Gespräche zu Mittel- und Osteuropa

Kultur und Demokratie? Culture and democracy?

Abgelegt unter: Allgemein, Im Profil

Ein Gespräch über die Bedeutung von Kultur und Journalismus für die Demokratie in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Europäischen Kulturparlament/ECP (in englischer Sprache).

A discussion on the importance of culture and media for democracy. A cooperation with the European Cultural Parliament/ECP (in English).

Deutsche Zusammenfassung

Karl-Erik Norrman, der Generalsekretär des Europäischen Kulturparlaments (ECP) erklärt, warum das ECP Kultur und Medien in einer zentralen Rolle für eine demokratische Entwicklung in Europa sieht. Eine Schlüsselrolle spielt nach Ansicht der Kultur-Parlamentarier dabei die Qualität. Sowohl in der Kultur als auch im Journalismus habe die Qualität insgesamt signifikant abgenommen.

Kateryna Botanova betont, dass in einer jungen Demokratie Künstler und Journalisten noch wichtiger seien als in Westeuropa, da sie sich zu zentralen Akteuren der Demokratisierung der Gesellschaft entwickelt haben.

Jasenko Selimovic erläutert, wie unterschiedlich die Medien in Europa funktionieren im Hinblick auf Finanzierung, Meinungsbildung und Qualität. Er sieht dabei keinen grundsätzlichen Unterschied zwischen “Ost und West”, sondern eher zwischen verschiedenen Typen von Medien. Dabei betont er, dass sich von der Aufstellung und der Finanzierung eines Mediums nicht direkt auf seine Qualität geschlossen werden darf…

To read the English summary and to lern more about the participants, please click “weiterlesen”.

We apologize for the bad quality of our telephone line to Kiev. For technical reasons, we had to use a mobile phone. We are looking forward to your feedback!

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(30:28 Min.)

For English summary see below

About the participants

Ambassador Karl-Erik Norrman is founder (2002) and Secretary General of the European Cultural Parliament (ECP), a forum for 160 cultural personalities from more than 40 European countries. As a Swedish diplomat he served i. a. in Moscow, Peking, Geneva and Rome, was in charge of foreign policy, trade negotiations, development cooperation, UN negotiations. As ambassador since 1989 he was Swedish Commissioner General at EXPO 92 in Seville and in the 1990ies head of the Cultural Department, Foreign Ministry. He has also worked as opera singer and is author of several books, i.a. about Democracy, Germany, China, India, UN, cultural politics, theatre, opera, design, food, European identities, football and transatlantic relations. He is a frequent participant in the public debate in Swedish, German and other International media. He is member of several International Boards, e.g. Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, London, Institute of Cultural Diplomacy, Berlin, Vizar Architectural Competition, Sofia, Music Mind Trust, Sussex, Axel Edelstam Foundation, Stockholm, Fondazione Love Difference, Biella. He is married to German opera singer Doris Soffel, has two children and lives in Stockholm and Berlin.

Kateryna Botanova is an Art-critic, art manager, policy analyst and translator living and working in Kyiv, Ukraine. She was born in 1976 in Khmelnytsky, Ukraine. In 2001 she graduated from the National University Kyiv-Mohyla Academy with an MA in theory and history of culture. In 1999 she became cultural program director at OSI in Kyiv, managing 1 mln USD program, being on board of the international arts and culture network and launching the very first cultural policy program in the country. In the same year she launched the first artistic NGO association in the country – Ukrainian Art Forum, holding more than 40 members. In the year of 2004 she launched KUKA, an independent cultural communication consultancy that serves as a partner and a co-organizer of a wide variety of local and international cultural programs and projects (Poetry International Web, Black/North SEAS, European Cultural Parliament, EUNIC-Ukraine). Kateryna Botanova is Member of European Cultural Parliament.

Jasenko Selimovic (Foto: (c) Björn O. Stenström) studied at the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Sarajevo and the Dramatic Institute in Stockholm. He fled from the war in Bosnia in 1992. After a period of time at the Uppsala City Theatre, he was engaged as a director at Gothenburg City Theatre, where he was appointed artistic director of the theater in 1998. In the summer of 2004 he became program manager for SVT’s talk show Allvarligt talat. He has received a number of theatrical prizes, the Svenska Dagbladets Thaliapris in 2000 and the Expressen theater price 1998. He writes columns for the Swedish news magazine Focus. He was head of the SR Radio Theatre 2006-2009. In September 2009 he announced to leave that job and to run for the parliamentary elections in 2010. He was nominated for the second place in the Liberal Party’s parliamentary list for Gothenburg on 16 January 2010.

English summary of the discussion

Karl-Erik Norrman, Secretary General of the European Cultural Parliament (ECP) points out, why the ECP sees Culture and Media in a pivotal role for the fostering of a democratic Europe. The Cultural Parliamentarians see quality as a key issue in this process. They argued that in Journalism and Media as well as in Art and Culture quality declined significantly.

Kateryna Botanova stresses how important the role of Culture and Journalism is especially for a „young democracy“ as the Ukraine. Journalists and artists seems even more important here than in Western Europe, since they have played a key role in enhancing the democratization of the country in recent years.

Jasenko Selimovic elaborates on how different Media function in European countries when it comes to their ownership, political position and quality. He denies the existence of a principal difference between „East and West”. As he said, there is more of a difference between several types of Media. And he stresses, that one cannot draw conclusions about the quality of a certain Newspaper or TV channel only on basis of its structure or ownership…