What role should the media play in promoting diversity and social cohesion in Belgium?
Media play an important and special role in society. Of the Belgian population, 10% has an ethnic-minority background in some way, but this is not reflected in our media at all. Both on and behind the screen, they are badly represented. The Forum of Ethnic and Cultural Minorities demands a proportionate representation of ethnic-cultural minorities on every level dealing with the media – viewers, readers, listeners but also program designers, journalists and news managers. Media should do more to display the 10% of the population, both in audiovisual as in the written media. This is not only a matter of social justice but also and more importantly a matter of accurate reporting. 2. Should the media act as a ‘responsible partner’ in an increasingly multicultural environment? In the 1970’s, there was the idea that media should act as a responsible father. This plea is now considered old fashioned or reactionary. Indeed, the proverb ‘it used to be better’ needs to be put in perspective as
