Media encouraging terrorist threat?
The eighteenth debate of the Beseda v Besedě cycle. Topic: The world after 9/11. Guests: Andor Šándor, Petr Klíma, and Jan Charvát. Place and time: Malostranská beseda, Prague, September 11, 2017. Host: Veronika Sedláčková. Accompanied by music by Adams Emily duo (Emilie Bauerová and Martin Adamovský).
The guests agreed that the world after September 11, 2001 has changed Andor Sandor, former head of the Czech military Intelligence, said that in that period of time it was the only time politicians listened to intelligence. He could not say how it is now, as he is not there anymore; however, from what he can see they (politicians) might exaggerate in their reaction a bit as their Israeli state type response use in here and the Czech Republic is the 6th safest in the world.
Petr Klíma from the Ministry of Interior agreed with Mr. Sandor. He provided the example of airport controls that had tightened after 9/11. He said he is not really sure whether politicians exaggerate when talking about terrorist threats and stressed that it is influenced by media coverage where is difficult to find the right way as too much coverage is what terrorists want; on the other hand, media not covering the topic at all would cause widespread of conspiracy theories. Jan Charvát, a political scientist from Charles University, agreed that some politicians scare people a bit too much. Also, he sees the discussion on terrorist threat lacking a factual public debate, which would be beneficial for people to know what is and is not an actual threat. At the same time, he assessed politicians taking pictures with gun as unnecessary and explain it by the fact that arming of population is a popular topic.