THE MEDIA in Cyprus is slanted and needs deconstructing if people want to get an objective account of the facts, according to one non-governmental organisation (NGO) arranging workshops to train people how to use a critical approach when hearing or reading the news.
Head of the Cyprus Neuroscience and Technology Institute (CNTI) in Nicosia Yiannis Laouris explained yesterday that civil society had to learn how to filter biased information presented by the media to get a better picture of what was really going on in Cyprus.
Laouris describes himself as a ‘peace builder’ and has been working at it for the last
10 years.
The organisation that he runs, the CNTI, decided about a year ago to work on two priorities for building peace on the island between the two communities: the media and economic co-operation.
The first project on the media was designed about a year ago, but was later redesigned to incorporate new developments, like the April 24 referenda.
“About a year ago, we sensed that the media does not represent unbiased news. The language used is not modern in context with that of the EU for example. Very often it is distorted news. It is very difficult for the public to decide on what they see and hear,” said Laouris.
People are forced to filter the ‘colour’ of subjective news to get to the core, but this is not easy to do, he added.
Laouris noted that journalists, influenced by their media owners, had certain tendencies that came across in the presentation of news, without them actually making subjective comments.
“For example, the TRNC has not been recognised in the Organisation of the Islamic Conference for 30-odd years. Now, it has been recognised in some way. How was this reported in the media? First they presented the opinion of the President who said ‘we expected this’ and then they reported on the event itself.”
“First they should report the event, and then present the opinions. This is a strong example of misrepresentation of news,” said Laouris.
He gave a second example of distortion in the balancing of ideas. “If 95 per cent have one opinion and five per cent another, television media would have a programme with one person representing the 95 per cent and one person representing the five per cent. This is a distortion.”
CNTI decided to initiate projects to support civil society in engaging an understanding of the media. Laouris and his team organised a symposium a year ago questioning how free journalists were to present reality and how much they were controlled by media owners.
“This project started long before the referendum, after which we all witnessed that we were right about the media. We had to redesign the format of the workshop as a result of the referendum.”
The project aims to help people deconstruct news, listen critically and evaluate what they hear or read. The CNTI, in co-operation with the Management Centre, is organising a workshop in Nicosia tomorrow and in Limassol on Monday, titled ‘Human Rights through Media Literacy’.
Two lecturers from New York universities who are frequent visitors of Cyprus will be running the workshops. Selected participants will be chosen to work as trainers in future workshops.
Laouris said the workshop was important because it would teach people how to deconstruct an event from a subjective presentation of that event, and include work on the use and misuse of technology.
The workshops are already overbooked and will be attended by journalists, NGO workers, scientists, educators and people involved in the peace process.
“Cypriot society is so corrupted in all aspects of life, we are very worried. We hope this will empower and inspire responsible people to begin analogous projects when they see others doing these things,” said Laouris.
“Knowledge disseminates very quickly, it’s a small place,” he added.
CNTI receives its main funding from HasNa, a Washington-based NGO, which supports peace projects in Greece, Cyprus and Turkey.
Parallel projects undertaken by the Institute work towards making the two communities on the island economically interdependent.
“If people don’t live together and work together, they will never integrate, as we have seen elsewhere in the world. This is not the Cyprus we envisage,” said Laouris.
The CNTI has arranged workshops on Women in Business, on Small and Medium Sized Enterprises and set up a Bicommunal Society for Economic Co-operation. For further information, contact CNTI on 22-873820.
