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Mediators under sustained fire from television images
Example from the BalkansPictures from the war often determine the war's image, which is made by politicians and officers in the situation rooms and in the field. Television reports from war and crisis regions influence the decision-making process, especially when these images are available to the public. Just a few seconds of video material can be sufficient enough to determine (or help determine) the decision on war or diplomacy, intervention or prevention. This became crystal clear during the Yugoslavian conflicts in the 1990s.
Images from the massacre in Srebrenica, from supposed concentration camps in Omarska or from artillery attacks in the middle of Sarajevo are still remembered today - and they directly influenced the political decisions back then.
How does television influence politics? Do these images obstruct the nonpartisan point of view? How much pressure was put on the mediators?Hosted by Deutsche Welle
Moderation: Dr. Christian F. Trippe, Director Studio Brüssel,
Deutsche Welle TV
Panelists:
Dr. Schwarz-Schilling, High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegowina
Roy Gutman, US Reporter for Newsday and Pulitzer-Award-Winner, New York
Friedhelm Brebeck, Correspondent for ARD during the Balkan War, ARD 
Joachim Angerer, WDR Editor, Documentation: "Es begann mit einer Lüge" about the forgery of newsreports on the Kosovo War
Wednesday, 3 June 2009, 4:30 p.m., Wasserwerk
Impressions 
