YUGOSLAV INFORMATION MINISTER: GLOBALIZATION DESTROYS CULTURES


BELGRADE, Sep 15 (Tanjug). Yugoslav Minister of Information Goran
Matic Friday opened a meeting of the Coordinating Bureau of the
Nonaligned
News Agencies' Pool hosted by Yugoslav news agency Tanjug, which focuses
on
the need for reinforcing mutual ties, exchanging information and
correspondents, and overcoming barriers imposed by the large world
information systems.
Matic welcomed the participants on behalf of the Yugoslav
government. The following is the official translation of his address:
It gives me great pleasure to have the honer to greet, as
Federal
Minister of Information, this important gathering, in the framework of
the
great family of the Pool of News Agencies of the Nonaligned Countries,
on
behalf of the Federal Government of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
My satisfaction is even greater because of the fact that this
special meeting of the members of the Coordination Bureau is devoted to
the
revitalization of the Pool of News Agencies of the NonAligned Countries
is
taking place in the Capital City of my country Yugoslavia, which was,
40
years ago, together with Egypt and India, the founder of the Movement of
the NonAligned, and, in 1961, the host of the First Summit Meeting of
the
Head of States and Governments of the NonAligned Countries.
Next year, as you know, will mark one quarter of a century of
the
existence of the Pool of the News Agencies of NonAligned Countries.
The World at the threshold of the new millennium
The modern world faces new, difficult ordeals, at the threshold
of
the Third Millennium.
Instead of diminishing, the differences between the rich and
poor
countries and peoples are increasing.
The last decade of the XX century will be marked in the history
as
the decade of the efforts of one country to be the master of the entire
world, to establish the new world order. That is, in fact, the cruel,
ruthless, almost always naked, criminal endeavour of the economically
and
technologically most developed country of the world, to establish, under
the mask of globalization, a modern colonization of the enormous
majority
of countries and peoples. Of all those who have natural, human and
market
resources.
Between the two millennia, the paradox of the new colonization
of
the world is even greater, because this century accomplished the closest
links between countries.
The subordination of the world to the moral, economic and
military
interests and principles of one country is accompanied by the hidden,
cruel
struggle against the culturalhistorical and spiritual national values of
ancient countries and peoples.
The globalization tries to destroy the enormous, real, treasury
of
the world its multicivilisational and multicultural values.
The economically developed Europe, blinded by the enormous
number
of instant information, by the consumers' mentality and dependent on the
increase of the capital of the multinational companies, has an
uncritical
attitude towards the globalization of the world, and the present
governments of some Western European countries accept the role of
European
satellites in the modern colonization of the world, in order to satisfy
and
promote their personal interests.
In that way, those Western European governments struck the most
terrible blow to the civilisational achievements, to the tradition and
to
the treasuries of their countries and of their historical peoples which
created the modern world.
Similar tendencies are directed against the countries which
represent the cradle of the civilization, like Egypt, Iran, India and
others.
The protagonists of the modern colonization use all possible
means
to achieve, as soon as possible, their global objective to rule the
world
from one single center. They threaten countries by diplomatic means,
they
impose sanctions, they maintain lowintensity conflicts, and when all
that
does not succeed they intervene with military power. As the
economically,
militarily and technologically strongest country of the world, they
govern
the most important international political, financial, and trade
organizations. They do not respect the international legal system, the
United Nations and all others who hinder the achievement of their
objective to govern, from one place, the movements of commodities, of
people, of ideas and of capital, in order to enrich ruthlessly the small
economic and military elite of the world.
The basic instruments for the achievement of the dominant
globalization are the provoking of regional crisis and of internal
crises
in countries all over the world, the lowintensity conflicts, the
disturbed
security, violence, the fear of terrorism, the armed interference and
the
ruthless interference into the internal affairs of sovereign countries.
That is usually done under the excuse of the prevention of humanitarian
problems and catastrophes, and under the excuse of the alleged defense
of
human rights and liberties.
The policy of globalisation "floats" on the low intensity
conflicts, it provokes poverty, it favours the groups which support the
policy of violence and of modern colonialism and it is against those who
want to preserve the basic national and state interests and liberties.
Opposing that, the enormous majority of the countries, the
countries with the biggest population, want freedom and peace. They
advocate integration and globalisation on equal bases, not on bases of
exploitation.
Because of its original principles in the struggle against
colonialism, the Movement of the NonAligned found itself under the blows
of
the creators of the new world order.
The advocates of the forceful globalisation of the world do not
want talks between equals, they want to preserve the political,
military,
technological and general economic domination over the poor and
developing
countries.
In order to justify the military interventions all over the
world,
the architects of the rule over the world resources try to win for
themselves the world public opinion and the voters in their countries by
financial and mediatic manipulation.
They establish special headquarters for information war and for
mediatic manipulation.
In order to achieve their goals, they use various methods and
the
biggest news agencies of the world, the global radio and TV stations,
the
daily newspapers, periodicals and professional magazines.
The concept of "information domination", according to which it
is
possible to rule over foreign countries by the control of information,
and,
if necessary, combine information with military interventions, imposes
the
need to intensify the activities of the Pool of News Agencies of
NonAligned
Countries.
It is interesting to note that a great number of scientists,
theoreticians and politicians in the NATO countries speaks about the
gradual disappearance of the war as we have known it in the past. They
are
talking about the new way of waging wars, with the emphasis on the
closed
circuit of information and intelligence data about the strategic,
operational and tactical situations. That shows that the promoters of
the
global colonialism do not refrain from violence as a means to achieve
domination; they invest enormous means in the development of new
technologies for new forms of conquest and subordination.
Therefore, the key question is the question of the struggle for
truth and for the conscience about the society in which we live. In
that,
information plays a very important, unavoidable role. The media in the
modern society have the possibility to discover truth, to influence the
reality, and, by destroying illusions and manipulation, to increase
human
knowledge and change people and societies.
If the basic assumption of a society is based on cheating and
instrumentalization of humans as beings, then such a society can not be
democratic, regardless of its selfproclamation; that society wants to
impose its own criteria of democracy to the entire world.
Were that society, in substance, democratic and prosperous, its
principles would be accepted willingly by all, the society would not
need
sanctions, isolation, black lists, bombing, information and media war in
order to impose such principles.
The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia said a resolute "NO" to the
new
world order, in spite of threats, sanctions, bombing and other numerous
pressures and special war.
We did not yield under the aggressor's attack of the strongest
military power of the world the NATO forces of 19 countries, which
bombed
us, criminally, senselessly, violating all international legal norms,
during 78 days, incessantly.
The global NATO machinery tried to conceal the crimes committed
by
the strongest military power against innocent civilians, against
economic
and communal facilities, against traffic infrastructure.
However, in spite of all these endeavors, in spite of the
censorship without precedent imposed by NATO on the reports about the
bombing of Yugoslavia, the world saw the atrocities done by the Alliance
in
our country.
In spite of that, NATO and the most powerful countries of the
world still do not want to admit the war crimes they committed in The
Mediatic Role of the NonAligned The last decade of the XX century is
marked, in the field of information and communication, as the period of
accelerated development of the media.
Due to the dynamic development of multimedia and of Internet,
and
of the world network of direct and uncontrolled communication, the
original
meaning of the world information got a new significance. Information
became
a first class product devoted to the broadest mass of consumers from
business people to simple consumers.
At present, the political and economic systems are greatly
based
on communication networks and on available information systems. The
establishment of such systems, the manipulation of information and the
elimination of undesirable competitive communication networks,
establishes
a new form of war, new according to its methods, but old according to
its
concept and its goals.
A new kind of war the information war was created and
established.
Therefore, it is extremely important to agree here, at this
meeting, about the revitalization of the pool of News Agencies of
NonAligned Countries. Otherwise, we will continue to be the victims of
the
globalisation, of the designed and dosed information.
The information is conditioned by the laws of the development
of
the human society, and by the need to preserve and link generations,
cultures and creativity. At present, it represents the prerequisite of
good
management of states, of businesses, of family budget.
The mediatic colonization and the terror of the global
information
media, however, try to eliminate the right to one's own views.
Therefore,
the concept of the globalisation of information, which they try to
impose,
could achieve a greater importance, could produce greater effects than
the
classical war or economic domination.
Therefore, the information is heading to the first priority in
the
development of the human society. It becomes the mostly wanted raw
material, although it is not a classical material good.
Unfortunately, the great agencies and other information systems
are dominant and developing. They are the systems which belonged, and
most
of them still belong, to the highly developed, to the economically and
militarily strongest countries. Usually, the dominant news agencies are
the
agencies from the metropola which were until recently the colonizers of
the
present nonaligned and independent countries. That applies especially
the
independent African states. It is easy to assume what are editorial
policies and the propaganda activities of those agencies and of other
information systems of those countries.
The mutual information among the nonaligned and other
developing
countries is still nonadequate. There exist information lacunas in many
nonaligned countries, which represent a fertile soil for the activities
of
the big news agencies of the powerful western countries.
That was best seen recently during the last year's criminal
aggression of NATO against Yugoslavia. And now as well in the
continuation
of the strong economic, diplomatic, political, media, psychological and
military pressures against the independent and sovereign Yugoslavia.
We are witnessing the media manipulation without precedent,
which
tries to bring legitimacy to the NATO aggression against our country,
and
to take off the responsibility of the orderers and executors of war
crimes
against civilian population of Yugoslavia.
These and similar events in other provoked foci in the world,
confirm the necessity of the establishment of the Pool of News Agencies
of
NonAligned Countries in 1976.
Unfortunately, the most recent examples show that there is
still a
lot of space, a lot of necessity for the activities of the Pool, that
the
Pool did not fulfil its task, due to obvious reasons.
Our objective is to establish information without
intermediaries
who deform the information in accordance with their own interests, thus
being harmful to all of us.
The Pool of News Agencies of NonAligned Countries has an
unavoidable, important rule in the strengthening of the prestige and of
the
influence of the Movement of the NonAligned in international relations
and
its adaptation to the new international relations.
The Yugoslav state agency TANJUG is ready to give its maximum
contribution to that objective. By signing, recently, agreements on
cooperation with state agencies and media houses in Iran, Iraq, India
and
other countries, it made a huge step toward the exchange of information
without intermediaries.
The Development of the Telecommunication Infrastructure
In order to establish direct, rapid and timely exchange of
information in the framework of the Pool of News Agencies of NonAligned
Countries, it is indispensable to work on the expansion, development and
strengthening of the telecommunication infrastructure.
The existing network is usually monopolized by strong, powerful
world agencies, which do not hesitate to remodel original true
information
according to their own interests which are most often contrary to the
interests of the nonaligned and developing countries.
The crimes committed by NATO during the last year's aggression
against the FRY are the best illustration of how the independent
information technology and network troubles the developed West.
After destroying 300 radio and TV transmitters, and 19 big
transmitters, and the magnificent architectural work of world
importance the TV tower at the Avala mountain near Belgrade, NATO
committed, on April 23, 1999, the greatest crime in the history of free
press and journalism. On that night, the airplanes of the strongest
military power of the world bombed, without warning, the building of the
Radio and Television Serbia, it the center of Belgrade. 16 journalists
and
other TV creators of the information program of the state electronic
media,
which broadcasted, from that studio, authentic pictures about the war
crimes committed by NATO in Yugoslavia, Serbia, in Kosovo and Metohija,
were killed in the bombing.
By developing their own telecommunication network, the news
agencies of the nonaligned countries will have the necessary conditions
to
exchange, without intermediaries, authentic, true information.
That will also represent a possibility to avoid the pitfalls of
the western variant of the global information society, in which modern
technology is used for the production of enormous quantities of news and
information. The aim is obvious they try, by the quantity of naked
information to imprison the human mind and the human capacity to
understand
data and facts.
The western information society offers enormous, versatile
quantity, using the technological perfection to the detriment of the
needs
and of the liberty of human thinking and understanding.
The quantity of cheap information is the most expensive deceit
of
the modern civilization, of the future of the human mind, of the freedom
of
thought and expression.
Allow me, at the end of my expose, to express once more our
resoluteness to contribute as much as possible to the strengthening of
the
role of the Pool of News Agencies of NonAligned Countries in the spirit
of
the reaffirmation of the original principles of the Movement of the
NonAligned, adapted to the present international relations.
I am deeply convinced that we will mark, in an appropriate way,
next year, the 40th anniversary of the Movement of the NonAligned, and
the
25th anniversary of the Pool of News Agencies of NonAligned Countries.
I am also convinced, that we will succeed, until that time, in
implementing a good part of the agreements we will reach today and
tomorrow
at this meeting.
Distinguished members of the Coordination Bureau of the Pool of
News Agencies of NonAligned Countries,
I wish you a pleasant and successful time in our Capital City
in
Free Belgrade.


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