The North's reporting of the South has been the subject of increasingly
vigorous argument in international forums such as Unesco over the past
decade. Nations of the South have accused the Western media, especially
the "Big Four" international news agencies, of under-reporting their
countries and concentrating on negative news. Western media have in tum
accused their opponents of advocating censorship and destroying the freedom
of the press. The debate resulted in the MacBride Report (1980)
presented to U nesco by the International Commission for the Study of
Communication Problems and in Unesco's adoption of a New World
Communication and Information Order.'"'