The Rise and Fall of NWICO

Abstract

This article presents a summary of the findings of an analysis of the rise and fall of the political move to bring about a new world information and communication order. In the decades immediately following the Second World War, the media debate was mainly a protracted trench battle in the Cold War, where the West rallied around the principle of "free flow of information" and the Eastern bloc iterated the need for state control. Although this East-West dispute was by no means resolved in the 1960s, the situation changed with the addition of a North-South dimension in the 1970s. Besides the opening of a new front, the focus of the dispute was broadened to include flows of other media products besides news, flows which were assuming increasing importance in international relations. A new perspective on the principle of "free flow of information" came to light. These developments had their roots in the dramatic changes in world politics that took place in the 1960s. Numerous colonies gained independence from the colonial metropoles. With independence came demands for the recognition of the countries' national sovereignty, not only in political terms, but economically and culturally, as well.