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At the beginning of the meeting, Dr. Spanji, a faculty member of the Institute of Humanities and Cultural Studies, gave a speech on using media like Twitter and Facebook by terrorists.
He went on to elaborate that media terrorism is a psychological weapon to transmit fear to the people and terrorists seek fame and the media give them a media gift when they interview the terrorists.
The next speaker, human rights activist Dr. Mohammad Mahdi Moqadas, referred to John Pilger's documentary “The War You Don't See”, saying it is about the media networks in the West which deceive public opinion by distorting facts about state terrorism like whitewashing the Israeli regime terrorist actions.
He said that the documentary depicts how the killing and humiliation of non-Western journalists by Israelis in Palestine is reported seldom.
He stated, "The documentary points out that the evidence about Iran's nuclear weapons is as credible as Tony Blair's claims about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. According to BBC former correspondent Rageh Omaar, there is a special system for manipulating people's minds. For example, it was reported 17 times that the city of Basra had fallen before it actually fell. In the end, John Pilger concludes that the lives of countless men, women, and children depend on the truth, or that their blood depends on people who tell the right news."
Dr. Mahdi Motaharnia, a professor of political science and expert on political issues, spoke about the smart control of public opinion, stating “In 2010, I introduced a concept called the glass world, in which in the future we have the death of distances and the collapse of walls and spatial and temporal distances. Today, we are talking about free thought and belief, and the media are a propulsion force that makes optimal use of technology, such as Elon Musk and its global Internet.”
He also said, "In today's world and in a networked society, people are gaining new identities, and we are facing a challenge called media and terrorism. In every challenge, there are both opportunities and threats, and we must use the opportunities of the media to counter the threats of terrorism. If we do not think over, it will be too late."
Founder and editor-in-chief of the Geopolitics Alert website Ms. Randi Nord said, "Violence against civilians and non-combatants, as well as children, to achieve a political goal or to intimidate is generally considered a terrorist act.”
She went on to say, "In Yemen, the media not only ignores and downplays state terrorism but also becomes a tool for serving the goals of state terrorist acts."
According to Nord, beyond Saudi state terrorism, the media hide al-Qaeda in Yemen, which links to the Saudi government. The terrorist groups receive American weapons and have positions in the government, and they have established terrorist training camps in Yemen and carry out suicide attacks for Saudi Arabia's interests.
She also underlined, "What I said is completely different from what the media are saying, because they not only agree with this kind of state terrorism, but they also agree with the political goals behind this terrorism.”
In another part of the side-event on the coexistence of media and terrorism, Dr. Mohammad Mohajerani, an international security researcher, said about the innocence lost by the media and terrorism, "Unfortunately, it is too late for addressing the issue of media and terrorism. When we talk about the nexus between terrorism and the media, when we talk about terrorist news, we only look at the numbers, but we do not pay any attention to the lives that have been lost. And victims become figures unless they are important to the media on the basis of religion or race.”
He added that media techniques are also used in Yemen in how they change the truth about the attack on Yemen and do not say anything about the terrorist nature of these attacks or the war crimes that took place in that country.
Then, Dr. Mohammad Sajedi, an expert on international affairs, said: " There is a point and that is terrorism uses the media. We have to go back and see that many media outlets were founded after the wars to justify them. Like CNN after the war in Lebanon and Fox News after the invasion of Iraq."
Yakub Aslan, a Turkish media executive, said: "Some countries are present in Syria through affiliated forces. We saw that the media were among the strongest weapons in this new strategy, and chemical attacks were prepared in the studios. We are in an era where journalists who want to write the truth face many difficulties in obtaining accurate information.”
Dr. Nejandi Manesh, Professor of International Law at Allameh Tabataba'i University, spoke about the mythology of terrorism of the Western media, especially in the Netherlands.
Referring to the case of Ali Motamed and how the news was covered in the Netherlands, he said, "The media portrayed Mohammad Reza Kolahi Samadi as an immigrant and refugee while he was a terrorist of the disaster of Hafte Tir bombing. He is accused of carrying out a "deadly attack" in 1981, but we should know that not every deadly attack is a terrorist act. In another news, Kolahi is known as a member of an important Shiite and anti-Iranian opposition group who was involved in a bombing; in another news, he is introduced as a refugee and a technician; and in the Guardian, he is known as an electrician, not a terrorist.”
Mr. Biro Diawara, programs director of Rencontre africaine pour la défense des droits de l'homme (RADDHO), was the next speaker who discussed human rights which only monitor special people.
He emphasized, "As you know, modern terrorism is media terrorism. The media cover violent terrorist acts and try to attract the most attention around the world by covering terrorist incidents.”
"The problem is that developing countries are victims of the Western media, and media coverage of terrorist incidents in Western countries is different from the coverage of terrorist attacks in developing countries, such as attacks carried out by Boko Haram terrorist group in African countries,” he added.
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