MANAMA: Regional and international media reps joined their Bahrainis peers to deliberate on the challenges being faced by the media and journalists while reporting events on day to day basis.
The participants of media roundtable hosted by Bahrain Journalists Association (BJA) marking the honouring of long serving media personalities in Bahrain urged for a new media strategy to reach out to international human rights organisations and Western journalists to project the reality in Bahrain.
The workshop was held under the theme “Bahrain between the reality and media fallacies.”
A group of GCC, Arab and foreign journalists and writers took part in the session which discussed key issues relating to media freedom and transparency in Bahrain.
The participants scrutinized the approach of the Western media in dealing with the events in Bahrain, stressing the need to abide by deontological and professional press ethics. The workshop highlighted press challenges in Bahrain as well as the standards of media credibility and independence, stressing the responsibility of international watchdogs and human rights activists.
Issues relating to social media also took centre stage, focusing particularly on the flow of information and modern trends in Bahrain and the world and the growing leverage of social media. The participants discussed the detrimental impact of the med and other online outlets in fuelling sectarianism and politically-motivated violence which curbs peaceful development. They also stressed the crucial role of ambassadors abroad in debunking fallacies and updating the international opinion on the reality in Bahrain as well as the human rights strides taking place in the Kingdom.