After a 18-year absence, President George Bush has announced that the USA will re-join UNESCO. Director-General, Koichiro Matsuura, has welcomed the decision of the US to officially re-engage in the work of UNESCO, noting that as a founding member the nation helped to shape its 1945 Constitution; 'upholding fundamental human rights, the free flow of ideas and information, scientific and cultural cooperation, and educational opportunity for all.' 'I look forward to the possibility of closer collaboration with the enormous intellectual and cultural resources…and fuller contact with the extraordinary cultural diversity that characterises American life,' he added. The US is said to have quit UNESCO in 1984, and ceased its payments for UNESCO's budget, over the New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO) project designed to lessen world media dependence on the ‘big four’ wire agencies (AP, UPI, Agence France-Presse, Reuters).