The organizers have made sure that the jubilee Weekend Media Festival will be remembered for this unexpected lineup of speakers and, according to the well-established tradition of this festival, controversial topics. In this way, Yossi Melman, a respectable Israeli journalist and publicist, author of numerous world bestsellers about the Mossad and the Israeli internal security service Shin Bet, and above all a top expert in the dark and secret world of espionage, is coming to Rovinj.
For Melman, being cautious is never enough. Not only are people who study his work or deal with similar topics often imprisoned and have their lives and existence threatened, but he himself had to learn to navigate dangerous situations the hard way. Throughout his impressive career he has experienced unusual experiences that are not at all harmless, which is not completely unexpected considering that he has used his pen to attack quite serious and dangerous people.
One such experience, that was fortunately unsuccessful, was a kidnapping attempt nearly carried out by the Iranian secret service. Melman received a message on WhatsApp that tried to lure him to a conference at a prestigious institute in Switzerland using the name of a respected professor. Luckily, Melman avoided the tricky situation thanks to his keen journalistic instincts. Read the whole story and all the details here.
Melman’s participation at Weekend 15 will be his first ever visit to Rovinj. His panel discussion will reveal “What we can learn from the Mossad” and, as one of the top experts on international security in the 21st century, he will share his own rich experiences that in these challenging times make them more relevant than ever.
