FAR-REACHING ‘FOURTH ESTATE’ MERITS INTERNATIONAL FUNDING, PARTICIPANTS IN MEETING

ON ‘MEDIA AND COMMUNICATIONS IN PEACEBUILDING’ DECIDE AMID CONFLICTING VIEWS

Views Expressed at Conference Be Compiled into Document on ‘The Way Forward’

Media in post-conflict countries, an institution at once praised and reviled by conference participants for lacking objectivity and professionalism, on the one hand, while having the potential to unite people, on the other, was nonetheless touted by all sides today as worthy of international funding because its far reach -- if properly harnessed -– had the power to repair broken societies and make everyday people feel a part of the peace process.

The role of media and communications in peacebuilding was the focus of a day-long conference organized jointly by the Department of Information and the Peacebuilding Support Office, which was the first at the United Nations to address that role in the context of post-conflict societies.

Kiyo Akasaka, Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, said in a brief opening statement that the media had long been an element of United Nations field operations, beginning in 1989, when the Organization’s peacekeepers in Namibia had begun using radio with great success.  Since then, the use of radio was common in peacekeeping and it had become such a popular and credible source of information that, in places like the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Radio Okapi was said to help “create a sense of national unity”.  In Cambodia, radio messages had been instrumental in turning out the vote for a crucial election in the 1990s.

Often, however, support for media and communications evaporated once peacekeepers left a country, he said.  For instance, during Timor-Leste’s transition from the peacekeeping to the peacebuilding phase, the fate of United Nations Radio in that country had become a source of concern for the Department.  It was common in places where the host country lacked media expertise or resources for such initiatives to founder if the Organization pulled its funding, and even when radio was widely recognized as a positive force for shoring up governance.

Both Mr. Akasaka and Jane Holl Lute, Assistant Secretary-General for Peacebuilding Support, were on hand to welcome the dozens of journalists, civil society organizations, public officials and United Nations staff from peacebuilding and peacekeeping participating in the event.  Discussions ranged from how the international community could help Governments meet their communications challenges, to how it could help media professionals rebuild the institution of media in post-conflict situations.

Margaret Novicki, Communication Campaigns Chief of the Department of Public Information, who moderated a panel discussion involving the Information Ministers of Burundi and Sierra Leone and the Permanent Representative of Timor-Leste, noted that, just as the media could promote good news, it could also be a source of rumour and deliberate misinformation.

The panellists explained that, in countries emerging from conflict, social institutions such as the media were governed by legal frameworks that were either weak or non-existent.  As a result, there were few guarantees to protect journalists from persecution by powerful personalities in Government who felt threatened by them.

Offering their views from the vantage of the media practitioner, a panel of four journalists and media activists from Nepal, El Salvador, Kosovo and Liberia discussed their need for finance, and what to do about the loss of independence resulting from an inordinate reliance on donor funding.  In some post-conflict countries, explained Carlos Dada, Editor of El Salvador’s Web-based El Faro, funding from local sources was hard to come since those in power made some advertisers fear being seen as sympathetic to so-called “bad media”.

Binod Bhattarai, another panellist and Director of the Centre for Investigative Journalism of Nepal, asked the international community to advocate more strongly in favour of transforming “State media” into “public service media”, arguing that donors should give up earmarking funds for purposes that were too narrow -– such as projects focusing only on the Millennium Development Goals, or good governance, for example.  That funding should be allotted to resolve the larger question of developing a well-informed populace.  Greater leeway should be given to local media in producing their own content, because funding was often withheld from recipients who did not demonstrate enough willingness to highlight issues of interest to the donors.

Garentina Kraja, a journalist with Kosovo’s Koha Ditore newspaper, said it was important that the international community understand the enormous influence to be had in setting the standard for media in post-conflict situations.  Media development should be approached strategically and funding for it should be transparent.  Concurring, Rodney Sieh, Editor of Front Page Africa, an online news source in Liberia known for its political exposés, said the media in poor countries succumbed easily to bribery, resulting in a muffled press.  International donors needed to spend money on training leaders in post-conflict situations in the “three T’s” -– trust, transparency and tolerance of the media.

Capping the day’s events was a five-member panel of media experts from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Bank and two civil society organizations -– Search for Common Ground and Centre for Innovation for Media, Conflict and Peacebuilding of the United States Institute of Peace.

Several among them noted that “media development” was hardly discussed in the context of peacebuilding processes at the United Nations, and lamented that media-development practitioners had so far been unable to articulate the rightful role of media in societies torn by war.  Almost every speaker in the panel conceded a lack of rigour on their part in framing the debate, which often resulted in media development being forgotten or shunted aside.

William Orme, Media Development Adviser at UNDP’s Democratic Governance Group, remarked that, although the United Nations peacekeeping budget made up at least half the Organization’s total budget, the Peacekeeping Department’s communications operation had no “coherent look” despite the millions of dollars spent.  The Department did a good job, but because its media work was viewed as an add-on rather than a serious programmatic task, “the United Nations is not in the position to take yes as an answer” when approached by post-conflict countries seeking help to continue the valuable service provided by radio and other types of mass media.

Earlier in the day, Yukio Takasu, Permanent Representative of Japan, whose country is the current Chair of the Peacebuilding Commission, said that, in 40 per cent of cases, peace agreements broke down within 10 years of being signed.  The media, while instrumental in holding Governments accountable, did not guarantee a functioning democracy; for that, there must be a vibrant civil society and an active opposition.  The media could help by sharing the fruits of peace so that ordinary people throughout a country could feel that “peace had arrived”.

Under-Secretary-General Akasaka said at the end of the conference that the rich discussion today would be incorporated into an informal summary, to be prepared by the Department of Public Information, and would be shared with the Peacebuilding Commission.  That summary, containing suggestions on the “way forward”, was expected to be shared with the General Assembly, through its Committee on Information.

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For information media • not an official record