Fanning the flame of tolerance: the role of the media.

• Position: Unlearning Intolerance

The third seminar in the "Unlearning Intolerance" series was held at UN Headquarters on 3 May 2005 on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day. The "Fanning the Flame of Tolerance: The Role of the Media" seminar considered the effects of "hate" media and discussed how the media could educate people through reporting and confronting manifestations of intolerance around the world. It was organized by the United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI) and launched at the mid-point of the International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World, proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in 1998.

Among those who spoke at the half-day seminar were: Mihnea Ioan Motoc of Romania, Chairman of the United Nations Committee on Information (COI); Erol Avdovic, Senior Diplomatic Correspondent, Deutsche Welle, Bosnian Radio & TV, and the Vjesnik daily; Alfonso Armada, United Nations and New York correspondent, Spanish News Daily, ABC; and Ghida Fakhry, New York Bureau Chief, Asharq Al-Awsat. James Wurst, President of the United Nations Correspondents Association, and Suzanne Bilello, Interim Director of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) office in New York, also spoke. The participants cited methods to promote tolerance, which included recognizing and avoiding "soft prejudices" and cultural stereotypes, being wary of using national filters to the exclusion of international and foreign perspectives, and encouraging critical reasoning on concepts of "otherness".

At the opening of the seminar, Ramu Damodaran, Chief of the Civil Society Service, Outreach Division, DPI, read out a message by Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who noted that while journalists continued to work on the front lines of history, many continued to be persecuted, attacked, imprisoned and murdered for their work. Mr. Annan added that in 2004 alone, 56 journalists had been killed in the line of duty, another 19 remained missing and feared dead, and some 124 had been imprisoned. World Press Freedom Day, he said, should serve as an occasion to pay tribute to those who had fallen, reflect upon the role of the media in general, and be the occasion to reaffirm the essential human right of press freedom and collectively to pursue its realization.

During the panel discussion, which included an interactive dialogue among panellists and the audience, Ms. Fakhry drew attention to the difficulty of delineating softer, more...