How Developing Countries sought to shape the news the world gets to tell

Western agencies set the terms

By the mid-19th century, Wolffs Telegraphisches Bureau in Germany, Reuters in Britain and Agence Havas in France had become leading international news agencies. Agence Havas later became Agence France-Presse.

Reuters expanded its reach through telegraph networks and agreements giving it exclusive news-gathering and distribution rights across much of the British Empire. For decades, a small number of Western agencies dominated international reporting.

A movement for cooperation

Seeking an independent course amid rivalry between the United States and Soviet Union, the movement grew to include countries such as Cuba under Fidel Castro and Libya under Muammar Gaddafi. Sima Kokotovic of the University of Pennsylvania says its members took more concrete steps towards lasting cooperation at conferences in Lusaka in 1970 and Algiers in 1973.

Changing who tells stories

For newly independent countries, political sovereignty raised another question: could they also tell their own stories and influence how others viewed them? The Non-Aligned Movement became a forum for debate about economic, cultural and information imbalances.

Its supporters sought stronger news agencies, broadcasting systems and direct ways to exchange information, reducing reliance on Western media organisations. Daya Thussu, who worked at India’s Press Trust of India as a student, recalls the movement’s criticism of coverage that focused on developing countries during disasters, wars, disease and other negative events.

A continuing debate

From 1971 to 1975, Thussu served on UNESCO’s International Panel of Experts on Communication Research. He later continued contributing to discussion of global information flows, including as co-author of the 1992 book Contra Flow in Global News: International and Regional News Exchange Mechanisms.