National News Agency opened its third conference session under title “Role of media outlets in shaping public opinion and countering terrorism.”
The session came Monday in the context of the international conference “Media Spreading Civilizations and Connecting Dialogues,” under the patronage of Information Minister, Melhem Riachy, at Hilton Hotel, Sin El-Fil.
Foreign Media Department senior of Kuwaiti Information Minister, Faysal Al Moutalakem, started the first speech of the third session, saying that the big development in producing media formed the most important challenges facing the security and stability of the Arab nation.
He also said that the media product was mental and moral, not a materialistic commodity. “It is rather a commodity that bears ideology, lifestyle, politics and high values.”
Afterwards, Director of the Guidance Department of Lebanese Army Command, Brigadier Ali Kanso, gave a speech, speaking about the power of media in subjecting political authorities to trends desirable by the media due to the media outflow and big pressures.
Then, Head of Public Relations Department of Internal Security Forces, Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Moussallem, gave a speech underlining the relation between terror and media. Colonel Moussallem said that terrorists sought to exploit media outlets, explaining that terrorists know that without media coverage the effect of their savage, cruel actions have no importance. He clarified that terrorists sought to attract media institutions, and some media outlets for their part sought unintentionally to serve the terrorists by conveying out their cruel actions, in a way to increase the rating of watching for media resources.
Head of the Editing Department of MTV, Walid Abboud, for his part, gave a speech saying that there is direct, effective relation between media and people as media has become the producer of the incident through pushing the public opinion to support an idea, cause or concerned people.
