MEDIA HAS A CRUCIAL ROLE TO MAINTAIN PEACE (Page 19)

12/04/08

Story: Mary Mensah
The Executive Director of the West Africa Network for Peace (WANEP), Dr Emmanuel Bombande, has reiterated that the media has a crucial role to play in sustaining the current peace in the country.
He said the perspectives of those who run the media shaped what “we hear and see about conflict”, adding that it was important to choose the correct language in order not to send the wrong signals and create panic among the populace.
Dr Bombande was delivering a paper on the functions of the media in conflict prevention and peace building in Ghana at a one-day seminar organised by the Public Agenda newspaper in collaboration with the American Embassy for journalists in Accra on Thursday.
The seminar was on the theme: “Media practice in Ghana and efforts towards peaceful and non-violence elections in 2008”.
He said conflict was the energy that built up when individuals or groups of people pursued perceived incompatible goals in their drive to meet their needs and interests.
Dr Bombade indicated that the media played several roles including that of a watchdog, gate keeper, peace builder, bridge builder, diplomat, information provider and interpreter.
Media owners, he further said, had economic interests and wanted to sell their stories and programmes to a public that would buy their newspapers or watch their programmes, adding that violent conflict would be headlines and not news of cross-cultural dialogue and understanding.
“The media mostly covers conflicts not peace building,” Dr Bombande noted, adding that “this tendency to cover conflict and violence distorts reality and leads many people to think that conflict is pervasive and peace is abnormal”.
The Executive Director stated that until the causes of conflicts and the issues and dynamics were understood, peace building programming or peace keeping operations would be ineffective.
“Conflict analysis is not a one-time exercise, it must be an ongoing process as the situation is developing, so that you can adapt your actions to changing factors, dynamics and circumstances,” he sated.
The Director of the African University College of Communications (AUCC), Mr Kojo Yankah, also said conflict was a social phenomenon that could not be ignored and that what was most important was to report it in a way that would minimise its effect.
He urged the media to be circumspect in their reportage and look at ways to strengthen the country’s democracy.
The Director of Information at the US Embassy, Mr Chris Hodges, said Ghana enjoyed an enviable reputation throughout Africa for the high degree of social cohesion in its diverse society.
He said the diverse audience gathered for the seminar illustrated the need for stakeholders from all elements of society to co-operate to promote conflict resolution, peace and stability, adding that only a concerted effort from civil society, media, government and the private sector would be truly successful.
He said recent events in Kenya illustrated in unmistakable fashion that peace and stability were not results but ongoing processes built upon a fashionable dialogue, compromise and tolerance.