Space WARC: A new regulatory environment for communication satellites?

The ITU Space WARC in 1985 and 1988 was charged with re-evaluating the “first come first serve” premises of the international satellite regulatory regime and developing measures consistent with the principles of “guaranteed” and” equitable” access. This article situates the conference in its historical context, discusses the achievement of a minimalist version of “guaranteed access” through the adoption of the allotment plan, but finds the regulatory framework deficient in that: (a) the status quo prevailed in the majority of the radio spectrum, (b) the presence of “existing systems” in the allotment plan imposed severe constraints, and (c) proportional burden sharing mechanisms were lacking

From communication to democratic norms: Reflections on the Normative Dimensions of International Communication Policy

The North American Free Trade Agreement (1992) and the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (1993) fundamentally affect UNESCO and International Telecommunications Union attempts to promote global communications equity. Essentially, NAFTA and GATT shield communication policies from citizens, and shift international communication policy out of UNESCO and the ITU. In so doing, these agreements institute a transnational politics of ‘limited democracy’. In contrast, we offer theories of pragmatic and communicative democracy as a means to think about democratic communication in the context of international communication policy and a range of new communication technologies and services