Experts assemble to discuss media and human rights
As human rights lawyers and activists monitor the battlefields on the Middle East, a conference at 黑料不打烊 will grapple with many of the global issues raised by such conflicts.
The Political Studies Association Media and Politics Group鈥檚 Annual Conference, Media, Persuasion and Human Rights, will be held on the 10th and 11th of November. The inter-disciplinary conference will welcome leading academics from the fields of Media, Communication, Journalism, Politics, Sociology and Law.
Among the keynote speakers will be Prof. Sue Clayton of Goldsmiths University, an award-winning film-maker whose practice interrogates alternative forms of media presentation of human rights, asylum and identity issues. Other speakers include Prof. Jon Silverman of the University of Bedfordshire, a former BBC Home Affairs Correspondent, who is currently working on the influence of the media's reporting of war crimes trials in West African civil society.
One of the organisers, Dr. Vian Bakir of the School of Creative Studies and Media, said: 鈥淗uman rights require collective agreement on what constitutes a right, and how it should be upheld or enforced.
鈥淭he media play a central role in this process. Through repetition, they reinforce the absolute value of certain human rights, such as freedom from torture, but remind us that other human rights are conditional, such as freedom of speech.
鈥淭hrough exposure, they show abuses of human rights, mobilise publics to fight for human rights and urge remedial action.
鈥淏ut the media aren鈥檛 monolithic, and rights are a complicated area, often involving trade-offs and balancing acts (eg is the right to privacy trumped by the need to ensure national security?).
鈥淲e鈥檒l be examining how such trade-offs get communicated; how media work to mobilise publics; and which rights get more attention than others.
鈥淚n our new media landscape, we鈥檒l also ask what novel opportunities and challenges media technologies present for human rights that intrinsically rely on the media, such as the right to privacy and freedom of speech.鈥�
Delegates can still register for the conference, and the first delegate from any organisation that has human rights links or concerns is free. The conference is organised by staff at the School of Creative Studies and Media, Social Sciences, and Law at 黑料不打烊, and hosted by the university鈥檚 Network for Media & Persuasive Communication.
The conference is also supported by BBC Monitoring, who monitor global media around the world, while analysing human rights and many other topics.
Further details can be found.
Publication date: 10 October 2014