Press Releases

Ugandan Journalists Give Voice to Hopes for Peace

(April 16, 2008)

They’re in, they’re out
I’m inculcated with hard work
Fetching water from distant wells
You involve us in work hazardous to our lives
Early marriages, brewing alcohol
And car washing
Enough, enough, enough
Oh, heavens
If I could only see education

Daniel Bruce/Internews Journalists in Uganda participate in a "Reporting for Peace" workshop conducted by Internews.

In a radio program produced by Pius Sawa, a journalist who participated in an Internews “Reporting for Peace” workshop in early April, a young woman named Sylvia shares her poem about the hardships caused by ongoing strife in Uganda. The workshop’s goal was to help radio journalists in Northern Uganda provide a voice for local communities as they await progress on the peace process between the Ugandan Government and Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). 

“I think this training event exposed to journalists how vital it is to be responsible in their coverage of conflict, through use of language, focus on accuracy, and avoidance of pre-conceived ideas,” said Daniel Bruce, Internews’ Project Director in Uganda. “Of course we encouraged them to be as incisive as possible, exploring challenging arguments to the full, but to remember the powerful consequences of presenting an incorrect or sensationalized version of events.”

The deadline for the Ugandan government and the LRA to sign a final peace deal, drawn up at Juba in Southern Sudan, has been repeatedly delayed since mid-March. Despite the ongoing setbacks, radio journalists attending the “Reporting for Peace” workshop at the Internews training center in the northern town of Gulu found a growing determination within local communities to secure a long-lasting peace. In many cases, this would require considerable resolve to forgive and reintegrate former LRA abductees and combatants who may have committed atrocities against the communities in which they must now start a new life.

As the national and global media have focused on the unfolding events at Juba, participants at the Internews workshop were challenged to produce radio news pieces that provided a rare platform for individuals going about their daily lives to air their personal views on the peace process, along with their hopes and fears for the future. 

Many of the reporters opted to gather their material at Koro Abili, an Internally Displaced Persons camp just south of Gulu.  They found community leaders who wanted to heal the wounds of the last twenty years and to lead their people to a more stable existence.  Meanwhile, the impact of the insurgency on services such as health and education became clear through the journalists’ reports, with teachers and medical practitioners hoping to revitalize and stabilize their work.

The “Reporting for Peace” workshop was led by the experienced conflict reporting consultant Peter du Toit of Rhodes University, South Africa.  Through an interactive approach, participants explored the causes and dynamics of a full range of conflict situations and considered the potential for journalists, especially those with the power of local community radio, to serve a mediator function.

By exploring the views of local people not directly involved in the peace talks, journalists became more aware of the potential for low-level conflict over land rights, reintegration and access to services — and their role in reporting those challenges.

Internews’ media development work in Uganda is funded by a grant from the US Agency for International Development.

MORE INFORMATION:

Listen to a radio program, Expressions of Peace, produced by Pius Sawa, a journalist who participated in an Internews ‘Reporting for Peace’ workshop.