Media coverage as an instrument --- From my personal experience: - I participated once in the signature of an agreement, we agreed that there would be no media presence, however when we opened the door of the negociation room, there was a whole bunch of journalists waiting for us to give a statement. It put us (my boss) in a very unconfortable situation as we felt obliged to say something, but it definitely felt like the trust was broken from the beginning. - Another time, in a difficult context, I was visiting the implementation of an agreement on the ground, part of a Swiss delegation. What we did not know, is that the governement of the country in question had invited a team of Swiss journalists, that was waiting for us on the site of the implementation (we entered a room in a school in a very remote area, and were welcomed by a team of Swiss journalists, throwing questions at us...). Here again, very unconfortable situation, we felt like we had to talk to the press, but were ill-prepared (and you can feel that watching the footages). It was very difficult to regain trsut (and faith) after that, from all sides, a very counter-productive experience.

Source author: Fanny Charmey fanny.charmey@eda.admin.ch