University News Last updated 31 May 2012
Former NBA basketball star John Amaechi - one of the first openly gay athletes in professional sport - will be among the guest speakers at a media ethics conference being hosted jointly by the Council of Europe, the European Federation of Journalists and Birmingham City University.
The event, entitled ‘Journalism and Media Ethics, Diversity, Racism and Sport in Europe’, will be held from 6 to 8 June and aims to bring together journalists, regulators and sports people under the Council of Europe’s MARS – Media Against Racism in Sport – banner.
The timely forum follows a shocking investigation by BBC journalists who have exposed the potential threat of racism to fans attending the 2012 European Football Championship – as well as the controversial debate around the body size of high profile female British Olympic athletes.
“On the eve of two major sporting events - Euro 2012 and the London Olympics - with revelations of racist violence on the terraces in Poland and Ukraine by BBC’s Panorama and against the backdrop of Lord Leveson’s on-going inquiry into press ethics, to say this forum is timely would be an understatement,” said conference co-organiser Diane Kemp, a senior lecturer for Birmingham City University’s School of Media.
“We’re looking forward to some robust and practical discussion amongst the 65 delegates who’ll be coming from East and Western Europe.”
Guest speaker Amaechi, who played for a number of leading US teams, including the LA Lakers and New York Knicks, as well as in Europe and the UK, was the first basketball star to come out as being gay. He now works as a psychologist and educator and writes for the New York Times.
Other guests will include Hepburn Harrison-Graham, founding member of the Black Collective of Media in Sport, Stéphane Bijoux, the Executive Director on Diversity in News for France Télévisions and representatives of the Professional Footballers’ Association.
The event is being staged at the University’s city centre campus at Millennium Point. For further information please visit the Council of Europe’s website.