While the policies resulting from the decisions of the WTO in its dispute-resolution process have actually been skewed against restrictions on trade, the particular economic interests of developing nations continue to get lost in the fray amid the heavier WTO hitters.

For many countries, the one million dollar price tag necessary to finance even a bare bones representation in Geneva would take a significant bite out of their public coffers. While expansion of the free market has increased world wealth overall, the privilege to play in that market still comes at a price few developing countries can afford.

Advertorials -- or advertisements designed to look like newspaper or magazine articles -- are an ever-growing hybrid that blur the lines between editorials and paid advertising. For advertisers, the haze left in the wake of this intentional line-crossing is a bonus, since readers are apt to mistake an advertorial for objectively-reported news -- or worse.

Often, advertorials take on the character of the publication's own views on a product or issue. Hence, an advertorial can create the appearance that editorial and advertising policy effectively work toward excluding those views with which the publication's editorial staff disagrees. Critics claim that, ultimately, a publication's editorial views will st

MULTI-FACETED ISSUES AFFECT FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION

In the U.S., the first e-commerce sales report generated by the Commerce Department will provide a count of internet retail sales, based on a survey of approximately 2,000 web merchants. Policy makers and investors there are voicing displeasure over this unscientific methodology.

Verdict Research estimates that internet shopping will account for nearly three percent of all UK retail sales in 1999. U.S. Fourth Quarter figures will not be available until March.

Magazines often use advertorial pages as bargaining chips to encourage advertisers to buy additional, full-price ad pages. Perhaps nowhere is this more apparent than in the competitive world of women's fashion magazines where the number of advertising pages are an especially visible indicator of a magazines success. For example, in an effort to boost ad pages, it was reported that Glamour magazine offered a full page advertorial for advertisers who purchased a regular, full-price ad. The advertorial special was priced at $10,000 to $15,000, while a regular page of advertising went for $92,910. These types of incentive packages are not only good deals for the advertiser, but good deals for publishers, as well, whose bonuses are often tied to ad page growth.

Yet another reason for Western news domination is, quite simply, that the amount and variety of news and information available to Western editors in certain parts of the Third World is limited. As such, limited use is made o