"You" report victims of conflict; "they" will re-build the society

(Prepared for presentation at the Training programme for journalists on Reporting Women's Issues From Conflict Affected Areas, organized by Sancharika Samuha, and FES in Pokhara on April 18, 19 2005)

By R.K.Regmee

The idea is a not a textual proposition of mass communication. It is a practical formula for press behaviour during conflict. The point could prove to be directly relevant to the job of reporting conflict in all its dimensions; it is more so in reporting women's issues from conflict - affected areas, the topic of the present seminar. A brief explanation in the following lines would better put it in Nepali perspective particularly the backdrop of the ongoing tension in the country.

Since the trio -reporting, women's issues and conflict - have their own specific features, they expect practicing journalists to have full understanding of the same. Reporting is a tool developed by press to inform people as per their right to know; it has to be performed bearing in mind the trust citizens have placed on the Fourth Estate. Women's issues are human issues; they are the agenda of society and they deserve un-discriminated and un-biased deal; they can neither be ignored nor looked down upon as second - class citizens' concern or less priority theme. Conflict is a special situation in which violence arrests laws; psychological panic hijacks confidence; and enmity is pumped into conventional human or community bond. This ultimately results in the paralysis of what is generally called walks of national life.

Like in most conflicts elsewhere in the world, the dimension of Nepali women in conflict could not attract the attention of the press at the outset. They were somehow forgotten and remained uncovered for quite a long time although they were compelled to bear the brunt of the conflict from day one. As unidentified individuals, they suffered from various effects of violent conflict. A few words about the plight of widows, orphans, helpless mothers, wounds of daughters, involuntary involvement, malnourished women and forced pregnancy were of course voiced from time to time in a scattered manner. They lacked focus and they were, in a sense, lost in the broad arena of media.

The fact that the plight of Nepali civilian women in war is often linked to the fate of men in their household and community got simply ignored for long. The extra heavy burden - physical, financial, emotional, and social - that Nepali women have to bear because of the "absence" of men in family and community remains unanalyzed in the country. Some question the very concept of extra responsibility that women are undertaking over the last eight or nine years.

This factor should be viewed as a new additional phenomenon affecting women and it should be explained in the light of general neglect and exploitation in which women generally live in Nepali society. They are not given high value in society, and are denied education, training, health facilities, opportunities of life and suffer a lot from various types of violence, inequality and discrimination.

Various conflict experts have said with one voice: women suffer most in conflict irrespective of their role as participant, victim, their main issues are suppressed, the susceptibility to violence is high, they suffer from psychological and physical harm, their standard of living deteriorates, resources flowing for their benefit could be diverted to other areas.

Reasons leading to conflict in Nepal could be many: the prominent one is the sense of inequality, discrimination, hate and deprivation that sections of population felt for centuries. Restoration of democracy in 1990 could not address this feeling and this further intensified popular frustration. The development works undertaken in the name of economic uplift raised ambitions without supplying means to satisfy them. This fueled opposition, which took over time the shape of present conflict - the underground Maoist movement.

The conflict takes the government machinery as rival and targets its replacement by what they call Maoist ideology. Peace is absent in most parts of the country. People cannot move from one place to another as per their wish and constitutional rights; economic activities have been minimal; series of clashes and deaths are taking place every day. Women's issues are not understood well and the baseline for this is missing. This theme has not been discussed well in public. The press has to provide that baseline and make all take up the theme for discussion and doing something tangible.

Reporting, by nature, is a field job of collecting facts and passing on the same to the public. All rules that Reporting has to follow are so tough that they make reporters' jobs highly vulnerable in war. Getting the women's issues such as displacement, security, sexual violence, access to medical care and food, detention, disappearances covered is really challenging.

The basic purpose of reporting the issues is clear and specific. It wants to:

1. Raise awareness on specific gender concerns
   
2. Establish the platform for a dialogue
   
3. Strengthen partnership among major stakeholders
   
4. Explore on a sustainable manner ways to build peace
   
5. Prevent or alleviate suffering

Problems facing reporters are varied; the following are highly complicated:

• Tracing source of news and verifying the information
  
• Which information to trust?
  
• Knowing the actors of conflict and their specific role
  
• The helpless state of the innocent who get trapped in conflict, difficulty in approaching them; their fear in voicing pain
  
• Challenge to move around for exploring the reality
  
• Negative impact of violence
  
• Lack of regard for the "reporting" compulsion of press
  
• Use of press for psychological war through the practice of "hand-out information" or "conducted tour"

The press should not ignore the role that women could play in building peace. Women's issues will not be understood properly if this role is neglected. Many researchers opine an understanding of women in conflict should include more than just an understanding of women as victims. Throughout history, they say, "women have been shapers of conflict as well. They have both contributed to conflict and been very effective at resolving it."

One write-up Women in Intractable Conflict mentions "The discussion concerning women's roles in war and peace also tends to focus largely on the issue of how war affects women and on the role they can play after the termination of wars and conflicts. One issue that should receive greater prominence is women's potential role in preventing wars and avoiding rifts, social inequities and mismanagement. Assuming women are more peace-oriented, more risk-aware and better at communication, women's increased participation in politics and in decision making should have a salutary effect and should be given more weight."

The world body - United Nations - has recognized the point. The UN Resolution on Women's role in Peace building and security, passed in October 2001 connects gender equality with global security and emphasizes women's voices in building lasting peace.

Chris Patten speaking on the role of women in conflict resolution once said "The most powerful forms of resistance to violence, and the most effective tools for peace, equality and democracy are often rooted in everyday life: mothers who continue to bring their children to school; female teachers and university professors continuing to teach; or journalists continuing to write. Looking at conflict resolution from a human perspective, the sustainable perspective, such actions are highly significant.

Conflict is managed in a non-transparent manner. It is difficult for press people to get into it easily. But they should make efforts to have access to information. Conflict reporters particularly women's issues reporters should have complete faith in the following concepts:

• Conflict is a special situation for reporting
  
• Women suffer most from its impact
  
• Women could contribute to solving the conflict and peace building
  
• Difference of conflict can be acknowledged and appreciated
  
• Conflict, viewed as a solution-building opportunity can lead to positive change
  
• When the conflicting parties build on one another's strengths to find solutions, a climate is created that nurtures individual self-worth and opportunities for fulfillment of each individual's needs.
  
• Conflict should not allow women's problems to be suppressed.

Media persons should utilize the method of framing in reporting the women's issues and stick to the general principles of journalism.
Framing: it is a process by which the media place reality into frame. It is a narrative device. What is not on the page of a newspaper is considered out of frame. "What does not appear within the frame of TV is off the public agenda."
For the News there is the world, and twenty minutes to put it in the frame. Time, then -the shortness of it and that of space, are important deciding factors.
The concept of framing consistently offers a way to describe the power of a communicating text. Analysis of frames illuminates the precise way in which influence over a human consciousness is exerted by the transfer of information from one location such as speech, utterance, news report, or novel - to the consciousness. Essentially, framing constitutes selection and salience - what is perceived to be most meaningful, the one serving the other.

Framing serves four main purposes:

• To define problems
  
• To diagnose causes
  
• To make sound judgments on the basis of equality and justice
  
• To suggest remedies

These will function varyingly according to the text, but they operate in four locations in the communication process: the communicator, the text, the receiver and the culture.
The Right to Know/Freedom of Information: the right of access by citizens to information of public interest is enshrined in legislations in many countries. In some, it is honoured through traditions while in others it is not recognized. Journalism cannot function without it.
Objectivity: Professor Stuart Hall has expressed the view that objectivity, 'like impartiality, is an operational fiction'. In examining the media, analysts, encounter the Famous Four: Balance, Consensus, Impartiality and Objectivity, upon which all good reporting is said to be based. The questions arising from this precept are: balance between what and what? Consensus among whom? Impartiality in what sense? Objectivity in whose eyes?
Some explain the same concept through A,B,C (Accuracy, Brevity and Credibility.) The middle B is sometimes interpreted as balance also. Neutrality is another word in referring to the objectivity. In modern times it is taken as fairness doctrine, giving fair voice to all.
Watch dog: policing role for the society. The aim is to stand against injustice, corruption and abuse. It has to be the voice of the voiceless.
To Benjamin Franklin, "there never was a good war or a bad peace." To Nepali reporters in conflict zone, there should be no women's issues that could be so good as to exaggerate coverage or so bad as to suppress publicity.

Practical tool to organize reporting on women's issues in conflict at present: Now for an assignment-like prescription for working journalists in conflict areas of Nepal. The following table pinpoints specific issues, special role of reporters in covering them, the most suitable method for the same and the instrument through which the reporters' presentation is disseminated through the media. While they apply to all media: print, radio and TV, special adjustment should be made in each as coverage progresses. A review should be undertaken after each issue is covered twice.

Tool developed by R.K.Regmee for not allowing women's issues to be suppressed during conflict in Nepal. In the coverage the style of disseminating information without offending any party and without insulting the cause of anyone is to be pursued as per the dictates of Peace Journalism.

Special prescription: The issue of the displaced women in Nepal at present is very serious and it has the potentiality of damaging society in multi-dimensional way besides hurting the cause of women and the country. It should therefore be pursued for journalistic coverage vigorously and with a sense of high responsibility.