Open Media Watch

Humanitarian Media

Media in conflict & post-conflict situations

Following are articles from other sources related to the role of media in conflict and post-conflict situations. The opinions and views expressed in these articles are not necessarily those of Internews.

The Big Story on the Back Streets – Crew of 'Slum TV' Chronicles Kenya Through Views of Common Folks, Washington Post Foreign Service, March 25, 2008
NAIROBI -- The three-person crew of Slum TV set out under the hot noon sun, slinging a video camera and microphone through the crooked labyrinth of iron-sided shacks, graffitied beer joints, rickety-stick markets and open sewers that is their home, Mathare. Walking along dirt paths in dainty white ballet flats, reporter Esther Wanjiru, 19, found her first interview: a man sitting in the shade of Glory Med clinic.

AFGHANISTAN: DEATH SENTENCE CASE HAS CHILLING EFFECT ON PRESS FREEDOM, Eurasianet, February 21, 2008
The death sentence given recently to a 23-year-old journalism student in Afghanistan has fast emerged as the focal point in a culture clash, the outcome of which stands to heavily influence the country’s future political direction.

CBS interpreter’s murder brings toll of journalists and media workers killed since start of war to 200, Reporters Without Borders, August 30, 2007
Reporters Without Borders voiced dismay on learning of the murder of Anwar Abbas Lafta, an Iraqi translator and interpreter employed by the US television network CBS News. Lafta’s body was found on 25 August, five days after he was abducted in Baghdad. His death brings the number of journalists and media workers killed in Iraq since the start of the US-led invasion in March 2003 to 200.

Mata Hari: The Voice of Reconciliation, International Rescue Committee, July 9, 2007
Poso, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia 09 Jul 2007 - Kodrat Mokoginta puts on the headphones, turns down the music and leans forward towards the microphone. “We are back on the air,” he says in a soothing radio voice. “And as usual we are speaking about the issues that affect the youth in this community.”

Kurdish journalists face execution, Index for Free Expression, August 12, 2007
The EU this week expressed its concern over the sentencing to death of journalists Hiwa Butimar and Adnan Hassanpour. Kerim Yildiz reports on the grave situation facing minority journalists in Iran.

Turning Back the Clock, National Public Radio, May 11, 2007
Since 2001, independent media outlets have flourished in Afghanistan. But now the Afghan parliament is considering legislation that could severely curb press freedom. Saad Mohseni, founder of Afghanistan's most popular TV network, says Afghan media outlets will not fold under government pressure.

Pioneering TV show exposes Pakistan's dark secrets, The Globe and Mail, April 20, 2007
KARACHI, PAKISTAN -- It's 10 o'clock on Friday night in Pakistan, a prime-time television spot when viewers often settle down to watch a popular series. Instead, the camera takes them to Darra Adam Khel, Pakistan's notorious gun market in the lawless tribal belt to meet a series of gun sellers advertising their wares: Kalakovs, Kalashnikovs and pistols.

A Week of Arabic Blogs, Kadhafi and freedom of expression, Magharebia, April 4, 2007
Saturday (March 31st) was the last day of the first "Week of Arabic blogs." Initiated by Mohamed Said Hjiouij, the roundup was intended to "facilitate following original blogs" by having prominent Arab bloggers post on the site of the online magazine Madarat.info.

MEDIA: FREEDOM FIGHT AGAINST 'FREEDOM CHAMPIONS', Terraviva Europe, April 3, 2007
The al-Jazeera television network could be emerging as a freedom champion against U.S. pressures on the channel, leading media figures say. "I support al-Jazeera because al-Jazeera has done more to propagate democracy in the Middle East region than anybody else, certainly more than the American government has done," media specialist Hugh Miles told IPS. "It's strange to me that people refer to al- Jazeera as a 'terrorist network' because that couldn't be further from the truth."

Media in Iraq At Risk, Assyrian International News Agency, March 26, 2007
For more than three decades before the fall of Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime in 2003, the Iraqi media was controlled by the government. Print, radio and T.V. news outlets were all run by the ministry of information which was directly monitored by the regime itself.

Information access and journalism in Iran: beyond the stereotypes, International Journalists Network, 26/02/2007
Iranians are sophisticated and eager consumers of news, who find ways to get around the limits their government puts on media, explained a panel of journalists and academics who took part in a discussion in Washington, D.C., United States, on February 21.

Sri Lanka:Newsprint shortage adds to curbs on media, OneWorld South Asia, February 21, 2007
Residents of the embattled northern Sri Lankan town of Jaffna who get to see the ‘Uthayan’ newspaper often get a copy that is thumb-worn and soiled from having passed through the hands of many avid readers.

A Shrinking Realm: Freedom of Expression since 9/11, by Dinah PoKempner, Human Rights Watch World Report 2007
When one speaks of the danger to the norm against torture since 9/11, it is fairly obvious what that means. Torture, after all, draws up rather specific images of the individual under assault, despite the Bush administration’s attempts to muddy the issue. But the same is not true for freedom of expression, a norm that applies to an expansive range of human activity.

Iraq: Search for free press, Editors Weblog, January 15, 2007
After the collapse of the old regime, the number of newspapers in the country increased to over 200. The BBC now estimates that there are around 50 newspapers publishing regularly.