A limited number of news agencies provide the news to organisations around the globe.
Newspapers around the world receive teleprinter copy from news agencies which arrives 24 hours a day.
Only a small amount of well funded newspapers can afford their own international correspondents. All other newspapers rely on news agency copy.
They automatically receive their signals from London, New York, or Paris and print out the news agencies version of what's happening around the world.
This approach has been criticised by developing countries in recent years who see the news agency reports as either sensational, ill-informed and distorted by an irrelevant sense of news values. Developing countries would prefer to control the news that leaves their countries. This is done through the establishment of a national news agency. They can also intervene through censorship or by making it difficult for journalists who they don't like.
Dr Seán MacBride is chairman of the International Commission for the Study of Communication Problems, established by UNESCO to examine these problems in communication. He believes that 80 per cent of complaints made by developing countries are justified. He is a firm believer in the importance of press independence. However, he would still prefer to see the media owned by governments rather than by international interests.
Many people in many countries assert that their independence, identity and integrity are endangered. These are concerns which no one should ignore or underestimate and minor inaccuracies do not weaken the case.
As UN Commissioner in Namibia, MacBride witnessed first hand the distortion in the coverage there. In the 1940s, he became the Irish Minister for External Affairs and set up an Irish News Agency to counteract how news was being reported in Ireland. He says that at the time, virtually all the news in Ireland came filtered through London. Reuters News Agency had a British emphasis and tone. MacBride wanted a similar approach but from an Irish perspective.
I did not want Ireland to be projected through a British viewpoint.
Despite all this, the Irish News Agency failed for political reasons.
This episode of 'Printout' was broadcast on 11 February 1979. The presenter is John Bowman.
