World Information Order Research Articles

The Right to communicate and its achievement within a new world information order

AbstractThe work on the right to communicate clarifies the relationship between communication and culture and illustrates that a stress on one right will have impact on others. A country that emphasizes a right to participate should expect that emphasis to have consequences for a right to privacy. Equally, the exercise of a right to inform —at individual, community, national and world levels — has impacts on the information rights of others, often in distant parts of the world. Here, L.S. Harms, a communications scholar, analyses the thrust of the ‘right to communicate’ philosophy and its meaning to the new world information order.

Who may say what to whom?

AbstractThe call for a new world information order as an intrinsic requirement for a new world economic order has brought about a polarisation of interests and consequently standpoints between the developed and developing countries. As Richard Dill puts it, there is a militant flavour about the term NWIO (new world information order), and it translates the concept of distribution struggle in the information sector. According to him, it is both a programme and a point of departure. This paper was presented at the International Conference on the New World Information Order held in Bonn, December 1978.

Exploding the traditional myth

AbstractAt the heart of the debate on the New World information order is the “commodity” called news. Paradoxically, the heated arguments are not whether news is a commodity but to what extent news becomes a “per-sonality” that aims to shape world opinion and charter the course of events. The debate thus debunks the traditional Fleet Street myth that news ia a straight reproduction of facts and probes the hidden dimensions to the solidly established news networks that trade in the most sensitive of products. Pradeep Krishnatray adds another chapter to a discussion that will perhaps be unending.

Information is a social necessity

Mustapha Masmoudi recently became the Republic of Tunesia’s permanent delegate at UNESCO in Paris. He is well known for his many articles and publications on the “NewWorld Information Order” and has had a decisive influence on international discussion, both in his capacity as long-standing Secretary of State for information in Tunesia and as Chairman of the Inter-Government Council for Coordinating Information between the Non-Aligned Nations. In his paper presented at the International Conference on New World Information Order (Bonn, Dec. 1978), he takes a brief look at the motives for calling for a new information order.

Newspapers and news agency in Thailand: a monologue with developed countries

The press in Thailand has had a chequered history. The news function of the Thai newspapers has often been a centre of attention, not only by scholars and governments but by the overseas media as well. Despite severe handicaps, the Thai press has demonstrated a notable penchant for professionalism as well as sophistication in production. But the totality of the game, contentwise, has been reduced to looking at events and interpreting them with a local bias while reporting world events through the looking glasses of AP, UPI, Reuter and AFP. This paper by Somkuan Kaviya was presented at the International Conference on New World Information Order, Bonn, held Dec. 1978.