INPUT / … / … / Are We Safe From Politics? Who is Really in Control?

If Julian Assange from Wikileaks had offered you confidential information exposing top secrets relating to your country would you have been able or willing to go public with it – for the sake of truth and your professional conviction? Or would you have had to reject him and send him to knock on some other doors first, because you know that your government would have stopped and exert its power and influence on you? Are public broadcasters safe from political influence? Have they ever been? Television – a mass media and thus a means to communicate to a mass of people has always been in the focus of politicians, be it elected governments, dictators or revolutionary guards. There are of course different ways to exert influence and power on broadcasters – direct, outspoken and more subtle ones. But they aim at the same goal: To prevent an uncomfortable truth from seeing the light of a TV set! In this session you will be confronted with programmes that show how political forces try to shape the interpretation of reality and fact and you will meet journalists who firmly adhered to their professional principle: To tell the truth!