Lecture: «Media and democratic education»

The “Pal-Think” for Strategic Studies institution in the Gaza Strip held the seventh lecture under the title “The media and democratic education”, within the project “Strengthening the democratic and civic values of the youth”.

20 young men and women from the various universities and governorates of the Strip participated in the lecture.

The lecture was opened by Omar Shaban, director of the Pal-Think for Strategic Studies institution, welcoming the participating young men and women and the lecture's presenter, the writer and political analyst Hani Habib.

Shaban affirmed the importance of the media outlets in strengthening the culture of democracy in society, pointing to the necessity of removing the obstacles and impediments before the media so that it works freely in the frame of the law and the democratic political system.

He pointed to the importance of accepting the other opinion regardless of the differences between persons and the partisan affiliations, in order to reach a democratic society able to accept the other.

The lecture was presented by the writer and political analyst Hani Habib, speaking of the importance of the media outlets in strengthening democratic education in the political system and society.

He said: “The media's role in strengthening democratic education has two parts: the first provides information, and the second is the free discussions and the contradictory and different opinions in the shade of respect for the other opinion”.

Habib reviewed the manifestations of the media in the despotic and authoritarian states, in which the media is subordinate to the authorities.

He pointed out that the existence of a ministry of information in any state indicates that this country is far from democracy, affirming that the media's task in the democratic states is defending the public and not defending the authority and spreading the knowledge the authority wants in order to justify its positions.

Habib discussed with the youth the most prominent restrictions the authorities set to restrict the work of the media outlets, especially in terms of licensing and the commercial and financial restrictions on importing the tools and equipment, in addition to the despotic states' control of the entrances of the media outlets.

He added: “Strengthening the democratic culture requires a great effort and more time for the societies to transform toward democracy”.

During the lecture he touched on speaking of the transforming societies that wish to transform into democratic societies, saying: “If the democratic political system is available, that contributes to the process of society's transformation toward democracy”.