New World Information and Communication Order
The American media scholar Wilbur Schramm noted in 1964 that the flow of news among nations is thin, that much attention is given to developed countries and little to less-developing ones, that important events are ignored and reality is distorted.
[2] From a more radical perspective, Herbert Schiller observed in 1969 that developing countries had little meaningful input into decisions about radio frequency allocations for satellites at a key meeting in Geneva in 1962.
M'Bow backed a compromise resolution that eliminated the more radical proposals of the report, however hard liners resisted these changes.
Likewise, the United States warned that they would not provide funds or technical assistance if UNESCO appeared to desire government control of media.
[14] The UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions of 2005 puts into effect some of the goals of NWICO, especially with regard to the unbalanced global flow of mass media.
It viewed the NWICO as dangerous to freedom of the press by ultimately putting an organization run by governments at the head of controlling global media, potentially allowing for censorship on a large scale.
[18] The matter was complicated by debates within UNESCO about Israel's archaeological work in the city of Jerusalem, and about the Apartheid regime in South Africa.
IMC is a new media collective hosted by grassroots organizations generally supportive of the intent of NWICO (while pointing out 1st amendment concerns along the way).
Founded by a grass-roots synthesis of anti-Neoliberalists and activists, IMC was considered to be a pioneering effort to gain freedom of the press, and theoretically part of a more democratic "new world information order".
[citation needed] The debate on the NWICO that started in the 1970s reflected criticism about non-equitable access to information and media imperialism.
In the decades following the NWICO debates little changed in this regard as a study on stories relating to Africa in the New York Times and The Washington Post showed in 2000.
[22] African diplomats in UNESCO, the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), and the UN General Assembly commitment were crucial to the success of the Windhoek process.
[27] As a result of the "Many Voices, One World" 1980 report UNESCO's General Conference launched the International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC) the same year in Belgrade.
This process involved both governmental actors as well as non-governmental organizations and sought to solve many of the issues proposed during the NWICO debate.
Since 2008, UNESCO Member States submit information on the status of the judicial inquiries conducted on each of the journalists killings condemned by the Organization.
This information is included in a public report submitted every two years to the IPDC Council by the Director-General and is basis to the Programme's follow-up to killings of journalists.
[31] There has been a significant increase in access to the Internet in recent years, which reached just over three billion users in 2014, amounting to about 42 per cent of the world's population.
A digital divide is an economic and social inequality with regard to access to, use of, or impact of information and communications technology (ICT).
[33][34] Social barriers such as literacy and lack of digital empowerment have created stark inequalities between men and women in navigating the tools used for access to information.
As new means of communication arise, so too do new restrictions including government control or commercial methods that succeed in turning personal information into a danger.
States have increasingly adopted laws and policies to legalize monitoring of communication, justifying these practices with the need to defend their own citizens and national interests.
In parts of Europe, new anti-terrorism laws have enabled a greater degree of government surveillance and an increase in the ability of intelligence authorities to access citizens' data.
