Boundaries of free Speech
I’m back in Israel and it’s nice to be home. It’s great to see family and friends and the weather is just amazing.
One of the reasons i came now to is real was because of the conference Boundaries of free Speech: German and Israeli Journalism and Growing Rifts Between the “West” and the “Muslim World” which I’m one of the main organizers.
The workshop aims to examine the boundaries of free speech in Israeli and German media, in connection with their role in the growing divide between the so-called “West“ and the Muslim world. After the debate about the Danish cartoons ridiculing Islam we want to ask: Is there really freedom of speech in western media as has been self-righteously claimed by the western world? As the media participates in the shaping of symbols that impart meaning for how we perceive current events, there are old and new forms of restrictions and other opinion-shaping mechanisms in each country. We want to explore them through recent events like the Lebanon war, Holocaust denial in the Iranian and Danish cartoon debate.
My main contribution (besides designing the program and flyer) was to bring to the conference the aspect of the alternative media; web blogs, cartoons and also new technology. Here are a few words from the introduction I will give on Wednesday morning:
When talking today about media and it boundaries we also have to look at of all aspects of public opinion shaping through media. The new widespread use of internet tools, particularly blog systems, has expanded and changed the way we receive and react to information and opinions. It is important that we raise these questions of boundaries with the full understanding of these alternative ways of media; the technology, the way it’s used and misused, and the different formats and mediums. Through this understanding we will look at the current debates and conflicts and the new ways of distribution of ideas and criticism. This will raise many questions, about authority, censorship, restrictions and borders and we hopefully we will examine how this is changing journalism today.
Click here for the program
press picture to see clearly
February 13th, 2007 at 2:24 pm
Mmmm… it sounds really interesting. I hope you will let us know here something about the conclusions (at least a small summary!).
Cheers
February 14th, 2007 at 6:02 pm
[...] During the breaks, I had the chance to shortly talk to Amitai Sandy (who is a comic artist, comic publisher, and blogger - and I just learned by googling him that he’s the guy who initiated the Isreali anti-semitic cartoon contest [german]) and to Ronen Eidelman (one of the conference organizers) about the blogosphere in Isreal - hopefully I can continue the conversation over dinner, because I’d really like to learn more about popularity and practices of blogging here. [...]