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Overview over the 2008 Conference results
Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum 2008, 2-4 June, 2008, Bonn, Germany
The relation between the media and violent conflict
What is the relation between the media and violent conflict? Do the media have a responsibility to prevent the outbreak of violence? Moreover, can they contribute to peace-building activities? And if so: how? These were the core questions addressed and discussed in the "Global Media Forum 2008", which was organized by the Deutsche Welle in cooperation with a number of international organizations, development agencies, NGOs, research institutes, political foundations and broadcasting associations. The conference took place in Bonn from 2 to 4 June 2008. Speakers and guests included journalists from print, radio, television and online, as well as development practitioners, academics, government representatives and media activists from all together 70 different countries. The role of the media in conflict and peacebuilding was thus reflected upon from an international as well as explicitly inter-disciplinary perspective.
The media as an agent for peace and an agent of war
Participants agreed that the impact of the media on peace and conflict dynamics should not be underestimated. Media messages not simply ‘report facts'. They also have a direct bearing and influence on the way that people think and act. In his Keynote Address State Secretary of the German Foreign Office, Georg Boomgarden, elaborated upon this observation by pointing to the both constructive as well as potentially destructive effects of the media. Journalists, in other words, may either promote peace and reconciliation or facilitate war and hatred. As it became very clear in the remainder of the conference, this Janus-faced character of the media is considerably pronounced and exacerbated by a number of recent developments in the global media-landscape.
Changes in the global media landscape
Overall, it can be stated that the media sector has witnessed a rapid growth and expansion over the past couple of years, particularly in developing regions. An increase in available channels of communication has resulted in a more diverse array of broadcasters reaching ever larger audiences. This was demonstrated not least in the overview of media developments in the Asian region provided by Indrajit Banerjee, the Secretary General of the Asian Media Information and Communication Centre (AMIC). For example, the growing importance and popularity of what he referred to as "citizens' journalism" and community-based media has, without a doubt, pluralized the media landscape, as it gives voice to a larger number of people with a diversity of viewpoints.
Certainly, the global expansion and diversification of media channels, which is especially apparent in the advent of new information and communication technologies, beholds some great potential for encouraging non-violence and peace. However, as many contributions to the conference aptly illustrated, easier access to media platforms is not always and necessarily a good thing. On the contrary, it has coincided with an increase of voices promoting hostility and violence. The workshop "terrorists online"-hosted by Deutsche Welle Distribution, Africa / Middle East-referred to manifold examples of how extremists in the Middle Eastern region use the Internet in order to widely distribute ‘hate messages'. In a similar fashion, Rose Kimotho, Managing Director of a Kenyan radio station, alluded to the massive growth of local radio broadcasters throughout parts of Africa, which has lowered professional standards of journalism and provided many people with a means to either implicitly or explicitly advocate violence.
The media has a responsibility
Given the often detrimental effect of media messages, there was an overall consensus in the conference that journalists have a responsibility for actively challenging or at least consciously avoiding the types of broadcasts that fuel violent conflict. Hence, one of the central questions, which implicitly ran through all the session was: What can and should be done-concretely-to minimize the involvement of media outlets in war mongering whilst at the same time maximizing or enlarging the spaces available to them for promoting peacebuilding efforts? To be sure, the media, on its own, will hardly be the long-awaited panacea for ending all wars and bringing about global peace. Erlends Calabuig, Vice President for Strategy at Radio France Internationale, thus rightly cautioned that we need to be "modest in what we can achieve". Notwithstanding this caveat, however, the conference succeeded in identifying a number of conditions, ideas and recommendations for strengthening the potential contribution of the media to fostering peaceful co-existence.
Freedom of the press is essential
First, and perhaps most importantly, in order to play any constructive role at all, panellists frequently pointed out that the media needs to be independent and free. Indeed, as Georg Boomgarden had it, freedom of the press is an essential factor for ensuring a democratic culture of non-violence and peace. However, throughout the conference there recurred a number of obstacles to press freedom. Often, reporting is seriously hampered by the restriction of movement in conflict zones. Journalists are denied access to certain places. Muamar Orabi, Director General of the Palestinian television channel Watan-TV, explained how it was almost impossible for Palestinian journalists to get past checkpoints and thus into Jerusalem, Nablus, or Gaza. Similarly, the Chief Editor of an Israeli television channel, David Witzthum, spoke of the difficulties for Israeli journalists to report from places such as the West Bank or Gaza Strip.
Apart from these concrete obstacles ‘on the ground', so to say, freedom of the press is also compromised by the way in which the media often becomes instrumentalized as a mouthpiece for governmental propaganda. Focusing on the Latin American region as a case in point, this was the subject of the workshop hosted by the Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation on "populism and press freedom". As it were, political leaders who encroach upon media channels for the purpose of furthering a populist agenda seriously compromise democratic freedom. More often than not, governmental monopolization is accompanied by disciplinary sanctions in order to silence critical voices.
Although new information and communication technologies are making it increasingly difficult for governments to control the flow of information, freedom of the press remains as yet a very rarely realized value across the world. Censorship laws as well as the intimidation and harassment of journalists are the norm rather than the exception in many places. This holds true for the Asian region-as vividly illustrated by Vincent Brossel from Reporters without Borders-as it does for the African continent. Whether it was United Nations' radio reporter Claude Anthony speaking on the restrictive legal environment in Sierra Leone, journalist Itai Mushegwe on the "iron claw" of governmental control in Zimbabwe or the lawyer Delphine Djiraibé on the difficult situation in Chad: appearing as a recurrent theme throughout the conference, the lack of press freedom was lamented by many panelists.
Indeed, the number of journalists being deliberately murdered as a consequence of publishing critical information is on the rise worldwide. The consideration of methods and strategies of how to improve the safety of media workers "covering hostile environments" was thus at the heart of the workshop hosted by Committee to Protect Journalists. In the end, the conference fostered general acknowledgement of the fact that journalists work most effectively if there is-in the words of Voice of America Director Danforth W. Austin-a robust "legal environment that supports them".
How to report on violent conflict?
Freedom of the press may be an important precondition for reporting on violent conflicts in a both effective and responsible manner. In and by itself, however, a supportive political and legal environment will hardly suffice to make the media appear as an agent of peacebuilding. Here, the main part of the conference went one step further and also asked what journalists themselves could do in order to promote peace.
"Peace journalism" vs. "war journalism"
In his Keynote Address, the Secretary-General of the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union in Kuala Lumpur, David Astley, made the important distinction between "war journalism" and "peace journalism". The former uses only few sources and confines itself to simply reporting the facts on what is going on at a very particular moment in time. By contrast, the latter would seek to broaden its coverage so as to take the wider context of a conflict into account. This would include not least a detailed consideration of the root-causes of violence. "Peace journalism" thus attempts to encourage a deeper understanding of the historical, socio-political and economic background of certain events. As David Astley explained, its function is, in this sense, not simply to "inform" but also to "educate people".
A concrete example of how such a journalistic approach might look like was provided by Victor Kocher, Editor of the Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung. With reference to the Israel-Palestine conflict he also emphasized the importance of situating events within a larger context and "identifying exactly what type of conflict" one is actually covering. Arguably, however, this is a lot easier for the press than for TV journalists, who usually do not have the time to engage in any deeper analysis.
Objectivity and impartiality
Obviously, peace journalism requires an objective and impartial approach. Yet, especially when reporting from conflict zones, it is not always so easy to maintain a professional distance. Salameh B. Nematt, former Bureau-Chief of Al Hayat, was particularly outspoken against the bias prevalent in both local and international coverage of the war in Iraq. Also, journalists speaking at the workshop hosted by the Academy for Information and Communication of the German Armed Forces, which addressed the cooperation between the military and the media in war environments, warned against the practice of being "embedded"-and thus implicitly partial-when relying heavily on the armed forces.
Although there was agreement that bias should be kept to a minimum, other speakers cautioned that an entirely objective and neutral coverage of conflicts may not be really possible. David Witzthum pointed out that journalists are often not detached from the communities they report to but very much part of these, hence "they go with the grain, not against it". In a similar fashion, Jacky Sutton, the Media Project Manager of the United Nations Development Programme in Iraq, stressed that "no single journalist is going to grasp the entire truth". Every issue can be approached from many different angles and perspectives. We therefore may have to accept a diversity of viewpoints and concentrate our efforts rather on promoting professional and responsible attitudes among journalists.
"Do no harm!"
Besides reporting the wider context of situations and, if possible, remaining unbiased, the media should also-as Armen Oganesyan, Director General of Voice of Russia, put it-try to "do no harm". Journalists, that is, need to take care not to cater to widespread feelings of distrust and hatred in their respective audiences, thereby unwittingly facilitating the possible escalation of a conflict into violence. Reflecting on this, the Program Director of Al Jazeera, Aref Hijjawi, explained how his news network tried to calm religious violence during the "Danish cartoon crisis" by not unnecessarily aggravating the situation and putting the issue "into perspective". Expert advice to journalists on how to deal with such culturally sensitive problems is available through the Rapid Response Media Mechanism (RRMM) of the Alliance of Civilizations, which was presented by Emmanuel Kattan.
Whereas discussants agreed that the media needs to take account of religious and cultural sensibilities, it was also mentioned that a ‘do no harm' approach ought not to result in a kind of self-censorship, withholding factual information for the sake of preserving social harmony. As Jan Hoek, Director General of Radio Netherlands Worldwide, asked: "Where to draw the line?" There is no easy answer to this difficult question. However, if critical events are covered from the angle of ‘peace journalism', placing issues and facts within their wider context, the risk of unintentionally fuelling violence would almost certainly be minimized.
The Media as an agent for peacebuilding
The conference not only considered how the media should passively cover violent conflicts it also sought to identify concrete ways in which the media could become more directly involved in-and, indeed, actively contribute to-different peacebuilding efforts.
The media can expose wrongdoings
In any setting, but particularly in conflict and post-conflict situations, the media has the central task of uncovering war crimes, human rights violations, corruption and similar wrongdoings. According to Father Apollonaire Malu Malu, Chairperson of the Independent Electoral Commission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, by "telling the truth" the media can make a valuable contribution toward fostering peace. Moreover, as was illustrated in the workshop hosted by the Bonn International Center for Conversion (BICC) on "Resources, Conflicts and the Role of the Media", journalists can add valuable support to NGO campaigns, which seek to raise public awareness of, for example, the ways in which the global diamond trade finances violent conflicts. Awareness-raising is usually the first step toward instigating a concerted political process.
The media can contribute to early warning
The discussion also addressed the endurance of particularly the international media when covering conflict issues. Once the open exchange of violence is over, many journalists loose interest and move on to the next global hotspot. Post-conflict developments, which are often highly precarious, remain very much neglected in the international news. Quite a few speakers regretted this circumstance, for the media might well take over a useful "early warning" function, alerting international attention to the likelihood of a renewed outbreak of violence in particular places.
The media can provide a forum for dialogue and reconciliation
Henriette von Kaltenborn-Stachau of the World Bank's Communication for Governance and Accountability Program pointed out that the local media, besides other actors, plays a vital role in post-conflict reconstruction efforts. The media might provide a much-needed forum for dialogue between conflicting parties, thus serving as a bridge across cultural and religious divides. Delphine Djiraibé referred to a local radio station in Chad, which facilitated reconciliation processes and promoted a cross-community sense of shared identity. As was also stressed by Claude Anthony, local journalists may use this method to ease tensions between conflicting groups and contribute to peacebuilding.
The media can transport messages of peace and unity
Apart from providing a platform for inter-cultural exchange, the media may also directly communicate content promoting certain values, which are conducive to peacebuilding. Indeed, as John Marks, the President, and Susan Collin Marks, the Senior Vice President of Search for Common Ground, remarked in their presentation, conflict does not only, if at all, have a rational side to it, but also involves people emotionally. Precisely this emotional aspect can be addressed by certain media formats, be it for the better or worse. In terms of media contribution to peacebuilding, the workshop hosted by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) GmbH provided many examples and strategies on how ‘edutainment' formats could further agendas of non-violence. More examples were given by John Marks and Susan Collin Marks. They showed clips from TV dramas carrying messages which promote tolerance between diverse ethnic groups.
Media messages can also be used for the purpose of facilitating national unity, for example by covering certain sports events. This was argued by Sucharita Eashwar, the Regional Director of Nasscom in Bangalore, India. However, Professor Drew McDaniel-Director of the Southeast Asia Studies Program at the College of Communication, Ohio University-pointed out that the increasing fragmentation of the media landscape often coincides with a fragmentation of audiences along cultural and religious lines, which makes the promotion of cross-cultural unity via media outlets a lot more difficult.
Although the media can, in this sense, take on a useful function in spreading certain values, the workshop on "Globalization, Cultural identity and Conflict", hosted by the Asian Media Information and Communication Centre (AMIC), cautioned that we need to avoid a kind of "media imperialism", with the large international broadcasters possibly imposing their very particular Western values on the rest of the world.
The media can counter hate messages
A central question of the conference was how the responsible media could actively contribute to challenging so-called ‘hate messages', which seek to invoke hostility and violence. To this end, a number of recommendations were made by various speakers. Above all, there was a general agreement that rather than reverting to legal sanctions, hate media should be countered on the ‘free marketplace of ideas' by using the ‘better argument'. As for example Rose Kimotho had it, we need to "expose their lies" and "tell the truth" instead. A similar point was also made in the workshop on "Terrorists Online". Taking advantage of the interactive features of Web 2.0, extremists should be engaged in an argument, which effectively reveals their unfounded assumptions and misconceptions. Parallel to this, the audience ought to be better equipped to discern objective and correct information from lies and propaganda. Here, Georg Boomgaarden made the point that journalists need to promote "media literacy" on behalf of the consumers of media messages.
A concrete proposal for minimizing the potentially destructive effects of ‘hate messages' was put forward by Jan Hoek, who suggested setting up an "international media monitoring system". This could serve as a useful early warning instrument and help coordinate concerted counter-measures. Moreover, Susanne Frueh, the Chief of External Relations at the Peacebuilding Support Office of the United Nations, introduced the idea of establishing a fund for quickly allocating resources to the production of emergency information against any type of hate media.
Assisting the media in promoting peace
Finally, the conference identified some overarching measures, which ought to be taken in order to improve the capacities of international as well as local media to either directly or indirectly support peacebuilding efforts.
More journalists need to be trained
Many speakers argued that in order to make broadcasters more responsible, promote "peace journalism" and actively involve media workers in peacebuilding programs, journalists require concrete assistance. In particular, there is a clear need for setting up more capacity-building and training programs for journalists on the various ways in which the media can contribute to non-violence and peace. This is especially important in developing countries, for these are the most vulnerable to violent conflict. Not only this but, as Stephen King, the Director of the BBC World Service Trust remarked, the rapid growth of media outlets over the past couple of years has led to a large number of untrained information providers.
Media assistance is a "substantive development issue"
Furthermore, training and capacity building of media workers needs to be accompanied by providing the required technical infrastructure to responsible media outlets in developing regions, particularly in potentially unstable and/or post-conflict environments. As Susanne Frueh emphasized, "improving the media sector must be promoted as a substantive development issue".
Closer cooperation between international media broadcasters
Finally, in order to agree upon common journalistic standards and values, coordinate assistance to media sources in developing countries, and set-up international training programs for media workers from all over the world, there is a space for closer cooperation between international media broadcasters. Whether based in Asia, America, Europe or the Middle East, large broadcasting organizations should coordinate their efforts and work closely together toward the promotion of peace.
Marc von Boemcken
Impressions 
