Jul 10 1977
From The Space Library
Television programs beamed by satellite to the whole world were unwelcome to some delegates at the Vienna meeting of the UN Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, the W. Post reported. Its reprint of a London Observer article said that the major technical problem remaining for global TV transmission was overcrowded frequencies, but political problems remained.
A majority of UN members including the Soviet bloc had pressed for regulation of TV transmission, claiming the right to intervene between their citizens and the broadcasts they could receive. The Soviet group objected to "propaganda" especially on its Eastern European borders where "Western TV programs, soap operas and all, are often more welcome than the home product." Developing countries unable to afford their own TV broadcasts claimed that unrestricted foreign TV from satellites would result in "cultural imperialism." The delegates seemed to want data from satellites scanning the earth to be generally available, but differed over what should go to whom. A U.S. satellite detecting a new Soviet oil field might have to ask permission before reporting the find; discovery by any satellite-operating nation of resources (uranium, for instance) in a developing country might start a "gold rush" by major powers wanting to "help" that country exploit those resources. The committee agreed to formulate guidelines for UN General Assembly approval, but western European and North American nations wanted to prevent anything resembling censorship. Because of a Belgrade conference in session "only a few hundred miles further east," the Soviet bloc also was sensitive to any measures that could be interpreted as infringing human rights or the free exchange of information. (W Post, July 10/77, A-14)
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