A rejoinder to peace journalism

Letter June 06, 2015
Peace journalism promotes peace not by being a peacemaker but also by helping to create opportunities for peace

SYDNEY: It was heartening to read Muhammad Ali Babakhel article on peace journalism that aims to create awareness about the role of the media in the promotion of peace and harmony. Being entrusted by the key exponents of this concept here at the world’s only Centre for Peace Journalism at the University of Sydney to provide it with the theoretical paraphernalia, I think it is necessary to address few of the misperceptions about the concept as evident in Mr Babakhel’s article and elsewhere. Peace journalism promotes peace not by being a peacemaker but also by helping to create opportunities for peace. I am afraid Mr Ali misses the most important point of peace journalism when he says that its practice would unite us against the militants and help us prevail in the conflict. As revealed in the dozens of books and hundreds of articles on the topic, peace journalism is against dichotomisation (‘us’ versus ‘them’), name-calling (terrorists) and taking sides. Such an approach would spoil the whole purpose of peace journalism and reduce it to propaganda.

As a PhD student of peace journalism and now a research fellow at the Peace Journalism Centre, I would suggest few changes if the Pakistani media is to constructively report the Taliban conflict. First, humanise the conflict. The security aspects of the conflict come later. The people in tribal areas have suffered tremendously. The media needs to focus on their suffering. Unfortunately, the Pakistani media, while it relishes the stories about clashes and deaths, doesn’t highlight the situation of those affected. Hundreds of innocent civilians have been killed in drone attacks and the media shies from showing their photographs. Stories about the tribal region simply report that terrorists are killed but won’t investigate the killings of civilians. Apart from the humanisation aspects, the media needs to provide multi-perspectives about this conflict. Alongside the military view and the notorious ‘Taliban claimed responsibility’, opinions of the local people, their representatives, peacemakers, minorities and other groups who are marginalised in the mainstream media must be given opportunities to share their opinions. This will make the conflict transparent and hence facilitate its resolution. As they say, local solutions are more durable; the locals live in the region and hence, they have the right to decide their futures. Similarly, peace journalism defies war logic. It will investigate the real causes of the conflict and the history behind it. It is interested in exploring why peace agreements failed between two sides, what are the demands of the Taliban, are these in accordance with the Constitution, who is opposed to peace agreements, what are their agendas and investigate how these agreements were scuttled. It will also critical analyse the conditions of peace agreements and raise objections to highhandedness on all sides. Likewise, peace journalism will focus on the history of the conflict starting from the 1980s when the Mujahiddin were created. The concept of peace journalism is a valuable contribution and is gaining momentum globally. Many journalist organisations, Unicef, the World Bank and civil society organisations have adopted it. Scholars like Johan Galtung, Jake Lych and Wilhelm Kempf have been approached by many peace organisations to sketch out programmes for conflict-resolution of intractable conflicts like those afflicting the Middle East and Afghanistan. It would be heartening if the Pakistani media could agree on the tenets of peace journalism to ensure more transparent reporting of conflicts that will ultimately lead to peace.

Dr Shabbir Hussain

Published in The Express Tribune, June 7th, 2015.

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