Seminar to tackle racism and discrimination in sport

Paralympian Gold Medallist Karolina Pelendritou and footballer Coskun Ulusoy will kick-off a four-day seminar in Nicosia’s buffer zone on Wednesday, to tackle racism and discrimination in sport.

The event, due to take place at the Cyprus Community Media Centre (CCMC) in Nicosia’s buffer zone, is organized in partnership with the Council of Europe (CoE) and the Community Media Forum Europe (CMFE).

The programme aims to promote non-discrimination and diversity as an ongoing angle of media coverage.

Organised within the framework of the joint CoE / European Union MARS – Media Against Racism in Sport – programme, this encounter will focus on sport related issues.

Racism in sport has made headlines across Europe in recent months following incidents involving high-profile football players in England’s Barclays Premier League.

“The cases of Luis Suarez and John Terry have highlighted the importance of understanding the nature and prevalence of racism in sport”,  said local coordinator Michalis Simopoulos.

Simopoulos said that by encouraging professional collaboration with media actors and the exchange of media practices, the CCMC hopes to enhance a diversity of perspectives and topics dealt with by the media.

The MARS Programme is a follow-up action to the 2008 – 2010 CoE “Speak out Against Discrimination” campaign. 

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.