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WACC’s programme ‘Communication for Peace’ includes a focus on the concept of peace journalism. Throughout 2008 and 2009, Subaltern Forum, an NGO working in Nepal, has been putting peace journalism into practice.
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Nepal, a small Himalayan country sandwiched between two giant economies, China and India, stands at a crucial point in its history. It is emerging out of a decade-long violent guerrilla war with a peace process that started with a cease fire deal in 2006 between the government and the (ex)rebel Maoists.
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Three years after the peace deal, Nepal is writing its first federal republican constitution through a democratically elected 601-member Constituent Assembly. Political parties, including the Maoists have walked past several difficult phases of the peace process in these last three years. They have reached the final but most difficult part of drafting the new constitution. Political parties are divided on what model of constitution the country should adopt- with only nine months left to finalize the draft.
On the other hand, the country is still characterized by post-war confusions and violence. Despite significant progress in terms of defending human rights, impunity remains a major issue. In fact, there are several challenges to be addressed before Nepalese regain their lost harmony and peace, the original sense of being in the birthplace of Lord Buddha.
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It is a time for constructive thinking by all responsible citizens, political parties and professionals. What we need at this critical point is a collective effort to build peace. The message of peace – which entails motivational elements for consensus making, negotiation, positive and constructive thinking, and conflict resolution – has to reach the conflicting parties and the general public alike.
The peace journalism project
At Subaltern Forum, we have come to realize that it is only through ‘peace journalism’ that we can spread constructive and positive messages to the public. It was in early 2008 that Subaltern Forum started a nationwide peace journalism campaign called ‘Building Capacity for Peace Communication’ with the support of WACC. It was aimed at capacity-building with the media in order to facilitate and consolidate the peace process.
With the regional trainings, interactions, widely circulated peace journalism e-bulletins and peace journalism scholarships launched as part of the WACC-supported project, Subaltern Forum helped Nepalese journalists – especially those reporting from outside the Kathmandu valley – understand, internalize and assimilate the principles of ‘alternative journalism’.
One year after the program, there are hundreds of skilled journalists who can now boldly practice and advocate that the ‘media should communicate peace, and not just news’. In the past year, Subaltern Forum trained some 100 journalists directly through two of its training programs conducted in Pokhara and Ramechhap and involved almost the same number of journalists in writing and publishing/broadcasting news, articles and radio features according to the principle of peace journalism.
About a dozen of radio and print journalists were given scholarships to promote the practice of peace journalism in their news rooms and news fields.
Keeping in view the need of the Nepalese journalists, Subaltern Forum also translated into Nepali language some handy resources and guides. In that line -- besides circulating half a dozen of specialized papers on how and why to practice peace journalism -- the organization translated into Nepali WACC’s No-Nonsense guide to peace journalism’.
A new wave of peace journalism has already started in Nepal with increased understanding of its concept and benefits. Those who were trained and were involved in any of activities of the organization have now realized that traditionally, what they had been doing in Nepal was communicating hard news, which was sensational, provocative and propagandist. There is enhanced awareness and realization that traditional journalism is geared more toward pursuing conflicts rather than resolving them and that there are alternative solutions.
Subaltern Forum hopes that the peace journalism program – which brought together journalists’ major umbrella organizations such as Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ), Nepal Press Union (NPU) and others for the single noble cause – has prepared the ground for helping to make the ongoing peace process successful. Visit: www.subalternforum.org.np |
