A tools for reconciliation

Some 70 religious representatives, diplomats, NGO workers, university professors and researchers attended the round table on “The media as an important factor in inter-religious and inter-ethic tolerance, understanding and cooperation in the Balkans”, held in Belgrade (Serbia) November 3rd , exactly ten years after NATO’s intervention to end the war in Kosovo. The meeting was co-organized by the European Centre for Peace and Development (ECPD) of the University for Peace founded by the UN, by the Catholic archbishop of Belgrade Stanislav Hocevar, by Caritas, with the contribution of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. A powerful tool. “The media – declared Takehiro Togo, President of the ECPD Academic Council – can be a powerful tool for ethnic ‘balkanization’ and for reconciliation”. Indeed, he recalled, access to information is crucial to sound democracy. First of all, it ensures that citizens are responsible and make responsible choices rather than acting out of ignorance or lack of information. Secondly, information plays a control role, ensuring that the elected representatives fulfill their professional obligations responding to the constituency’s will”. Working for the common good. According to the archbishop of Belgrade Stanislav Hocevar “today the Balkans have many more opportunities to create union and communion than they once did, and diversity is the point of departure”. This unity stems from reconciliation and forgiveness, since “no problem can be solved without forgiveness. Without forgiveness there can be no freedom, no hope, no future”. “The strength of a group, community or nation – the archbishop pointed out – depend on the possibility to communicate. There can be no cohesion without dialogue”. In this framework the role of the media is “to work for the common good” Msgr. Hocevar declared, since “the media that draws away from this objective is missing its true purpose. Each communications medium is called to perform social communication” for “the good of the community”. “Sincerity is the only possible response to the ever more complex reality”, he concluded. The “Balkans have a significant opportunity”, said ambassador Pasquale Baldocci, recalling “the precious cultural heritage” of this nation, “without which the EU would be incomplete”. Indeed, “true European unity entails that EU enlargement encompass the Balkans”, he told SIR Europe (cf. SIR Europe 75/2009).Ethics and skill. Zoran Cirjakovic (Singidunum University, Belgrade) denounced the “poor adoption” of “difficult terminology” on the part of the media with resort to terms that foster “demonisation and exasperation”. To this regard, Dragana Nikolic-Solomon (head of the media department of the OSCE mission in Serbia) pointed out, “In recommending that the media be the conveyors of peace and development it is necessary to promote education establishments for journalism focused on the adoption of professional ethical code”. The President of the Association of Serbian journalists Ljiljana Smajlovic recalled that after the conflict in the Balkans those members who used their job as a propaganda tool were expelled from the Association. However, said Nadezda Gace (President of the independent Association of Serbian journalists) “media manipulation never begins from inside. It stems from political élites”. Church-media relationship was criticized by Orthodox bishop Micovic Joanikije from the monastery of Durdevi Stupovi, in Montenegro. The language of the media, he claimed, “lacks religious sensitivity”. The issue was highlighted also by the secretary of the Muslim community in Belgrade Elvin Ascegic, while rabbi Isak Asiel from the Jewish community in Belgrade shared his positive experience. From the past to the future. The closing image of the conference is a balance, proposed by Albert Maes, former ambassador to Belgrade and currently ECPD professor in Brussels. Of “the many ideas, proposals and contradictions”, he said, the key role of the media consists in “drawing a balance between the past and the future, between private and public interests, between adulthood and the youth”. First of all, he pointed out, “in order to construct the future it is necessary to acknowledge – instead of rejecting – the past”. The road towards the Balkans is the road of reconciliation, marked by the memory of the past, while it is necessary “to overcome the illusion of detatchment”, seeking “to be as objective as possible”.