By Tapio Varis
The first Director-General , Sir Julian Huxley was asked in 1947 by young diplomats in Paris “What does UNESCO do?” The short answer was “It strives for peace.” (Alfredo Picasso de Oyague, International Congress on Peace in the Minds of Men, Yamoussoukro 1989, Ivory Coast).It is true that the 1945 Constitution of UNESCO explains the purpose of the organization as follows: “Collaborate in the work of advancing the mutual knowledge and understanding of peoples, through all means of mass communication and to that end recommend such international agreements as may be necessary to promote the free flow of ideas by work and image”
Even though Professor Herbert Schiller documented already in 1969 in his work “Mass Communications and American Empire” that electronic communications provide an indispensable element in America’s expanding influence in global affairs through the “free flow” doctrine it is worthwhile to defend constitutional idealism.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance warned European allies attending the security conference in Munich in 2025 in Germany, against “the threat from within,” arguing that European governments are exercising extreme censorship and have failed to adequately get a handle on “out-of-control migration.”
“The threat that I worry the most about vis a vis Europe is not Russia, it’s not China, it’s not any other external actor,” he said. “What I worry about is the threat from within, the retreat
of Europe from some of its most fundamental values, values shared with the United States of America.” (https://www.voanews.com/a/at-munich-conference-us-vp-vance-
warns-european-allies-of-threat-from-within-/7975270.html)
Now in 2025 the international information space is filled in with the actions of mainly American, Russian, Chinese and European actions. The rest of the world remains largely unrepresented even though there is much activity in the BRICS and Non-aligned movements, for example.
While there are some new changes in some of the American media, the European media largely keeps repeating the militaristic tone.
Euronews for example, is claimed to stream the hardline “peace through strength” tone and the need to rearmament which are close to peace through war. Quite a change for the time when disarmament and even detente were European goals. The new American approach has been called “peace through realism.”
This reminds me of the attitude of Winston Churchill in his “Disarmament Fable” in the 1930´s of the animals trying to get disarmament: So the Rhinoceros said when he opened the proceedings that the use of teeth was barbarous and horrible and ought to be strictly prohibited by general consent. Horns, which were mainly defensive weapons, would, of course, have to be
allowed. The Lion and the Tiger took a different view.
What about a “Rearmament fable” now in 2025? By using all the prohibited chemicals in doping to increase to aggressive performance of the animals and even creating new arrival of
ancient dinosaurs by modern biolaboratory technology. Would it be preferable to disarmament?
The idealist internationalism is faced with realistic pragmatism also in the media with the hardline slogan “if you want peace prepare for war.” Some of us wanted to believe in the UNESCO idealism and University for Peace slogan “if you want peace prepare for peace”.
Traditional diplomacy was much changed to tele-diplomacy decades ago and political leaders are like media actors.
Even though media have professional rules of accountability but when media become party of political action instead of merely reporting of it their ownership may be biased and unlike
politicians are not elected by the people.
GENERAL TREND
There is a weakening role of the traditional mainstream media everywhere. Trust and truth are being questioned. While facing economic problems the traditional media are reducing foreign correspondents and critical coverage in general. Even though we do not have reliable international comparative research available now one can claim certain observations like a movements towards the blog and podcast type of media.
The roles of different media the were analyzed in the discussions of fake news and democracy .The mainstream media were seen in the Western journalistic tradition as the 4th Estate watchdog of the government. They are expected to be run by trained reporters, editors and publishers, The alternative media are supposed to be watching the watchers by critically monitoring and assessing the traditional media. Social media then is an outcome of internet outlets, “trending news” among friends where every voice is reporter, editor and publisher.
The old problem of cognitive dissonance where users confront new information which contradicts their existing beliefs and values emerge with confirmation bias. It is obvious with the internet media users when people aggregate with like-minded others.
A striking example of the growing role of the blogs and podcasts conquering the role of traditional media in world politics is the recent youtube broadcasts by Judge Andrew Napolitano: 12 March 2025 09:00
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s interview to the US bloggers Mario Nawfal, Larry C.Johnson and Andrew Napolitano, Moscow, March 12, 2025 The streams on “Judging Freedom” included other interviews normally excluded by the Western media (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDkEYb-TXJVWLvOokshtlsw)
In this American dominated world news media it was important and impressive that Tucker Carlson was able to have the historical interview of Vladimir Putin on February 6th 2024. It has been widely discussed among journalists and different media and there are many elements that could be discussed. But one detail in the context of this paper is very interesting. In a short period Carlsson asked Putin about “who blew up the Nord Stream pipelines?” and continued:
TC: “the biggest act of industrial terrorism ever” Why do you not present and win propaganda victory?”
Putin:”In the world of propaganda it is very difficult to defeat the United States because the United States controls all the world´s media and many European media. The ultimate beneficiary of the biggest European media are American financial institutions”
In this context it is worth reminding that the Russian foreign propaganda agency RT is completely closed in Western countries. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RT_(TV_network))
With reference to Harold Lasswell model of communication in 1948 in terms of five basic questions: “Who?”, “Says What?”, “In What Channel?”, “To Whom?”, and “With What Effect?” we could now in 2025 add “When?” because speed and time have become more important than before.
PEACE?
In 2023 Unesco adopted the “revised recommendation concerning education for international understanding, cooperation and peace and education relating to human rights and fundamental freedoms” which aims at:
“Media and information literacy, communication and digital skills: the ability to effectively search, access, critically evaluate, ethically produce, use and disseminate information and knowledge through various channels and technologies. It also implies to be resilient, to be able to detect and to combat disinformation and misinformation, hate speech, all forms of violence, including gender-based violence, harmful content and online abuse and exploitation, understanding one’s rights and responsibilities on- and off-line and engaging in digital environments in a safe,
effective, discerning and respectful way that enhances digital security and protects privacy.
(Recommendation on Education for Peace and Human Rights, International Understanding, Cooperation, Fundamental Freedoms, Global Citizenship and Sustainable Development, Unesco General Conference 42 C, 42nd Session, Paris 2023)
Professor Tapio Varis’ presentation at the Second International Conference on Media and Information Literacy and Global Understanding (MILID & Global Understanding), an international forum dedicated to strengthening global strategies against disinformation and hate speech in the digital age. The conference held at Barcelona, April 28-29, 2025 with the theme “Media and Information Literacy, Global Understanding:Peace for All” featured over 100 international experts and representatives from 50 universities and institutions with the goal of developing a Common Action Plan in promoting media literacy and intercultural dialogue.
