Good governance and democracy and the role of media

A training workshop opened today April 4th, 2006 on “Good Governance, Democracy and the role of Media" at UNESCO Beirut Office for 30 journalists and media professionals from NGO in Lebanon. The workshop is organized by UNESCO Beirut and MADAR, an NGO for media development. The young professionals in the three days workshop will be exposed to several important themes on subjects such as governance and accountability; decision making; citizenship; partnership and democracy and the essence of the role of the media in this process, and how to help in raising awareness among citizens.

In a welcome note, Mr. Abdel Mouneim Osman, Director UNESCO Beirut, welcomed the participants and said that UNESCO has always tried to establish a basis for better governance and to lay a foundation for democracy. He also added that there is a great need for the right information, the correct knowledge and a better understanding of our surroundings to make better judgments and better decisions, as leaders and as followers.

In a speech, Mr. George Awad, the UNESCO Programme Officer for Communication Information (CI) said that since its establishment UNESCO has aimed at establishing freedom of speech and democracy and adopted many resolutions to support the media. He also added that UNESCO has always supported the development of media, freedom of speech and pluralism in developing countries and this workshop aims at raising awareness among young media professionals to important elements in advancing towards good governance and democracy.

In a statement the president of MADAR, Mr. Nofal Daou said that for democracy to happen the best policy is to accept on another and to adopt a policy of dialogue. He said that MADAR has adopted a policy of finding solutions rather than presenting problems in cooperation with international organizations like UNESCO. He also expressed his thanks to UNESCO for the support in making the workshop happen.