29th annual Conference of COPEAM

Media and global instabilities: what contribution to peace?

24^th June 2022 - SOFIA

Hosted by BNT - Bulgarian National Television

The 29^th Conference of COPEAM, dedicated to "Media and global instabilities: what contribution to peace?” and organized in partnership with the Bulgarian public television BNT, ended on June 24 in Sofia.

Prof. Hussein Amin, Director of the Kamal Adham Center for Television & Digital Journalism at the American University in Cairo, introduced the topic with a particular focus on the possible contribution of the media to the peacebuilding processes. The media has the power to ease tensions before they become irreversible and to mantain a critical eye on governments, oppositions and society. By providing credible content and by reaching a large audience, media can help in managing conflicts and promoting principles of democracy.

The following panel, moderated by Evgenia Atanassova (BNT), was animated by international experts from the media and civil society areas, such as Adrienne van Heteren (Institute For War & Peace Reporting, UK), Irina Nedeva (Association of European journalists AEJ-Bulgaria), Nicolas Boissez (Fondation Hirondelle, Switzerland), and Mark Clark (Generations for Peace, Jordan), who showed concrete examples of peace promotion through initiatives and programs involving radio, television and capacity building projects in the journalism sector.

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The debate showed, in particular, that raising awareness among media operators on issues related to dialogue, pacification and to the human stories that always take place, during any war, on the sidelines of the battleground, is an essential preliminary action to improve the information offer to the public on these complex matters, which are too often subject to simplification and spectacularization.

The Conference was also the occasion to award some international prizes, including the UNAOC 2021 Plural+ Festival COPEAM Special Prize to Soheil Soheili for the video "The art of being in the world of not being"; the 2022 ERN-Med Prize for the best news item on "Media and Peace", won by the Spanish television RTVE with "Ukrainian Theater Company" and, finally, the "ICO Solutions" and "A première Vue" Prizes, the latter dedicated to the film and audiovisual schools of COPEAM network and assigned, in its first edition, to the young Lebanese director Karim Nasr for the short film “There must be something wrong”.

The Secretary General Claudio Cappon said that:

"Media play a crucial role in the escalation of conflicts, but they can also contribute in an essential way to their containment, mainly by providing an information focused on reconciliation and on the strengthening of social cohesion".

MEET THE SPEAKERS:

Click here to read the biographies

The event ended with the 28^th General Assembly of COPEAM members, the elections for the renewal of the Steering Committee and the appointment of the new President of the Association, José Manuel Pérez Tornero, President of the Spanish public television RTVE.

COPEAM Steering Committee 2022 – 2024

	BNT - Bulgaria	Radio France - France
	HRT - Croatia	Radio Romania - Romania
	France Télévisions - France	RAI - Italy
	INA - France	RTSH - Albania
	Jordan Media City - Jordan	RTVE - Spain
	MySat - Lebanon	Télévision Tunisienne - Tunisia
	NMA - Egypt	TRT - Türkiye
	PBC - Palestine

Presidents of COPEAM thematic Commissions 2022/2024
	Mireille MAURICE (INA) Kaoutar HAMED (Télévision Tunisienne) - Co-presidency	Frank LIDON (RADIO FRANCE)
	Zina BERRAHAL (TV5 Monde)	Markus NIKEL (RAI)
	Karina LATERZA (RAI)	Claudia CRACALEANU (RADIO ROMANIA)
	Asunción GOMEZ BUENO (RTVE)