Comparatively inexpensive technology, like video, on-line computer links and desk top publishing, can facilitate this development. One of the main functions of the study of international communication problems, as summarized in the MacBride report, is the necessity for an ongoing process of democratization in society as a whole and the mass media in particular. This however, presupposes the active participation of women and grassroots organizations whose views, contributions, and aspirations are usually ignored by the mass media, and who are largely excluded from the socio-political decision making processes at national and international levels. No genuine civil society and no functioning public sphere are possible without the active participation of all marginalized groups. The Round Table accepted favorably the report of the working group on indigenous peoples.
Many questions remain.
It is likely that the new information highways will widen the gap between the information rich and information poor, both within individual countries and between rich and poor regions of the world, to such an extent as to render it unbridgeable in the foreseeable future. The Round Table considers the establishment of reliable and affordable telephone systems, to which ordinary people can have ready access, as a high priority for developing countries. The telephone is also the linchpin for access to most of the new information technologies such as fax and electronic mail. The research papers presented at the Honolulu Round Table amply demonstrate that the issues addressed by the MacBride Commission are still there, and that the problems identified in the Commission's recommendations have barely been addressed, let alone resolved. On the contrary, many international problems have compounded themselves and are ever more intractable.