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			M100 Board Venue Press Partner/Links Contact Version 2011
	Sanssouci Colloquium Media Prize Youth Media Workshop Offshoot Workshop Idea 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 Application Texts Agenda Participants Workshops Results		WORKSHOP II Workshoptrainer: Loay Mudhoon, Chefredakteur qantara.de, Köln The day’s second workshop concentrated on the difficulties that journalists face in the age of inter-global media and was trying to find approaches in dealing with them. Workshop leader Loay Mudhoon used the cartoon controversy that was the source of world-wide commotion in the beginning of 2006 as a case study. The mainly non-Muslim participants listened attentively to the timeline of events from the date the Danish newspaper Jyllands Posten published the cartoons, to mass demonstrations, to the attacks on Danish Embassies in the secularised states of Syria and Tunisia. Regarding the “perception trap” Mudhoon explained how caricatures can be assigned different contexts when being analysed. From the Western point of view the controversy around the cautions supported their stance on freedom of expression that had to be defended by any means. The argument was that Westerners also joke about their own religion and that this fact alone justifies the publication. When considering the far greater importance of religion in Muslim societies in comparison to Christian ones however, the upsetting impact it had on them becomes apparent. Mudhoon explained: “Additionally, the Muslims’ confidence has suffered strongly since 9/11 as they felt attacked by the Western media coverage that ensued.” On top it can be said that it could only get to this crisis owing to the East and West’s failure to assess the situation correctly and put appropriate measures of de-escalation into place. As a counter example the media nightmare that was the cartoon controversy Mudhoon showed a clip from the anti-Islamic short-compilation-film “Fitna” by Dutch politician Geert Wilders (2008). Despite the film being a lot more radical it generated no where near the attention that the caricatures did. Why was that? Andris from Latvia, 25, spoke out what most participants thought: “The film is too obviously populist for intelligent people to condescend paying any attention to it.” This is one side but also on a political level diplomatic measures where put into action immediately in order to avoid a repetition of the 2006 events. Likewise, had the media drawn their conclusions and acted in a quiet refusal to report about Wilders’ film. After analysing the two examples the participants realised once again that as journalists they hold a lot of responsibility. In the end Mudhoon stressed that “especially if you want to make a point out of defending your own ethical values you need a lot of cultural sensitivity these days. You also have to be careful how you express yourselves, are bound to happen. Victoria, 22, from Germany summarises: “I now realise that journalists can’t just publish what we see fit by appealing to the freedom of expression. We always have to be aware of the different contexts in which material can be seen in and also of the task to be socially responsible.				WORKSHOP I More Color - More Diversity? weiter WORKSHOP II Mediale Zerrbilder und Perzeptionsfalle in den Medien in Europa und der islamischen Welt weiter WORKSHOP III Future 2.0 Wie kann der angestrebte multinationale und multimediale Journalismus geschaffen werden? Eine multi-aktive Diskussion weiter Please click here to reach "Humans Write", the novel travel blog, which is emerged directly from Workshop III "Future 2.0". http://humanswrite.wordpress.com/