Workshop on Peace and Diversity Journalism

Organised by Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES)

4-7 November 2003

FES organised a four-day workshop on 'Peace and Diversity Journalism', starting from November 4 at Godavari in Lalitpur district.

Background

Traditionally, media are supposed to render educating, informing, inspiring and entertaining functions. But, with the change in time and circumstances in the recent times, media are also expected to promote peace by adhering to their social obligation for reducing intensity of any conflict. With this realisation, peace journalism has received considerable attention.

Nepal has been bearing the brunt of fierce conflict between the Maoists and the government besides other less intense conflicts. The Maoists insurgency has affected most parts of the country. The intensity of the insurgency is gaining momentum day by day. Every aspect of the national life has suffered from the Maoists declared 'People's War' which is in its seventh year. After peace talks failed twice, peace in this Himalayan kingdom is at a great risk.

Besides the Maoists-related conflict, the country has been experiencing a growing gap among the constitutional forces since October 4, 2002.

Such being the political situation, the beginning of a new process has emerged as a tough responsibility of each of the members of the national life. At this time of national crisis, media has a greater role to play to begin the peace process in the first instance and establish peace once and for all in the second place. But media are confused about their roles in this situation.

Peace is the need of the country. It is urgent to make realise the media that they can contribute significantly to mitigate conflicts. Media can be peace broker and play role to minimise the intensity of conflict. Thus, it is necessary to make working journalists, media educators and trainers and organisations of working journalists aware of peace journalism and their role in settling down the conflict. Peace journalism being relatively a new concept to Nepalese media, journalists are in need of training and orientation on peace journalism. FES initiative in organising the Godavari workshop in 2003 was an effort in this direction.

About the Workshop

Altogether 16 participants, eight of them women, were drawn at the workshop. The participants were a media educator from Tribhuvan University and trainers from Nepal Press Institute, working journalists from both print and electronic media (radio), representatives from media-related NGOs and the Federation of Nepalese Journalists. They included working journalists were from Nepali and English daily and weekly papers. Three of the participants were weekly paper editors. The participants represented both Kathmandu-based media and media outside Kathmandu.

Joergen Klussmann, a German peace journalism expert, was the main trainer. Besides, media educator and senior journalist Ram Krishna Regmee, senior journalists Dhruba Hari Adhikari, political scientist Shrish S. Rana and Dr. Durga Pokharel, who is also the Chairman of the National Women's Commission, were the other resource persons. The participatory nature of the workshop made the exercise educative, lively and interesting.

November 4

The workshop kicked off on Tuesday with P. Kharel, media advisor of FES, briefing the participants on the objectives and schedules of the workshop. In his inaugural speech, Kharel said that conflict-related issues have extensive drawn attention of various sections of Nepalese society and also donor community and international agencies.

At the very beginning, the participants expressed what they expected from the workshop. Most participants expected to learn about conflict and wanted to know how they could contribute to addressing conflict.

After knowing the expectations from the participants, trainer Klussmann spoke of conflict and war, and actors of conflict, and peace. The participants were acquainted with different aspects of conflict. Underlining a need to control conflict, he said that conflict is always present when there is peace. He also informed the participants of the role of media during war and conflict time. "Journalists should act responsibly to minimise the intensity of conflict," Klussmann said. Highlighting the role of media in democracy he said, "In a democracy, media are regarded as a pillar, a watchdog of society."

Another trainer, senior journalist Ram Krishna Regmee, who is also a University teacher, made a presentation on the history of Nepalese conflict. In his presentation, Regmee said that conflict is not new to Nepal since it has been in existence since the country received democracy in 1951. He added that with the passage of time the factors of conflict have kept on changing. He was of the opinion that the major conflict now existence is linked with the 1990 revolution and the present Constitution.

Saying that the present conflict has affected media much, he opined that media have a great role to play in building peace process and minimizing the intensity of the conflict through right information. He also urged the participants to be aware of them being used by the conflicting parties. "Media is being used by the conflicting parties, and the conflict-related issues are not getting due priority," Regmee said. He urged the media to motivate to initiate peace journalism in the country.

Dev Raj Dahal, head of FES, Nepal made a presentation on Constitutional Dynamics of Impasse. He expressed his concern over Nepal's challenge of lack of monopoly of state power. He was of the opinion that monopoly of state power is necessary for peace, stability, democracy and development.

He stated that the country is reeling from the moral, economic and political crisis, and that Nepal has been made very weak by Maoist-government conflict, corruption and graft by political class and minimal state policies by some donors. This situation has raised question that whether constitution alone can release sufficient potential for political integration and achieve political consensus, political stability and political institutionalization.

Talking about conflicts in Nepal Dahal said, "Nature and dynamics of conflicts are needed to be understood to solve different conflicts since a simple formula will not work to settle down them."

At the end of the first of the workshop, the participants were involved in an exercise that involved a mock situation whereby they were made to perform certain roles in a conflict situation. The obvious objective of the performance was to enable journalists to visualize the situation of conflict-hit places right living in the capital.

November 5

At the outset of the second day, Klussmann lectured on different aspects of communication and conflict. He focused on reconciliation, forgiveness and control since they are necessary for reducing the intensity of conflict.

As an another trainer of the day, Dr. Durga Pokharel shared some of the data and experiences based on her visits to different conflict-hit areas. She particularly focused on how the ongoing conflict has affected women, exploring reasons why women are attracted to the Maoists' military service. She mentioned that existing traditional practices and norms, citizenship issues, alcoholism, non-cooperative behavior of local administration to women and denial to their rights to parental property are among the major reasons behind many women joining Maoists. Dialogue is the only solution to the present conflict, and the state should adopt a soft stance to solve the conflict.

Senior journalist Dhruba Hari Adhikari was another trainer of the day. He cited a number of 'Examples of Conflict Journalism in Nepal'. In his presentation, he spoke on the careful choice of words and photographs. He presented different articles from the Nepalese press, which carried contents that tended to aggravate rather then reduce or resolve conflict. He also illustrated the use of photographs that can contribute to further worsen the conflict.

He was of the opinion that journalists' acts should not contribute to aggravating conflict and hence the need for special attention to selection of words, presentation style and pictures.

At the end of the day, a video entitled Hitlers Helfer Goebblels Der Brandstifter was shown to make the participants aware of the consequences of propaganda.

November 6

The participants made presentations of several aspect of the conflict. They were divided into four groups, each group comprised 4 participants. The groups made presentation on the following topics:

1. Gender and Conflict
2. Media and Conflict
3. Poverty and Conflict
4. Political System and Conflict

Each group prepared its presentation before lunch time and presented and discussed during the rest of the day. After the presentations, Klussmann evaluated each group's efforts on different criteria.

November 7

Senior journalist and political scientist Shrish S. Rana made a presentation on the actors of the present conflict and their relation to the conflict as well as their role in building peace process.

Making a presentation on Identifying Actors and Relations in Conflict and Actors and Relations in Peace in Nepal, Rana underline a need to analyse our society and understand conflict to stop inviting other conflicts.

According to Rana, political parties and system, social system, lack of good governance, social discrepancies and social obligations are among the major areas that deserve special emphasis for close study. He pointed out weaknesses in social institutions, which has provided a ripe situation to the conflict to flare up, as they are not organized and do not have any say in the political system of the country. He underlined a need to identify the indigenous tools to address conflicts, and cautioning against possibilities of latent conflicts cropping up in the country. "But we have not done much in identifying the indigenous means of addressing conflicts."

In the concluding session, evaluation of the workshop was done. "This workshop has enabled me to give training on peace journalism," commented Shova Gautam, a media trainer who also heads a human rights-related NGO. The general consensus was that such workshops should be organised in different parts of the country so that more media people could benefit from such exercise. The participants called for workshops dealing exclusively with diversity journalism.

Narendra Upadhyay, editor of The Telegraph weekly, distributed certificates to the participants.

Summation

"Peace journalism is the need of the country. The workshop has made me able to understand conflicts in the country in a subtle way. At the same time, it has made me aware of our (media) role in resolving conflicts and our possibility of aggravating conflict situation. It has raised my awareness of my responsibility as a journalist and what I can contribute to establishing peace and improving the situation in conflict-affected areas," said participant Babita Basnet, editor of Ghatana Ra Bichar weekly.

The general consensus was that the Nepalese media, given the eight-year old Maoist conflict, have an added responsibility. Besides their role as an educator, information-conveyer and entertainment provider to large numbers of people, they have to play a more effective role in promoting peace process and consolidating democracy.