Review

7th EUROPEAN TELEVISION DIALOGUE

The 7th EUROPEAN TELEVISION DIALOGUE, organized by A Company Consulting & Licensing AG with the welcome support of Deutsche Welle and Vattenfall, took place during the Medienwoche Berlin-Brandenburg on 8th September 2009 again in Berlin.
Uwe-Karsten Heye, Editor-in-Chief of the German SPD party organ "Vorwärts" and former spokesman for the German government under Gerhard Schröder, moderated a contentious discussion with international media experts on "The Media's Treatment of Right-Wing Extremism and Xenophobia in Europe".

After a welcome from Reinhard Klimmt, the Chairman of the European Television Dialogue, moderator Uwe-Karsten Heye opened with a keynote address before introducing the panel guests: Cecilia Bäcklander, Department Head of Adult Education TV and Radio Programming for the Swedish Educational Broadcasting Company; Christoph Lanz, Director of Deutsche Welle; Eric Markuse, Head of Programming for MDR Sputnik; Venelin Petkov, Producer and Anchor of the Balkan News Corporation; and, Gergely Pröhle, former Ambassador of Hungary in Berlin and presently senior consultant at Roland Berger Strategy Consultants.

Cecilia Bäcklander: "Before the Swedish elections representatives of rightwing extremist parties are going into schools with their giveaways like CD´s with rightwing extremist content. Unfortunately, the teachers are powerless to stop it as they have to give every party the same right to distribute their respective party propaganda. Due to this dilemma the Swedish Educational Broadcasting Company presents a primetime radio show ? inviting teachers to discuss this issue."

Venelin Petkov: "The roots of right-wing extremism are due to the deconstruction of the social fabric, dissolution of the family unit, and collapse of the educational system. And the media must choose between political correctness versus the consequences of factual reporting."

Eric Markuse:"We shouldn't categorize the right-wing organizations as consisting of poorly educated members, as more and more intellectuals are taking the lead and determining the agenda."

Christoph Lanz: "The Deutsche Welle channel is co-producing programmes with other countries to increase the understanding and tolerance of multi-cultural issues."

Gergely Pröhle: "While the right-wing party in Hungary was mobilizing during the recent EU election and achieving 15 percent of the votes, the other parties were much less active, with the extremists gaining a much higher percentage than previously expected. However, this does not signal a movement to the extreme right in Hungary.""