Seminar on Media and Conflicts

Seminar on Media and Conflicts
Organised by the Thematic Network on Humanitarian Development Studies (Humanitarian Net) and the Transnational Institute
TNI, Paulus Potterstraat 20, Amsterdam
19 - 22 April 2001

This seminar resulted in the book The Emotion and the Truth. Studies in Mass Communication and Conflict

See also Before Emergency. Conflict Prevention and the Media

A seminar on the process of learning, the creation of knowledge and the dissemination of information and analysis on modern armed conflicts for journalists, academic and non academic experts and NGOs' press officers of the European Union.

Around of 30 armed conflicts are currently on their way in the international community . They have a destructive impact on the affected national and regional societies. Some of the global consequences are an increasing number of refugees and internal displaced people, a constant flow of emigrants, the increase of illegal transnational economies (drugs, weapons, minerals, people) and a competition among social groups for escarce natural resources.

The media plays a crucial role providing information on these crisis both on the domestic and the international level. Given the global economic, political and cultural reach Europe has achieved, the quality and fairness of the information produced by the media on the roots and developments of these conflicts are of great importance. But information it's not only produced by the media: the Academic world, the NGOs and the local actors are all producers of information.

This seminar will explore the relationship among three actors involved in modern armed conflicts at different levels: journalists, scholars and non academic experts and NGOs. The aim of the seminar is to find better ways to interconnect their work in the different fields in order to provide a better public and formal education on armed conflicts, its roots and on the challenges for peaceful resolution.

This will be the first seminar focused on the media, public and formal education, conflicts and humanitarian responses, in a series organised by HumanitarianNet.

Programme

Thursday 19 April
2 PM: Opening remarks
Fiona Dove: Director, Transnational Institute

2:30 PM: Modern Armed Conflicts and Fragile States
Mariano Aguirre, the Peace Research Center (Madrid) and TNI

Prohibition of war and hate propaganda under international law
Hans Heinze, University of Bochum.

4 PM: Coffe

4:30 PM: From the Field: the emotion and the truth.
A round table with
Jonathan Steele from The Guardian.
Ladislas Bizimana, University of Bradford
Amanda Sans, Medécins sans Frontiers (MSF) Barcelona.

6 PM: Broadcasting the problems: the experience of the international radio.
Jonathan Marks (General Director of Programming, World Service)Radio Netherland.

7:30 PM: end of first day

8:30 PM: Dinner

Friday 20 April
9 AM: Media, Conflict and Globalization
Nik Gowing, Main Presenter BBC World, BBC News

10:30 AM: Coffee

11 AM: Teaching to analyse conflicts
Magnus Obert, University of Uppsala

12:30: Teaching War Journalism
Arnold Karskens, war reporter, Brussels/ Amsterdam

1:30 PM: Lunch

3 PM: Round table Looking at the roots of conflicts
Berto Johgman, University of Leiden
Victoria Firmo-Fontan, University of Limerick.
Virginia Montañes. Journalist, researcher Drug Programme, Transnational Institute

6 PM: Training , Dissemination and Technology
Roberta Cowan (TNI)
Edouard Markiewicz, MediaAction
Robert Hudson, University of Derby

7:30 PM: End of the second day

8:30 PM: Dinner

Saturday 21 April
9.30 AM: Round Table: The moral response: the victims of war and the role of the Academia, the media and the NGO sector.
Stephen Ryan, University of Ulster
Arnold Karskens , war reporter
Jochen Hippler, journalist and political scientist, specialising in Middle Eastern politics
Ivan Nunes, University of Coimbra

11 AM: Conclusions

Closing
Julia Gonzalez, Co-ordinator of Humanitariannet

End of the Seminar.

List of participants:

Mariano Aguirre
Ladislas Bizimana
Annelies Borsboom
Glenn Bowman
Roberta Cowan
Fiona Dove
Francisco Ferrandiz
Jacqueline Ferreira
Victoria Firmo-Fontan
Almudena Garrido
Julia Gonzalez
Nik Gowing
Hans Heintze
Jochen Hippler
Robert Hudson
Berto Jongman
Arnold Karskens
Edouard Markiewicz
Jonathan Marks
Minka Nijhuis
Virginia Montanes
Ivan Nunes
Magnus Obert
Stephen Ryan
Amanda Sans
Aleksej Scira
Jonathan Steele
Tom Woodhouse