Philippines is hosting World Press Freedom Day

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has chosen Manila as the venue for World Press Freedom Day. In keeping with current events, the theme of the celebration will be "Terrorism and Media". Yesterday was a national holiday, but the international conference started and it could not have been better timed as Metro Manila was in a state of tension because of demonstrations that had very little to do with Labor Day.

UNESCO has always acknowledged the fact that education is the first need in solving all national and international problems. It has always been aware that the root cause of terrorism is poverty, which in turn is caused by lack of education.

Way back in January of 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt defined the Four Freedoms as freedom of speech and expression, the freedom of worship, and the freedom from fear and want. With all due respect to Roosevelt, we believe that he missed boat. There should have been five freedoms and the very first should have been freedom from ignorance. What is the use of freedom of speech and expression and even freedom of worship if the persons involved don’t know what they are talking about or the teachings of the religion that they are free to worship. Isn’t that the cause of world terrorism today? The terrorists are not practicing the teachings of their own faith. And so today, UNESCO, an international organization that stresses education, the spread of culture and an increase in scientific knowledge has to conduct a world meet that deals with a very primitive problem – senseless violence.

Any conference on terrorism has to start with a definition of terrorism. The biggest stumbling block here is that it is often a question of point of view. As someone stoutly maintains, "one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter." But if you define terrorism purely by the nature of the act and not go into the identity of the terrorist or its cause, then you can agree on a definition. All terrorist acts are illegal. Some even violate the rules of war because the act is directed against civilians. The motives are political or religious. As a general rule, they proudly acknowledge the act.

The theme of the current UNESCO conference is very apt because it is about terrorism and media. One of the aims of all terrorist activities is to get as much public attention as possible. So how media handles the news concerning terrorists is part of the problem. The public gets its general impression on terrorism, not on the acts themselves, but how it is reported and treated by media. If media is not part of the solution, it becomes part of the problem.

The UNESCO Conference on Terrorism and Media could not be more timely and relevant to the current world problem.