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Nov. 21 is World Television Day
11/21/2012
NEW YORK: Today is World Television Day, as proclaimed by the United
Nations in 1996.
“Everything we
experience through television shapes and influences our lives,” the U.N. said. “Television
educates, informs, entertains, instructs, and influences us in so many ways.
The youth are greatly influenced by images and we can expect new value systems to
emerge among them.”
The United Nations held the first World Television Forum Nov. 21-22, 1996, ”to discuss the growing significance of
television” in the world and how it might enhance “mutual cooperation.” The
General Assembly decided to proclaim Nov. 21 World Television Day.
“This was done in recognition of the increasing impact television has on the
process of decision-making,” the U.N. said. “Television was thus acknowledged
as a major tool in informing, channeling and affecting public opinion. Its
impact and presence and its influence on world politics could not be denied.”
Of the medium, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on World TV Day in 2003: “Television
can be a tremendous force for good. It can educate great numbers of people
about the world around them. It can show us how much we have in common with our
neighbors, near and far. And, it can shed light on the dark corners, where
ignorance and hatred fester. The television industry is also in a unique position
to promote mutual understanding and tolerance—with content that tells the
stories not just about the powerful, but about the powerless, and not just
about life in the world’s richest pockets, but also in the developing countries
that are home to the majority of the world’s population.”
(Image of UNTV programs being prepared for shipment to television stations in many parts of the world, Nov. 1, 1957, courtesy of the U.N.)
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