Thursday September 25 2008 / Citizenship
Media, identity and nation-building in Lebanon, Northern Ireland and the Netherlands
A Rolling Seminar was launched this summer in Beirut, travelled to Northern Ireland to consider the peace process there and arrives in Amsterdam in September. The aim is to explore the forces that have caused such tension and destruction in the last few decades; and, in particular, the role the media has played.
The Lebanese participants want practical outcomes. In particular does the Dutch experience of consensus-building offer an approach to democracy that might work in Lebanon? What are its strengths? And its limits? What have been the benefits for the Netherlands? And the costs? And what is the role of the media in this whole process? This debate is likely to be interesting, timely and relevant for Dutch participants too.
Recommendations from the Rolling Seminar may include consideration of a voluntary code of conduct for the Lebanese media and how to police it; ways of developing and strengthening public service media; how to handle tensions between national and sectarian identities.
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