EUROPE/ITALY - CATHOLIC TELEVISION COMPANIES IN EUROPE: A SYMPOSIUM TO VERIFY NATIONAL EXPERIENCES AND DISCUSS CO-PRODUCTION

Rome (Fides Service) – “"Catholic initiatives in television throughout Europe: current reality and the future outlook" is the title of the seminar to be held in Rome on 18th September 2003. The Catholic Church's relationship with the television world differs enormously across Europe. Catholic television companies exist in some countries or dioceses; in several cases public broadcasters give the Church access to programmes. Elsewhere there is nothing. That explains why this seminar aims to: bring together people in charge of Catholic television services and religious programmes broadcast by public bodies; review the experiences of each broadcaster; consider the possibility of joint productions at an international level
Those invited to the seminar include directors of Catholic television companies and those in charge of religious programmes in public broadcasting services, as well as delegates of Bishops' Conferences where the Catholic Church has no access to television. Participants are from Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland and Ukraine.
Mgr. Francesco Ceriotti, president of the Fondazione Comunicazione e Cultura of the Italian Bishops' Conference (CEI), will open the proceedings. Professor Francesco Casetti (Catholic University of Milan) will address "the future of television in Europe"; Jim McDonnell, of the "Media" group of ComECE (the Commission of European Community Bishops), will explain the European Union's norms and guidelines concerning television; in the third session, Mgr. Claudio Giuliodori, director of the CEI’s communications department, will reflect on the possibility of future co-operation and co-productions. Bishop Peter Henrici, president of the European Bishops' Media Committee (CEEM), will draw together the conclusions of the seminar. SL (Fides Service 16/9/2003 EM lines 25 Words: 299)