International economic cooperation, human rights and the media - Business journalism as an early warning system
Due to globalization, international economic cooperation between industrialized nations and countries in transition is becoming more and more important for both.
But this development sometimes faces a severe dilemma: While governments and business representatives from developed and developing countries negotiate with each other about economic cooperation, the universal observance of human rights may take a back seat in the debate for either diplomatic or economic reasons – particularly in countries run by autocratic or even dictatorial systems.
Geopolitically and geo-economically speaking, the shifting in international relations can lead to the emergence of new centers of power (e.g. the so-called BRIC-S or next eleven states), not limited to times of global financial and economic crises. Moreover, current political changes in the Arab World, the so-called Jasmine Revolution in North Africa for instance, will probably reshuffle the economic cards. What role and responsibility do Western or European economic policies play and take in this balance? Or what shouldn’t they do? In all these current and future developments, media and especially business journalism – being themselves global players – have an important function as early warning systems. They are asked to watchdog, make transparent and contextualize any “interaction of change” that may affect the fundamental rights of the individual.
This workshop/panel, assembling media scholars and practical journalists belonging to an international research network, will provide testimonials from the above mentioned countries and report the current state of the economy and human rights there. Participants will also discuss the responsibility that the media and journalists bear. A special emphasis will be placed on the impact of new media, online, mobile, visual communication and social networks on investigative journalism and on the fundamental right to information. Finally, it will be questioned whether or not these media phenomena can influence human rights movements towards when it comes to democracy and greater freedom of the press and assembly.
Moderation:
Christopher Springate
Project Manager and Broadcast Journalism Trainer, DW-AKADEMIE, Host and Reporter DW-TV
Panelists:
Oliver Hahn
Professor of Journalism, University of Passau, Germany
Peixi Xu
PhD Candidate, University of Tampere, Finland
Ibrahim Saleh
Convenor of Political Communication, University of Cape Town, South Africa
Dimitry Yagodin
PhD Candidate, University of Tampere, Finland