News in English     | 25.10.2018. 18:58 |

RCC workshop - Highly important role of the media in deradicalization process

FENA Hana Imamović

BUDVA/SARAJEVO, October 25 (FENA) - Journalists from the countries of Southeast Europe and experts in the field of combating radical extremism and terrorism gathered today in the organization of the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) in Budva to exchange views on ways of reporting on these topics and thereby contribute to the fight against these contemporary phenomena.

The participants discussed the crucial role of the media in reporting and providing credible information to the public on the cases of terrorism stressing the importance of reporting on these phenomena even when terrorist incidents are not happening.

Experts and journalists referred to an increasing number of non-professional media, the so-called "citizen-journalists" and content on social media, concluding that it is constant battle of journalists who strive towards reporting thoroughly and verifiably on such events, reports FENA’s journalist from the event.

State Secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Montenegro Dragan Pejanović addressed the participants at the opening of the workshop and emphasized that the media nowadays have become voice boxes of terrorist organizations that systematically and clearly exploit the media for spreading fear.

He noted that it is important to work on the prevention of radicalization, and although we might not be able to prevent a terrorist act, it is possible to control and steer the reactions that arise from it.

Head of the political department of the RCC, Amer Kapetnović, said that the quality of media coverage of terrorism is determined by the degree of media freedoms, financial resources, cultural factors and individual understanding of the ethics and social role of the media.

He recalled that in 2014, the average murder rate was 6.24 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, while the number of deaths as a result of terrorist activities was 0.47 per 100,000 inhabitants, pointing to the fact that terrorism does not represent the deadliest threat but it has been getting unprecedented attention of the public after September 11, 2001.

Today, there is extremely large number of online media outlets making it almost impossible to predict what the situation will be in five or ten years, which in some ways makes it difficult to regulate media content.

As it has been underlined at the workshop, the European Commission has prepared a draft law on regulating the posting of extreme content online that will be considered by members of the European Union, and if the law is passed, it will also prescribe penalties for those who post such content and will be applied across the EU.

It was concluded that there is also a lack of perception of the entire context in which a terrorist attack occurs, but also there is not enough good communication between the media and the institutions responsible for combating these phenomena.

The participants also highlighted the importance of including all segments of society in the process of deradicalization.

(FENA) S. R.

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