Many Voices One World, also known as the MacBride report, was a written in 1980 by United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural OrganizationUNESCO which reports to its International Commission for the Study of Communication Problems. Based in Paris, France, the main goal of UNESCO is to end the world's poverty through collaboration and the exchange of scientific, cultural objects and education between nations. The book MacBride report was named after peace and human rights activist, Irish, Nobel laureateSeán MacBride. As of January 2019, The Organization has 193 members and 11 Associate Members. Task include analyze communication problems in modern societies, particularly relating to mass media and news, consider the emergence of new technologies, and to suggest a kind of communication order to diminish these problems to further peace and human development. Among the problems the report identified were concentration of the media, commercialization of the media, and unequal access to information and communication. The commission called for democratization of communication and strengthening of national media to avoid dependence on external sources, among others. Subsequently, Internet-based technologies considered in the work of the Commission, served as a means for furthering MacBride's visions. In the 1970's and 80's, major changes in media and communication were happening thanks to the MacBride report. They promoted policies directed at the liberalization of the Telecommunication market, monopoly powers as well as the comparative advantage, or dominance, of broadcasting and newspaper companies. "Today, modern media technologies, particularly the Internet and satellite communication, have become the infrastructure that has made possible a new global market system and a new context for the spread of political, economic and cultural ideas." While the report had strong international support, it was condemned by the United States and the United Kingdom as an attack on the freedom of the press, and both countries withdrew from UNESCO in protest in 1984 and 1985, respectively.
The MacBride Commission
The International Commission for the Study of Communication Problems was set up in 1977 by the director of UNESCO Ahmadou-Mahtar M’Bow, under suggestion by the USA delegation. Based in Paris, France and has over 50 offices around the world, It was agreed that the commission would be chaired by Seán MacBride from Ireland and representatives from 15 other countries, invited due to their roles in national and international communication activities and picked among media activists, journalists, scholars, and media executives. The members of the MacBride Commission were:
The commission presented a preliminary report in October 1978 at the 20th General Conference of UNESCO in Paris. The Commission's seminal session on new technologies to address the identified problems, was hosted by India at New Delhi in March 1979. The final report was delivered to M’Bow in April 1980 and was approved by consensus in the 21st General Conference of UNESCO in Belgrade. The commission dissolved after presenting the report. Because of controversy surrounding the report and the withdrawal of support by the UNESCO leadership in the 1980s for its ideas, the book went out of print and was difficult to obtain. A book on the history of the United States and UNESCO was even threatened with legal action and forced to include a disclaimer that UNESCO was in no way involved with it. The MacBride report was eventually reprinted by Rowman and Littlefield in the US, and is also freely available online.
