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The World Debate: Reporting Terror: A Dangerous Game

Discussion & Talk

01/10/2016 GMT

Reporting Terror: A Dangerous Game

BBC World Service - The World Debate, Reporting Terror: A Dangerous Game

Journalists debate whether news organisations need to rethink the reporting of terrorism

Do news reports of terror attacks aid terrorism? Journalists debate whether media organisations need to rethink their coverage.

A string of terrorist attacks in France and Germany dominated the news agenda in summer 2016. Now, some journalists are asking if their approach needs to change. 

More than 30 years after the former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher famously coined the phrase "the oxygen of publicity" when referring to media coverage of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), the leading French newspaper Le Monde has pledged to stop publishing photographs of terrorists in an attempt to deny them "posthumous glorification". 

So should media outlets change the way in which they cover terrorism?

The BBC's Security Correspondent, Gordon Corera, and an expert panel of journalists and editors covering the UK, France, Germany and the Middle East debate the topic in front of an audience at Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London.

They discuss the different considerations journalists have both when reporting live on mass casualty attacks, and on reporting the aftermath. 

Should the media treat terrorist killings differently to other types of murder? And what's the balance to be struck between reporting terrorism whilst suppressing terrorist propaganda?

DISCUSSION PANELLISTS: 

Simon Jenkins, Columnist at The Guardian and former Editor of The London Times (1990-92)

Jonathan Munro, Head of Newsgathering, BBC News

Fatima Manji, News Correspondent, Channel 4 News (UK)

Amil Khan, Media consultant; Advisor to Syrian Opposition Coalition (2013-14); Middle East Correspondent, Reuters (2003-06)

Sophie Desjardin, Head, French Service, Euronews

Dr Peter Busch, Senior Lecturer, Department of War Studies, King's College London and Senior Broadcast Journalist, Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (Germany)

CHAIR: Gordon Corera, BBC Security Correspondent
PRODUCER: Alex Burton

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