Non-Aligned countries urged to step up self-reliance drive

The Herald, 9 June 1987

NON- ALIGNED countries have been urged to increase their efforts to achieve mass media self-reliance if the New International Information and Communication Order is to bring about the changes required by the movement.

“We must continue to step up our efforts to ensure that we eventually depend upon ourselves, upon our own media and upon our own news agencies as sources of our news and information,” said the outgoing chairman of Cominac 11’s inter-governmental council, Mr Harmoko.

Mr Harmoko, who is Indonesia’s Minister of Information, told delegates during the opening ceremony of the ninth council session that this did not mean that NAM was adopting an attitude of confrontation against the transnational news agencies of the developed world.

“We still open the door for mutual co-operation with them on the basis of mutual benefit and mutual respect.

“That is a challenge we have to face. The council is called upon by the history of the movement to assist Cominac in answering that challenge, and I have no doubt that we will eventually succeed in doing the job assigned to us.” Mr Harmoko said it was the duty of the council, a preparatory committee to Cominac, to prepare a report on the body’s performance since Cominac 1 in Jakarta, Indonesia, three years ago.

He urged NAM member states to increase the flow of communication among themselves.

LESSONS FOR TODAY

◆ The Non-Aligned Movement, G77 and South-South countries were some of the groupings of developing countries that had a lot of influence, with an oversight role over bigger and more powerful bodies. But as the New World Order is slowly taking shape, these organisations’ roles have been eroded.

◆ The New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO), was another noble cause coined in the 1970s and 1980s, but as the globe is increasingly becoming interconnected through information and communication technologies, the need for countries to be dependant on their own information, media and news agencies is no longer that feasible. Nations feed from each other through sharing of information sources. It is how information is turned into tangibles that matters at the end of the day.

◆ Lack of investment in the information value chain has made countries in the Non-Aligned Movement dependant on information resources from highly developed countries, which defeats the original goal — freedom.

◆ Information is not only smart power, it is also big business. ICTs have brought on board the citizen journalist. This means cut-throat competition. This has resulted in the peddling of fake news, which NWICO anticipated.

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