Media & Communications Roundtable, Lyon, France  22 February 2002
Report on full conference

The Media and Communications Roundtable, sponsored by the Bellagio Forum,  held a full day of discussions with four separate sessions examining media coverage of sustainable development - and the forces and influences at play.  All sessions were open to a public audience.

Broadcaster and university fellowship programme director Paddy Coulter was Moderator of the Roundtable whose other participants were:

Volker Angres, ZDF (Germany); Roger Cans, freelance journalist (France); Ricardo Garcia, environmental reporter for Publico (Portugal); Roger Harrabin, environmental correspondent for BBC Radio 4 (UK); Hanns Michael Hölz, global head of public affairs and sustainable development, Deutsche Bank (Germany); Mike Longhurst, board member of the European Association of Communication Agencies; Leon Marshall, editor on WSSD coverage for the Independent Newspapers Group (South Africa); Yves Paccalet, French journalist and writer; Rodney Pinder, editor, Reuters video news; John Hoyt, president emeritus of The Humane Society of the United States; Bernard Léon, director, environment division, Reed Exhibition Companies; Zulmara Salvador, special advisor, municipal environmental secretariat, city of Sao Paulo, Brazil; Houria Tazi Sadeq, chair of the UNESCO interdisciplinary group for Gestion Durable de  l'Eau (Morocco); Rietje van Dam-Mieras, professor of natural sciences, Open University, Netherlands.

Co-host of the Earth Dialogues, Maurice Strong (centre, with microphone), joined the audience  for part of the first session of discussions by the Media Roundtable. Although invited to take part in the debate, he said he wanted simply to encourage discussion and to sit and learn from it.

At each session, members of the audience were invited to state their views and to ask questions of the group around the table.

(Left) Media Roundtable Moderator Paddy Coulter delivers a summary of its discussions and recommendations at the final plenary of the Earth Dialogues.