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International Commission for the Study of Communication Problems (ICSCP)

  • Corporate body
  • 1977-1980

In response to concerns about the domination of western news agencies over worldwide information flows and an increasing awareness about the importance of communication, the UNESCO General Conference adopted resolution 100 at its 19th session in 1976. The resolution called for a thorough analysis of existing communication problems and led to the establishment of the International Commission for the Study of Communication Problems (ICSCP) in December 1977. Selected to represent a diversity of ideologies and geographical areas, members of the commission were asked to prepare an analytical report for the 21st UNESCO General Conference on issues of inequality related to communication and agree on principles to promote a “New World Information and Communication Order” (NWICO). Under the presidency of Sean MacBride, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1974, the ICSCP’s work resulted in the publication in 1979 of the report “Many Voices, One World: Towards a new, more just and more efficient world information and communication order”, also known as the MacBride Report, and nearly one hundred reference papers on the topic of communication. The ICSCP dissolved following its presentation of the report to the 21st UNESCO General Conference in 1980.

During this session, the MacBride Report inspired the General Conference to adopt a resolution, known as ‘the MacBride Resolution,’ that included diluted versions of the measures recommended in the ICSCP’s report and launched the International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC). While the text was not as ambitious as some non-aligned countries hoped it to be, many still considered it an important step toward a new information system. However, the MacBride Report’s support for reforming the imbalance of information flows sparked intense controversy among Western powers, which saw the suggested reforms as attacks on media freedom (Carlsson, p. 200). This contention contributed to the decision of the US, the UK and Singapore to leave UNESCO in the mid-1980s. Confronted with this backlash, NWICO as an ideal and the MacBride Report became taboo within UNESCO by the 1990s (Nordenstreng, p. 35).

The ICSCP’s work has nevertheless remained important to this day. According to former member Mustapha Masmoudi, the ICSCP “provided the theoretical foundations of the concept of information society” (Masmoudi, pp. 19). This concept has played a key role in informing new efforts by UNESCO and other UN organs to address information and communication issues through initiatives, such as the World Summit on Information Society.

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