Excessive neutrality of intergovernmental official information
Other Names:
Laundering of intergovernmental information Sanitizing of intergovernmental information
Nature:
Information from international organizations, in particular those representing governments, tends to suffer from an excessively neutral stance, except if the organization evolves a certain 'nationalism' or propaganda of its own applying equally to all members (such as the EEC/EU). Because they must incorporate several different viewpoints, reports tend to be very long and involved, and may be vague as well as being innocuous. The terminology may be very specialized. This coupled with an international policy bias makes the information seem remote. The public may not see how it applies at their local level, especially where there is little attempt to bridge the communication gap with effective public relations.