"Key trends: Harassment, arrests and physical violence against journalists, mostly by government security forces and sometimes by protestors, have risen in recent years; Press freedom and freedom of expression has been impacted in many countries by these attacks; A range of attacks have been identif
...
ied by UNESCO in 65 countries since 2015 for this report; At least ten journalists have been killed since 2015 while covering protests, according to UNESCO’s Observatory of Killed Journalists; Tactics used against journalists have violated international laws and norms that have been long agreed upon under the umbrella of multilateral institutions." (Page 1)
more
"The documentary dalan ba dame was produced by the East Timorese Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (Comissao de Acolhimento, Verdade e Reconciliaao de Timor-Leste, CAVR) and covers the twenty-four years of Indonesian occupation of Timor-Leste, during which nearly one quarter of the
...
population died. The CAVR was originally set up to produce a report about the human rights violations committed between April 25, 1975, and October 25, 1999, analyze its root causes, and identify ways of how to come to terms with the violent past. It therefore constitutes an instrument of transitional justice, defined as “a set of practices, mechanisms, and concerns that arise following a period of conflict, civil strife, or repression and that are aimed directly at confronting and dealing with past violations of human rights and humanitarian law.”1 As the same institution produced both media, the report about the human rights violations and the documentary, one should expect them to communicate the same message. However, this is not the case. The report emphasizes the need to prosecute individual members of the Indonesian military for the human rights violations committed as a precondition for sustainable peace. The documentary tells the story that peace already prevails and keeping it is a matter of reconciliation among the East Timorese population. Consequently, the case of the CAVR and its documentary is interesting for research on visuality, which analyzes the dynamics and effects of visuals in social and political processes." (Introduction)
more
"Inclusion in peace processes is conventionally understood in “offline” terms, such as being physically present at the negotiation table. However, digital technology can support a mediator’s efforts to integrate a broad variety of perspectives, interests, and needs into a peace process. This r
...
eport explores the current and future practice of digital inclusion, giving a framework for understanding the possibilities and risks, and providing examples of practical ways digital technologies can contribute to mediated peace processes." (www.usip.org)
more
"Said AlDailami untersucht die tiefen Konfliktlinien entlang von konfessionellen, regionalen und tribalen Zugehörigkeiten sowie wirtschaftlichen Interessen, um auszuloten, wie und wann Frieden möglich werden könnte. Zahlreiche äußere Mächte – wie Saudi-Arabien, die Vereinigten Arabischen Emi
...
rate, der Iran und westliche Länder – sind direkt oder indirekt an dem Konflikt beteiligt und tragen massiv zur Intensität und Weiterführung der Kämpfe bei. Gründe dafür sind nicht zuletzt Hegemonialinteressen, die geostrategisch bedeutsame Lage des Jemen und auch sein kultureller Reichtum. Luftangriffe der arabischen Koalition haben inzwischen zahlreiche antike und islamische Bauten und Kulturobjekte irreversibel beschädigt oder gar vollständig zerstört. Mit ihnen drohen auch die Identität, die Geschichte und das kulturelle Gedächtnis der Menschen verloren zu gehen." (Klappentext)
more
"Im digitalen Zeitalter sind Drohungen schnell verfasst und verschickt. Hass im Netz ist ein großes Problem und kann sich schnell zu einer ernsten Lage für Journalist:innen und Publizist: innen, die in der Öffentlichkeit stehen, entwickeln. Genau deswegen ist es aber wichtig, ernstgemeinte von le
...
eren Drohungen unterscheiden zu können. Welche Nachricht sollte man ernst nehmen, welche kann man getrost ignorieren?" (Seite 7)
more
"To successfully monitor and counter hate speech, we must first identify specific terms and define the social and political context that makes them offensive, inflammatory, and potentially dangerous. To that end, PeaceTech Lab has pioneered a process to identify and contextualize inflammatory langua
...
ge that can lead to violence, and has a growing portfolio of hate speech lexicons that can be used by civil society organizations, social media and technology companies, and other interested individuals and organizations to better identify, track, combat, and remove hate speech. The Lab is partnering with a growing network of local organizations that work to address hateful content and that seek to curb the potential for violence. This lexicon investigates the landscape of hate speech and narratives in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Since 2018 there has been an uptick in violence in the country, with over 140 armed groups and militias (based in the DRC as well as in neighbouring countries) currently active in the DRC. There are more than 5 million people living in the country who are either internally displaced or who are refugees from neighbouring countries. Most recently, in the wake of the long-delayed December 2018 presidential election, tensions have increased between contenders and their followers, exacerbating old and new conflicts between ethnic communities and/or political groups. In this complex and multilayered context, hate speech in the DRC, as in other contexts, is used as a tool to achieve political and material ends (e.g., polarizing opinions, dehumanizing opponents in local or regional conflicts, exacerbating feelings of frustration and grievance, and calling for violent action). A steady increase in internet penetration as well as growth in the number of social media users are expected to increase the frequency of hate speech across all online platforms. This lexicon aims to serve as an initial guide to specific words and phrases identified during a finite period of time in the DRC." (Introduction)
more
"PeaceTech Lab, in partnership with Andariya and the Sudan Development Initiative (SUDIA), intends this effort to contribute to understanding language and the context for potential conflict during the transition to civilian government and to eventual elections in Sudan. This project seeks to tackle
...
the problem of identifying and contextualizing the particular type of language that’s likely to cause violence. Rather than assessing the existence or prevalence of hateful speech, this project instead examines the terms, their origins and context, and their use in a particular country context. To successfully monitor and counter hateful speech, we must first identify specific terms and the social and political context that makes them offensive, inflammatory, or even potentially dangerous. This research also seeks to identify alternative language that would mitigate or counter the impact of this speech and thereby contribute to building peace in the country. Finally, this resource intends to inform other individuals and organizations involved in monitoring and countering hateful speech in Sudan so that their work can be more effective." (Introduction)
more
"Disinformation in armed conflict may pose several distinctive forms of harm to civilians: exposure to retaliatory violence, distortion of information vital to securing human needs, and severe mental suffering. The gravity of these harms, along with the modern nature of wartime disinformation, is ou
...
t of keeping with the traditional classification of disinformation in international humanitarian law (IHL) as a permissible ruse of war. A patchwork set of protections drawn from IHL, international human rights law and international criminal law may be used to limit disinformation operations during armed conflict, but numerous gaps and ambiguities undermine the force of this legal framework, calling for further scholarly attention and clarification." (Abstract)
more
"Societies attempting to ignore atrocities committed in the conflict setting generally find themselves confronted by their persistence. Whether manifesting as unresolved grievance, as social dysfunctionality or an easy reversion to violence, or as a simple reiteration of old animosities, the eventua
...
l results are erosion and escalation. Victims of violational acts, especially, may feel as though the war has never ended, even after the formal peace has been declared. Dealing with the Past (DwP) comprises a suite of creative strategies for shifting this – measures that can provide victims with comfort, some satisfaction, and sometimes even repair; initiatives that tackle perpetrators and advance the rule of law; ways of overhauling legislation and reforming public institutions, and growing a culture of democratic governance; projects capable of generating a shared understanding of the abuses and the history in which they occurred; occasions for celebrating the life that remains, with all its learnings, among those who have survived. DwP is an approach to transformation that can, at best, enable sustainable transition out of entrenched patterns of violence and violation. Both an introduction to core concepts and comparative in its orientation, this toolkit is designed to address the practicalities – the nuts-and-bolts – of making DwP work." (Page 2)
more
"Framing effects research has found that news consumers respond to journalists’ framing of a socially important event rather than to the actual event itself. Peace journalism, as a conscious and deliberate act by journalists, can offer significant insights on a hitherto unexplored aspect of framin
...
g theory. Indeed, if framing can be a conscious act involving intent, journalists must then confront the issues of moral accountability, and can no longer seek refuge in the notion that how they cover the news is merely shaped by journalistic routines, social norms, and organizational cultures and constraints that are beyond their control. Tehranian (2002) suggests that the locus of media ethics be expanded from the individual journalist to institutions, nation-states and international communities in order to advance peace journalism. This is a laudable proposal indeed, as more is needed institutionally, be it in the form of infrastructure or sanction, to support ethical journalistic work. But until journalists covering war and conflict are willing to acknowledge and overcome their internal biases and external influences, rethink their over-reliance on objectivity and detachment, and break free of the professional shackles that detract from universal proto-norms of nonviolence and respect for human dignity, peace journalism will always remain a child of its time, never to come of age." (Pages 368-369)
more
"Con Ondas de Paz: guía práctica para crear y narrar historias radiales se pretende incentivar la búsqueda de relatos y la producción de programas desde las comunidades con una mirada hacia la cotidianidad. Busca, además, potenciar las narrativas que suenan en los territorios y, así, abrirle e
...
l micrófono a una ciudadanía participativa. Esta pequeña cartilla es un llamado a mirar hacia adentro y volver a la raíz, esto es, hacia esa identidad colectiva que alimenta eso que somos. A hacer un equilibrio para que nuestras historias siempre sean vistas en plural y no como relatos únicos que, contrario a unirnos, lo que hacen es separarnos." (Presentación, página 5)
more
"Desde el inicio de la “Guerra del Narco” en diciembre del año 2006 hasta nuestros días México está sufriendo el embate de la violencia y de la inseguridad con altos niveles de homicidios, muertes de periodistas y civiles en una lucha de diferentes actores violentos entre sí y el Estado. Lo
...
s consumidores, las industrias culturales y los medios se ven inmersos en esta violencia: Por un lado se les acusa de la apología de la violencia y del narco por reflejar o ficcionalizar el narco, a sus personajes y sus estilos de vida; por el otro lado, se invoca que las realidades culturales de hoy hacen imposible evadir un fenómeno social que ha impregnado a la sociedad mexicana contemporánea. Como crítica o celebración, siempre se entrecruzan los mundos de la legalidad y la ilegalidad – tanto en el ámbito periodístico como en el de la creación y de las prácticas culturales. La amenaza a los medios y las prácticas cotidianas reflejan la atracción de los estilos de vida de los protagonistas del crimen en diferentes expresiones de la “narco-cultura” que desdibuja la diferencia entre víctimas y victimarios. El presente libro revisa algunos de los rasgos centrales de la narcocultura –enaltecida por unos, rechazada por otros– la cual, sin embargo, ha echado raíces profundas en la sociedad mexicana." (Descripción por la casa editorial)
more
"Lange Zeit gab es wenig Kritik an dem, was die großen Digitalkonzerne mit den Daten ihrer Kunden machten. Doch die Diskussion um »Manipulations-Kapitalismus « und »Datenökonomie«, um zwei Begriffe zu nennen, die in der Diskussion über Vor- und Nachteile sozialer Medien oft zu hören sind, ni
...
mmt zunehmend Fahrt auf – nicht zuletzt im Blick auf politische Wahlkämpfe. Vielfältige Einblicke in diesen Problemkomplex ermöglicht die Themen-DVD Afrika_Digital.2 – Start-ups und Künstler-Träume. Sie greift darüber hinaus Fragen der Menschenrechte im Verlauf der Produktions- und Gebrauchszyklen von Mobiltelefonen auf – und ist damit auch als Fortsetzung der Kompilations-DVD Digital – mobil – und Fair? zu verstehen. Und nicht zuletzt gilt es hier auch, den anderen, weitgehend positiv grundierten Blick auf Afrika hervorzuheben. Dies betrifft sowohl die hierzulande wenig bekannte Start-up-Szene, als auch die beiden ästhetisch innovativen Kurzfilme Algo-Rhythm und Zombies, die Bestandteil dieser DVD sind und bereits mehrfach mit Preisen ausgezeichnet wurden. In der dokumentarischen Kurzfilmreihe 10 von 199 kleinen Helden nehmen uns vier Mädchen und sechs Jungen mit auf ihren Weg zur Schule. Die Kinder sind mit dem Boot, zu Fuß oder über schwankende Hängebrücken unterwegs, während sie uns an ihren Gedanken über ihren Platz in der Welt teilhaben lassen. Der dreiteilige Dokumentarfilm The Food Challenge – Wie die Ernährung sichern beschreibt, analysiert und problematisiert die Geschäftspraktiken der großen Internationalen Chemiekonzerne in Kenia, die dort weiterhin Agrarpestizide vermarkten, die wegen ihrer Schädlichkeit in Europa und den USA oft schon lange verboten sind.
Gleich drei Filme thematisieren unterschiedliche Facetten des Themas Migration. Der niederländische Jugendfilm Rafaël erzählt eine dramatische Liebesgeschichte vor dem Hintergrund des Arabischen Frühlings und der Bootsflüchtlinge auf der Mittelmeerroute. Auf das organisierte Durcheinander europäischer Migrationspolitik blicken wir dabei aus der Perspektive einer jungen Europäerin, die selbst existentiell davon betroffen ist. Der Dokumentarfilm Die neuen Kinder von Golzow begleitet im Mikrokosmos dieser kleinen, legendär gewordenen Ortschaft die Aufnahme einer syrischen Flüchtlingsfamilie und ihre Bemühungen, sich zu integrieren. Yves’ Versprechen erzählt die mehrjährige Migrationsgeschichte eines jungen Kameruners, deren Vielschichtigkeit gerade auch deshalb spannend ist, weil sie die Perspektive der zuhause gebliebenen Familie und Freunde klug mit einzubinden weiß." (Editorial, Seite 1)
more
"Recent studies on conflict and terrorism news coverage have documented an ingroup bias as well as an increasingly negative discourse about Muslims in the wake of Islamist terrorist attacks. Yet, as most of these studies have focused on Western media and settings, the determinants of news media’s
...
religious biases and out-group categorizations remain insufficiently understood. In this article, we draw on interviews with Nigerian media practitioners and a comparison of Boko Haram news coverage in two Nigerian newspapers—one Southern-based / Christian-affiliated and one Northern-based / Muslim-affiliated—to argue that it is crucial to consider a country’s political-religious demography in order to understand the way in which religious-based violence is covered in the news. In this respect, we identify micro-, meso- and macro-level theoretical mechanisms through which a country’s demography can promote domestic news outlets—regardless of their background and readership—to cover conflict in a more balanced, nuanced, and objective way." (Abstract)
more
"This roundtable took place on 16 January 2020, at the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the war in Biafra. It brought together Marie-Luce Desgrandchamps, Lasse Heerten, Arua Oko Omaka and Kevin O’Sullivan. The roundtable was organised and chaired by Bertrand Taithe, University of
...
Manchester." (Abstract)
more