Biba Klomp
02-19-2009, 06:18 PM
Recent years have seen a change in the way the media are treated by authorities in conflict situations, according to one speaker at the roundtable discussion In the shadow of Gaza: conflict reporting, media perspectives and public perceptions held in London this week. Symptoms range from refusing access to combat zones or insistence on controlling where reporters may go, to failure to provide appropriate protection and even actions that endanger journalists. The rapidly growing number of journalist casualties and fatalities indicates a rise in what the speaker (1) referred to as a developing ‘culture of impunity’ in the way authorities regard journalists, which the profession needs to recognise and challenge.
The London meeting took the conflict in Gaza as a starting point for discussion of how the media operate in such situations and how their positions and those of civil society can differ, both post-conflict and in areas where tensions between nations or peoples threaten to boil over.
Key conclusions were:
• The banning of media access to Gaza ultimately backfired, leaving Hamas in control of images that media were not able to verify independently; it also created a public relations backlash.
• The challenge for journalists is how to frame the conflict when reporting: what is a legitimate response to constant attack by extremists and what, in the broader picture, leads to extremism?
• Journalists must draw a clear distinction between the acts of the Israeli state and the wider Jewish community. They must do their best to minimise any anti-Semitism stirred up by this conflict.
Around 50 media professionals and associated interests from across the Euro Mediterranean region took part in the discussion, after which they were addressed by Anna Lindh Foundation President Andre Azoulay on the challenge of trying to build bridges between the Israeli and Palestinian peoples.
Members of the ENJN (Euromed) Task Force joined the meeting and also took advantage of their time together in London to plan actions for 2009. Key items discussed were participation at the Alliance of Civilisations Forum in Istanbul at the start of April and outline ideas for a regional conference on freedom of speech in the second half of the year.
(1) To allow for more open discussion the meeting was arranged under the Chatham house rule of not attributing specific statements to individuals.
The London meeting took the conflict in Gaza as a starting point for discussion of how the media operate in such situations and how their positions and those of civil society can differ, both post-conflict and in areas where tensions between nations or peoples threaten to boil over.
Key conclusions were:
• The banning of media access to Gaza ultimately backfired, leaving Hamas in control of images that media were not able to verify independently; it also created a public relations backlash.
• The challenge for journalists is how to frame the conflict when reporting: what is a legitimate response to constant attack by extremists and what, in the broader picture, leads to extremism?
• Journalists must draw a clear distinction between the acts of the Israeli state and the wider Jewish community. They must do their best to minimise any anti-Semitism stirred up by this conflict.
Around 50 media professionals and associated interests from across the Euro Mediterranean region took part in the discussion, after which they were addressed by Anna Lindh Foundation President Andre Azoulay on the challenge of trying to build bridges between the Israeli and Palestinian peoples.
Members of the ENJN (Euromed) Task Force joined the meeting and also took advantage of their time together in London to plan actions for 2009. Key items discussed were participation at the Alliance of Civilisations Forum in Istanbul at the start of April and outline ideas for a regional conference on freedom of speech in the second half of the year.
(1) To allow for more open discussion the meeting was arranged under the Chatham house rule of not attributing specific statements to individuals.