Institute for Media, Peace and Security

The Institute says:

In late June 2000, the Executive Committee of the Council of the University for Peace (UPEACE), headquartered in San José , Costa Rica , authorized the Rector to set up an Institute for Media, Peace and Security (IMPS) within the framework of the university. The Institute came into formal existence on November 7, 2000. Its administrative office is in Geneva as one of several offices that will eventually operate under the Council's authority.

Mandate

The Institute – "an intellectual tool for preventive diplomacy" -- aims to educate people in the many ways the media interact with issues of conflict, peace and security. It welcomes two kinds of participants: persons from areas of recent, current or potential conflict; and persons from countries or organizations strongly concerned with international peace and security. Its research program feeds directly into the classroom, targeting international questions in which the media play a significant role. By its education and research programs, and by its day-to-day contacts with UN and regional peacekeeping bodies and partner organizations, the Institute hopes to contribute to new thinking about how free media can help prevent conflict – and to alert decision-makers, as well as the general public, to looming risks of war.

• Kofi Annan

UN Secretary General Honorary President, University for Peace

Personnel

The Institute is an integral part of the University for Peace, and it operates under the university's Council and Rector.

Director: Keith Spicer

Program Assistant/Coordinator: Sophie Hemne

Sophie Hemne holds an M.A. in Political Science with a minor in Economics /Business from the University of Lund, Sweden. She has also studied Political Science and Spanish at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, and interned at the embassy of Sweden in Washington, D.C. Sophie initially joined IMPS-UPEACE as an intern in 2002, later working for Euromonitor, a U.K. business analysis/intelligence company. She rejoined the Institute in 2004 as program assistant/coordinator. She speaks Swedish, English and French.

Management Committee

• Maurice F. Strong (Ex officio: President, University for Peace)
• Julia Marton Lefevre (Ex officio: Rector, University for Peace)
• Keith Spicer (Director, Institute for Media, Peace and Security, University for Peace)
• Henri Pigeat (former CEO of Agence France Presse; immediate past president of International Institute of Communications, London ; current head of French IIC chapter, publisher and media consultant)
• John Owen (former Director of European Office of the Freedom Forum, London ; former chief news editor and chief of foreign bureaus, CBC-TV.)
• Fred M'Membe (Editor, The Post , Zambia )
• Owais Aslam Ali (President of Pakistan Press International (PPI) and Secretary-General of Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF))
• Rosental Calmon Alves (former executive director of O Globo , Brazil , now professor of media ethics at University of Texas )

Advisory Board

• Owais Aslam Ali (President of Pakistan Press International (PPI) and Secretary-General of Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF)
• Rosental Calmon Alves (former Executive Director of O Globo , Rio de Janeiro, now lecturer at University of Texas on media ethics)
• Jeff Cole (Director, Center for the Digital Future, USC Annenberg School , University of Southern California )
• Kathy Eldon ( U.S. documentary-maker and author specializing in Africa )
• Theodore L. Glasser (Director, Graduate Program in Journalism, Stanford University )
• Michael Ignatieff ( Director, Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, author of Virtual War: Kosovo and Beyond, The Lesser Evil: Political Ethics in an Age of Terror, and other books)
• Cushrow Irani (Editor of The Statesman , Calcutta )
• Jan Jirak (Vice-Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University , Prague )
• Alejandra Lajous (CEO of Canal 11 - TV in Mexico City )
• Fred M'Membe (Editor, The Post , Zambia )
• John Owen Executive Producer of NewsXchange
• Dimitri Panitza (Chairman, Free and Democratic Bulgaria Foundation; former managing editor of Reader's Digest )
• Roger Parkinson (former President, World Association of Newspapers, former chairman, The Globe and Mail , Toronto )
• Henri Pigeat (former CEO of Agence France Presse, ex-president of International Institute of Communications, London )
• N. Ram (editor of newsmagazine Frontline and other publications of The Hindu , Chennai, Madras )
• Jenny Ranson (former Head of Communication, UK Cabinet Office, former CEO of Open Broadcast Network, Sarajevo, Chief of Press Department, International Commission on Missing Persons, Bosnia)
• Jacques Rigaud (former CEO of RTL, Radio-Télévision Luxembourg, France, author, columnist)
• Hazem Saghiyeh (editor, Tayyarat ('Trends') section, Al-Hayat newspaper, London )
• Clyde Sanger ( Canada correspondent, The Economist ; specialist in Third World reporting)
• Robert Stephane (former President and CEO of the Belgian French Public Television Network (RTBF))
• Gadi Wolfsfeld (Associate Professor, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, author of Media and Political Conflict: News from the Middle East )

Source