Ethical Charter for Syrian Media “ECSM” concluded the dialogue forum of “the importance of right to information in promoting integrity, transparency, and accountability”, yesterday, Friday 27/10/2023 in Gaziantep – Turkey.

The forum participants discussed definitions and concepts about integrity, transparency, and accountability in the first session, and the trainer, Dr. Mona Abdelmaksoud, explained, through examples, the meanings and connection of each term to the other, so that integrity is a path to achieving transparency, and then accountability may be achieved that reaches the highest levels of trust between media outlets and the public.

In the second session, the trainer presented examples and reports about integrity and its impact on readers, in addition to examples about the negative and positive aspects of transparency in societies, through disseminating information with high transparency.

The participants also discussed information about accountability and whether the public is responsible for accountability or whether there are entities that account media institutions. The trainer spoke about some media outlets that developed their work through experiments they conducted and gave examples such as the “Edelman Model,” through which trust between the public and western media outlets increased, after activating accountability in this body that publishes investigative reports.

Abdelmaksoud emphasized that the right to obtain information has three foundations, which are based on revealing the information, its accuracy, and clarity in its presentation and disclosure.

The last session witnessed a debate between the participants about the Syrian media after 2011, and whether it had achieved results or failed to reach and embrace the public. Each of the debaters presented evidence of their point of view, and they agreed at the end of the debate that the alternative Syrian media that emerged after 2011 developed and worked to enhance transparency and integrity.

It is noteworthy that 21 male and female journalists from Syrian media outlets, including journalists from within Syria, participated in this forum, which falls within a series of activities carried out by “ECSM” about the right to obtain information and its role in promoting values of democracy in the society.

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