Mass News Media and International Law

Abstract

The Mass Media Declaration approved by acclamation by 161 countries in 1978 is the only official statement on journalism ever passed at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. The operative sections of the Declaration invoke access for journalists to news sources, and freedom to report, while calling for a "wider and better balanced dissemination of information." The title and content of the Declaration also set forth "fundamental principles" intended to enlist journalists in "strengthening peace and international understanding" and opposition to racism and incitement to war. These objectives are regarded by some western critics as threatening content control of the mass media. Some Soviet and Third World activists claim that this bland document has the force of international law. We reject this objective as insupportable. But we point out that western journalists have generally failed to distinguish between Third World pleas for greater communications facilities and the presumed threat to limit the freedom of the news media. Western journalists thereby inadvertently lend credence to the criticism of their performance, and lubricate the drive to give the Declaration the force of law.