P R O G R A M

On Truth, Lies, Politics and Media – in Dialogue with Hannah Arendt
International Conference
28-29 November, 2006
Location: Goethe-Institut Washington, 812 Seventh Street, NW
Washington D.C., USA
Website


Organized by: Goethe-Institute Washington, Heinrich-Böll Foundation, Radio Berlin-Brandenburg, and Georgetown University’s Program, Communication, Culture and Technology

Contact Information:
Conference is free and open to the public. Reservations are encouraged as space is limited: 202-289-1200 ext. 166 or info@washington.goethe.org



Description


Noted political theorist Hannah Arendt (1906-1975), known for her analysis of totalitarianism, considered lying and conformism to be the most serious threats to a free society. Politicians have always been tempted to use truth in a “creative” manner in order to win an election, to justify their own actions, or to discredit opponents. At the same time, there is a pull towards conformity: politicians, parties, legislatures, and the general public tend to go along with majority opinion. Media plays a fundamental role in informing the public and shaping opinion. When it falls silent, dissimulates—or lies—the entire democratic society is affected. Media in the United States has come under increasing scrutiny in the past decade. During this period of political pressures, demographic shifts, and rapid technological change, traditional media finds itself in a phase of retrenchment and introspection. Hannah Arendt’s words on truth, lies, media and politics pertain to our times as they did to hers; the question is: to what degree and in what way?


Preliminary Program



Tuesday, 28 November 2006

7:00 - 9:00 pm

“Truth and Lies and Hannah Arendt” - A dialogue between Elisabeth Young-Bruehl and Jerome Kohn, two leading analysts of Hannah Arendt’s life and influence. The presentation will consider the following:

• Who was Hannah Arendt?
• If she were to walk into the room, what kind of person would we see?
• Why was she involved (twice) with Martin Heidegger?
• Why was she concerned about truth and lies?
• How did Arendt become a public figure in the public space?


Wednesday, 29 November 2006

Morning and Afternoon sessions will address the following issues:

• The general tasks of critical public judgment
• Criticism and Conformity in the media
• Role of the printed media, TV, new media.
• The US Media Facing the Iraq War and Occupation—both at the time of the invasion and at present
• Role of Public Service Radio in the Federal Republic of Germany
• 11 The International Scene

Speakers (speaking order may change):

9 am - noon

“Criticism and Conformity in the Media”
Wolfgang Heuer (Berlin, Free University; editor, Hannah Arendt Newsletter): Arendt’s writings on Truth and Lying in Politics.
Wolfgang Bauernfeind (Radio Berlin-Brandenburg, Berlin): Truth, Lies, and the historic Haus des Rundfunks [Berlin Broadcast House]: Politics and Mission in German Broadcasting. Bauernfeind will give the audience a sense of what radio can do to help us understand Arendt and the implications of her work. He will discuss a feature about the historic Haus des Rundfunks--the oldest broadcast house in the world--and its extraordinary experiences over the decades with truth and lies. Hisremarks will consider "tasks of the media" and the future of German broadcasting. Feature excerpts: Arendt wrote about a German soldier, Anton Schmidt, who helped Jews in the Second World War--an ideal example to Arendt. (Bauernfeind's feature about Schmidt received a Prix Italia recommendation.) Another excerpt will be from a recent program, Lifestyle (winner of the 2006 Prix Europa prize for radio documentary--about gym-shoe production in the age of globalization: "a wonderful example for the demands of Hannah Arendt to the media, especially those under public law, to describe the background of problems and to initiate a thinking process by the audience...."

Noelle McAfee, American University, Washington, DC: "Detaining Terrorists, Normalizing Torture, and the 'Calamity of the Rightless'"--"Observations about what Arendt might have to say about the recently signed Terrorism Detainee Bill and the strange inability of the public to see it for what it is: the normalization of torture. This normalization calls on us to exercise the kind of thinking and judgment that Arendt thought so vital."

2:00 - 5:00 pm (with a break)

“Language and Public Space,”
Short panel presentations and dialog:
Jeffrey Dvorkin Executive Director, Committee of Concerned Journalists, former NPR Ombudsman. "Why We Need a Journalism of Verification"
Joyce Barnathan, President, International Center for Journalists. "Truth and Lies in International Journalism." Press freedoms and the work of the ICFJ. The late Anna Politkovskaya--with a short film about the slain Russian journalist.

7:30 pm

Keynote address by Jonathan Schell, Harold Willens Peace Fellow at the Nation Institute. "Whither truth in today's political context?"