Preparatory Meeting
Palais du Luxembourg, Paris
Friday 20th and Saturday 21st April 2001

Press Release

PARIS, April 21. Dr. Bernard Kouchner offered field-tested lessons to about 50 international media experts as they helped plan a new Media and Peace Institute to be established within the framework of the University for Peace. At a preparatory meeting in Paris April 20-21, the French minister of health and former UN administrator of Kosovo encouraged the initiative by stressing the key role of media in conflict areas: “Without the press, nothing is possible…In peace-keeping and peace-building missions, it is a good idea to come with a kit for protection, a code of international law and order, and a press freedom kit.”

The minister drew on many events from his 1999-2000 Balkan experience for the meeting participants, who strongly endorsed the idea of the new institute (MPI) which may be headquartered in France.

The two-day preparatory meeting, organized at the Palais du Luxembourg, seat of the French Senate, brought together senior media executives, training professionals, researchers and scholars from Africa, Asia, Latin America, Europe, North America and the Middle East.

In addition to reviewing the media in crisis areas such as the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent, the Balkans, Southern Africa and Latin America, participants debated issues of training, media ethics, interaction between the media and issues of war, peace and security, the use of web-sites as tools in “media wars”, media reform efforts, the media and ethnicity in Africa, and the role of MPI in academic education.

Dr. Kouchner's words echoed a March 23 speech by UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan: “… in an age when information is power, a free and vibrant media is an indispensable partner in creating a true culture of peace. Just as the media can be an important factor in fomenting hatred and tension, so can it play a powerful role in promoting the reconciliation of differences and the prevention of conflict. By giving voice and visibility to all people -- including and especially the poor, the marginalized and members of minorities -- the media can help remedy the inequalities, the corruption, the ethnic tensions and the human rights abuses that form the root causes of so many conflicts.”

University for Peace Rector Martin Lees picked up the same theme in his summing up after the meeting: “The media are a factor and an actor in conflict resolution, and UPEACE sees this institute as one of its most original and significant initiatives.” He emphasized that to earn credibility with the media community “the Institute must be autonomous in its composition, ideas and approach."

A majority of its management committee will be drawn from the free media, and its first Director, Dr. Keith Spicer, has a distinguished media career as a broadcaster, political columnist, editor-in-chief of the Ottawa Citizen, and chairman of the Canadian national regulatory body for broadcasting and telecommunications (CRTC). He has also had a long academic career in Canada, the U.S. and France, where he teaches a seminar on national Internet strategies at the Sorbonne (Paris III).

Spicer gave assurances that the Institute would build on solid foundations of free, independent media. “We are not advocating journalism with an agenda,” he said, “but journalism offering richer versions of the truth – deeper digging, broader perspectives, higher ethics, more sensitive understanding of the many interactions between media, conflict, peace and security.”

”We also want to be of practical value to UN and other peacekeeping and peace-building efforts. To this end, we will keep closely informed of their peace-related policies and operations, and wherever possible try to target our teaching and research to real and urgent operational needs.”

“To develop the quality we need as quickly as we need it,” said Spicer, “we will work primarily through partnerships with well-established universities, training organizations and research institutes. We have already serious interest from half a dozen major universities on three continents, as well as assurances of collaboration from experienced training and research institutions and media-related NGOs.”

MPI will draw on a constellation of institutions to work on common teaching and research projects, primarily through on-line cooperation. MPI's existing website (www.mediapeace.org) may become a focus for this collaboration, as well as the embryo of a media and peace research portal.

Rector Lees of the Costa-Rica-based UPEACE added that building local capacities reflects a major need in the developing world and in countries of the former Soviet Union. This priority will aim to retain local media talent and help contain the problem of media “brain-drain”. He added that MPI is also very aware of the “peace and justice” dimension of cultivating conflict-resolution values among media professionals.

Concluding that “the mood of the meeting” was that there is a strong rationale for creating MPI, Mr. Lees said that "in the next stage we will focus on fund-raising needed to initiate activities. Immediate funds are being sought to launch its teaching and research programs from a possible headquarters in France. Sustaining funds will be required over several years.”