MacBride Report
The International Commission for the Study of Communications Problems was established by UNESCO in 1977 to investigate the nature of international media flows in the late 1970s, particularly relating to mass media and news. The commission delivered a report titled Many Voices, One World: Towards a New, More Just, and More Efficient World Information and Communication Order, commonly known as the MacBride Report, that criticized Western countries for sustaining a media system that thrives on the dependency of the developing world. Ever since its publication in 1980, the MacBride Report has spurred debates on international imbalances and global inequality in the field of media and communication. This entry first discusses the historical context of the MacBride Report. It then looks at the content of the report, its reception when it was released, and its ongoing legacy.
After a wave of decolonization in the 1960s, the newly independent countries in the global South soon found themselves caught up in new processes that involved political and economic dependence on the developed world. Within the context of the Cold War, a group of developing countries decided to organize themselves into a movement of nonaligned nations and to call for a new world order in international trade and economics and also in media and communication.
The call for a New World Information and Communication Order was later backed by the group of communist and socialist countries, given their shared concern over the dominance of Western institutions in international media and communication structures. This concern was discussed at UNESCO conferences and eventually led to the establishment of the International Commission for the Study of Communications Problems, chaired by Irish statesman and Nobel Peace Prize winner Sean MacBride.
The composition of the commission reflected the different geographical and political–economic blocs of that time. Its membership also represented a wide array of expertise in the field of media and communication, including media activists, journalists, scholars, and media executives. The commission’s principal assignment was to draft a state-of-the-art overview of international communication flows and to examine the desirability and feasibility of instituting a new global order as requested by the nonaligned developing countries. Working under severe political pressure, the commission’s resulting report was characterized by consensus and failed to satisfy the high and often conflicting expectations of all parties involved.
The MacBride Report presented a well-documented overview of the development of ideas and mass media. The report reads as a multifaceted endeavor to chart the state of communication and media starting in the early days of humankind and extending to the international media and telecommunications environment of the late 1970s. Drawing on hundreds of international studies, it gives a rich account of media history, flows of information, and human rights. The report tackled crucial issues such as concentration of media ownership, commercialization of the media, (the lack of) self-reliance of developing countries, communication technologies, professional norms and ethics, cultural identity, democratization of communication, unequal access to media, and communication as a human right.
In all its efforts, the commission highlighted the idea that communication and information are essential resources for social, economic, and cultural emancipation and transformation. Western dominance over cross-border media flows and the increasing concentration of ownership of national and international media by a limited number of Western conglomerates were identified as counterproductive to such ideals. The report called for the implementation of basic structural changes and the strengthening of national media in order to ensure that the potential benefits of technological and communication development would be put at the disposal of all countries rather than just a very few.
While over the years the MacBride Report has been attributed a nearly sacred status in some circles, it has also encountered criticism. Even members of the commission expressed their concerns that the report was too Westernized in its terminology and its approaches. Other critics found it too conservative given the dominant tone of compromise, while some argued that the report largely ignored issues related to gender and the interests of civil society. Although the report did explicitly denounce gross imbalances in the international flows of information, it was still considered by many to be too vague, production-oriented, and most importantly, antithetical to the Western model of market freedom.
The report strongly shaped UNESCO’s communication debates at its 21st General Conference in 1980 and helped lead to subsequent institutional measures. A concrete result of the report was the International Programme for the Development of Communication, launched in 1980 and primarily dedicated to infrastructural support for media and communication organizations, projects, and institutions based in developing countries.
Over the course of the next decades, the New World Information and Communication Order agenda suffered a silent death. The MacBride Report was heavily criticized by major Western countries and organizations. Its recommendations about establishing codes and new communication structures were regarded as endangering the free flow of information doctrine that was heavily supported by the richer industrial countries in the West. Within UNESCO, the MacBride Report had various political and ideological opponents who sought to downplay and disparage its findings and recommendations.
Heated debates over the findings in the MacBride Report continued for several years to the point that the very role and relevance of UNESCO as a political and cultural organization was criticized and questioned. In what was framed as a protest against the report’s feared repercussions on the freedom of the press, the United States and the United Kingdom withdrew from UNESCO in 1984 and 1985. The United Kingdom rejoined in 1997. The United States rejoined in 2003, withdrew again in 2018, and returned once more in 2023. Consequently, in the 1980s, the ideas and ideals embodied in the New World Information and Communication Order debates and the MacBride Report were little by little stowed away as free market and globalization became the key words in a new digital communication era. Following the controversy surrounding the report, it circulated less prominently for many years, but it later became more readily available again in reprint and digital form and is now freely accessible online. The report’s ideas continue to inspire academics and civil society organizations to critically monitor the global media with regard to disparities in power and global injustices.
The original version of this article was published by SAGE Publications in The SAGE Encyclopedia of Journalism.