West's media admonish UNESCO

Leaders of Western news media told UNESCO to end its attempts to regulate the flow of global news and vowed an unending fight to uphold world press freedom. "We believe the time has come within UNESCO and other international governmental bodies to abandon attempts to regulate news content and t formulate rules for the press," news executives of some 20 countries said in a resolution at the end of a three-day conference.

"We are deeply concerned by a growing tendency in many countries and in international bodies to put government interests above those of the individual, particularly in regards to information," the resolution said.

The six-page resolution also:

* Called for elimination of censorship and other forms of arbitrary control of information and opinion.

* Reaffirmed the right of journalists to have access to diverse sources of news and opinion, official or unofficial, without restriction.

* Rejected any international code of journalistic ethics.

* Rejected special protection or special status to "protect" journalists.

* Rejected licensing of journalists by national or international bodies.