European proposal: Media should stop promoting terrorism

This looks like it is likely to be controversial, if it gets any attention at all. The European Commission is issuing a report today claiming that media promote a view of the world which tends to promote radicalisation and terrorism. According to the EC report:

"Some media disseminate propaganda which contributes to violent radicalisation. Typically this conveys a reductionist and conspiratorial world view where inequity and oppression are dominant ... Some form of self-regulation principle or code of conduct ... might be beneficial."

In addition to this, the report argues, media need to be aware of the role they play in serving as the means by which terrorists communicate with different publics. According to the report:

"The media are the main vehicle through which [terrorism] attempts to affect citizens and leaders alike. Journalists face the difficult responsibility of reconciling their duty to inform the public with the need not to facilitate the aims of terrorists."

Special attention is given in the report to the role of the internet, which is presented as a vehicle by which extremist groups communicate both internally and with the larger public:

"The growth in use of the internet enables people ... to create networks through which it becomes easy to incite racial and religious hatred and also coordinate terrorist actions."

There is also a recommendation in the report that terrorists not be referred to in terms of their declared loyalties (i.e., "Islamic terrorism"), as this both draws a false distinction between "types" of terrorism and unfairly associates criminals with whole populations:

"The commission believes there is no such thing as 'Islamic terrorism', nor 'Catholic', nor 'red' terrorism ... The fact that some individuals unscrupulously attempt to justify their crimes in the name of a religion or ideology cannot be allowed in any way ... to cast a shadow upon such a religion or ideology."

These sound like fairly harsh criticisms of media. Especially the characterization of "propaganda which contributes to violent radicalisation" sounds as though it could be interpreted as suggesting that any critical material is pro-terrorist, and does not necessarily confine itself to coverage of issues related to terrorism. If the report gets any attention at all, expect a lot of angry response from journalists.