Practising Communication Rights: Cases from South Korea and Honduras

Abstract

The MacBride Commission Report (named after chairperson Sean MacBride), first published in 1980 by UNESCO, was a watershed moment in transnational mobilizations to democratize communication. Prompted by the call for a NIEO by the non-aligned national governments of the global South, the commission condemned the systemic inequities of communication systems designed to serve the interests of Western military powers and international conglomerates. It instead argued for a NWICO ‘based on appropriate technologies which respect the cultural context and generate and foster the active participation of the populations concerned’ (MacBride Commission, 2004, pp. 38-39).¹ The report represented an international consensus on a common framework, justification and a set of remedies never before seen (Ö Siochrú et al., 2002, p. 78).