UNICEF representative and quotas

Today at the summit, we talked to Karen Cirillo, Executive Producer of Children’s Broadcasting Initiatives at UNICEF in New York. Her “controversial idea” for the Global Youth Media Council is that the media should have quotas to ensure a variety of voices are presented to the public.

"We need more diversity in media. It doesn’t have to be, ‘Oh, this is a show about an immigrant’ – it’s a show about a family, which who just happen to be immigrants…”

Karen sat on a panel discussing Human Rights and Intercultural Dialogue: How Media Literacy increases awareness of differences and develops respect for the others.

UN representative believes Fox, BBC and Al-Jazzeria should work together

Today at the summit, we talked to Jordi Torrent, Head of UN Alliance for Civilizations, USA, after his presentation on Media Literacy.

“Growing up, I was very interested in The Prisoner…I grew up in Franco’s Spain where censorship was very strong, so any media that was opening your horizons was welcoming…”

His recommendation for the Global Youth Media Council was for CNN, Fox, BBC, France La Monde, Al Jazeera etc to work together to provide an international TV show for young people. Jordi discussed how the AOC has been connecting and providing a platform for various international organisations, with the aim of providing the very best and latest media literacy articles. The AOC is also one of the first organisations to provide translations of articles on media literacy from English to Arabic.

Jordi is also promoting Plural+, an international film platform for young people. Plural+ is a great starting point for aspiring film makers: numerous organisations offer a variety of prizes (including the chance to be part of a Sundance Film Festival workshop) and the best films are released internationally as a DVD.

Interview and text by Richard Lemmer