ZAGREB, March 2 (Hina) - The role of journalists is crucial in the creation of pluralist democracy as they are the ones who must raise a society's pluralist awareness, a process which can take a whole decade, OSCE's Freimut Duve said
in Zagreb on Friday. The new generation of journalists must contribute to a structural reform of the media and amend the awareness of the importance the media play in pluralist democratic systems, said Duve, the OSCE (Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe) commissioner for media freedom. He spoke to reporters at the end of three-day regional conference which dealt with free media in Southeast Europe, the protection of journalists and their role in reconciliation, the promotion of inter-ethnic peace and prevention of crime. Duve said the prospects of establishing a pluralist media and cultural environment were very good considering what h
ZAGREB, March 2 (Hina) - The role of journalists is crucial in the
creation of pluralist democracy as they are the ones who must raise
a society's pluralist awareness, a process which can take a whole
decade, OSCE's Freimut Duve said in Zagreb on Friday.
The new generation of journalists must contribute to a structural
reform of the media and amend the awareness of the importance the
media play in pluralist democratic systems, said Duve, the OSCE
(Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe) commissioner
for media freedom.
He spoke to reporters at the end of three-day regional conference
which dealt with free media in Southeast Europe, the protection of
journalists and their role in reconciliation, the promotion of
inter-ethnic peace and prevention of crime.
Duve said the prospects of establishing a pluralist media and
cultural environment were very good considering what happened in
the region in the past decade.
The Zagreb conference also tackled the media's accountability in
encouraging war crimes in cases when journalists write racist
articles against other ethnic communities, thus creating a climate
ripe for attacks on their members, sometimes even justifying them.
Journalists have the obligation to fight the language of hate even
though it makes good copy to attack members of a community, be it
ethnic, religious or other, that the majority is in conflict with,
said Duve.
He also pointed to new forms of censorship, much more dangerous than
the old ones, for instance censorship by killing, when an interest
group unhappy with a journalist's writing has the journalist
killed, in the hope the murder will intimidate and shut up anyone
else who might be interested in the same subject.
Duve also mentioned administrative censorship whereby the ruling
political structure raises or reduces the lease on a medium's
premises in an attempt to influence the degree of the medium's
criticism.
The public slamming of every attack on a journalist does not protect
the attacked party but the public's right to know the truth, said
Duve.
The conference on media freedom in Southeast Europe gathered
representatives of 120 media, non-governmental and other
organisations from 17 countries. It was organised by the OSCE
Mission to Croatia and the Council of Europe, as part of the
Stability Pact for Southeast Europe.
The participants adopted a final document in the form of
recommendations the adoption of which should give fresh impetus to
the freedom of the media.
A separate statement condemned Thursday's assault in Biograd on
reporters of Croatia's Feral Tribune weekly, and another in Mezice,
northern Slovenia, on a correspondent of Slovene daily Vecer.
(hina) ha sb