Professional Documents
Culture Documents
PDF Reporting Human Rights Conflicts and Peacebuilding Critical and Global Perspectives Ibrahim Seaga Shaw Ebook Full Chapter
PDF Reporting Human Rights Conflicts and Peacebuilding Critical and Global Perspectives Ibrahim Seaga Shaw Ebook Full Chapter
https://textbookfull.com/product/biota-grow-2c-gather-2c-cook-
loucas/
https://textbookfull.com/product/interdisciplinary-perspectives-
on-human-dignity-and-human-rights-hoda-mahmoudi/
https://textbookfull.com/product/bernard-shaw-on-religion-the-
critical-shaw-shaw/
https://textbookfull.com/product/global-citizenship-education-
critical-and-international-perspectives-abdeljalil-akkari/
Human Rights Education and Peacebuilding A comparative
study 1st Edition Holland Tracey Martin J Paul
https://textbookfull.com/product/human-rights-education-and-
peacebuilding-a-comparative-study-1st-edition-holland-tracey-
martin-j-paul/
https://textbookfull.com/product/global-health-and-security-
critical-feminist-perspectives-1st-edition-colleen-omanique/
https://textbookfull.com/product/journalism-for-social-change-in-
asia-reporting-human-rights-1st-edition-scott-downman/
https://textbookfull.com/product/religion-education-and-human-
rights-theoretical-and-empirical-perspectives-1st-edition-anders-
sjoborg/
https://textbookfull.com/product/the-united-nations-and-human-
rights-a-critical-appraisal-2nd-edition-frederic-megret/
REPORTING HUMAN
RIGHTS, CONFLICTS,
AND PEACEBUILDING
CRITICAL AND GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES
Edited by
IBRAHIM SEAGA SHAW
and SENTHAN SELVARAJAH
Reporting Human Rights, Conflicts, and
Peacebuilding
Ibrahim Seaga Shaw • Senthan Selvarajah
Editors
Reporting Human
Rights, Conflicts, and
Peacebuilding
Critical and Global Perspectives
Editors
Ibrahim Seaga Shaw Senthan Selvarajah
Right to Access Information Centre for Media, Human Rights
Commission (RAIC) and Peacebuilding
Freetown, Sierra Leone London, UK
This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature
Switzerland AG.
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Foreword by Steven Youngblood
For those who study and teach media and peacebuilding, Reporting
Human Rights, Conflicts, and Peacebuilding: Critical and Global
Perspectives is like a package under the tree at Christmas. And it’s not a
package with underwear and socks, but is instead the shiny toy that you’ve
been impatiently seeking for many years.
As a teacher and practitioner of peace journalism, I’ve had to piece
together lectures on contemporary issues that tie together theory and
practice. With this book, I now have timely, relevant chapters that will
provide a solid foundation for these lectures. Many valuable discussions
are expertly framed inside this book. For example, how do journalists
cover human rights abuses in IDP camps? How can media be re-designed
in humanitarian interventions? How can exiled journalists be effective
change agents? Can human rights journalism be practiced in China? The
answers to these questions, and many more, are adroitly addressed by
internationally-recognized experts in peacebuilding and media such as
Jake Lynch, Jacob Udo-Udo Jacob, Stuart Allan, and Ibrahim Seaga
Shaw.
While each chapter is laudable, I am especially enthused about
Chaps. 4 and 7. Chapter 4 discusses media and what author Matthew
Charles calls Colombia’s “after war.” In the introduction to the chapter,
he discusses how war is framed through an international journalism/
parachute reporting lens. As an alternative, he discusses journalism
which “extends beyond neutrality and detachment of bearing witness…
towards advocacy and involved participation.” Charles also presents
the interesting, and potentially controversial, concept of “journalism as
v
vi FOREWORD BY STEVEN YOUNGBLOOD
This work would not have been possible without the enthusiasm, support
and cooperation of the chapter contributors, so we owe them a big thanks.
Our sincere and special thanks go to Professor Steven L. Youngblood for
writing the foreword for this book. We would like to express our gratitude
and appreciation to the team at Palgrave Macmillan for all their hard work,
support and expertise. We are grateful to Lucy Batrouney, Commissioning
Editor (Journalism, Media and Communication), and Mala Sanghera-
Warren, Editorial Assistant (Journalism, Media and Communication), at
Palgrave Macmillan, for their commitment, advice and support to success-
fully complete this book project. We also wish to acknowledge the support
given by Heloise Harding, Editorial Assistant (Journalism, Media and
Communication), and Carolyn Zhang, Editorial Assistant (Humanities
and Social Sciences). We also acknowledge the invaluable comments pro-
vided by Palgrave’s anonymous reviewers, most of which we have taken
on board. We are grateful to Mr. V. Vinodh Kumar at SPi Content
Solutions – SPi Global for his excellent editing of this manuscript and for
providing direction and guidance throughout the process. Finally, a bou-
quet of special thanks goes to our colleagues at the International Peace
Research Association (IPRA), especially the Media and Conflicts
Commission for their tremendous support and encouragement in the
publication process.
Ibrahim Seaga Shaw
Senthan Selvarajah
vii
Contents
ix
x Contents
xiii
xiv NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
Fig. 7.1 How long have you been working as a journalist? 111
Fig. 8.1 Themes about migration featured in Italian newspapers
from 2015 to 2016 (based on Barretta and Milazzo 2016) 121
Fig. 8.2 Views of Muslims more negative in eastern and
southern Europe (based on Pew Research Center 2016) 127
Fig. 8.3 Negative opinions about Roma and Muslims in several
European nations (based on Pew Research Center 2016) 128
Fig. 15.1 Do you discuss politics more on Facebook than offline? 251
Fig. 15.2 Is it easier to discuss politics on Facebook than offline? 255
xix
List of Tables
xxi
CHAPTER 1
I. S. Shaw
Right to Access Information Commission (RAIC), Freetown, Sierra Leone
S. Selvarajah (*)
Centre for Media, Human Rights and Peacebuilding, London, UK
conflicts since 1999. While non-state based conflicts have increased from
47 in 2013 to 62 in 2016, the events of September 11 and the resultant
wars in Afghanistan and in Iraq have added a new dimension to the prob-
lem, with Islamist extremist doctrine related confrontations also evolving
during this period.
The events of September 11 and recent acts of terrorism in London,
Madrid, Sydney, Paris, Brussels, Berlin, and so on have also created a
greater awareness of the modern political economy of war and the linkages
between forced migrants, diaspora communities, human trafficking, crimi-
nal networks, money laundering, and the existence of international insur-
gent cells around the world. Moreover, it is obvious that a new multi-polar
world order is in formation, as a resurgent Russia, China, Europe, India,
and South Africa, along with other emerging great powers gain ground on
the global stage. While several civil wars that commenced during the past
decades have not come to an end, new civil wars, some of them related to
terrorism such as El-Shahab in Somalia, Boko Haram in Nigeria, Islamic
State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in Syria and Iraq and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan
have started and are in fact still very much alive.
Samuel Huntington’s (1996) idea of ‘clash of civilizations’ between the
West and Islam, in that the Islamic world, which is now perceived as tar-
get, and not helper, in ‘the war on terror’, has since the end of the Cold
War, and in particular after 9/11, replaced the former ‘Soviet Union’ as
the new ‘uncivilized’ enemy of the ‘civilized’ Western world (Shaw 2012,
p. 510). However, what Huntington appeared to have ignored is the fact
that both freedom of expression and freedom of religion are part of the
universal human rights doctrine albeit they are often considered as Western
Liberal values. Yet, Huntington’s prediction in his 1996 seminal study
that ‘culture’ is replacing ‘ideology’ as the new battle ground for global
conflicts was all but ignored until the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the
US. Following the Paris terror attacks in November 2015, which claimed
about 129 lives and dozens seriously injured, Pope Francis described this
new war as the ‘Third World War’, which claimed yet another 38 lives in
the terrorist attacks in Brussels on 22 March 2016 (Shaw 2017).
At the same time, there is an increasing number of conflicts between coun-
tries, as well as transnational risks and humanitarian disasters. The notion of a
risk society is often limited to Ulrich Beck’s (2003) idea of ‘manufactured
uncertainties’ as they relate to invisible environmental issues such as climate
change and biodiversity loss that have ‘short and long term effects on plants,
animals, and people’. However, as Shaw (2016) argues, what has been ignored
is the broader conceptualisation of risk beyond the parameters of ‘manufactured
INTRODUCTION: REPORTING HUMAN RIGHTS, CONFLICTS… 3
Despite criticism of media’s capacity for setting the agenda for policy
makers to address or prevent humanitarian crisis, some studies (Livingston
1997; Wolfsfeld 1997; Strömbäck 2008; Davis 2010; Shaw 2012; Cottle
2013; Robinson 2013) have highlighted the power and ability of the
media to shape policy responses to humanitarian crises and violent con-
flicts. The theoretical and empirical reflections in the chapters in this vol-
ume underline the role and responsibility of the media to construct the
reality of conflict situations, human rights violations, and underlying
causes, and to construct options for peacebuilding and human rights
interventions in conflict and post-conflict societies in a legitimate and
appropriate manner.
The protection and promotion of human rights through the media are
embedded in two international human rights documents: (1) Article 19 of
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and (2) Article
19(2) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
It is on this basis that activities such as exposing information on human
rights violations, rallying up the human rights organisations, strengthen-
ing civil society participation, and enhancing tolerance and social cohesion
are expected from the media. This makes us realise the necessity for
strengthening Track II Diplomatic Activities locally and internationally by
extending activities for creating discourse on “Human Rights and Peace”
by media research institutions, beyond undertaking just academic activi-
ties. It will be of great benefit if media research institutions undertake
research, training, and knowledge management activities in coordination
with other Non-Governmental Organisations, including the UN, which
undertakes Track II Diplomatic Activities, and translate their research into
action-oriented projects.
In his ground-breaking book on Human Rights Journalism, Shaw
(2012, pp. 46–47) warns that ‘if journalism is to play any role in society, it
should focus on deconstructing the underlying structural causes of politi-
cal violence such as poverty, famine, exclusion of minorities, youth mar-
ginalisation, human trafficking, forced labour, forced migration and the
like—rather than merely the attitudes and behaviours of the elite that
benefit from direct and uncensored violence’. Yet, as Shaw (2012) argues,
while there is increasing research on the role of the media in the reporting
of human rights in conflict and non-conflict situations, there is very lim-
ited research on the role of the media in addressing and preventing human
rights violations within a just peace and peacebuilding framework. It is the
aim of this book to address this scholarly deficit.
INTRODUCTION: REPORTING HUMAN RIGHTS, CONFLICTS… 5
In Chap. 10, Ibrahim Seaga Shaw and Di Luo examine the theory and prac-
tice of Human Rights Journalism in the context of China with a special focus
on the international and Chinese press coverage of the Beijing Olympics.
The analysis is done using the interviews conducted among the Chinese
journalists as well as the foreign journalists who are working or used to
working in China. The findings from the Chinese journalists show the politi-
cisation of human rights in China, the Chinese journalists’ views of the roles
of the news media in the context of China, and their opinions on the theo-
risation of Human Rights Journalism. Findings from the foreign journalists
reveal the political and cultural challenges of reporting human rights issues
in China and also their opinions and suggestions on the theorisation of
Human Rights Journalism. Chapter 11 by Jacinta Mwende Maweu exam-
ines how two daily newspapers in Kenya (The Daily Nation and The People
Daily) covered the International Criminal Court (ICC) cases against
President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy, William Ruto. She argues that the
mainstream media in Kenya were used by the political and economic elite to
play a propaganda role of portraying the President and his deputy, whose
cases have since been dropped as the “worthy victims” while portraying the
thousands of voiceless Kenyans who were directly affected by the 2007/2008
post-election violence as “unworthy victims”. In the following chapter,
Georgina Sabawu and Octavious Chido Masunda analyse the news coverage
of The Herald and the NewsDay during the period of the Zimbabwe
Government of National Unity (GNU) 2009–2014. They argue that peace-
building played second fiddle to political, structural, historical, and material
factors that influenced the two dailies to report peace issues in a biased way
that prejudiced Zimbabweans. They find that it was impossible for the two
dailies to disregard the structural and historical factors that inform the major-
ity power stakeholders that control the media houses. Because government
controls the majority shareholding in the Zimpapers which owns The Herald,
that affected the way it framed peacebuilding which in this case favoured the
Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU–PF) over the
Movement for Democratic Change – Tsvangirai (MDC–T). Material factors
also affected the way peacebuilding was framed in the two dailies.
Part IV—The Challenges of Reporting Human Rights and Conflicts
in the Digital Age: The four chapters in this final part of the book focus
on the political, economic, and technological challenges associated with
bearing witness to human rights violations within just peace frameworks.
In their Chap. 13, Anna Gormley and Stuart Allan provide an impor-
tant contribution to theory-building in human rights reporting by
INTRODUCTION: REPORTING HUMAN RIGHTS, CONFLICTS… 9
References
Beck, U. (2003). An Interview with Ulrich Beck on Fear and Risk Society. The
Hedgehog Review, 5, 96–107.
Cottle, S. (2013). Journalists Witnessing Disaster: From the Calculus of Death to
the Injunction to Care. Journalism Studies, 14(2), 232–248.
10 I. S. SHAW AND S. SELVARAJAH
Introduction
Media’s power of influencing the activities and issues of people in their life
provides a responsible role to the media to perform its role in a construc-
tive manner rather than creating room for misery and suffering. Media’s
engagement in “Committed Journalism” based on democracy, free choice,
openness, morality and serving the common good is the place where
responsibility and accountability are given from (Lusgarten and Debrix
2005, p. 365). It is on this basis that media’s responsibility to promote
and protect human rights is emphasised. Not only the “Committed
Journalism” but also the “watchdog role” and “investigative role” of jour-
nalism imply the responsibility role of the media to uncover wrongdoings,
including human rights abuses, corruption and repressions (De Burgh
2000). Mass media have the power and ability to expose the infringements
of human rights and in the event of failure of the media to do so, it may
I. S. Shaw
Right to Access Information Commission (RAIC), Freetown, Sierra Leone
S. Selvarajah (*)
Centre for Media, Human Rights and Peacebuilding, London, UK
Garial.
Directeur trafic succursale Bordeaux
Maison Bordes.