"War Reporters Under Threat describes the threat of violence facing war reporters from the United States government and some of its closest allies. Chris Paterson argues that what should have been the lesson for the press following the invasion of Iraq - that they will be treated instrumentally by t
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he US government - has been mostly ignored. As a result, even nominally democratic states cannot be counted upon to protect journalists in conflict, and urgent reform of legal protections for journalists is required. War Reporters Under Threat combines critical scholarship with original investigation to assess the impact of the US government's obsession with information control and protection of its own troops. While the press-military relationship has been well researched, this book is the first to elaborate the US government threat to journalists." (Abstract)
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"This manual is an opportunity for the Civil Peace Service (CPS) networks to share the experiences of some of the people and organisations who use theatre as a tool for communication, change and peace. You will find theoretical bases, concrete examples related to the contents and some techniques and
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methods we would like to make available to as wide an audience as possible. While the goal is not to turn you into professional entertainers, you will find techniques, tips, and other people's hands-on experiencience in the discipline. The purpose of this manual is to de-dramatise the art of the sketch, the role play, the theatre and add it to the toolkit of the CPS peace workers. This is theatre practice as a tool for reflection and communication, for expressing emotions and points of view, be they diametrically opposed, which can open a chink in apparently sealed situations weighed down in dead ends or which seem to be impossible to resolve and let some light into conflicts between people and communities. All the experiences described in this manual have been developed in a community-based way with the help of experienced peace workers and African artists." (Introduction)
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"Throughout 2014 the IFJ and EFJ have been working hand in hand with affiliates, the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, the Independent Media Trade Union of Ukraine and the Russian Union of Journalists to support their members in the field, condemn the intimidation of journalists and manipula
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tion of media and to maintain a professional co-operation between journalists across the conflict. The unions have shown great courage and leadership and we can be very proud of their responses. We are also grateful to the support of Dunja Mijatovic, Representative on Freedom of the Media for the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe for initiating a dialogue between the journalists unions in the spring of 2014. Since then six meetings have taken place that have been vital in building the climate of trust and co-operation. The process has not been easy, there have been tensions and sometimes serious disagreements, but there has been a remarkably broad areas of agreement, both on the principles that underline our profession and on areas of practical action to support and protect our members. This handbook was one initiative from this process and attempts to document the conflict through the eyes of the journalists and the unions. It draws on the joint monitoring and reporting that was conducted by the unions to record the major incidents against journalists in Ukraine and in Russia when related to the conflict. Through a series of interviews with journalists who have been in the war zone it provides an occasionally rough but authentic voice of the reporters and their experiences. The value of proper safety training and preparation for any correspondent is a major theme with interviews packed with advice to journalists contemplating heading to the front line." (Preface)
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"RLB’s interventions in Rwanda, Burundi, and the DRC have achieved significant knowledge, attitude, and behavior changes. Among the most notable of these: With respect to gains in knowledge, members of RLB’s audience have gained better understandings of the cycle of violence and methods used by
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politicians to manipulate audiences. With respect to attitudes, members of RLB’s audience have experienced positive attitude changes regarding trust in communities, the importance of dealing with trauma, the dangers of scapegoating, the importance of active bystandership, acceptance of marriage outside one’s own ethnic group, and the importance of understanding complex truths about the past, developing a shared history, and seeking justice. With respect to behaviors, members of RLB’s audience became more willing to hear an opposing group’s side of the story, became less willing to automatically cede to authority, become more willing to attend reconciliation activities, and increased discussion of topics presented in RLB programming with friends and family." (Executive summary)
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"Visual images have been a central component of propaganda for as long as propaganda has been produced. But recent developments in communication and information technologies have given terrorist and extremist groups options and abilities they never would have been able to come close to even 5 or 10
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years ago. There are terrorist groups who, with very little initial investment, are making videos that are coming so close to the quality of BBC [British Broadcasting Corporation] or CNN [Cable News Network] broadcasts that the difference is meaningless, and with access to the web they have instantaneous access to a global audience. Given the broad social science consensus on the power of visual images relative to that of words, the strategic implications of these groups' sophistication in the use of images in the online environment is carefully considered in a variety of contexts by the authors in this collection." (Publisher description)
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"This study is based on the Intended Outcomes Needs Assessment (IONA) methodology and assesses the changing relationships between media and conflict in Myanmar. Findings reveal a deeply rooted, intractable, and dynamic conflict landscape. Analysis focuses on three key conflicts: citizen-state, ethni
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c, and intercommunal. The developing media environment has been a central feature of the transition. The range of outlets for information sharing and the diversity and reach of content are expanding rapidly. Radio has a significant influence in ethnic and conflict-affected areas. Television does as well, especially in urban areas. New media freedoms are supporting peaceful transition but are also causing harm. Certain initiatives are needed to monitor and counter hate speech online and leverage social media and online mechanisms to advance social norms that support peaceful coexistence and tolerance." (Summary)
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"El manual que aquí se presenta tiene como propósito arrojar luces y facilitar herramientas, a partir de la experiencia práctica de periodistas y comunicadores, sobre los desafíos de los medios de comunicación en el posconflicto, basándose en una encuesta realizada a nivel nacional con distint
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os profesionales de la comunicación. En particular, el manual se centra en el reportaje y el periodismo de datos como modos de reconstruir y narrar historias de paz. Además de ser una guía didáctica para la labor periodística, consideramos que este manual constituye un hito en el camino de promover la (re)construcción plural y responsable de la memoria histórica, y de un ejercicio clave para el posconflicto: el reconocimiento y la confrontación con el pasado, como punto de partida para la reconciliación del país." (Presentación, página 6)
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"The following stories come from ten pesantren (Islamic boarding schools) in Indonesia that participated in Search for Common Ground (SFCG) Indonesia’s project to promote peace and tolerance in pesantren across Indonesia [...] Search for Common Ground (SFCG) Indonesia implemented this two-year pro
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ject from September 2011 to February 2014, in partnership with The Wahid Institute and Perhimpunan Pengembangan Pesantren dan Masyarakat (P3M). With a total number of 18,000 schools across Indonesia, pesantren are the oldest basis of Islamic education in the country and highly influential in spreading tolerance and peace. Through the production of radio and short films by pesantren students or santri, SFCG Indonesia sought to encourage male and female pesantren leaders, teachers and students to be critical in dealing with problems of intolerance and radicalism, while also disseminating the values of tolerance and peace in their communities. The stories documented in this book serve as a future reference of the project’s successes. The book records the significant changes experienced by the santri and their teachers, when these changes occurred and the important lessons learned from this project. Out of the ten pesantren that participated in the project, SFCG selected five pesantren to provide stories that illustrate the changes mentioned above. This book summarizes seven stories from the perspectives of pesantren students, leaders and teachers." (Foreword)
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"CPJ’s analysis of global rates of impunity in journalist killings over the past seven years shows that they have for the most part gotten worse. There are some encouraging signs in the data. The number of convictions of suspects behind these crimes appears to be slightly on the rise, but thi s nu
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mber remains small in comparison to the tally of new victims each year. At the heart of the problem is a persistent lack of political will to see justice through in the hundreds of cases in which journalists have been fatally shot, bombed, or beaten because of what they were reporting on. In the few instances it has been exercised, usually in response to mounting domestic and international pressure, there has been progress in the form of partial and, more rarely, complete justice for the victims. But the norm is for the suspected perpetrators— politicians, members of the military, and other figures with power and influence in their societies—to escape justice. This pattern particularly applies to those who commission assassinations of journalists." (Conclusion, page 36)
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"El libro [...] presenta los conceptos básicos de comunicación democrática y periodismo de paz, además muestra cómo se pueden cubrir conflictos en cada una de sus fases. Con fines explicativos presenta ejemplos de coberturas periodísticas bolivianas en situaciones de conflicto, analizando y pr
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oponiendo un enfoque alternativo de la misma información desde el periodismo de paz. También se muestran ejemplos positivos de coberturas informativas que contribuyeron a posicionar las ideas de diálogo y cultura de paz. El capítulo final del libro hace referencia a los desafíos y dificultades del periodismo de paz en el contexto boliviano, en el marco del ejercicio del Derecho a la Información y Comunicación (DIC). Para este enfoque periodístico es necesario cubrir los conflictos desde que están latentes, explicitando las posiciones de todos los actores con el debido contexto, los antecedentes, los análisis desde distintos enfoques, todos los datos que permitan visibilizar la magnitud del conflicto y alertar sobre su posible escalada violenta. Con este enfoque se cubre el episodio (coyuntural) pero también el epicentro (las causas)." (https://www.unirbolivia.org)
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"In March 2012, American NGO Invisible Children released an online video about the crimes committed by Ugandan war lord Joseph Kony and his Lord’s Resistance Army. Rapidly shared through social network sites, Kony 2012 soon earned the title of fastest spreading online video ever produced. At the s
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ame time, the video and its makers also came under massive criticism from bloggers, journalists, academics, and the general public. This study offers an exploration of the phenomenon Kony 2012 from an audience perspective. Theoretically building on the literature on mediated distant suffering and empirically based on an online survey, we explore how the video was successful in exerting moral pressure on a critical online audience of ‘Ironic Spectators’. In particular, we investigate to what extent different forms of being critical towards the video and its makers have mitigated a sense of personal moral responsibility to act towards the distant suffering other." (Abstract)
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"Based on the case study of the cyber war between Russia and Georgia in August 2008, this paper is a theoretical deliberation in an attempt to illustrate connection between the Digital Divide and cyber security. Through a qualitative study of cyber warfare between the two countries, one on the devel
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oped and one on the underdeveloped side of Digital Divide, it shows that disadvantaged states are subject to cyber insecurity. As a result, even though relatively low dependence of their vital systems on online networks supposedly makes them less vulnerable to cyber offensives, disruptions to communication infrastructures cause these states turn dysfunctional. To test the dependence of cyber security on Digital Divide, this paper also reviews other instances of coordinated cyber-attacks between countries, but in these cases, with both parties digitally advanced (Russia vs. Estonia, China vs. USA). These cases show that differences in states’ capabilities and available resources allowed them to withstand and relatively quickly repel cyber offensives without outside support and great harm. The general conclusion is that country’s position along Digital Divide translates into the level of that country’s cyber security, which serves as a litmus test for the level of its cyber power that, in turn, is indicative of the country’s strategic political standing among other states." (Abstract)
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