, licensing of journalists, and to UNESCO’s and other IGO’s attempt to regulate news. (Dutt 1995, 214)
The US, UK, and independent press organizations accused UNESCO of wanting to issue government licenses to journalists and to foster state-run news. However, the MacBride Report does not mention journalist licensing and the 1978 declaration calls for “unequivocally supports government-free news media and omits press-control proposals”. (Preston 1989, xvi)
In 1976, M’Bow said that one of the greatest forms of inequality in the contemporary world involves information. (Giffard 1989, 22) In 1977, M’Bow revised a UN General Assembly Draft of 1946 on the freedom of information as a fundamental human right, and as the touchstone of all human freedom. Mass media was mentioned as strengthening peace and international understanding and promoting human rights. (Singh 1978, 85)

UNESCO’s Public Relations Effort
UNESCO paid the public relations firm Wagner & Brody in 1984 to improve its image. This received negative publicity from the US press. UNESCO wanted the firm to generate information about its purposes, programs and structure, and generate support among policymakers, the media, the public and science and education leaders. (Giffard 1989, 93) UNESCO received negative press about its expenses, $15,000 a month, in hiring the firm. UNESCO used its public information office to further its self-image. It mailed out fact sheets and press releases, help special briefings for journalists and held speeches for media and other organizations. (Giffard 1989, 261) Many of the documents served to alert the media and public of UNESCO programs and appropriations.
Warner & Brody pointed out that UNESCO had taken steps in direct response to American requests (Giffard 1989, 264): UNESCO had passed a resolution in response to politicization remarks, to refocus on some programs; M’Bow had announced he would institute a series of administrative changes to improve efficiently and streamline operations; the Executive Board has passed a resolution calling for zero-growth budget for two years; and UNESCO never approved government licensing of journalists in return for granting assurances of personal safety. Warner & Brody also pointed out to benefits that the US enjoyed by being a part of UNESCO (Giffard 1989, 265): UNESCO bought $5.5 million of equipment from UNESCO per year; UNESCO gave the US a voice in formulating conventions and protocols affecting transborder electronic communications; UNESCO provided a forum for the US publishing industry to encourage enforcement of the Universal Copyright Convention; UNESCO helped to protect US environment; and the US shared in the findings and information of international scientists.

Reagan Administration
In 1982, the Reagan administration expressed five principles (Dutt 1995, 236): 1. to reassert American leadership in multilateral affairs; 2. to implement zero net program growth and absorption of most non-discretionary cost increases for five years; 3. to obtain equitable US representation in the secretariats of multilateral agencies; 4. to reduce the financial burden by too many lengthy international conferences; and 5. to advocate and create a role for the private sector in international organization. UNESCO was seen as an impediment to these goals. The United States backlash was a complement to what became known as the “Reagan Doctrine”. (Preston 1989, xv) The Reagan administration did not want to see any decline in US global influence, and did not like the one nation one vote rule of UNESCO.
In 1982, President Reagan signed the Beard Amendment, which would cut off funds for UNESCO if it adopted measures that were anti-free press, imposed journalist ethics or licensed journalists. (Singh 1988, 92). The US wanted to show the world that it will work its will and is to be taken seriously. It worked to an extent; UNESCO did consider some of the United States’ proposals. They have worked through the years in minimizing politicization and in trimming the budget when necessary. Yet UNESCO did go on without the United States.
On December 28, 2003, Secretary of State George Schultz warned UNESCO that the US would withdraw if UNESCO did not improve the state of politicization in its organization, make budget reforms, and change certain ideologies. He charged UNESCO of “irrelevant politicization of the programs that should be its most important; an endemic hostility toward the basic institutions of a free society, especially a free market and a free press; and the most irresponsible and unrestrained budgetary expansion in the United Nations system.” (Preston 1989, 172) Assistant Secretary of State Newell wanted to remove the following from UNESCO’s agenda: critical and simplistic approaches to disarmament, economic theorizing, and global standard-setting.” (Preston 1989, 181) This US gave UNESCO the short period of one year to conform to its requests, which were not specific. For instance, in its charge of politicization, the US did not seem to consider that UNESCO was made up of many different governments and ideologies, and to escape politicization was not possible. The US did not work with UNESCO for these goals.
-Control of information and media charges
See NWICO and MacBride Report sections
-Politicization
Politicization means that an organization is involved in domestic or international political matters, or that it is allowing political factors or events to influence decisions. (Dutt 1995, 36) The former can be done, for instance, by aiding or denouncing a regime, forming resolutions on policies or acts of nations, applying sanctions against states, and promoting a political party of interest of a state. The latter can be done by allowing extraneous political factors or events to influence or determine its decisions…as in regarding the representation of a member state. It is then difficult for an organization to be non-partisan. The two main tendencies that promote politicization in UNESCO are nationalism and regionalism (Hoggart 1978, 67). Hoggart (1978, 97) wrote that its main meetings are “ponderous and humbug-ridden affairs”.
According to Dutt (1995, 149, 266-267), causes of politicization between 1974 to 1987 were: the inseparability of the political from the educational and cultural; the effect of political events and wars; regimes inhuman rights, international economic relations and information and communications; ideological incompatibility caused by different social and political systems; the intergovernmental nature of UNESCO; the inseparability of the technical from the political; the political nature of the purposes of UNESCO.
There are 191 member states and six associate members. UNESCO went through four main stages (Hoggart, 66-67). When UNESCO was formed, the member states were mostly from Europe and North America. The second stage began when the Soviet Union and Eastern European states joined. This introduced new political issues. At this point there was East/West polarization. The third stage began when many new less developed countries (LDCs) joined. This introduced the North/South polarization. A shift from intellectual matters to development matters became eminent. UNESCO became a development agency. The fourth stage began when Arab states joined, introducing tension between Israel and the Arab states. In the 40 years after World War II, UNESCO grew from 20 to 161 members. (Preston 1989, 192) Every state has it own agenda. This may change in different time periods.
During the third stage, UNESCO became a development agency. It is the belief of officials at UNESCO that the mastery of information enables people to develop their intellectual potential as individuals or groups, and to reach higher levels of evolution in terms of mental adaptability and freedom. (Thinking Ahead 1977, 175) Growth and development, to UNESCO, should contribute to the fulfillment of individuals and of communities to offer greater chances to be human, be creative and to have power over one’s life. (Thinking Ahead 1977, 21) Learning and development are considered a lifelong process, and development is considered a multidimensional undertaking, with people as the means and end. The world is viewed as interdependent. However, until member states are self-sufficient, UNESCO will use its monies to help develop LDCs. (Dutt 1995, 248)
Politicization in UNESCO, with so many diverse member states cannot be avoided. For instance, in 1955 Portugal became a member of the UN, but not UNESCO. It did attend in the annual International Conference on Public Education convened by UNESCO and the International Bureau of Education. (Dutt 1995, 85) However, assistance was withheld from Portugal because it pursued a policy of colonialism in certain African territories, depriving people of rights to education and culture. In this case, politicization could be held as “good”. Politicization often does come mostly from LDCs.
Politicization in UNESCO was political concerning matters outside of UNESCO or ideological. An example of the former is the issue of representation of a member state or admission of a state or assistance wit h national liberation movements. An example of the latter is work programs relating to information and communication or peace and human rights. (Dutt 1995, 282) Politicization is not the problem. It’s what it can lead to, such as controversy, conflict, and alienation of member states that are problems. Politicization is often caused by LDCs, who find in UNESCO a forum toward the elimination of colonialism and racialism, and the promotion of human rights. (Dutt 1995, 176-177).
Singh (1988, 114) wrote that governments are not likely to allow independent persons of authority in an international setting be their representatives. Politicians, he wrote, are concerned with keeping a scorecard of battles won and lost, and issues often were bogged down in East-West and North-South ideological battles. LDCs had resentments from the past, and the First World countries resisted their demands for a better future. Intellectual debates often amounted to nothing more than mountains of paper. However, UNESCO did not always take sides in political affairs. Mainly, it concerned itself with helping LDCs, promoting education, science, culture ad the free flow of information. Overall, The reactions and accusations of the US and UK about politicization in UNESCO in the early 1980s were overrated.
-Budget
When it comes to the budget, the Office of Management and Budget was cutting funds to libraries and archives within the US in the early 1980s. (Preston 1989, 152) According the Herbert Schiller, the cost to overrun a nuclear submarine was equivalent to UNESCO’s annual budget. A study by the Grace Commission reported that $424 billion could be saved in three years through federal government reforms. This would have been the equivalent of 100 years of dues (based on the early 1980’s) to UNESCO. (Preston 1989, 152) Contributions by member states were calculated by the size and wealth of the state. In the early 1980s, the US contribution to UNESCO was 25 percent of its budget. This was an upper limit on contributions; otherwise, the US share could have been 35 percent. The Soviet Union came next at almost 11 percent. (Giffard 1989, 3) Budget allocations had to be approved by two-thirds of member states, and most projects benefited developing countries.
There was an $80 million budget surplus in 1984. M’Bow stated in May 1984, that he would return $70 million dollars of it. The US contribution would be cut from 443 million to $25 million. The US media barely mentioned these facts. (Preston 1989, 275) The budget had grown from 1947 $6.95 million to the 1983 $208.46 million, but most increase was due to inflation. And, in 1984, the budget decreased to $187 million due to the strength of the US dollar. (Giffard 1989, 67)
A UK audit and a 1979 Government Accounting Office report approved of UNESCO’s finances. There was no major budget mismanagement of a legal sense, although the following improvements were recommended (Preston 1989, 184): duplication and evaluation of programs; expense accountability; payroll controls Secretariat’s responsiveness to external auditor recommendations; and oversight by governing bodies.
M-Bow
Some mismanagement and administrative failures that were present at UNESCO were there before M’Bow’s time. These included: the over-centralization of power in the office of the Director-General; an unsatisfactory personnel policy and staff demoralization; and a bloated bureaucracy. (Dutt 1995, 274)

The US withdrew from UNESCO on December 31, 1984 after giving notice of withdrawal on December 28. Although there could have been improvements in the politicization and budgetary practices of UNESCO, the US withdrew at a time when the conditions in UNESCO had improved from the US perspective. (Dutt 1995, 240)
Whereas the 1980s were marked with media suspicion of UNESCO, collaboration became more the rule of the game in the 1990s and the early twenty-first century. For instance, Mayor was awarded the 45th anniversary prize of the International Federation of Newspaper publishers (FIEJ) in March 1993. UNESCO completed major information and communications projects throughout the 1980s and the 1990s, even without the US, even though funds were not very great. The biggest contributors to the IPDC and IFAP were Norway and Denmark.

Some UNESCO Information Programs
UNESCO collaborates with many governments, IGOs, NGOS and private organizations to further world development in information, education, science and culture, which often are interrelated. UNESCO works with IGOs such as the Organization of American States (OAS) and OCLC to further library networking in areas such as Latin America. (Kryzanowski and Imperatriz 1998) Topics it tackles with are: increased demand for information; bibliographic control; interconnection of regional and national databases; planning the future o library collection management and preservation; maximization of information access; enhancement of information networks; cooperative work; improvement of resource sharing and exchange of data among institutions; implementation upgrading of library computer services; training of library professionals; creation of innovative programs of information marketing; and evaluation and use of network systems to redesign them for end-users. (Kryzanowski and Imperatriz 1998, 174)
UNESCO works with agencies to further development in LDCs. For instance, it works with Africare and other organization such as Eagles Wings Resources, UNESCO/Joint U.N. Program on HIV/AIDS, UNICEF, U.S. Agency for International Development/Family Health International, World Food Program, individual donors to spread information about AIDS in rural African regions.
Another example of UNESCO partnerships is with the Southern African NGO Network (SANGONET), which strives to provide information communication technology (ICT) to Southern African civil society organizations such as unions, NGOs, and other development agencies. They worked together, along with the World Intellectual Properties Organization (WIPO), the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the International Development Research Center (IDRC), the Center for International Research and Advisory Networks of Dutch developmental organization Nuffic, the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the United Nation as Development Project (UNDP) in 1998 for the Indigenous Knowledge for Development Project in Africa. Project goals were: to develop a database of indigenous knowledge practices and lessons learned; to publish cases in print and electronic format; to build local capacity to share indigenous knowledge; to identify methods of capturing and disseminating indigenous knowledge among local African communities; to further a global network to exchange indigenous knowledge; to foster partnerships with groups such as the afore-mentioned; and to discuss intellectual property rights. Indigenous knowledge such as agricultural methods can be useful for a community, and for the world at large. Often, a community knows itself best. Cultural pride is fostered by the use of indigenous knowledge, and rural, poor communities have a lot to offer to the world.
UNESCO works with INFOLAC, an intergovernmental forum for the exchange of expertise and experiences for the development of the Information Society in Latin America and the Caribbean, is open to all public, private or professional institutions, through its quarterly journal INFOLAC Newsletter and its website http://infolac.ucol.mx.
Another example of the collaboration between UNESCO and an NGO in an LDC is UNESCO’s work with the Ugandan Library Association (ULA) and the IFLA are working with the Ugandan government to open up more public libraries in the country and to develop information systems such as digital storage of documents in the library. Each country and situation poses different problems for UNESCO. Problems in Uganda include poverty, a high rate of literacy, rural regions, lack of adequate modern technology, old books, and many languages and dialects. According to Ikoja-Odongo (2004, 169), about 38 percent of Ugandans are illiterate, and 53 percent of the illiterates are female. Most primary and secondary schools have no libraries. There are about 20 public libraries in 56 districts. (Ikoja-Odongo (2004, 176) The government realizes that libraries are important to spread information about their political parties and to increase literacy in the country which will have further effects on education and the economy, but they see other areas such as education and transportation as more worthy of government money. Other problems in Uganda are: there is no specific government policy on public libraries, many local public authorities do not understand the importance of public libraries, there is a shortage of trained personnel like librarians, many Ugandans prefer to watch videos or drink instead of read, and competition from rent-a-book and Internet café centers. A problem may also be that librarians with a high technology education from inside or outside Uganda may not be prepared for skills needed to work in a library with minimal technology, as is sometimes the case in South Africa. (Johnson 1994, 61)
UNESCO also works to establish information science training programs such as Masters programs, especially in areas such as Sub-Saharan African that need more qualified personnel the most. For instance, UNESCO and the International Development Research Centre of Canada (IDRC) work with the School of Information Studies for Africa (SISA), which is a regional information training center established in 1990 at Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia. According to UNESCO, the goals of an information studies program in Sub-Saharan Africa would be to (Rugambwa 2001, 48-49): familiarize students with the role of information in society; make students aware of information sources in society; teach students about methodologies for the identification, analysis, organization, evaluation, presentation and dissemination of information; show students modern management techniques which can be applied to studying user needs, policy analysis and economic and social planning; provide students with the basic methodology for planning, designing and developing local and regional information systems and services for user needs; provide the practical skills needed to collect, preserve, organize and disseminate information; provide students with an understanding of and means of using available technologies; and to introduce students to research methods.
UNESCO has worked with the IFLA and the British Council to establish librarian schools in Arab States. (Johnson 1994, 59) Priorities identified include: improve teaching skills of staff; identify research priorities and targets of each Arab country; encourage publishing of teaching material; establish regional clearinghouse for unpublished or hard-to-obtain literature and materials; organize a conference on equivalency of degrees and reciprocity of qualifications; and publish an Arabic bulletin of regional news about library and information science. (Johnson 1994, 61)
UNESCO holds information ethics Congresses. (Capurpo) The one held in 1998 concluded in a statement to emphasize that UNESCO should work for: the promotion of information in the pubic sphere; multilingualism; the protection of privacy and confidentiality; and the security issue. (Capurpo 2000, 261)

Databases
UNESCO maintains databases such as its clearinghouse databases around the world, like the data bank for social sciences (DARE) that are accessible throughout the world, provided that a community has Internet access. In 1960 UNESCO set up the International Computation Center (ICC) which became the Intergovernmental Bureau for Informatics (IBI). It makes representations to governments to convince them of the need for a view of informatics implications. Member states, IGOS, NGOS and academia are encouraged to publish their educational, cultural and science information in UNESCO journals, periodicals, databases and clearinghouses.
UNESCO produces clearinghouses of information, including ones based on CD ROMS. For instance, as part of its Third Medium Plan (1990-1995), UNESCO decided to create a clearinghouse with these goals: to promote and facilitate UNESCO information stores; to assist sectorial information services to create new databases; to make databases efficiently available through both traditional and electronic media; . (Pelissier 2000, 87) Based on user needs, CD ROM technology was produced to give access to bibliographic and referral data and to make some UNESCO databases available online. Thousands of periodicals, bibliographic databases and descriptions of research institutes and information services became available on CD ROM. A prototype was produced and pilot sites for testing were chosen.
UNESCO develops software and databases to help institutions such as libraries. An example is the CDS/ISIS text storage and retrieval system database. It is used mostly by libraries in LDCs to build library catalogues and bibliographic databases, although it has other capabilities. (De Keyser 2000, 159) The first official Windows version was published in 1998. Conversion programs exist to convert ISO 2709, dbase and other programs into a CDC/ISIS version. De Keyser wrote that volunteer programmers may be needed to create specification files and software to convert downloads from different source databases to a common exchange format like Common Communication Format since UNESCO does not have the manpower to support full conversion services for CDC/ISIS. (De Keyser 2000, 174)
UNESCO has worked with the Federation de Documentation (FID) for over 50 years to produce) many documentation centers; systems designs; information transfer; directories; reports; bibliographies; professional training and other publications. (Goedegebuure and Keenan 1987, 8-10) Meetings between the two organizations included topics such as science abstracting, education and training for documentation, archives and librarianship. (Goedegebuure and Keenan 1987, 9)

UNESCO Regional Centers
UNESCO sets up regional centers throughout the world for education, science, culture and information. One such center is the one at the University of Colima in Mexico. The project for information technology development is called the Coordination for Information Technologies (CIT) program. The goal is the creation of a Great Iberoamerican and Caribbean Digital Library. The General Office of Library Development was founded in 1983. The Libraries Automation Software (SIABUC) was created by people from the university to catalogue and classify documents. Updated every two years, and has been acquired for more than one thousand public, private and school libraries in Mexico and Latin America. (Feria and Machuca 2004, 178) The new library uses technology to increase information access, and delivers documents to users’ homes and offices. The Regional Council of UNESCO for Latin America works with the library for developing and implementing information systems. For instance, a plan was devised to transform documents to their electronic form, catalogue them and make them available. The goals are: create a basic collection of at least 5000 electronic multimedia documents representative of the Caribbean culture; index and write analytic descriptions for 1000 representative website of regional countries; create technological and methodological capacity among the national libraries of Iberoamerican and the Caribbean to make their own digital libraries.; allow the national libraries to share knowledge on the way the digital library works; and publish a CD-Rom collection of the documents. (Feria and Machuca 2004, 179) Right now the countries are choosing documents and website to upload to the server, and the uploading has begun.
Some regional offices are “cluster” offices for their areas; they contain a large amount of information for eth areas around them. For instance, since 2001 the UNESCO office in Nairobi, Kenya is functioning as a cluster office in all of UNESCO's fields of competence for Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda. The office is also a regional office for science and technology, covering all of Sub-Saharan Africa. In this office, for instance, the library contains: about 10,000 volumes of books, 400 bound periodicals, and audio-visual materials. The Centre also maintains UN and UNESCO documents.
The office in Nairobi is also an HIV – AIDS clearinghouse. It deals with these issues: how ministries of education can ensure access to quality education even in the face of HIV and AIDS for African children, including orphans and vulnerable children; developing policy frameworks for ministries of education to guide planning and implementation of programs; mounting prevention programs against HIV infection; and collecting data through impact assessment studies to establish the extent to which HIV and AIDS has impacted education sectors in cluster countries, with emphasis on teacher mortality and increased number of orphans and vulnerable children.
The Nairobi office also is a center of the African Network of Scientific and Technological Institutions (ANSTI), an organ of cooperation that embraces African institutions engaged in University level training and research science and technology. It was founded in January 1980 with the financial support of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), UNESCO and Germany. It has 98 member institutions in 33 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The original aim and present aim of ANSTI is to develop active collaboration among African scientific institutions to promote research and development in areas of relevance to the development of the region.
Area resources are pooled and information is exchanged with the aim to provide quality human resource training in various scientific disciplines. It activities include training, seminars, workshops, publications and promotion of research and development.

International Program for the Development of Communication (IPDC)
The 1978 general conference passed a resolution for an Intergovernmental Conference of Cooperation in Activities, Needs and Programs for Communication Development (DEVCOM), which recommended the launching of the International Programme for Communication Development (IPDC). The United States initially proposed IPDC on the assumption that, if the West helped the LDCs to develop communication, they would not seek international regulation of news flow.
The original goals of the IPDC were to promote operational activities in information and communication. (Dutt 1995, 212) It is the public forum in the UN system to promote media development in LDCs. From the beginning, the West did not give huge amount of money to the IPDC. In fact, they used their financial power to influence activities, giving only to projects of their choosing. (Dutt 1995, 213)
Generally, the budget for communication at UNESCO was not as great as the budget for education, science and culture. For instance, for 1984 to 1985, 5% of UNESCO’s budget went toward communication. The budget of IPDC between 1981 and 1983 was $1,750,000, financed by UNESCO. Several countries made additional contributions. Since its withdrawal, the United States had not contributed to IPDC monetarily, but did channel bilateral assistance to developing countries through the agency. (Giffard 1989, 16)The biggest contributors to the IPDC have been Norway and Denmark.
The IPDC-UNESCO Prize for Rural Communication recognizes a meritorious and innovative activity in improving communication in rural communities, especially in the developing countries. The annual prize was established in 1985 and now consists of a sum of US$20,000. The 1985 recipient was Kheda Communication Project in India, which was involved in setting up a low-power television transmitter that relayed programs from India’s satellite INSAAT to community receivers in 400 villages. (Giffard 1989, 16) The 2003 prize went to Radio Toco 106.7 FM, the first and only community-based radio station in Trinidad and Tobago. It was established in 1997 under the UNESCO Women-Speaking-to-Women Program in collaboration with the local NGO, T&T/CAN Citizens' Agenda. It is now a laboratory for community mobilization and community broadcast training in economic independence and promotion of human development.
The IPDC works closely with the Non-Aligned News Agency Pool, and with the Inter Press News Service (IPS), which focuses on objective news of developing nation and on topics such as poverty and other daily stories not typically covered by the big news services. IPS was founded in 1964, originally to provide an information bridge between Europe and Latin America.
There are many examples of projects that the IPDC has worked to develop in the world. Some examples are the following (Information Development News 20(3): 153-154):
• A full-fledged multimedia center in Dondo, Central Mozambique which offers community access to computers and email, IT training and office services;
• the establishment of the Memory of the World Prize of $30,000 every two years to promote the objectives of the Memory of the World Program for preservation and accessibility of documentary heritage, and to commemorate the inscription of the Jikji or oldest known book of movable metal print;
• Distribution of 130 refurbished personal computers to 21 schools in Northern Lebanon;
• More than 20,000 Portugese-language book titles will be made available to Portugese-speaking countries;
• A 2003 launch of a project in Ethiopia to train blind and visually impaired people to use computers equipped with adaptive services; this project was undertaken with the Adaptive Technology Center for the Blind (ATCB) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU); and
• 2003-2004 Swaziland, Africa: Development of media resource center for the national association of journalists

Information for All Program (IFAP)
After the 19th session of the General Conference in 1976, UNISIST merged with the program for development of documentation libraries and archives to form the General Information Program. (Goedegebuure and Keenan 1987, 9) The IFAP replaced the General Information Program (PGI) and the Intergovernmental Informatics Program (IIP) of UNESCO in 2001. The goals of the IFAP are to preserve information and universal access to it, and to promote the participation of all member states in the emerging global information society and the ethical, legal and societal consequences of ICT developments. (www.unesco.org) The various activities are organized by the Intersectoral Working Group on Information and Communication Technologies.
The IFAP assists in fostering an environment for the growth of information societies in nations, especially LDCs. For an information society to develop, a country’s information needs (INs) must be identified and must be matched to relevant internal and external sources of information to formulate a national IP and to ensure maximum availability of the relevant information at all levels. A national information system must then have appropriate networks and modern services such as information and documentation services, libraries, archives and now computers. Adequately trained personnel must be available. All of these elements are often not present or not present to a substantial degree in LDCs. Means for information control must be implemented. This gets more tricky in a day where information volume is so high and where information in its multimedia forms necessitate the development and application of sophisticated information-handling technologies.
The following are the goals of IFAP (ASTINFO E-Online and www.unesco.org):
development of international, regional and national information policies;
development of human resources and capabilities for the information age;
strengthening institutions as gateways for information access;
development of information processing and management tools and systems;
information technology for education, science, culture and communication;
digitization and preservation of information and universal access to it; participation of all in the emerging global information society;
ethical, legal and societal consequences of ICT developments;
providing an international framework for safeguarding world cultural heritage; provide a framework for the exchange of global environment and climate monitoring information;
international observatory on regional, national and international information policies;
promoting the use of international standards and best practices;
promoting information and knowledge networking in local, regional, national and international levels;
promoting the concept of publicly funded universal access to information and the nature of information as an essential component of global public goods;
promoting the use of information communication technology (ICT) in government offices, public libraries and communication centers;
supporting the increase of information in the public domain;
initiating and support the preparation of guidelines on using ICT for governance; initiate and support international debate, studies and guidelines for protection of world’s information heritage;
developing programs for equitable access to information;
developing programs for the interoperability to information establish an international framework for ensuring literacy and information literacy;
developing and support programs for the preservation of world languages and multilingual information systems; support training in Internet journalism;
developing support policies to ensure freedom of expression on the Internet; and
narrowing the gap between the information rich and poor.
translation of important literary works
draw up alphabets for languages that previously did not have a written form, and has produced grammars, dictionaries, spelling books and readers in several languages. (Giffard 1989, 14)

National IP is a set of decisions, laws and regulations taken by a government to meet specific information needs, develop information transfer activities of a country. Financial, human and institutional means and instruments are needed for national IP. (Sengupta 1987, 82) Identification of information system and other problems, such as socioeconomic ones, must be identified and planning an execution of activities to overcome the problems must be taken. (Sengupta1987, 82)
The Council of the IFAP is composed of 36 elected members of different member states. These members are information specialists and serve for two years. The Council meets at least once every two years, or more often about the request of the UNESCO Director-General or Council members. The Director-General appoints the IFAP Secretariat and staff. The IFAP receives voluntary contributions from Member States and other organizations.
Many past, present and future projects of the IFAP and the IPDC can be found on www.unesco.org, by clicking on the left link “Communication and Information” and searching by agency, country, project or subject.

Computers, Modern Technology and the Internet

Every year, the amount of information in the world increases. This is so especially after the advent of technologies such as satellites and of the Internet. ICTs have the power to transform society – to bring knowledge to disadvantaged communities and to bring nations together, but they can also drive apart the haves and have nots in terms of the digital divide. For instance, in India there is a huge IT industry, but the digital divide is also huge. In LDCs, problems include: poor supply of electricity; illiteracy; information illiteracy; inadequate access to the Internet and digital tools; low amounts of trained personnel; lack of funds; lack of dependable information infrastructure; lack of a popular language; proper participation of government and government instability.
UNESCO is committed to closing the knowledge gap that exists partly because of the digital divide. The difference between the information rich and poor is not necessarily determined by the access to the Internet, but any ICT and media that different segments of society can use. Aspects of the digital divide regarding the Internet include access, quality of connection and auxiliary services, and processing speed and other capabilities of the computer used. The digital divide can be measured by the following in number and cost: computers, telephones, Internet hosts, websites, Internet users, residential/organizational/international bandwidth, human, legal, policy and technical capacity, and advanced applications like e-commerce. (Rao 2003, 16) The Internet lowers some costs – like the costs of receiving huge amounts of information, but may heighten other costs, like the cost of carrier services and cost to train computer personnel.
During the 32nd meeting of the General Conference, several recommendations regarding the Internet were adopted. It was agreed that ICTs and new information provide the opportunity to improve the free flow of ideas in a multimedia context and present challenges for equitable information access. Literacy and economic development were considered key for equitable access. UNECO supports capacity building for the production of local and indigenous content on the Internet, and promotes access to the Internet as a service of public interest through the adoption f of policies to enhance the process of empowering citizenship and civil society. UNESCO wants to encourage Internet service providers to consider lowering Internet access rates in public institutions such as public libraries in LDCs. It was agreed that member states should encourage open access solutions such as the formulation of technical and methodological standards for information exchange, portability and interoperability, and online access. Member states agreed that the development of human capital for the information society. They agreed to would knowledge societies which are about capabilities to identify, produce, process, transform, disseminate and use information to build and apply knowledge for human development. (News from UNESCO 2003, 241) UNESCO officials said that the free flow of information and the development of knowledge societies would encourage self-realization, openness and communication. Information literacy, along with equitable access and effective use of information, were seen as playing a leading role in reducing the digital divide within and among countries, an in promoting tolerance and understanding through information use in multicultural and multilingual contexts. (News from UNESCO 2003, 243)
UNESCO is committed to studying the impact of computer technology, such as if it contribute to the detriment of self-reliance, reflection and persona capacity-building. Studies will be conducted to see the risks associated with the globalization of news and personal communication, changes in the labor force due to technology and the internationalization of trade and the development of a world economic market. (www.unesco.org/webworld/telematics/gis.htm)
Many LDCs in Africa and South America have realized the importance of informatics, particularly in science and technology, due to IBI, and have established a national machinery for introducing computer science, software and services in their nations. (Thinking Ahead 1977, 187) Computer science contributes to the socio-economic development of LDCs. (Thinking Ahead 1977, 187) It is an essential tool for economic and social planning, and means for improving conditions pertaining to people, enterprises and administrations of all kinds. Computer science also increases the chances of successfully molding systems of production which help meet needs and enable them to compete on world markets.
Information technology in this age of information societies has an impact on every aspect of our lives, greatly enhancing people’s capacities and the possibilities for improvement of their living and working conditions. At the same time, they can increase inequalities such as the digital divide, and foster a means by which the richer countries can dominate the poorer ones. There is also the risk of creating cultural and linguistic uniformity and fostering a mass culture with less room for intellectual, artistic and cultural endeavors. UNESCO’s mission in this digital age is to have a global information society with information superhighways for all communities that want them, in a context of a free information flow and equality of access using multimedia tools and networks. As Mayor (1997, 99) wrote, they plan to do this while promoting the educational and cultural mission of information media and strengthening the cultural and educational dimension of the programs of the electronic media.

Conclusion
Hoggart wrote in 1978 that the idea of UNESCO is idealistic and imaginative, while the reality of UNESCO is a complex “tapestry of human failings and virtues”. That is still true today. There are many nations in UNESCO, as there are many personalities and rivalries among siblings in a large family. Further study will reveal how governments and change in governments, and international self-interests play a role in what gets done or not. A future analysis of the budget of UNESCO and the contributions of each member state in different years will also reveal self-interest and how each member state has made a difference. Hoggart in 1978 wrote that the second constituency of UNESCO, the one made of intellectuals with an intellectual and ethical agenda, needs to be more articulate to persuade governments to abide by the UNESCO Constitution. That may still be so. However, much of the IP setting has to do with one thing – money, and this has to do with what is at stake for the stakeholders, and who has the money to back up what they want. As René Maheu, Director General of UNESCO from 1961 to 1974 wrote in 1974, money and cooperation are much needed to implement UNESCO policies. However, as time goes by, there is a growing realization of the need for cooperation among member nations, and for the need of the free flow of information and the exchange of ideas.
With modern technology, especially satellite and Internet technology, information questions and debates have become more complex. A UNESCO official pointed out at a Western gathering in 1983 that the communication question involves computer technology, transborder data flow, remote sensing, the electromagnetic spectrum, geostationary orbits, direct broadcast satellites, teletext, videotext systems, and the advertising industry. Today that is more relevant than ever. Information control includes how much of the above technologies a nation has, how well they work and how much of the information that flows through the technologies is created by the nation.
As Mayor wrote (1997, 45), a set of ideals and values to promote the well-being, progress and prosperity of human kind has gradually been accepted by the Member States of UNESCO. These values represent in the eyes of national public opinion and ethical frame of reference to which not all states ascribe to all of the time, but which has an increasing power to mobilize opposition to those who default.
Free information flow would help to close the gap of political exclusion due to a group being deprived of its human right or information access, or due to geographical exclusion, due to living in rural or remote areas. As Major wrote (1997, 97), no one country, even a democratic one, has a completely free flow of information. There is classified information, and information that many do not have the means to have access to. The more authoritarian a government, the tighter the restrictions and bans on information. UNESCO’s goal of the free flow of information in a global information society may not be accomplished overnight, but the effort is worth it.

Future Research

Future research will involve the interplay between the UN and UNESCO; an analysis of the evolution of information programs of UNESCO, and the different agencies involved with them; different information agencies of UNESCO such as UNISIST; cooperation between UNISIST and other NGOs and IGOs; the influence of US withdrawal; the influence of regime changes and political environment in UNESCO programs; and the budget contributions of the US and other countries and groups through time. Future research will also be conducted on the US role since it re-entered the organization.

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