UPSC Prelims Practice Questions — New agencies pool: summit support
Q1. In the information-order debates of the 1970s, the Non-Aligned News Agencies Pool is best described as which one of the following?
- A. A standing censorship board that vetted every foreign despatch entering the territory of a participating non-aligned country
- B. A supranational agency that took over and replaced the entire national news-gathering machinery of its participating countries
- C. An arrangement under which participating agencies transmitted their own despatches to a central relay point for redistribution to all the others
- D. A UNESCO-administered fund that met the entire subscription cost of the major wire services for newspapers in participating countries
Q2. Consider the following statements regarding the origin of the Non-Aligned News Agencies Pool:
1. It was formally founded in late 1974, with regular operations beginning in January 1975.
2. The concrete proposal to set up the pool was formulated at a conference held in New Delhi.
3. Its establishment was first proposed at the Belgrade conference of 1961, the inaugural summit of the non-aligned countries.
4. Its working decline had set in by the mid-1990s.
Which of the above is/are NOT correct?
- It was formally founded in late 1974, with regular operations beginning in January 1975.
- The concrete proposal to set up the pool was formulated at a conference held in New Delhi.
- Its establishment was first proposed at the Belgrade conference of 1961, the inaugural summit of the non-aligned countries.
- Its working decline had set in by the mid-1990s.
- A. 1 and 3
- B. 3 only
- C. 2 and 4
- D. 1, 2 and 4
Q3. Which one of the following correctly pairs the national news agency that led and financed the Non-Aligned News Agencies Pool in its earliest years with the date from which the pool's regular operations ran?
- A. Prensa Latina of Cuba; regular operations from January 1975
- B. Tanjug of Yugoslavia; regular operations from January 1975
- C. Tanjug of Yugoslavia; regular operations from January 1971
- D. Middle East News Agency of Egypt; regular operations from January 1979
Q4. Consider the following statements about Tanjug and the Non-Aligned News Agencies Pool:
1. Tanjug was the state news agency of Yugoslavia, one of the five states that initiated the first non-aligned summit.
2. Tanjug's contribution was confined to financing the pool, the actual relay of members' despatches being handled from the host country of the fifth non-aligned summit.
3. Tanjug's founding role was taken over at the outset by the Ghana News Agency, Ghana having been among the initiators of the 1961 conference.
4. Yugoslavia's backing of the pool came at a time when it was itself outside both the Western and the Soviet blocs.
Which of the above is/are NOT correct?
- Tanjug was the state news agency of Yugoslavia, one of the five states that initiated the first non-aligned summit.
- Tanjug's contribution was confined to financing the pool, the actual relay of members' despatches being handled from the host country of the fifth non-aligned summit.
- Tanjug's founding role was taken over at the outset by the Ghana News Agency, Ghana having been among the initiators of the 1961 conference.
- Yugoslavia's backing of the pool came at a time when it was itself outside both the Western and the Soviet blocs.
- A. 1 and 4
- B. 3 only
- C. 1, 2 and 3
- D. 2 and 3
Q5. With reference to the non-aligned summit conference of August 1976, consider the following:
1. It ran from 16 to 19 August 1976 in the Sri Lankan capital.
2. It was the fifth conference of Heads of State or Government of non-aligned countries.
3. It brought together 86 nations, besides roughly thirty observers and guests.
4. It was the first conference of the movement to be convened outside Europe.
Which of the above is/are correctly identified?
- It ran from 16 to 19 August 1976 in the Sri Lankan capital.
- It was the fifth conference of Heads of State or Government of non-aligned countries.
- It brought together 86 nations, besides roughly thirty observers and guests.
- It was the first conference of the movement to be convened outside Europe.
- A. 1 and 2 only
- B. 2, 3 and 4
- C. 1, 2 and 3
- D. 3 and 4 only
Q6. In the history of the non-aligned news pool, what was the distinctive contribution of the summit conference held in August 1976?
- A. It created the pool outright, every earlier non-aligned gathering having rejected the proposal
- B. It permanently shifted the coordination of the pool from the Yugoslav agency to a secretariat in the host country
- C. It was the last summit of the movement at which the pool figured, all later summits dropping the subject entirely
- D. It welcomed the decision taken at the New Delhi conference and pressed for the pool's earliest implementation
Q7. Consider the following statements about the 1970s demand for a new international information and communication order:
1. It was advanced as a parallel to the demand for a New International Economic Order.
2. The Declaration on the Establishment of a New International Economic Order was adopted by the UN General Assembly at a special session in 1974.
3. The NIEO initiative grew out of the resolutions of the non-aligned summit held at Algiers in 1973.
4. The UNESCO commission on communication problems that carried the information-order debate forward was chaired by Josip Broz Tito.
Which of the above is/are NOT correct?
- It was advanced as a parallel to the demand for a New International Economic Order.
- The Declaration on the Establishment of a New International Economic Order was adopted by the UN General Assembly at a special session in 1974.
- The NIEO initiative grew out of the resolutions of the non-aligned summit held at Algiers in 1973.
- The UNESCO commission on communication problems that carried the information-order debate forward was chaired by Josip Broz Tito.
- A. 1 and 2
- B. 2 and 3
- C. 1, 3 and 4
- D. 4 only
Q8. The 1980 report 'Many Voices, One World', the single most influential articulation of the demand for a more just and efficient world information and communication order, was the work of which one of the following?
- A. The Coordinating Bureau of the Non-Aligned Movement at the United Nations
- B. The International Programme for the Development of Communication of UNESCO
- C. The International Commission for the Study of Communication Problems set up by UNESCO
- D. The Committee on Information of the United Nations General Assembly
Q9. Which one of the following non-aligned summit conferences produced the resolutions that led directly to the special session of the UN General Assembly which adopted the Declaration on a New International Economic Order?
- A. The Cairo summit of 1964
- B. The Algiers summit of 1973
- C. The Lusaka summit of 1970
- D. The Colombo summit of 1976
Q10. Which one of the following correctly describes the kind of bodies that fed and carried copy under the non-aligned news pool, and the number drawn in within roughly its first year of working?
- A. Ministries of information of member governments; about 86 such bodies
- B. Privately owned commercial agencies of member countries; about 26 organisations
- C. State-owned news agencies of non-aligned countries; about 120 organisations
- D. State-owned news agencies of non-aligned countries; about 26 organisations
Q11. The decision to establish the news agencies pool, taken at the conference hosted in the Indian capital, obtained its formal multilateral endorsement through which one of the following?
- A. The economic declaration of the fourth conference of non-aligned Heads of State or Government at Algiers
- B. A resolution adopted at the sixth special session of the United Nations General Assembly
- C. The political declaration of the fifth conference of non-aligned Heads of State or Government at Colombo
- D. A recommendation of the twenty-first session of the General Conference of UNESCO
Q12. In these debates, the doctrine of the 'free flow of information', against which the non-aligned pool's sponsors pressed their case, stood for which one of the following propositions?
- A. That news should move across national frontiers without restriction by states, a position defended above all by the Western governments and their wire services
- B. That news should move across national frontiers without restriction by states, subject to prior clearance by the information ministry of the exporting state
- C. That the despatches of the major Western wire services should be made available free of charge to newspapers in the developing countries
- D. That a state may transmit abroad only such news as has been gathered and issued by its own national news agency