Thank you, Mr. President,
I am Faycel Didi, a citizen journalist.
I address to you my call in the framework of comprehending the aspect of lack of equality and eliminating
discrimination in the media, which are directly linked to the criminal justice system.
Mr. President, mass media is considered the true mirror of what takes place in every member of societies’
perception, minorities and majorities, of crime and justice alike.
All of us are aware that social media, for example, plays a big role in framing the audience and it also
plays a big role in mobilizing it, whether against particular minorities or [pitting] some [minorities] against
some [others]. ِAccordingly, the general perception of the crime, as well as the victim and the executive
power “judges and police” significantly determines the implementation of law and justice. At times the
media's stereotypical image has a great and a negative effect at the same time by depicting certain groups
as criminals or low life mobs or [the media] focuses on those who could try to ravage society and
dismantle its entities. Provoking media, which broadcasts hatred, is considered one of the challenges for
the criminal justice system in meeting the needs of some and their demands. Because this [kind of] media
does not have the interest of raising, educating and developing but rather nourishing the instruments of
conflict, which employ and derives from extreme ignorance and the emotionally rich masses as soldiers
free of charge in controlling an aspect of the conflict, whether it is ethnic, sectarian or linguistic or other.
The yearly report on Arabic satellite TV in 2014, which the Arab States Broadcasting Union published,
revealed, for example, an increase in religious channels, ranking fourth among all Arabic TV channels with
a total of 95 channels, though with difference in orientations and appeals. The lack of prosecution of the
press or the journalists, which incite hatred against minorities, can be noted here, for that reason a role of
deterrence, which the judges play, is required.
Mr. President, we demand an improvement in legislations and the observance of standards and laws of
professional codes of ethics [getting] away from the criminal disposition geared, as a negative
characteristic, towards a specific group. You clearly know what happened throughout history to
communities because of professional mistakes, with or without intent. We recommend the necessity to
strengthen the education of all, and by all I mean the institutions of the judicial authorities as well as the
legislative authorities, with all its men in the field of media, and further, relate it to the education system
within their training institutions from which they graduate, along with the necessity to establish institutions
that would supervise what is being published and broadcasted, which could harm some and not other and
divide the community in two halves.