BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 10. An international
conference titled “Media and Decolonization: Rising Voices, Growing
Narratives” will be held in Baku, organized by the Baku Initiative
Group.
This was announced in a report published by the Baku Initiative
Group (BIG).
According to the report, the conference, which will be the first
platform of its kind organized in Azerbaijan with the participation
of media representatives from former colonial territories, will
take place in an interactive format between journalists from these
territories and representatives of local media.
''The conference will be attended by leaders and representatives
of media organizations from former and current colonial
territories, journalists, political commentators, representatives
of diaspora organizations, experts in the field of media and
communications, representatives of civil society institutions,
researchers, diplomats, and representatives of government agencies,
as well as representatives of local media,'' the report says.
The conference will address the role of the media in amplifying
the voices of people and ethnic minorities who are subjected to
neocolonial exploitation and live under conditions of colonial
subjugation in the international information space, as well as the
challenges they face.
The event will place special emphasis on international media
coverage of colonial realities that have long remained in the
shadows: economic exploitation of territories, the plundering of
natural resources, the erasure of cultural identity, systemic
discrimination, repression against indigenous peoples, and policies
aimed at deliberately altering the demographic composition of the
local population through the resettlement of outsiders, as
exemplified by the Kanaks (New Caledonia) and the people of
Bonaire.
The conference will also feature an exchange of views on issues
such as breaking the artificial information blockade imposed on
colonial territories, the use of cutting-edge artificial
intelligence tools to combat disinformation and fake news — false
information — the creation of an international coordination network
among journalists and media organizations, and the strengthening of
cooperation between international media organizations and local
journalists.
The discussions will highlight the role of the media in
decolonization, not only as a means of conveying information but
also as a mechanism for exerting international pressure on those
who pursue colonial policies. In this context, the discussions will
address practical initiatives to document colonial crimes, debunk
colonial narratives, scrutinize the official information policies
of colonial states through fact-based research, convey the
perspectives of Indigenous peoples to an international audience,
monitoring human rights violations, keeping issues of environmental
justice, including the consequences of the use of the pesticide
chlordecone in Guadeloupe and Martinique, on the global agenda,
advancing demands for reparations, and building international
networks of solidarity and cooperation among journalists, human
rights defenders, and civil society organizations operating in the
territories of the Kanak, the Maohi, Guadeloupe, Martinique,
Bonaire, Sint Maarten, and other colonial territories.
