Mass media often plays a key role in today’s conflict. Basically, their role can take two different and opposed forms. Either the media takes an active part in the conflict and has responsibility for incremented violence, or stays independent and out of the conflict, thereby contributing to the resolution of conflict and alleviation of violence. Which role the media takes in a given conflict, and in the phases afore and after, depends on an complex set of factors, including the relationship the media has to actors in the conflict and the independence the media has to the potency holders in society.
This paper presents evidence on how media development policies and programmes can avail avert insecurity and violent conflict, and contribute towards placidity and equity. It aims to avail practitioners and researchers in the field of conflict obviation and communication explore ways to work better in this area. It includes Media and the international community, Local media and internal conflict, The role of the media in conflict resolution, International intervention inside the conflict.
Keywords: Conflict, Insecurity, Media, Violence,
Conflict is one of the defining features of the modern world. Since the end of the Cold War there have been countless conflicts that have involved the deaths of millions of people and the suffering and displacement of millions more. It is impossible to accurately quantify human suffering due to conflict. To take one indicator – it has been suggested that, in the last ten years, over two million children have died in conflicts, more than one million have been orphaned and more than six million have been disabled or seriously injured.
The media’s role in this is central and will be examined in more detail in Part Two. Ofcourse conflicts do not fall into neat typological categories. Conventionally, it used to be thought that wars between states have a beginning, when war is declared, a middle when organised fighting takes place, and an end, when either one side secures victory and imposes its settlement or peace is negotiated. Modern conflicts, including those between states as well as those internal to states, often follow a different pattern. Violence can be spasmodic and appear almost random it breaks out, subsides and breaks out again. The presence of international peacekeepers can prevent organised violence, but the potential for violence remains ever present.[footnoteRef:1] [1: https://www.e-ir.info/2010/08/28/the-role-of-media-in-peace-building-conflict-management-and-prevention/ dated on 09/09/19.]
Probably the most important event in terms of the way conflicts were perceived as priorities by the international community followed the first Gulf conflict when the Kurdish community of northern Iraq rebelled and were attacked by Saddam Hussein’s state. As refugees flooded to the border they received blanket and distressing coverage in the international news media. NGOs and civil society called for intervention in the face of apparent indifference by the western governments who had led the prosecution of the war. Having ejected the Iraqis from Kuwait, the dominant coalition members, particularly the United States, Britain and France, had no desire to intervene further in the affairs of Iraq. The displacement of the Kurds was an internal issue for Iraq and the refugee problem was for Turkey to deal with. Under the classic Westphalian principle of state sovereignty there was no mandate for other governments to intervene.
The international media can also complicate attempts to resolve conflicts as their actions can engender resentment among local people at the editorial priorities of the media organisations. Modern communities are very sophisticated in their understanding of the media and its potential power.
The Balkan conflicts demonstrated the growing recognition of the importance of local media coverage in shaping and developing the conflict on the ground. This has been best documented in Mark Thompson’s ground breaking account of the role of the local media in former Yugoslavia, Forging War, which documents how the media aided and abetted the destruction of Yugoslavia, the rise to power of extreme nationalism and the forging of a conflict between groups of people who had lived together peacefully all their lives.
War was neither inevitable nor the only means of resolving the conflicts that lay behind the break-up of Yugoslavia, and the local media played an important role in preparing the ground for war, by ensuring public opinion was mobilised behind the different participants. Media campaigns between rival media outlets prefigured the war itself.
This is perhaps not surprising – after all partisanship at least guarantees some kind of survival in a war zone. A non-partisan newspaper, like the Standard Times in Sierra Leone, can face problems sufficient to daunt any journalist or editor, however dedicated. The Standard Times offices were destroyed during the war and all its equipment destroyed.
In a growing number of conflicts of recent years the international community – which in this case means states acting in concert through the United Nations or regional bodies such as NATO, the European Union or the African Union, or informal coalitions – has, at some point decided to intervene in a country or countries marked by conflict. This is a comparatively recent development and in itself is a controversial decision as there are very limited grounds in international law for violating the sovereignty of another state (although this discussion is outside the scope of this pamphlet)
Suggested aims and objectives for the international community:
It is increasingly recognised that the role of the humanitarian NGO is vital. They are seen by donors as a way of implementing programmes (as an alternative to providing direct support to local political administrations). Their integration within civil society means they are often more trusted than government agencies. Their specialist skills and expertise contrast the more generalist background of many public officials.
NGOs engaged in work in conflict areas need to have an information strategy of their own. Firstly, people in a conflict are very insecure and the arrival of a bewildering array of NGOs, each with their own approach, logo and acronyms can arouse all kinds of concerns and confusion.
The particular role of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) needs to be understood here. The ICRC has come under strong criticism for its policy of confidentiality about the missions it undertakes and has itself apologised for the silence it maintained over the Nazi concentration camps.
Suggested aims and objectives for humanitarian NGOs:
The media, whether local or international, will always face a considerable challenge in trying to cover conflict. There will inevitably be commercial pressure to focus on the immediate, most violent or dramatic incidents, at the expense of explaining the background and issues that may underpin the conflict.
policy makers (including combatants) have a role in providing the circumstances in which the media can operate, a high responsibility falls on journalists and editors themselves.
For local media the problems are extremely complex. Local journalists and their families are far more exposed to intimidation and violence than international journalists who can move in and out of conflict zones. The media itself is likely to be highly partisan by choice, funding or as a result of intimidation.
One obvious option is for local media to form partnerships with the international media, sharing and developing programme ideas, access to donor initiatives and so on. While the international organisation is likelier to be stronger in its overall professionalism and technical resources, the local media will have the contacts and knowledge on the ground that the internationals lack. The international broadcast media can also offer rebroadcast arrangements to boost local media.
Local media should also consider how they can co-operate with each other to reduce costs and increase their economic viability. Such measures might include sharing printing facilities for newspapers or developing local production facilities for the broadcast media. Media organisations could also sponsor media centres (with international donor support) to act as centres of excellence and places to share and exchange experience of media development.
Suggested aims and objectives for international and local media:
Every conflict is unique. Any general recommendations made in this publication need to take account of the specific circumstances of each conflict. It is clear that the media, and local media in particular, play a central role in resolving conflict or at the very least, moving from a violent to non-violent phase. Consequently the international community, peacekeeping forces, donors, humanitarian organisations and media development agencies must all consider how to interact with the local media community.
This is a complex subject with no easy answers. However, much can be done by simple acts of co-ordination and by building effective partnerships between peacekeepers, UN agencies, NGOs and the media, such as the ‘Partnership for Media and Conflict Prevention in West Africa’. Many lessons have been learnt over the past fifteen years – our task now is to apply those lessons to avoid the mistakes of the past.
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