NYU Prague students worked around the clock as reporters for the recent Forum 2000 Conference, Democracy and its Discontents a Quarter of a Century after the Iron Curtain and Tiananmen Square. This annual event was founded by Vaclav Havel to bring together world leaders, activists, artists and dissidents.
NYU Prague students – along with students from other local universities – reported the spontaneous and sometimes controversial remarks of panelists such as Mikhail Khodorkovsky, one of Russia’s leading businessman and longest-serving political prisoners. “My job was to summarize in two paragraphs what was discussed in the panels; I had to make sure that I conveyed the basic sense of what everyone said and figure out the narrative of the panel,” said NYU student reporter Alex Braverman, who covered 5 panels in two days. These reports were then posted on the website and became part of the official archive of Forum 2000. “It was a whirlwind – the most intense two days of my life.”
Before each panel started student reporters introduced themselves to the panel moderators, who included former US and Czech ambassadors, the director of Amnesty International and other international nonprofits, Czech governmental ministers, and former presidents.
“I am a history major, it was very cool to see people you usually only see on a screen. In the debates, much more original thoughts came out than when you see public speakers giving scripted speeches.” said Alex Braverman. “On one panel about Egypt, there was a representative of the Egyptian government. His comments sparked an intense argument with the other panelists from the West – I don’t think anyone expected it to get so passionate.”
The entire process of reporting on the 66 panels at this huge conference was coordinated by intern and NYU Prague student Lillian Marx. “It was intense week,” said Lillian, who also was in charge of editing all of the material that came to her. “The Forum 2000 full-time professional staff is young and dependent on volunteer interns- I couldn’t believe the responsibility that I was given.”
In addition to Lillian and her staff of student reporters, other students could attend events, which were free and open to the public. Russian language professor Tatiana Stihelova took students to a presentation by keynote speaker Mikhail Khodorkovsky so they could hear the language and see world-famous figures in person. Yena Oh, one of her students, studies US politics. “I came in to the conference with little knowledge about the politics of Russia. My eyes were opened to so many different perspectives. Especially because we’re so close to Russia here, events there seem even more relevant.”
Alex Braverman also was struck by how her perspective broadened at the conference. “I had no idea how repressive the governments of Belarus and Azerbaijan were Ales Bialiatski [a human rights activist in Belarus and Nobel Peace Prize nominee] was at the Forum; he was just out of prison. Before this conference, I hadn’t thought about political prisoners as such an issue. It is so potent when you see them in front of you and realize what issues people in different countries struggle against.”
Tammy Tan was another NYU Prague student reporter. “The fact that we were able to participate and hear from world leaders and disruptive figures was simply amazing. Whilst many of the speakers came from around the world, the majority of them were from Europe and the Middle East and that allowed speakers to take from their cultural background and inject their own perspectives. For example, during the Middle Eastern panel, I wasn’t surprised to see the growing discontent amongst the panelists with regards to the US and their questionable foreign policies. I feel that if the conference were to be held in NYC, it would definitely be more high profile and the issues would be addressed from an American standpoint.“
Several students noted how optimistic many people on the panels and in the audiences were when it came to concepts of democracy. “It seems like the further removed you are from the fight for democracy, the more skeptical you are about it,” noted Alex. “For us, democracy is a given. But here, they are only one generation removed from democracy. If you had had the conference in NYC, there would have been much more cynicism. The experience at Forum made me so grateful to live in a country that’s guaranteed to stay democratic, and it made me question why we’re so cynical about democracy.”
Vaclav Havel created the Forum to promote dialogue; this dialogue continues, and our students took a very active role in the 2014 conference. “I felt extremely humbled to hear first-hand from these key figures about how they have affected change,“ said Tammy Tan. “The most valuable aspect of the Forum 2000 experience was seeing people from all walks of life join together for one night to discuss, contemplate, and provoke further dialogue about issues that may not be actively prominent in the news, but are nevertheless being constantly endured by communities around the world.“
One of the Forum 2000 events took place at NYU Prague, which hosted a panel exploring religion in Europe and its effect on identity. The panel, which included the 2014 Templeton Prize laureate Tomas Halik, can be heard at online at https://soundcloud.com/nyuprague/nyu-pragueforum-2000-panel-discussion-european-identity-and-religion.