The critical role of government communication in combatting extremism was highlighted today at the fifth International Government Communication Forum (IGCF 2016), currently underway at the Expo Centre Sharjah. In a panel session entitled Confronting Extremism: Government Communication and the Creation of a Humanist Culture', speakers stressed the need for government communication to promote tolerance and help end discrimination and sectarianism. The panelists called for government communication to promote the true image of Islam as a moderate religion that respects the rights and responsibilities of individuals, as opposed to one focused on extremism and hatred for others.
The critical role of government communication in combatting extremism was highlighted today at the fifth International Government Communication Forum (IGCF 2016), currently underway at the Expo Centre Sharjah.
In a panel session entitled Confronting Extremism: Government Communication and the Creation of a Humanist Culture', speakers stressed the need for government communication to promote tolerance and help end discrimination and sectarianism. The panelists called for government communication to promote the true image of Islam as a moderate religion that respects the rights and responsibilities of individuals, as opposed to one focused on extremism and hatred for others.
The session was attended by His Highness Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Mohamed Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah. The audience included key political figures, thought leaders, academicians, media representatives, and professionals from government communication departments in the UAE and the wider region.
Mohannad Al Khatib media personality from Sky News Arabia, moderated the panel discussion, which also featured His Excellency Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, UNAOC High Representative, Dominique de Villepin, Prime Minister of France (2005-2007), and Husain Haqqani, Ambassador of Pakistan to the United States (2008-2011).
His Excellency Al-Nasser said: Violent extremism, in all its forms, has reached unprecedented levels and this requires us to create transformative strategies beyond the existing legal, military or security measures already in place. Together we need to address the causes of extremism.
Referring to the use of social media by extremist groups to radicalise and recruit young people, His Excellency Al-Nasser added: In the online world, real-time connections allow easy access to information. Extremist groups capitalise on this unregulated world to communicate violent ideologies to the most vulnerable people to undermine our shared values of peace, justice and humanity. This is why we need to continue empowering national communication strategies to align government and media communications for the purpose of addressing and targeting hate speech.
Urging a united approach to combatting extremism, Dominique de Villepin stressed: Military intervention is not the answer to extremism. It creates more terrorism because it makes connections between small terrorist groups and political groups that may have interests in confronting us, whether it is in the Middle East, Europe or Africa. The only good response to violence is a united international political approach, even if we do have to use military force at some point.
Underlining the importance of dialogue in creating the right environment for political action, the former French Prime Minister added: Communication should not be a one-way street from the government to the people. It has to go back from the people to the government. If it is not a two-way street, then it is propaganda, and propaganda creates more frustration and resentment because people want to be part of the solution.
Expressing the view that extremism is an outgrowth of ideas, Haqqani said we live in an era of clashing ideas in which controlling people's minds is not an option. Every society has a big story. In the Muslim world, that story is one of grievance and of being victims. This has enabled some people to create a narrative that says the rest of the world is against Muslims.
So the function of government communication should be to change the big narrative and motivate people to overcome their problems. Governments have to stop being reactive and be more proactive in using all means of communication to communicate the message that one can combine being a Muslim with being modern, added Haqqani.
The fifth edition of the International Government Communication Forum (IGCF 2016), themed Citizens for Prosperity', is being held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Mohamed Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah.
IGCF 2016 focuses on the symbiotic relationship between governments and their people, and explores how government communications touch different aspects of people's everyday life, either directly or indirectly, through its impact on education, health care, unemployment, and poverty eradication. The annual forum convenes senior media personalities, government officials and thought leaders from across the globe to share best international practices in government communication and spread knowledge about the media in government entities.
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
The critical role of government communication in combatting extremism was highlighted today at the fifth International Government Communication Forum (IGCF 2016), currently underway at the Expo Centre Sharjah. In a panel session entitled Confronting Extremism: Government Communication and the Creation of a Humanist Culture', speakers stressed the need for government communication to promote tolerance and help end discrimination and sectarianism. The panelists called for government communication to promote the true image of Islam as a moderate religion that respects the rights and responsibilities of individuals, as opposed to one focused on extremism and hatred for others. 
