1. Considering the news of the recent months, what role should the audiovisual cooperation play ?
Our world is experiencing an economic, social and cultural crisis. The whole planet is affected by these phenomena, but it seems the Mediterranean region has become, in the last years, a world under fusion. After the Arab springs, here it comes the time of migrants. In front of war and poverty, tens of thousands people flee to reach the North. A North that is stiffening, a public opinion which starts to fear the waves of children, women and men who have nothing and nothing more to lose. Our mutual misconceptions, about who is in front of us and who we are for them, must draw our deep attention. Indeed, the audiovisual cooperation is essential to share, to make the North discover the South, but through a collective and common work. This is the true cooperation! Who else but who lives there can better talk about his own country, its history, the feelings of its people? We must leave the stereotypes apart, being them from the North or the South, and discuss about what’s real, what’s true. The cooperation improves us, the mutual knowledge drives the obscurantism away. The audiovisual cooperation is necessary to overcome divisions and mistakes in judgement.
2. It the Internet era, is the radio a media that still counts ? (To promote the intercultural dialogue ? )
The radio.. is a particular way of talking to the others, with the others. What’s changing today is the channel, not the product. Radio means live broadcasting, immediacy and, above all, interactivity. No other offer can do this. Tomorrow, supports will change, but radio will be always the same! The FM band will be still living for many more years, but suffers from the new possibilities, and it’s a chance! Internet, the mobiles, just to mention the most recent ones, are new tools at the radio’s service, we are enriching our contents, our exchanges and it’s wonderful. What’s not going to change is our aim: informing real time, talking real time, laughing real time. Radio is magic, it links people reciprocally, and the new means allow to go beyond the geographical limits. We can now talk with the whole earth and the whole earth can listen to us and, now, it can also watch us and write us real time. The exchanges among people have never been so easy… if we want it!
3. Which is the strategy of COPEAM Radio Commission
COPEAM Radio Commission has only one ambition: to link radios together so to promote the dialogue among the Mediterranean people. Our commission wishes to develop co-productions, these programs being the cornerstone of our action. Co-productions are the answer to the growing obscurantism. We have to build bridges between our countries, not walls. Kantara, our historical program, is the one leading us, motivating us. We have to promote exchanges between journalists, presenters, technicians and producers from all the Mediterranean countries. The common work of all our professionals is unique, rare, an extraordinary opportunity. In this way, we can propose to the participating radios’ audiences programs and co-productions while promoting knowledge, culture and, thus, sharing.
4. What does it mean for Corsica the hosting of next COPEAM Conference and the topic dealing with the Mediterranean youth ?
Corsica is an island with a rich and complicated history. Today, Corsica is trying, more than ever, to direct its glance to its natural horizon: the South. Its geographic position is an asset for the cooperation between the Mediterranean shores. The fact that COPEAM will organize its conference in Corsica testifies to the wonderful work made in the field of the cultural exchanges with the South. Corsica, for example, holds a TV and radio public service which, for many years, has been producing programs together with its homologues from the other Mediterranean countries. Its University – which is constantly building up relations with the Southern universities – and the Collectivité Territoriale de Corse (Corsica Region) are both members of COPEAM. Innumerable festivals are focused on the South. Corsica is the natural link between the North and the South. This island seems to be continuously on the move, going to and from the different shores of the mare nostrum. A proud vessel, which knows that its future is written in this sea, with a rich past, guarantor of a common future. The topic dealing with youth is an essential stake for Corsica. The Corsican young generations are trying to sort themselves out, they fight for the right to study and to work in Corsica. This youth is now looking for its roots, for example through its language. Nevertheless, with the crisis, here as elsewhere, we feel the danger related to the turning in on oneself. Corsica needs to share about this, the viewpoints’ exchanges being for sure profitable for everybody.