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Report of the Workshop on Building Union
Capacity for Human Rights and Conflict Reporting in South Asia
Organized by International Federation
of Journalists (IFJ)
4-6 September 2008, Kathmandu, Nepal
Background
The unmet basic needs of bulk of citizens
and lingering fear and violence in South Asia indicate that
human rights struggle of media persons for freedom, justice
and social opportunities remain unfinished. All the countries
of South Asia are in the various stages of political transition
towards democracy and due to the lack of political stability
of regime of many countries journalists have to face problems
from both the state and non-state actors. Only a healthy state
of constitutional democracy and human security can provide South
Asian citizens autonomous power to deliberate and act beyond
structural constraints. In this context, the press, civic society
and leadership in public power have to work to minimize the
ferocity of violence by means of enforcing the accountability
of human rights violators and keeping the citizens in a constant
state of vigilance.
Violence shuts up the voice of voiceless and
enforces a culture of silence and resignation. Conflict-sensitive
media, rooted into public sphere, can awaken the public to their
duty and bridge the gap between power and justice. They enhance
the wider awareness and informed participation of citizens in
public affairs. Free, fair and diverse media thus establish
the access of public to information, socialize them on conflict
consciousness and transform a number of contesting mini-identities
of people into meta- identities, citizens and human beings.
The socializing power of media helps to create a just state
where institutions and laws are well-constituted to regulate
citizens' hopes and conflict in the equal interest of all.
The ability of South Asia media to understand
structural condition of the region, the root causes of conflict
from varied perspectives, reflection on conflict experience,
analysis of the conduct of numerous actors of society in conflict
and peace and presenting those in an impartial manner to the
wider public can play a very important role in reconstructing
the condition of structural injustice. Conflict-sensitive media
rooted in the principles of human rights, social justice and
peace can increase the possibility of non-violent communication,
build confidence between the conflict actors and provide common
ground for conflict resolution. Responsible journalists can
play the role of a watchdog by taking a critical look at the
various sides of the conflict including the hidden ones and
generate public opinion and action to liberate citizens from
the blind obedience to the dictate of fear.
This is the sixth workshop of the South Asia
Media Solidarity Network (SAMSN) established by the IFJ with
the support and cooperation of FES. It is an organization of
journalists and media workers having numerous affiliates in
the region.
Objectives of the Workshop
- the capacity-building of journalists for
media rights monitoring and networking in the region;
- assess the action plan of 2007 by reflecting
on successes and setbacks;
- plan actions for joint strategies to combat
violence and attacks on independent media; and
- devise suitable strategies to defend press
freedom collectively from the coercion of the state and non-state
actors.
Participants and the Trainers
There were altogether 15 participants from
Bangladesh (1), Bhutan (1), India (5), Nepal (3), Pakistan (2)
and Sri Lanka (3) including 3 women. There were five resource
persons from Australia (1), India (2), Sri Lanka (1) and Nepal
(2) including two women. Three resource persons were from IFJ
and two from outside. Participant from Afghanistan could not
attend.
Contents and Methodology
The workshop began with the introduction
of participants and resource persons and program highlights.
The contents involved network and campaigns for press freedom,
safety and democratic media, the challenge of media in South
Asia, country presentation on conflict and human rights, gender
equity and media and strategies to achieve gender equity in
unions and media, press freedom and media rights, human rights
and media, journalists working in conflict zones, future strategies
especially in the areas of campaigns for independent journalism
and democratic media environment, building impact of SAMSN regional
network, strengthening trade unions and solidarity in the region,
joint actions, etc. The training methodology involved lecture
presentation, group work presentation, sharing of experiences,
slide presentation, etc. There was open exchange of ideas.
Outcome
IFJ affiliated unions agreed to broaden
their network alliance and work for the capacity building of
unions engaged in human rights and conflict reporting. They
also agreed to fight for increased access to information, safety
and security conditions of journalists, strong networking with
media related organizations, lobby for professional rights of
journalists, rights to form unions, limit the use of free-lancing
and causal works, guarantee non-discrimination between gender,
editorial autonomy against commercials, government and political
parties, media pluralism, social dialogue according to prevailing
labor laws, support to journalists under difficult times and
share experience of the successes. The SAMSN agreed to work
on priority areas and present their plans to IFJ soon. The participants
expressed SAMSN's concerns about the safety of journalists and
media workers and restrictions on the media in the Indian state
of Jammu and Kashmir and called on state authorities to respect
and honor the principles of a free media and to be fully transparent
in dealing with all incidents of violence targeting media.
They also agreed to prepare a detailed
report about Kashmir under the aegis of SAMSN identifying practical
solution to protect journalists and organize a media mission.
A significant achievement of the program was that the representatives
from six countries agreed on The Charter for a Democratic and
Pluralist Media Culture and Social and Professional Rights for
Media and Journalism in South Asia to promote fair, balanced
and independent media dedicated to editorial independence, diversity
in the media, public service values in journalism and social
dialogue. It also incorporates a plan of action for defending
the rights of journalists and media and striving for decent
working conditions. The IFJ also utilized this occasion to organize
Train-the-Trainer workshop to the members of Nepalese Federation
of Journalists.
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