The Hindu : The media as peacemaker

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jun 09, 2003

Opinion

Opinion - News Analysis

The media as peacemaker

By K.K.Katyal

NEW DELHI JUNE 8. An unconventional track-II to promote peace and stability in South Asia, especially to bring normalcy in the ties between the two estranged neighbours, India and Pakistan, has been launched by the South Asia Free Media Association. Set up in 2000, this organisation of presspersons held its third regional conference in Dhaka last month, focussing on the theme "media and democracy". The track II approach was implicit in the proceedings of the two earlier conferences — in July 2000 in Islamabad on "free, fair and vibrant media" and in Kathmandu in January 2002 on "media and peace". It became explicit this time because of the backdrop of positive moves — the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee's peace initiative and the ready response by his Pakistani counterpart, Mir Zaffarullah Khan Jamali, and the series of steps announced by the two sides to help ease tensions. To cite one example, the news of New Delhi's decision to resume the Delhi-Lahore bus service was received at the Dhaka conference with immense relief.

Encouraged by the success of the Dhaka conference, the SAFMA has decided to organise an India-Pakistan Dialogue in August in Islamabad to be followed by a similar exercise in New Delhi. The idea is not to confine it to presspersons but to include senior parliamentarians, experts and leading civil society lights as well.

It is unconventional because presspersons are chroniclers of all manner of developments — reporting, commenting, analysing but seldom players themselves. There had been some notable cases of journalists taking to politics but that is a different story. This will be the case of a new role by the media.

Where is the need for journalists to involve themselves in other spheres, it may be asked, when there is plenty they could do in their area of work in pursuance of the goal of peace and amity? Will they not be running the risk of ignoring their tasks? A valid question. The SAFMA has not ignored this aspect. The Dhaka Declaration, for instance, focusses on their professional responsibilities, the dos and don'ts they need to observe. Here are a few samples from the operative portion of the Declaration requiring presspersons to: 1) eschew the use of language, terminology or tone that exacerbate differences between peoples; 2) to discourage hate-preaching, distortion of national characters, xenophobia, cultural chauvinism, racism, casteism and exploitation of the poor and the marginalised; 3) to resist authoritarianism and religious extremism in any form and promote the media's function as the foremost school of good citizenship; and 4) to foster professionalism and transparency in the media.

Also, they were advised to reject the demonisation of "others" as an instrument of perpetuating conflicts, on the one hand, and to fight violence and terrorism as they undermine both democracy and freedom of the media, on the other.

No one should expect a miracle overnight or a sudden change in the tone of media coverage in the two countries. The problem is too huge, the challenge too formidable to be dented by any single initiatives. Mental blocks among media persons will not disappear suddenly. But, hopefully, the SAFMA's counsel of restraint would, in some small way, contribute to the salutary effect and, with the passage of time, widen the constituency of moderation in the media. And, the ever-increasing sections, it is hoped, would heed the SAFMA message. You may continue to see a good measure of "hostile" reports but, at the same time, there are bound to be writings abounding in sentiments of friendliness, amity and goodwill. Newspapers in both the countries are in private hands but the electronic media sector has a varying degree of government control. Will the breeze from Dhaka blow in the corridors of the official television companies?

The Bangladesh Prime Minister, Khaleda Zia, while recognising the importance of the tasks undertaken by the SAFMA, expressed the hope that it "will rise far above the current tendency of setting up an organisation with the limited aim of indulging in meetings and seminars and carry on its work and be able to create its own tradition".

The delegates from India and Pakistan met on the sidelines of the Dhaka conference for what turned out to be a thorough exchange of views, covering vast areas of the bilateral relationship. A highly useful exercise for the participants, candid but free from rancour, with the harshest of points conveyed without causing offence. The Pakistanis were keen on knowing what prompted Mr. Vajpayee to talk peace so soon after the threats of a pre-emptive strike by New Delhi. One of the main concerns from the Indian side: would there be a genuine renunciation of the jehadi politics in Pakistan? And so on.

An interesting sidelight was the Pakistani team expressing "deep regrets over the atrocities and repression committed against the people of then East Pakistan by the criminal gangs in general and military regime in particular". This apology was preceded by tributes to the martyrs who sacrificed their lives "for freedom and the realisation of the inalienable right to self-determination by an oppressed people".

Some in the Indian delegation wondered where the reference to self-determination was inserted to make a point on Kashmir. Later, however, there was a realisation in the Pakistani camp that to support the right to self-determination in what was then a province of Pakistan was a dangerous proposition. All this did not arouse any controversy or unseemly wrangle between the Indians and Pakistanis, while helping to mollify the Bangladesh contingent. Could there be a bigger proof of tolerance and the spirit of understanding at the conference?

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