Transcript Engendering Peace Journalism

Engendering Peace Journalism
A presentation at the 3rd
“Women Making Air Waves of Peace”
NDFCAI-WED Training Center
Cotabato City
Thursday, July 5, 2007
by Lina Sagaral Reyes
Mindanao Women Writers (Min-WoW), Inc.
Engendering Peace Journalism
• 1.a What is peace and conflict journalism/conflict-sensitive
reportage
• 1.b Characteristics of war journalism
• 1.c. Characteristics of peace journalism
• 1.d. From war to peace journalism, an exercise
• 2.a.What do we mean by ‘engendering’ peace and conflict
coverage?
• 2.b.What are the practical strategies to engender peace
and conflict reportage?
• 2.c.A group exercise on engendering peace and conflict
reportage
Peace Journalism
(according to Lynch and McGoldrick)
• 1.) Journalists, including
editors and reporters, choose
certain stories they report or
write and how to report or
write them
Peace Journalism
• 2. Because of the kind of stories
they produce and how they are
produced, readers and listeners
are then given opportunities to
consider and value non-violent
responses to conflict
War/Violence Journalism
• Johann Galtung observed:
Western mainstream media
during the last 100 years is
focused mostly on war
reportage which is
characterized by
sensationalism and violence
War Journalism’s
four (4) characteristics/elements
• War/Violence-Orientated
• Propaganda-Orientated
• Elite-Orientated
• Victory-Orientated
War-Orientated
• Demonizes
‘enemies’
• Focuses only on
visible effects of
conflict
• Focuses only on
the violence
• See ‘them’ /’the
other’ as the
problem
• Reactive, waits till
violence erupts
before reporting
• Focuses only on
two parties
(enemies at war)
War-Orientated
• It is not difficult to find examples of
war-orientated stories because they
abound. Can you think of examples of War-
Orientated Reportage from the materials you
brought with you?
• Let’s listen to a brief radio newscast
(“the killing of Untol Abdullah”) from
Action Radio NDBC Balita, 7 a.m. newscast,
February 2, 2007, Malu Cadelina-Manar
• … Kinumpirma ni 6th Infantry Division
spokesperson Col. Joselito Ando na patay
na ang magsasakang si Untol Abdullah,
tagapangasiwa ng sakahan ng Midsayap
ABC president at councilor Edgar Ostique.
• Ayon kay Ando, dinukot ng tropang MILF
105th base kumander Jade si Abdullah
noon pang January thirty-one, pasado alaskuwatro ng hapon.
• Humingi pa umano ng ransom money na
twenty-thousand pesos ang grupo para sa
kalayaan ng nasawing biktima. Gayun pa
man kinabukasan, ay pinaslang ng grupo si
Abdullah, pasado alas-onse ng umaga.
• Itinali ito sa puno ng mangga.Hinihinalaang
pinahirapan hanggang sa masawi.
• Napag-alamang hinihinalaang isang deep
penetration agent si Abdullah kaya dinukot
ng MILF troops at inimbistigahan....
• Can we identify the elements of
war-orientated reportage in the
brief news broadcast on Untol
Abdullah death?
War reportage in newspapers
• Can you identify war reportage in the
newspapers you have brought with you?
Propaganda-Orientated
• Expose ‘their’ untruths and help ‘our’
cover-ups
• Do you have examples of radio
newscast showing this kind of leaning
towards propaganda?
Elite-Orientated
• Focus on ‘our’ suffering, on ablebodied elite males, being their
mouthpiece
• Name their ‘evil-doers’
• Focus on elite peace makers,
peace builders
Elite-Orientated
• Do you have examples of elite-orientated
reports?
Victory/Defeat-Orientated
•
•
•
•
Peace equals victory plus cease-fire
Conceal other peace initiatives
Focus on treaty
Leave a ‘finished’ war, return if old
flares up , or off to another war
Peace Journalism’s
4 characteristics
• Peace& Conflict-Orientated
• Truth-Orientated
• People-Orientated
• Solution-Orientated
War Journalism & Peace Journalism
• War &Violence --------- Peace & Conflict
• Propaganda
--------- Truth
• Elite
--------- Grassroots
• Victory& Defeat --------- Solutions
Peace and Conflict-Orientated
• Gives voice to many parties
• Humanizes both sides
• Focuses on the invisible effects of war
&violence
• Explores historical/cultural context and
conflict analysis
• **An example
• Note: the difficulty in looking for ‘best
practice’, model stories
Truth-Orientated
• Expose all untruths on all sides
• Uncover all cover-ups
• *** an example of radio news cast
• story on kahos
People/Grassroots-Orientated
• Focus on the sufferings on both sides
• Give names to all evil-doers
• Focus on grassroots peace-makers
Solution-Orientated
• Peace equals non-violence and creativity
• Highlights peace initiatives, also to prevent
more wars
• Focus on culture, the peaceful society
• Focus on the aftermath, reconstruction,
reconciliation
Peace Journalism Checklist
according to Indonesian Reporters
• Before you ask questions, listen and observe
• Be aware of hidden agenda and prejudices
• Paint a bigger picture without blame/put in
context (separate module)
• Watch out for loaded language (separate
module)
• Open up creative possibilities which may
lead to healthy solutions
Checklist (2)
• Broaden mainstream definitions of who and
what is newsworthy so we do not
marginalize any sector
• Recognize that a certain piece of news is
part of a process and is not just a series of
unrelated events and try to provide links
• Be aware of how you “frame” a story
(separate module)
War
Journal
ism
Direct
violence
Govt /rebel
propaganda
Terrorist
plots
sectaria
nism
Peace
Journalism
The sliding scale
The more space the journalists
find to report on the
factors in the right-hand column,
the further the ‘cursor’ moves
towards Peace Journalism.
To create this space often
entails connecting and combining
elements from the left-hand column-to hook the readers or
to provide an arresting ‘top line’
for a more process-oriented story
Issues of
structural
violence
Grassroots
activism
Rights,
freedoms,
power
imbalances
inequalities
From war to peace journalism
• What suggestions would you have in
rewriting the story on Untol Abdullah so
that it becomes a piece of peace journalism?
• How do you make new a trite story of a
long war? Is there a way to salvage the
story?
• the story on Untol Abdullah (15 minutes)
• Share your New Stories
“Engendering Peace Journalism”
• Do you have any idea how we could apply a
gender perspective to conflict-sensitive
reporting/journalism?
• What does this term ‘engender’ mean to
you? On a orange metacard write a word or
phrase to express your understanding of this
word?
• In a green meta card write how do you
think you can “engender” peace journalism
Engendering Peace Journalism or
Using Gender Perspective
to Conflict-Sensitive Reporting
• Gender is not just another word for
‘women’
• Instead it is the socially constructed
differences between men and women which
determine how we are perceived and how
we are expected to behave as men and
women
Engendering Peace Journalism or Giving Gender Perspective
to Conflict-Sensitive Reporting
What ‘Engendering’ is not just...
• ‘Engendering’ peace reportage does not
only mean: bringing a woman’s voice into a
story
• ‘Engendering’ does not only mean finding a
woman’s angle
• ‘Engendering’ is not achieve by just
assigning ‘gender stories’ to a woman
journalist
Engendering Conflict-Reporting
is a complex process
• Women cannot automatically be expected to
be sensitive to or interested in gender issues
• There are those who prefer themselves as
journalists first and women next
• Men and women must be both sensitized
and made aware of the importance of
gender sensitivity in their work
Engendering
is a complex process (2)
• Engendering considers the focus,
the language, the perspective and
the analysis
• Essentials remain the basics:
accuracy, fairness and balance
• Valuing and making visible and
audible the marginalized sectors
and interests
Engendering
is a complex process (3)
• We have to be careful not to resort to
reverse stereotyping in which we simply
view women as passive victims, as
sufferers
• We also need to report stories that
reflect women’s courage, leadership;
resilience and healing; as agents of
change and peace building
She speaks
Women’s Voices
on Peace and Conflict
• “When women say they want peace,
they don’t imply just the absence of
physical violence, but a system based
on social security, equal opportunities,
access to resources, distribution,
economic rights and accountability” -Ashina Kaul Bhatia, WFS-New Delhi, as
quoted in Gender, Conflict and Journalism
She speaks (2)
• “Conflict does not only mean
wars between or within
countries, but also
ethnic/communal strife, gender
violence and poverty”
She speaks(2)
• “My peace is when my children and my
body are secure”
• “Global security should be radically
defined to embrace “the human
dimension… one that includes lives free
of violence - including violence against
women -- and HIV/AIDS as HIV/AIDS
feasts on gender inequality and war.”
She speaks (3)
• “For many women the frontline is the
home” (reference here)
• “...the argument is not that women’s
innocence is universal or that women are
inherently more peaceful or men
inherently more warlike.”
• “Engendering …needs to take into
account women’s heightened experience
of violence and trauma during periods of
conflict, both physical and psychological,
both within the home and outside.”
Untold Stories at the 2nd
WMAWfP in Zambo
• Murder, rape and wife battering (forms
of domestic gender violence)
perpetrated by a husband who came
home from the war in Jolo
• The experience of a female rebel in
Zamboanga de Sibugay
• The life story of a woman community
peacemaker in Pagadian
Exercise, Part One:
Have You A Story to Tell? (30mins)
• Divide the group into teams of 3-5
• In each team, the members must think of one
untold story on conflict in her community which
can be told with a gender perspective/lens (2-3
minutes)
• The team members will take turn in sharing their
stories (3 minutes each x 5 women= 15 minutes)
• After all team members have told their stories,
the summaries of the stories will be listed down
on a piece of manila paper. (5 minutes)
• The team will choose someone to share the list of
stories with the bigger group in a plenary
session(5 mins each x 3 teams = 15 minutes)
Reporting Tips
on the Untold Stories
• Murder, rape /domestic violence
• - Be careful about use of words like ‘victim’.
Should you use it?
• Be extra sensitive when you will interview
the survivor and/or the assailant, other
members of the family
• Challenge attempts to normalize or condone
the crime
• Follow-up the case at the police station till to
the court and even after the trial
Exercise, Part 2
•
•
•
•
How would you report
the Untold Stories?
The teams will exchange lists of untold
stories listed down on the manila paper
The team will discuss reporting tips for
each of the untold story on the other team’s
list(15 mins)
The tips will be listed on a sheet of manila
paper using felt pens(5 mins)
The list of tips will be reported/shared in the
plenary (20 mins)
Food for Thought
• If we consciously try to write about conflict
from a gender perspective and consciously
try to be conflict-sensitive, are we in danger
of losing our neutrality as journalists,
whtehr we are in mainstream or in the
community media?
• What agenda has this kind of journalism?
Food for Thought
• An engendered peace journalism does
have an agenda: it is to “illuminate
women’s voices” – to make women be
visible and be heard in the daily
‘diaries’/narratives of humankind.
Tumong sa ‘EPJ’
• Paghatag og kasanag sa mga
tingog sa kababayen-an diha sa
inadlaw-adlaw nga pagmugna
og kasaysayan pinaagi sa
peryodismo