What are the aims and objectives of the McBride Commission of the UNESCO? What is India’s position on these? (UPSC 2015)

The MacBride Commission of UNESCO was set up in 1977 under Seán MacBride to study communication problems and suggest a fairer international information order. Its report, Many Voices, One World (1980), became the basis of the demand for a New World Information and Communication Order.

• Aims: end the one-way flow of news from developed to developing countries.
• Objectives: promote free and balanced information exchange, media pluralism, and wider access to communication.
• Protect interests: check media domination by a few agencies and preserve cultural identity of developing nations.
• Development focus: use communication for education, nation-building and social progress.

India’s position: India supported the Commission’s ideas because they matched the concerns of non-aligned and developing countries. It favoured a more equitable flow of information, greater media autonomy, and stronger communication capacity in the Global South.

Today, India still values these principles, but places equal stress on digital sovereignty, local language access and technological self-reliance in the internet age.