The role of the media in building a country's unity

Dr. Ruwantissa Abeyratne

MEDIA: The media plays a vital role in diffusing ethno-political conflicts which are common in socioeconomic pluralisms where racial and religious minorities demand equality in political participation and human rights.

Such conflicts often lead to a demand for self determination and eventual secession. Emergent trends in social transformations show a distinct preference of heterogeneous societies for peaceful processes of political and constitutional change.

Largely this trend has been facilitated by responsible journalism and intellectual restraint on the part of the media. In most instances, a potentially incendiary situation has been obviated by the position taken by the media in not exploiting a political situation that might otherwise have given the media a sensational report.

A media which propagates respect for minority rights, democratic processes and international intervention could be an asset to a society. Compelling examples of this doctrine are Apartheid of South Africa, which in the beginning of the last decade was transformed into a multiracial democracy dominated by Africans through a moral conscience instilled by proactive politics and responsible journalism.

This resulted in a peaceful democratic process that eschewed a bloody race war. Another example is the acceptance of a referendum by the Indonesian government in 1998 on Timor's secession after the Indonesian transition toward democracy.

This paved the way for the country to accommodate the rebels rather than continue relying on force. Other notable examples are the lifting of immigration barriers by the German government in the late 1990s which had hitherto precluded Turks and other non-German immigrants to enter Germany, and the situation in Afghanistan where the only way toward a lasting peace is the establishment of a sustained coalition among the leadership of the Tajik, Uzbek, Pashtun and Hazara communities.

Leading role

In all the above instances, the respective media played a leading role in infusing a certain ethical discipline in the uninhibited human psyche demanding justice through violence. Largely, the media has had a global reputation of encouraging a subdued and restrained approach to the conventional demand for access to the State's power and resources and a strong focus on the recognition of minority rights and power steering.

A stark reality that brought to bear the power of the media and its ability to convince both the international community as well as parties to a conflict that violent conflict only ends in disaster is the reportage of the media of the recent Israel-Hezbollah crisis in Northern Israel and Lebanon where media giants such as BBC and CNN television continuously showed graphic pictures of war and human suffering and featured news of the destruction wrought by the conflict.

The ensuing agreement between the parties, coerced by the international community may have been significantly delayed if the world had not been given access to live coverage and interviews.

The media has two basic functions. One is the dissemination of information through reportage. The other is educating the public on key issues. The former tends to send the journalist to the location of a dispute and is the more dangerous of the two.

As United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan said on World Press Freedom Day in 2003, the most journalists who die in the line of duty around the world are 'deliberately targeted, as individuals, for exposing corruption or abuses of power; for opposing entrenched interests, legal or illegal; in short for doing their jobs'. Nonetheless this kind of activity is extremely effective in diffusing tension and uniting parties to a dispute and remains a noble and courageous discipline.

The latter purpose, of educating the public is no less important and is an extremely significant function of the journalist. The basic approach of the media in building unity among the people of a nation should be to bombard the public with convincing arguments that reject the more traditional and short-sighted strategies of racial segregation; forced assimilation and ethnic cleansing, which were the vestiges of colonial conquest and imperial rule; and advocate acceptance of global responsibility and the practical supremacy of political pluralism, equitable sharing of power and the devolution of autonomy on a regional basis.

Fundamental fact

There is no doubt that, in bringing an entire nation together and keeping it so is a daunting challenge requiring a certain influence over the intellect and emotions of a nation. Such a task requires sustained communication with the people and can best be performed by an unbiased and objective press which holds sacrosanct the tenets of free speech and the ethical and moral foundations of those tenets.

The most fundamental fact in this regard is that the press is essentially comprised of intellectuals who command the respect of their readership.

If this were not so, there would not be continuity in the intellectual relationship between the press and the reader. Being intellectual is a heavy burden which brings to bear both power and responsibility.

Norm Chomsky, a widely known intellectual with a wide range of political activism, has stated that intellectuals are in a position to expose lies of devious leaders, to analyse actions according to their causes and motives and often hidden intentions. He further states that it is the responsibility of intellectuals to speak the truth and to expose lies.

Free press means a free people and there should be no distinction between a press which disseminates its views the traditional way and a press which uses the public domain through the internet.

This principle is embodied in a Declaration adopted by the United Nations Educational, Social and Cultural Organisation in 1997 in Sofia, which extended press freedom to journalism on the internet stating that the access to and use of the new media should be afforded the freedom of expression protections as traditional media.

Freedom of speech is enshrined in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and is granted formal recognition by the laws of most nations. The Declaration, adopted in 1948, provides, in Article 19, that everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression.

This right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. The Declaration, which does not have the force of law, gives rise to a balancing act in the present context.

On the one hand, the right to freedom of opinion and expression is sacrosanct. On the other, it is a very powerful tool that must not be misused. There is one fundamental principle that must not be forgotten in this regard and that is that reportage of news must not be confused with incitement to hatred and violence. In order to make sure that the former cannot be used as a means to the latter, some countries have enforced controls over the free flow of information.

One of the noteworthy points in this provision is that the exercise of the rights provided for carries with it special duties and responsibilities. It may therefore be subject to certain restrictions, but these shall only be such as are provided by law and are necessary for respect of the rights or reputations of others; for the protection of national security or of public order , or of public health or morals.

The right is further qualified by Article 20 which prohibits war propaganda, incitement to violence and certain forms of hate speech. Freedom of speech is also granted unambiguous protection in international law by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which is binding on around 150 nations.

Moral conscience

The role of the media in strengthening unity among people is best exemplified by the staunch restraint a responsible press could show. For example, the exemplary role of the United States press during the contentious issue of the cartoons which appeared in the Danish press which offended the Muslim community is a case in point.

Robert M. O'Neil, former President of the University of Virginia comments that although the United States is one of the very few countries in the world where no legal sanctions could be imposed for publishing such material, yet editors and publishers in the US were slower than their foreign counterparts and colleagues to exercise that freedom.

O' Neil is of the view that one of the reasons which brought about this phenomenon could be that there is wide appreciation among American journalists that enjoying press freedom does not depend upon pushing that freedom to its extremes, despite temptations to do so.

It is therefore a counter-productive act if the press were to interpret and use the right of freedom of speech literally and push the envelope to its limits, since a backlash from the public could set back the meaning and purpose of freedom of speech given to the press.

Journalists are the moral conscience of mankind. As such the role of the media in reporting an internal conflict in a nation is delicately balanced between satisfying the public's need to know and protecting the victim's privacy; preserving domestic order; prolonging the crisis; offering a deterrent to future activity of the persons threatening social unity and ensuring the safety of target victims. These are all daunting tasks requiring the highest level of professionalism and responsibility.

There are instances where incendiary acts extend to destabilising an established regime or a group of persons by the use of threats which are often calculated to instil fear in the international and municipal community.

Typical examples of this kind of terrorism are the spreading of false propaganda and the invocation of threats which unhinge both the nation or a group of persons against whom the threats are carried out and the nations in which such acts are said to be committed.

There have been instances in the past where export consumer commodities of a nation such as food items have been claimed to be poisoned in order that foreign trade between nations be precluded.

Although such acts are devoid of actual physical violence, they tend to unhinge the economic stability of a nation particularly if such nation depends solely on the export of the item in question.

In such instances, criminal motivated by self interest assume proportions of great complexity and succeed at least temporarily to disrupt the infrastructural equilibrium of the nation against which such threat is aimed. The government concerned is immediately placed on the defensive and attempts counter-propaganda. In spreading propaganda of this nature, the media is the criminal's best friend.

He uses the media of television and radio as a symbolic weapon to instil fear in the public and to cripple the persons or government against which his attack has been aimed. The effect of publicity on people is truly tangible, whether it pertains to the statement of facts or whether it relates to the issuance of threats.

Primarily, media terrorism creates an emotional state of apprehension and fear in threatened groups and secondly, draws world attention to the existence of the terrorists and their cause. In both instances, the terrorist succeeds in creating a credibility gap between his target and the rest of the world.

Psychological terrorism of this nature is perhaps the most insidious of its kind. It is certainly the most devious.

Primary responsibility

Under the circumstances, the skilled journalist has to be circumspect, in not allowing a person with a personal agenda to use the media. There have been instances where the prudent journalist has blocked news coverage with a view to assisting authorities to apprehend criminals and also to discourage the terrorist from seeking popularity and public attention.

For example, in February 1999, when a group of school boys killed some of their colleagues in Columbine High School in Denver, Colorado, some television channels stopped coverage of the incident while the criminals were still inside the school building with their victims' bodies and several other children who were trapped in the building, for the reason that the criminals were able to watch the coverage from the television monitors in the building and plan their escape strategy accordingly.

The primary responsibility of the media is to help strengthen and support democratic processes. In doing so, the two areas of the media, i.e. print journalism and broadcast journalism, follow a certain code of ethics by using sources of information that are original and not secondary, including interviews with people directly involved in a story, original documents and other direct sources of information, whenever possible, and citing the sources of this information in reports.

If original sources are not available, a responsible journalist always attributes fully information gathered from other published sources ( because not do so is considered plagiarism. It must also be remembered that some newspapers also note when an article uses information from previous reports).

If the subject of the report is controversial, journalists use multiple original sources of information, by checking thoroughly every fact reported and by rigidly maintaining objectivity and reporting every side of a story possible. Good journalism essentially involves reporting without bias and illustrating many aspects of a conflict rather than siding with one.

Another important aspect of responsible journalism is that facts are thoroughly researched and reported with a balance between open mindedness scepticism. Always careful judgment is used when organising and reporting information and caution is exercised about granting confidentiality to sources news organizations usually have specific rules that journalists must following concerning grants of confidentiality.

A responsible journalist does not accept gifts or favours from any subject of a report, and avoids even the appearance of being influenced . Finally the journalist abstains from reporting or otherwise participating in the research and writing about a subject in which there is a personal stake or bias that cannot be set aside. Given the about attributes, it would be difficult for any self-centred faction to defeat the purposes of such an intellectual profession.

The profession of journalism has a certain power within that has endeared it to generations of people searching for the truth through investigative journalism. This fact should be the starting point in using the media to unite a nation.