Page 101 - Communication Commerce and Power The Political Economy of America and the Direct Broadcast Satellite

90 Communication, Commerce and Power

because they recognized that, on issues involving the free flow princi-
ple, it would lose most majority-based votes. 65
On 10 December 1982, the Brazilian COPUOS resolution was
adopted by the General Assembly under the title 'Principles Govern-
ing the Use by States of Artificial Earth Satellites for International
Direct Television Broadcasting' (UN Resolution No. 37/92). 66 Article
1, paragraph 1 of the Resolution states that 'activities in the field of
international direct television broadcasting by satellite should be
carried out in a manner compatible with the sovereign Rights of
States.' 67
In the 1980s, the international forum most politicised through the
free flow-prior consent debate was the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Article 1, paragraph
2, of UNESCO's founding constitution declared that the organization
should 'recommend such international agreements as may be neces-
sary to promote the free flow of ideas by word or image.' However,
European delegates insisted that this free flow commitment should be
pursued only in accordance with the more general UNESCO mandate
which committed the agency to promote international 'peace and
security.' Moreover, the reference to 'international agreements' in
Article 1, _paragraph 2, assumes the supremacy of the principle of
national sovereignty. In other words, UNESCO's constitution con-
tains a commitment to the free flow of information in a context that
respects the more fundamental principles of international law -
including the supremacy of the nation state. 68
As mentioned in Chapter 2, the struggle between free flow and prior
consent emerged in the context of the crisis of Fordism and the related
crisis of US hegemony. The response involved innovation in produc-
tion, distribution, exchange and consumption activities directly invol-
ving communications and information technologies. This crisis and the
American-based corporate response to it implied a struggle to control
the media - institutions, organizations and technologies - through
which new capitalist activities and complementary social relations
could be forged. International legal debates concerning DBS, of
course, were significant for prospective direct broadcast and related
communications developments, but for students of international poli-
tical economy they were more significant in terms of a larger struggle
involving control over how key institutions - such as the UN and the
ITU- would mediate future struggles. US efforts to control these and
other such historical nodal points generally did not reflect the pressing
and immediate needs of US private and public sector interests. US