Dialog and Enlightenment –
the 3rd International M100 Youth Media Workshop

The 3rd edition of the M100 Youth Media Workshop took place from 31 August to 2 September 2007 in the “Electronic Media School” in Potsdam. While last year young journalists from five countries travelled to the capital of Brandenburg, this year there were participants from 14 European countries as well as representatives from both Israel and Palestine.

The theme of the discussions was the „Dialog between Cultures“ – meant to mirror the focus of this year’s M100 Sanssouci Colloquium, which concentrated on the dialog between leading opinion makers from the Middle East and Europe. Anna Siitam, one of the participants at the Youth Media Workshop, presented the results of the young journalists’ work on 7 September at the M100 Sanssouci Colloquium.

The 41 participants were selected in collaboration with the European Youth Press, a partner organization cooperating in the event.  The participants, all of whom were members of youth press organizations in their respective countries, applied for the event by submitting projects dealing with the themes of “intergration” and “dialog of cultures” in their own countries. The participants also had an opportunity to present their projects at the Youth Media Workshop.

Friday, 31 August
The M100 Youth Media Workshop began on Friday night with opening ceremonies in the House of Brandenburg-Prussian History. Mayor Jann Jakobs greeted the participants  on behalf of the City of Potsdam, and Secretary of State Dr. Gerd Harms welcomed guests in the name of the state government. Dr. Hans Hege, Director of the Medien Center Berlin-Brandenburg, and Dr. Roland Löffler from the Herbert Quandt Foundation extended their greetings on the part of the sponsors of the Youth Media Workshop.
One of the first highlights of the event was the exceedingly animated and diverse podium discussion between renowned journalists and scientists. Concerning the question of whether ethical standards should guide the work of the media, a number of prominent industry veterans contributed to the dialog (hosted by Peter Littger, Gruner+Jahr), among them:

• Andrea Seibel, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the daily paper “Die Welt”
• Hans-Ulrich Jörges, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of “Stern” magazine
• Mathew D. Rose, Author and Journalist
• Prof. Dr. Susan Neiman, Director of the Einstein Forum, Potsdam
• Dr. Joachim Huber, Media Journalist at the daily paper „Der Tagesspiegel“

All of the panelists were in agreement that freedom of the press is not only being threatened in authoritarian states. There are many dangers to the independence of the press lurking in western influenced democracies, they said, stemming primarily from the commercialization and packaging of news as entertainment, as well as the unhealthy proximity of news organizations to centers of political and commercial power.

Hans-Ulrich Jörges warned against setting absolute ethical standards for journalists’ work. In his opinion, it’s really about professional standards: „If these were respected, we would already have achieved much.” Joachim Huber was skeptical; for him, the media’s fight for credibility has nearly been lost: „80 percent of all journalists have lost their belief in journalism.” Susan Neiman argued to the contrary, vehemently emphasizing the role of journalism in a free society: „Good journalism is a central part of the tradition of the Enlightenment.“

Andrea Seibel lamented the increasingly strong bias of even the informational media towards the media consuming public’s alleged need to be constantly entertained: „And then even the 1000th story about Lady Di becomes more important than the war in Iraq.“ And Mathew D. Rose wound up the discussion by disputing the claim that journalists should be objective under any circumstances: „Journalists can’t always be objective – but they always have to remain fair.“

The podium discussion followed a brisk exchange of opinions with the participants of the Youth Media Workshop. One could realize that the participants experienced different degrees of press freedom in the various countries of origin, but also that freedom of the press in countries like Sweden or Italy was primarily endangered by an extensive commercialization of the media.
 

Samstag, 1. September
Saturday was characterized by three workshops which illuminated the main theme of the event from different perspectives:

• Workshop 1 dealt with the question of whether, following the Danish caricature controversy, conditions for freedom of the press in Europe had changed. Michael Geffken, a journalist from Potsdam, gave the introductory speech, and the workshop was moderated by the participant Anna Siitam from Sweden.
• Next, Workshop 2 concerned the topic of „Religion and New Spirituality“. Dr. Roland Löffler of the Herbert Quandt Foundation provided the introduction and Kasia Karwan of Poland moderated.
• Finally, Workshop 3 discussed the question of national identity in the face of globalisation.  Ari Rath, former Editor-in-Chief of the Jerusalem Post, gave the opening speech, and the workshop itself was moderated by Dumitru Iovu of Moldavia.

Following the workshops, participants gathered their results and presented them to the plenum on Sunday.

On Saturday afternoon the participants took part in a tour of Berlin, including a visit to the „Deutsche Welle“ and a presentation of the DW-World Arabia program.
 
Finally, participants rounded out the day with an evening boat tour around Potsdam. With a relaxing and communicative atmosphere ensured, Ari Rath and the Editor-in-Chief of the „ZEIT” magazine “Leben”, Christoph Amend, discussed current issues and problems of journalism with the participants.

Sunday, 2 September
Sunday was dedicated to the presentation and discussion of the workshop results, as well as the journalistic implementation of the results in the form of a video blog. Working alone and in teams, the participants attempted to illuminate the various aspects of the workshop themes using interviews, commentaries or articles. A part of the results can be found under www.orangelog.eu, a weblog which was developed as part of last year’s Youth Media Workshop.