CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.0  BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The world information flow controversy is perhaps the most topical issue in international communities today.

This global controversy is basically about the demand by the south for a change in the present pattern of information flow between it and the north. The south also knows that the third world or under developed or developing countries of the world contends that there is gross unbalance both in quality and quantity, in global information flow between the south and the north, also known as the first world countries of the world.

This unbalance according to the south, has placed it at the receiving end as developing countries are daily bombarded with information and other media materials which do not meet their development needs and more importantly tend to debase  their culture and portray them as inferior in the eyes of all.

Supporting this assertion, Okunna (1993:92) say, A lot of research evidence has been gathered over the year to demonstrate the unbalance in the quality and particularly, quantity of global mass communication. This unbalance with the attendant dangers of culture domination through mass communication in at the root of protracted demand for a new world information and communication.

The north on its own part argues that the flow of information should be free and unrestricted quoting the 1940 united Nation (UN) declaration on the freedom of information as the basis of her arguments.