Why development or peace journalism? The real issue is independent Pacific journalism

IT IS astounding how misinformed and shallow the thinking of many journalists around the Pacific has been when faced with a quickfire debate on such terms as “development journalism” and “peace journalism”. Simply because one Canadian media educator trumpeted a discredited interpretation of “development journalism” - which Westerners like to project - based around the notion of a compliant form of media partnership with governments as promoted by past political leaders of Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore. But Café Pacific argues there are other interpretations - and the one David Robie has always supported is a form of investigative journalism that empowers citizens to make real change in their lives.

One of the best known exponents of this form of journalism is Kunda Dixit, editor-in-chief of the Nepali Times and a longtime senior editor of the Inter Press Service. His ideas were expressed in his book Dateline Earth: Journalism as if the planet mattered (republished in 2010 and in a sequel, A People War, which was reviewed in Pacific Journalism Review). There are many other advocates and it was a hallmark of the independent brand of journalism of the long missed Gemini News Service - once widely used by Pacific media  and now currently the target of a revival project.

Another prime example of this form of development journalism was through campaigning and courageous newspapers such as the original Malaya ("Freedom") while struggling against the Marcos dictatorship in the Philippines. Such cutting edge journalism has now been carried on in contemporary times by the nonprofit Philippine Centre for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ), which has led investigations against corruption, including a famous expose of how a then presidential Anti-Crime Commission tortured two 12-year-old boys suspected of a role in a kidnapping.

Some of David Robie’s concepts of “development”, “revolutionary” and “transitional” journalism - as taught for many years in the Pacific - are explained in book chapters such as his South Pacific notions of the Fourth Estate: A collision of media models, culture and values and Media and development in the Pacific: reporting the why, how and what now published in 2008. Both of these chapters explored his "Four Worlds news values" model. However, rather than using the term "development", which is generally so misunderstood and maligned in Western media discourse, "deliberative journalism" is better and far more appropriate as a concept - based on rationality, accountability, inclusion and fairness in a a strategy for media citizen empowerment. An excellent book on the topic is Angela Romano's International Journalism and Democracy: Civic Engagement Models from Around the World (2010).

About “peace journalism”: this approach has gained traction in the South Pacific in the last couple of years as represented in two conferences at the University of the South Pacific in 2010, and also through research-led initiatives by former journalist advocates, such as Associate Professor Jake Lynch at the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at Sydney University, and political studies lecturer Dr Heather Devere of the National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (NCPACS) at Otago University in New Zealand. These initiatives have been parallel to a growing awareness of conflict resolution developments in the wake of the Bougainville civil war, ethnic warfare in the Solomon Islands and four coups in Fiji.

Mainstream media is too heavily biased in favour of  “official” sources embedded in power elites and not enough attention is given to the parallel “alternative” people's sources, leaving a fragmented understanding of issues. Spectacular failures of the "Western" media model have included the reporting of both the invasions and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan – the destruction of nations to "save" them in the so-called “war on terror”. Other failures closer to home have been the reporting of the Bougainville conflict and the current one-sided reporting of post-coup Fiji.

In contrast to a negative view of development journalism and/or peace journalism, both notions are variations of “good” journalism - contextual, balanced and truthful. Peace journalism in a nutshell (as defined by Dov Shinar in Peace Journalism: The State of the Art, 2007):

1.    Presenting causes of conflict and options on all sides – realistically and transparent.
2.    Giving voice to all rival parties.
3.    Offering creative ideas for conflict resolution, development, peacemaking and peacekeeping.
4.    Exposing lies and cover-up attempts.
5.    Paying attention to post-conflict development.

David Robie’s own ideas about peace journalism in a Pacific context are outlined in his 2011 article Conflict reporting in the South Pacific: Why peace journalism has a chance and he talked about this in a Radio Australia interview. Also, listen to his Radio New Zealand Checkpoint interview.

Essentially David advocates a homegrown brand of vigorous, ethical and independent "Pacific" journalism - as demonstrated in his books The Pacific Journalist and Mekim Nius.

• Issues such as journalism styles and methodologies will be discussed at the upcoming Media and Democracy conference hosted by the University of the South Pacific on 5-6 September 2012. Selected double blind peer-reviewed articles will be published in a special edition of Pacific Journalism Review.

• David Robie profile

Top Asia-Pacific editor advocates paradigm shift to 'peace journalism' training - and JEAA 2010

Nepali Times editor and author Kunda Dixit surveys some of the photos for his exhibition at the Investigative Journalism conference in Auckland next weekend. Photo: David Robie/PMC

KUNDA DIXIT believes there needs to be a paradigm shift in journalism training from war correspondent to peace correspondent. The Nepali Times editor and investigative journalist is keynote speaker for the Media, Investigative Journalism and Technology conference at AUT University next weekend and his Frames of War photojournalism exhibition is also being shown. Don't miss out - register today!

The power of a war-and-peace picture – all 179 of them

By Courtney Wilson

Images of Nepal’s civil war going on show in New Zealand next weekend illustrate the aftermath of war in a way words cannot.

Kunda Dixit, Nepali Times editor and coordinator of the Frames of War exhibit, which will be opened at AUT University on December 4, says a picture does not tell a thousand words – it shows them.

“Because of Nepal’s low literacy rate, the picture is the only way to communicate,” he says.

“At many exhibition venues we saw young school girls reading aloud the captions of the photographs to their illiterate grandparents.”

The Frames of War exhibition contains pictures of the Nepali people during and after the 10-year-long People’s War, which ended in 2006. Dixit and his team – including noted Bangladeshi photographer Shahidul Alam and war photographer Shyam Tekwani – looked at more than 3000 images and chose 179 for their exhibition and their book trilogy called The People War.

The exhibition and books do not have pictures of actual battles, partly because most of them took place at night. Dixit believes war journalism is not supposed to be about pictures of battles, it should be about how war affects ordinary people.

The collaboration attempts to make up for the gap in media coverage of the Nepal war by taking the role of a “peace correspondent”, trying to focus on the human cost, the effect on civilians, the women and children.

Most affected
“In all modern wars, they are the ones who are affected the most,” says Dixit.

Dixit thinks there needs to be a paradigm shift in journalism training from war correspondent to peace correspondent.

“Reporters who go to war are almost celebrities. They cover the war as a series of battles, they count the body bags and chronicle the carnage,” says Dixit.

“War correspondents focus on the battle plans, the strategy of the warring sides, and the hardwares of killing.

“A peace correspondent tries to look at the human cost so that the politicians who lead people to war understand the pain they have unleashed, or covering stories that help in the reconciliation process rather than polarising society.”

Dixit suggests studying the roots of violence to discover the definition of peace and that journalists should be taught non-violence through leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and Aung San Suu Kyi.

“Violence is not just war; there is violence in our speech, violence against nature, violence in the home. You don’t have to be physically violent to be violent. Peace is not automatic, one has to fight for it, struggle to nurture it.

Bias for justice
“Media should be communicating these ideas. Media should have a bias for justice and peace, while adhering to the universal values and rule of journalism and keeping our credibility intact.”

The image Dixit finds the most powerful in the exhibit is of a young woman hugging the body of her policeman husband surrounded by the bodies of his colleagues.

“There are many that are so dramatic that they still make me emotional to look at them,” says Dixit.

“It showed the cost and waste of the war, the effect on civilians even when combatants were killed.”

When Frames of War was first shown to the Nepali people, the war had only been over for a little more than a year. Dixit felt the images may incite anger or renew old pain but instead witnessed a lack of revenge.

“Even among the combatants there wasn’t much residual feeling of “enmity”.

“This was remarkably different from other war zones I have covered, and I think it will help in the reconciliation process in Nepal.”

Dixit is the 2010 Asian Journalism Fellow, sponsored by the Asia New Zealand Foundation, and is a keynote speaker at the Pacific Media Centre’s first Media, Investigative Journalism and Technology Conference which will be held at AUT University on December 4-5.

The Frames of War exhibition, showing some 45 images out of the original selection, will open to the public at 6pm on December 4 at WT005 on the ground floor of the AUT Tower Building, Auckland City campus. It will run for a week.

Courtney Wilson is a final year Bachelor of Communication Studies student journalist on internship with the Pacific Media Centre.

• Conference programme and website
• Robust investigative journalism conference

Journalism education highlights
HIGHLIGHTS at the dynamic JEAA conference at the University of Technology, Sydney, conference this week included ABC managing director Mark Scott speaking on the changing nature of news, tweeting the news and what the future holds for journalism. It was a digital optimist's view.

Another optimistic view came from Sophie Black from Crikey in a following industry plenary. While many of the industry training heavyweights gave "boring" overviews out-of-touch with the critical challenges facing global journalism, Black said having an online presence was essential for journalism graduates.

One of the Reportage team covering the conference, Anokhee Shah, reports:

Nick Davies, author of Flat Earth News, and Ginny Dougary were audio-linked from the UK to JEAA2010 for 90 minutes of wit, humour and insight into where journalism practice is heading.

The quality of our output as journalists has declined largely as a result of commercialisation- the interaction between journalism and commerce- and the impact of the internet on the relationship between journalists and the public sphere, says Davies.

Advertisers are moving away from mass-media but the problem with the mass-media on the internet is that people won’t pay to read general news if they can get the story for free.

But the public will pay for information that they do not have access to otherwise [Read on].

• JEAA 2010 conference website with live feeds
• In conversation with Nick Davies
  

War reporting, scams, global warming probes among top investigative journalism case studies

Photographer Amrit Gurung presents a copy of the book A People War featuring many of the “peace” photographs in Kunda Dixit’s photojournalism exhibition of the decade-long civil war in Nepal to Hemanta who was portrayed in the same spot on the cover.

Pacific Media Centre

KEY Asia-Pacific, Australian and New Zealand investigative journalists and researchers will gather at AUT University next month for a media “conversation” that will feature diverse issues such as war reporting, scams and global warming probes.

They will also consider the future of independent journalism and map out a strategy for more robust inquiry.

The two-day conference at AUT University on 4/5 December 2010, organised by the Pacific Media Centre, will host an investigative “masterclass” for young journalists, New Zealand’s first seminar on peace journalism, and screen groundbreaking documentaries or multimedia presentations on mining and Kanak independence in New Caledonia, Māori land rights in the Far North, and climate change.

Five leading Pacific Islands investigative journalists are also participating in the conference.

“This is a niche conference and one that features a range of innovative speakers and challenging investigation case studies,” says conference chair Associate Professor David Robie, director of the PMC.

“But there is also a very practical and achievable goal. We hope a group may emerge from this conference to provide more space and support for investigative and probing journalism in New Zealand and the Pacific.”

Television New Zealand Pacific correspondent Barbara Dreaver is the latest keynote speaker to join the Media, Investigative Journalism and Technology conference. She has broken many stories around the region and investigated many key issues.

She joins Kunda Dixit, editor of the Nepali Times and an Asia-Pacific investigative journalist; New Zealand investigative journalist Nicky Hager; and Professor Wendy Bacon, director of the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism and who runs a global environmental investigative journalism programme.

Other Pacific participants include Koroi Hawkins, chief of staff of Television One Solomon Islands; Patrick Matbob of Divine Word University in Madang, Papua New Guinea; Kalafi Moala, publisher of the Taimi Media Network (Tonga); and Shailendra Singh, of the University of the South Pacific.

The PMC is also hosting a masterclass in investigative journalism for student journalists and younger journalists facilitated by a team of international investigative journalists, including Dixit, Bacon and Dr Kayt Davies; and a specialist peace journalism seminar, organised by Dr Heather Devere of the National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies and Rukhsana Aslam, a peace journalism educator from Pakistan.

Freelance war correspondent Jon Stephenson and strategic analyst Dr Paul Buchanan will give insightful papers on New Zealand and the so-called war on terror and embedded journalism.

Exhibitions of photojournalism by a collective facilitated by Kunda Dixit covering the decade-long Maoist civil war in Nepal - "Frames of War" - and Ngapuhi social issues photographer John Miller (featuring the little-known Ngatihine land rights struggle) plus workshops about challenging documentaries by Jim Marbrook and Selwyn Manning are part of the programme.

A seminar about the making of the award-winning film about global warming There Once was an Island: Te Henua e Noho is also featured.

A new Pasifika media portal will be launched at the conference – it will go “live” then and replace the current PMC website: www.pmc.aut.ac.nz

Don't miss this rare opportunity. Registration for the conference is now open.

More information on the conference website (and registration details): www.ciri.org.nz/conference2/index.html
The Pacific Media Watch database is at: www.pacmediawatch.aut.ac.nz

• Registration for two days: $150
• Masterclass registration only: $50
• Contact: Conference organiser Andrea Steward 0273382700