Conflict Media intervention type 3
Medios para la Paz (Media for Peace) is an initiative of leading Colombian journalists, established to address the difficulties of reporting the news in the midst of a violent conflict. Its activities include training and dialogue, various activities to provide information to media professionals, and research. A basic premise of the organisation is that the manner in which journalists report the news can either exacerbate a conflict, or it can help to build peace. Much of its work focuses on approaches to reporting that can have a positive impact on efforts to achieve peace. In addition, some of the organisation's activities are aimed at improving security for journalists, and dealing with the moral dilemmas they often confront in their work.
In times of war and violent conflict, the media is not only a primary source of information, it is - willing or not - a participant in the conflict. Just as in the physical world, where the studied object is influenced by the observer, in times of conflict, the observer and reporter's activities will inevitably have effects - both minor and sometimes major - on the course of events. In Colombia, where violence is deeply ingrained in society, Medios para la Paz has used this assumption as a starting point for a range of activities whose common theme is that journalists need to be aware that their reporting activities can influence the progress of a conflict, and that they need to take responsibility for their actions.
Medios para la Paz is a non-profit organisation with headquarters in Bogota, Colombia, created at the end of 1997 on the initiative of 53 journalists and professionals who came together to consider the role that journalists can and should play in the midst of the prevailing violence. Two of the primary stated objectives are to work for the 'disarming' of language - exploring and undertaking actions to insure that the language used in reporting events does not in itself contribute to the perpetuation of violence - and to break through the passivity and indifference of the mass media with respect to the armed conflict.
The media environment Despite various constitutional provisions guaranteeing freedom of expression and free and open media, Colombia's journalists have been under increasing pressure in the last decade or so. The media has faced further and more daunting intimidation from drug traffickers, guerrillas and paramilitary groups. Threats against journalists for reporting perceived to reflect negatively on one or another party to the conflict are commonplace. In Colombia, these threats are not idle; more than 120 Colombian journalists were killed in the 1990s, many for reporting on drug trafficking and corruption.
"Threats of violence, or hidden complicity due to decisions taken at editorial level, are what govern the logic behind whatever information is allowed to make it into the press.' writes journalist and Medios para la Paz member Eduardo Márquez. "That is to say, information is being practically co-directed by those who are responsible for the conflict, whether these be counter-insurgency elements, the State itself, or the insurgents. And that results in a serious distortion of the facts ..."
The end result of this relentless pressure is that some journalists have gone into exile, and many practice self-censorship because of fear. The media are highly concentrated, into two economic groups in radio an TV, without regulation from the state. Business logic prevails over public interest. The intense competition in the media for scoops and sensational reports results in another kind of pressure on journalists - to take inordinate risks to produce stories that will 'sell'.
A 'vaccine' against biased reporting Those journalists active in Medios para la Paz come from all the various types of media functioning in Colombia. They share an interest in expanding their professional knowledge and fulfilling their responsibilities to assure that the public's 'right to know' is upheld. They operate with the support of other countries in the Americas and in Europe, as well as a variety of national and international institutions. The organisation is strictly non-political and neither it nor its members play any active role in the current war. Indeed, many of its members are independent journalists with no political or partisan affiliation.
Medios para la Paz, says executive director Gloria Moreno, serves as a 'vaccine' against biased, one-sided reporting, by providing journalists with tools, strategies, and guidelines for even-handed professional reporting and an awareness of practices to avoid that may aggravate the situation. In its programming, Moreno explains, Media for Peace touches on areas such as conflict resolution, legislation, international law, and journalistic techniques for covering and reporting on war and on the efforts to achieve peace. Medios para la Paz embraces a range of principles that can guide journalists working in conflict zones. Journalists should, for example, contribute to the construction of a culture for peace through a responsible and ethical exercise of journalism; reflect on their own role and the social effects of their own work in the context of the armed conflict and the search for peace; and present balanced and accurate information so as to contribute to greater awareness - among journalists and society - of the causes and consequences of the war. Medios para la Paz declares that 'the first commitment of the journalists is with the victims of the war, and not with the soldiers.'
Since 1999, Medios para la Paz supported the efforts made by the Sabana University in order to provide guidelines to journalists on appropriate practices during times of conflict: to not only report in ways that will not inflame passions, but also respect the privacy of victims, promote tolerance and pluralism, assure accuracy, and impede efforts by sources and parties to the conflict to manipulate the news. Signers of the document wit the guidelines declared: "We would rather miss a story than to sacrifice anyone's life."
To realise its goals, Medios para la Paz provides training and opportunities for reflection to media professionals; undertakes analysis, and engages in consulting and research activities. In the training area, some 45 workshops have been held at locations around the country (including conflict areas). The workshop leaders have included experts in conflict resolution, as well as journalists. Giving journalists heightened awareness of how their reporting influences the course of a conflict has been one area of particular attention. With this in mind, the workshops have attempted to provide journalists with the necessary 'tools' for managing information about peace and conflict, including attention to the use of language and style. The workshops have extended to the field of journalistic ethics, in view of the life and death choices that journalist may have to make in the midst of conflict.
Medios para la Paz has also organised a number of discussion groups open to selected groups of the public. By engaging the public in discussion on journalistic practice, these workshops have given journalists new insights into the impact that their work has in civil society, and how they and their work is perceived, while providing the public with a better understanding of the challenges and moral dilemmas facing journalists. At other times, Medios para la Paz has organised meetings with the directors and owners of the media, addressing in particular the problem of pressure exerted on journalists to engage in risky activities for the sake of reporting.
In addition, Medios para la Paz has set up press meetings. Through out a teleconference, journalists were brought together with some actors of the armed conflict who were near to participate in political negotiations, protagonists of the peace process or of peace initiatives or specialists on themes that are directly related to war and peace. The idea is to give journalists first-hand access to information that allows them to balance their publications and broadcasts.
The organisation's activities in the field of information analysis and dissemination include the establishment of a large, high-quality archive on communication, media, and peace issues. It has also established a documentation centre, launched a website, and developed an on-line network of more than 700 journalists focused on facilitating communication on issues of media, conflict, and peace-building.
Medios para la Paz is also engaged in publishing, producing books, papers, and a poster-format newspaper called El Antivirus, aimed at journalists working for mass media or community groups. The paper, designed to be posted strategically in the newsrooms, provides information on armed conflict, legal instruments, and conflict resolution in other countries. A particularly noteworthy publication, in view of its commitment to 'disarm language', was the publication in 1999 of a dictionary of approximately 600 terms that frequently are associated with conflict or with the peace processes in Colombia. This dictionary, entitled Manual de Términos: Para Desarmar la Palabra (To Disarm the Word) attempts to stress the ways in which language can be used to either promote or discourage conflict. Another publication, The Traps of War: Journalism and Conflict, provides a historical overview of efforts to end conflict in Colombia throughout its history, critically analyses the role of the media during war and peace time, and recommends actions for a responsible journalism which could serve the peace process and political negotiations.
In the area of research and consulting, Medios para la Paz has been active in providing professional advice, and has carried out research for both private and public institutions on request. It also engages in its own research, with support from outside funding sources, including a study entitled La guerra una amenaza para la libertad de prensa (War as a Threat to the Freedom of Press), which attempts to gain a deeper understanding into the processes and production of news items on armed conflict, and identify the main impediments to free and open reporting facing journalists during times of conflict.
Measuring the actual impact of Medios para la Paz is extremely difficult. The hope, of course, is that the organisation's efforts lead to more balanced reporting, greater security for journalists, increased sensitivity on the part of editors and managers for the risks facing journalists, and the creation of a climate in which fear and violence can be replaced by dialogue. Unfortunately, with the peace process in tatters, violence directed at journalists remains at levels unmatched anywhere in the world. For the time being, in addition to the goals of Medios par la Paz, journalists in Colombia need not only talent but courage in order to do their jobs.
Resources
www.bbc.com
www.oneworld.org
www.tvradioworld.com
www.state.gov
www.ijnet.org
www.mediosparalapaz.org
www.ijnet.org/Archive/2000/6/29-7163.html
www.cafod.org.uk/latinamerica/colombia20020312.shtml
www.comminit.com/papers/p_0012.html
Colombia 2000 World Press Freedom Review www.freemedia.at/wpfr/colombia.htm
Reporteros Sin Fronteras (RSF). www.rsf.org
Informe Anual 2001 de la Fundación Para la Libertad de Prensa (FLIP), Diciembre 20, 2001. www.flipcolombia.org/comunicados/informa2001.htm
Sala de Prensa. "Al caer la oscuridad" por Frank Smyth. www.saladeprensa.org/art138.htm
Sociedad Interamericana de Prensa "Marco Constitucional: Colombia" www.sipiapa.org/espanol/projects/laws-col1.cfm
Sociedad Interamericana de Prensa "Leyes específicas de prensa" ww.sipiapa.org/espanol/projects/laws-col2.cfm
Sociedad Interamericana de Prensa "Delitos relacionados con el contenido de la información y acciones civiles". www.sipiapa.org/espanol/projects/laws-col7.cfm
Sociedad Interamericana de Prensa "Colegiación y exigencia de título universitario" www.sipiapa.org/espanol/project/laws-col6.cfm
Sociedad Interamericana de Prensa "Regulación sobre propiedad y registro de publicaciones". www.sipiapa.org/espanol/projects/laws-col17.cfm
Reporte del Internet en Colombia. www.redcolombiana.com/internet/index.html
Eduardo Márquez, The Colombian journalist: Between the bullets of intolerance and the reality of Unemployment, Book series Journalism, Peace and War in Colombia, Medios para la Paz, Bogotá, July 2001