“The new audiovisual environment: a challenge for the Church in Europe” is the theme of the seminar that the workgroup on the information society, communications and media policy of the Commission of the episcopates of the European Community (COMECE) is promoting in Brussels on 5-6 February. “Right across Europe – says a press release – the question is posed of the role of radio and television transmissions. The new technologies, in particular Internet, are changing the whole media landscape. At the same time, the growing competition of the market and the debate on editorial independence, the phenomena of media concentration, responsibility to the public, and new standards are factors able to reshape the audiovisual sector”. While the European Commission, Council and Parliament are re-examining the directive “Television without frontiers” with a view to creating a few regulatory framework, the bishops are asking themselves: “How could and should the Church reconsider its own relations with public and private radio and television stations? How should it respond to the challenges represented by the Internet and the new technologies?”. The intensive public debate that is “underway in the continent on the role of religion in society, and that is developed in large measure on the dominant media: press, TV, radio and ever more Internet”, asks the Church “to enter into dialogue and interact with radio and television operators”. The seminar will be attended by representatives of the European Commission, MEPs, broadcasters, Catholic and non-Catholic journalists, and delegates of the Church. COMECE secretary Monsignor Noël Treanor will open the seminar. Info: www.comece.org
