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Colleen Roach
The MacBride Round Table has met regularly since 1989. The next meeting will be held in Seoul, Korea, in August 1996, the first in Asia. The first meeting took place in Harare, Zimbabwe. The meetings have been well spread geographically: Prague in 1990; Istanbul in 1991; São Paulo in 1992; Dublin in 1993; Honolulu in 1994; and Tunisia in 1995. The origins of the MacBride Round Table encompass several factors as the following profile reveals.
The purely institutional or structural level of the MacBride Round Table relates to the time that UNESCO, in about 1987, abandoned its formal commitment to the goals of the New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO), a group of individuals long committed to the movement for global communications equality felt that it still deserved a rightful place on the international agenda. Thus the Round Table was meant to continue to provide an international forum - albeit much more restricted than that of UNESCO - for discussion and action-proposals on imbalances in global communications.
When the first MacBride Round Table was held, in 1989, it still had the backing of the international body which, along with UNESCO, had been one of the early prime movers behind the NWICO: the Non-Aligned Movement. The International Organisation of Journalists, also an early backer of the NWICO, provided institutional support for the Round Tables through the 3rd meeting held in Istanbul in 1991. The World Association for Christian Communication (WACC), true to its long-standing support of the NWICO, continues to this day to be one of the most solid supporters of the Round Table.
Although this sort of institutional/chronological background of the Round Table is an important part of its raison d’être, the spirit of its early genesis should also be called to mind. UNESCO’s abandonment of the NWICO signalled that the period of sustained institutional backing by intergovernmental organisations had become passé. The end of this era allowed for the emergence of voices calling for the NWICO to transcend the past limitations of its institutional, professional orientation so that it could reach out to non-governmental, grassroots organisations concerned with global communications equity. The conviction that the NWICO should extend its embrace more fully to constituencies beyond the professional and intergovernmental communities was, in fact, supported by the WACC since the earliest days of the NWICO history.
Concepts and issues
While the MacBride Round Tables have thus represented to a certain degree a 'new stage' in the NWICO movement, a continuity of spirit with the original concerns has also been in evidence. This is most apparent in its adoption of two key concepts of the MacBride Report: the Right to Communicate and the democratisation of communications. The Prague Statement of the 1990 Round Table noted that '…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 Seán MacBride, ‘the very foundation of other human rights.' Also echoing the MacBride Report, the statement adopted at the Honolulu Round Table in 1994 notes that 'One of the main functions of the study of International communication problems, as summarised in the MacBride Report, is the necessity for an ongoing process of democratisation in society as a whole and the mass media in particular.'
Other long-standing concerns of the NWICO, as it developed from its earliest days, have remained constant on the Round Table’s agenda. The need for the mass media to promote peace, an essential tenet of the UNESCO Mass Media Declaration of 1978, has been stressed by Round Table participants. This was particularly in evidence at the Istanbul Round Table of 1991, following on the heels of the war in the Persian Gulf, and at the São Paulo Round Table of 1992, where participants adopted a statement noting that 'peace and international understanding were at the very heart of thought and actions of the late Seán MacBride' and urging the construction of a 'Culture of peace'.
One of the earliest issues of the NWICO debate has assumed even greater relevance in the discussions and proposals of the Round Table: the need to control or provide sound alternatives to the giant transnational media corporations. Indeed, all of the Round Tables have been motivated by an undeniable reality of the communications landscape: the 'global reach' of the transnationals (TNCs) has become much more extensive in the 1990s than in the early days of the NWICO debate.
In connection with the TNC question, the issue of an equitable sharing for the countries of the South of communications technology has become increasingly important in the role of the Round Table, a particular concern in Honolulu in 1994 and in Tunis in 1995. The Honolulu Statement raised pointed questions on the ballyhooed Information Superhighway in the following terms: 'No ‘information superhighway’ is planned for the developing world, nor are exits or entries likely to be available to marginalised communities. Many questions remain. Who sets and collects the tolls on the ‘superhighway’? Who establishes the highway code, and polices traffic? Will there be public transportation and equal access for all?'
This concern continued as the dominant theme of the Round Table held in Tunis in 1995. Participants noted that Africa is still the poorest of the poor in telecommunications technology, a situation that is being exacerbated by the developed countries ‘rush to the entry ramps of the Information Superhighway.' In the words of the Tunis Statement: 'For the Third World and Africa particularly, the Information Superhighway must have a public lane that integrates the various media, including traditional channels, in a way that promotes Africa’s development.'
Another prime issue that has preoccupied the participants at the Round Table - particularly women - has been a daunting dual challenge: the need to focus on gender parity both in the deliberations and structures of the Round Table itself, as well as fully integrating women’s issues into the global communications agenda. Virtually all of the recent statements of the Round Table have acknowledged this reality, summarised in the São Paulo Declaration in the following words: 'The Round Table recognised that the previous activities associated with the NWICO did not pay sufficient attention to women’s particular needs and perspectives in communications. If the renewed NWICO movement is to move forward in a non-elitist direction, women must be given their due.'
New constituencies
The biggest challenge facing the Round Table, as the world community edges towards a new millennium, is the need to incorporate more fully new constituencies into its work. This has been a dominant theme in the language and issues of the various Round Tables, and since 1994 in Honolulu is increasingly an integral part of Round Table activities with workshops and informal discussion groups running alongside more academic presentation and debate sessions.
Different terms have been used to describe these constituencies: grassroots groups, non-governmental organisations, new social movements and civil society. The São Paulo declaration concludes with a statement on who exactly such terms refer to: 'Women, the poor, the manual labourers, the marginalised, the minorities, the alienated youth, the lower castes, the people with dark skin, the various peoples from the South "demonized" in the Western press, in short, the mass media’s "non-people".' This trend continues in Seoul this year, with significant involvement especially from NGOs and grass roots groups in media.
The Round Table’s conviction that such groups must be present and meaningful in its work does not, however, imply an exclusion of previous constituencies. The research community continues to be a major source of information and institutional support for the work of the Round Table. The backing of intergovernmental agencies has also been solicited, and UN representatives have even participated in its recent work. The Secretary-General of the ITU took part in the Honolulu and Tunis Round Tables, with the BDT also offering material support.
In 1994, the Round Table constituted itself as an NGO, with statutes and a founding seat in Dublin, the home of Seán MacBride. Tunis and now Seoul sees the deepening of this evolution, and the Round Table is actively pursuing NGO status with certain intergovernmental organisations. Indeed, a recent initiative of the Round Table has been to try to prise open the doors of the ITU for all NGOs, which up to now have remained, with regard to policy input and formal relations, firmly closed. The Round Table is also seeking to support linkages between NGOs, grassroots and academics involved in democratic media; and is involved in communications rights advocacy.
In the final analysis, the MacBride Round Table will undoubtedly move forward in various directions and at various levels. What unites all of its supporters is a common vision: that global communications equality, particularly for the countries of the South, and marginalised groups within all countries, will one day become a reality. Its great achievement to date has been to sustain open debate during lean times, but it now looks forward to rebuilding, with others, the strength of the democratic communications movement.
Contributed by Colleen Roach.
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