|
[home]>[programmes]>[media]>2nd
workshop
Covering Political Violence: Focus -north
eastern South Asia media grid, Kathmandu, Dec 11-13, 2001
It brought together 33 print and electronic media practitioners from
Bangladesh, Nepal and India (largely from north east and eastern India).
The second Kathmandu workshop moved beyond a negative analysis to
exploring the possibilities of a more pro-active reporting approach.
Along with developing a radical critique of media practices, there was
introspection on –‘Media as Advocacy, i.e. human rights and peace
journalism way of reporting.
In an effort to more adequately address the nature of ‘conflict’ in
our region, its meaning was expanded to encompass ‘political violence’,
i.e. the habitual praxis of politics through violence and its
consequences for demonizing and freezing the possibility of
communication across divides. It included nationalist and identity
struggles in north east India and the CHT in Bangladesh, border
conflicts, water disputes, endemic riots (communal and sectarian
violence to electoral violence) and 'terrorism'. In addition, particular
attention was paid to cross-border population movements, the production
of refugees and migrants and borderlands as sites of conflict and
humanitarian concern. Expectedly the "Global War Against Terrorism"
cast its shadow on the Workshop and the first session mapped an
international canvas.
The presence of the owner publisher of the Daily Star, Mahfuz
Anam, Ekushey TV’s Farhad Hasan and the visionary who built
Asianet, Sashi Kumar, gave the discussions on the mantra of the
market, a pragmatic depth and vision. In analyzing the power and
interests inherent in the institutions of the media and the structures
of the editorial process, the determining role of the state was
emphasized, e.g. through the granting of licenses but more insidiously
through the growing culture of journalist - politician cronyism.
The coming together of a number of media practitioners (local and
national - senior and mid career) steeped in coverage of north east
politics provided a rare opportunity to explore professional and moral
dilemmas of reporting the conflicts of the north east. In particular,
there was an insightful analysis of the manipulation of journalists by
intelligence agencies and other interest groups, including underground
groups who are not only manipulating the crisis but also news. There was
a critical exchange on the pitfalls of agit prop journalism, and
balanced versus weighted reporting to compensate for historical
distortions.
The working group discussion on the
media’s role in distorting and exacerbating tension as a consequence of
the coverage of Indo- Bangladesh and Indo- Nepal border, threw up the
need to develop a code of ethnic for reporting border conflicts.
Journalists commented on the anomaly of the lack of institutionalized or
even adhoc practices of print and TV journalists based in Calcutta or
Dhaka accessing each other’s versions. Indeed it was a BBC Bengali
service correspondent who effectively made use of the two media streams
to do a composite story.
The declaration of a state of emergency in
Nepal and restrictions on freedom of expression, provided a real life
situation to explore the value of a free press in a situation of
conflict. The emergency inhibited some Nepali journalists from
participating and others from openly critiquing the Nepal's press'
abject self censorship in covering the Maoist insurgency.
|
