Articles
Journalism in a Turbulent Country
Anna-Mercedes Gómez is Director of El Colombiano, Colombia.
Professor Carlos Soria, from Navarra University in Spain, assures that there is a very close relationship between the phenomenon of terrorism and the world of information. When we inform about terrorist acts we are contributing to the purpose of his authors: to magnify the fact and spread terror among people.
Some academics assure that terrorism is a type of language, a violent language necessary to the existence of terrorism, and mass media are the perfect tool for its diffusion.
Margaret Tatcher said “Mass media give advertisement oxygen to terrorism”. Media are accused of facilitating terrorism.
But does this influence affect public opinion and favors political decisions that favor terrorists?
Most academics believe that the answer is NOT. Public acceptance of terrorism is cero. Of course, terrorism makes people feel vulnerable and forces governments to act faster than under normal pressures, and this can lead to wrong decisions.
"In this new era of mass media in which the “information revolution” has transformed communications at a world level as a result of the advances in transmission in real time, the hurry to fullfil the exigencies of time for an edition and the consequent precipitated judgements and immediate decisions can mean moreopportunities of manipulation for terrorism and more influence than before”, says Bruce Hoffman.
Soria says that according to an investigation by Brian M. Jenkins since Munich Olympic Village terrorist acts of 1972, terrorists acts have increased 12 to 15% per year. Speed and coverage is the clue. Lincoln assassination was known weeks or months later. Kennedy’s magnicide was known by 70% of American citizens half an hour later and seen directly on TV by millions of people.
Satellites allow the diffusion of terrorists acts in a way they are known by millions of people in a few minutes. The whole world knew immediately about the first attack to the Twin Towers in New York and watched live how the second plane hit the other tower.
Through information and mass media images people know that they live in a violent world, see the facts, listen to them and incorporate them to their environment. A complement to this perception is offered by violent movies and TV series. So, children can’t tell apart when they are real or when they are fiction.
Jonathan Alter, Editor in Chief of Newsweek proposed several practical norms for TV. Among them: homogenize images to avoid the risk of exclusive news,. avoid live transmissions because in them terrorists become the program directors. But this is not an easy task because of the impulse to be the first to inform and the idea that bad news is good news.
Silence or information on terrorism?
Marshall McLuhan said “It is necessary to reduce to a maximum thespace devoted to terrorists because the mass media become resonance boxes. He advised the informative blackout. Jadel Jacobelli, on the other hand, considers that to silence violence is not ethic and may become a new type of violence. Hubert Beuve-Mery, founder of Le Monde, approves journalists’ self control.
Carlos Soria poses three basic principles to inform on terrorism:
1. No silence. Keep silent promotes rumor and anguish and uncertitude. Silence wouldn’t eliminate the problem and, on the contrary, could aggravate it.
2. However the silence has exceptions. It is good to keep quiet when the terrorist group is unknown.
3. Inform about terrorism must follow some ethical principles.
What is terrorism?
It is a very specific violent act. It is the real use of violence or the menace to use it for the purpose of intimidating governments or social groups to try to achieve political religious or ideologic goals.
Terrorists choose places and people that have a symbolic importance. Terrorism attacks symbols that rule specific groups to terrify people.
Ethical principles to inform on terrorism:
1. Say No to neutrality when informing about terrorism. Journalists can’t be simple mirrors ofreality.
2. Be careful with language to avoid falling in violent words.
3. Be careful with images. They must reflect reality but need to considerer human pain of those affected by terrorism.
4. Inform trying to interpret the pain of victims to move readers and watchers to reject terrorism and to solidarity.
5. Before informing on terrorism one must learn what terrorism is to be able to eliminate propaganda and lead information in favor of peace.
6. Not to create panic but solidarity through information.
7. Be precise paying attention to avoid sensationalism and, on the contrary, go to the important.
8. On TV. and radio, pay attention to the tone of the voice.
9. Choose well the persons you are going to interview.
10. Avoid photos and camera angles that let recognize witnesses, because they become terrorists’ targets.
11. Avoid repeating the same information and images all day round.
12. Avoid becoming the Public Relations "employee" of terrorists.
Chaos, Panic, Lack of Confidence, Sense of Power
Terrorists try to promote chaos among people. Chaos produces panic and lack of confidence. People don’t know what to do. These feelings are also a goal of terrorism. On the other hand, terrorists want people to feel that they are powerful.
How to avoid spreading chaos?
Organizing the information and facts they have. Apply their five senses to the information. But they need to go further: Apply intelligence to the information, investigate more and give moredata.
How to avoid producing panic?
Presenting the possible ways to overcome the problem. Showing reasonable gates. Showing people acting to solve the problems produced by terrorism. Searching for more ideas of solution. Search for proposals. When people see solutions, fear disappears.
How to avoid that terrorists appear powerful?
Destroying the myth. It is important to say who is the terrorist, what are his goals, purposes, etc. What are his tools. Let people know everything we know about the terrorist and his organization.
Ethical Tips
Reason must master feelings.
Reject “mirror journalism”.
Reject aseptic journalism lacking intentionality. Intelligent journalists are required to go and appeal to the intelligence ofsociety.
Journalism must go further to analyze the underlying motivations and goals of terrorist groups. What appears before light is only the evident but not the essential. And the essential is what lets arrive to a solution.
Journalists must be known by the people. How they feel, what they believe. So people can say “I know who is speaking, I am confident”.
Journalists are a type o volunteer. Their job is a mission.
Sensationalism, “show-like treatment of news” led 39 Editors of mass media in Colombia to sign up an agreement called Agreement for Discreetness about the information on violent acts.
1. The informative coverage on violent acts will be truthful, responsible and balanced.
2. We won’t inform about rumors as if they were facts. Accuracy must prevail over speed.
3. We will define clear criteria about direct live transmissions to avoid violent manipulations.
4. For ethical and social responsibility we won’t press families of victims.
5. We will establish criteria to avoid diffusion of images that might cause rejection, move people toward violence or make them indifferent.
6. We will be respectful of ideological or political pluralism and will promote it. We will use expressions that contribute to the act of living together among Colombians.
We prefer to miss a news instead of missing a life.
Journalism to Build Peace
Carlos Soria says that the behavior of mass media is definitive to accelerate or speed down violence. Media must promote peace not only in their editorial but in the way they manage information on terrorism.
Journalist must devote to the goal of peace and human dignity. Violence is not the way to solve individual or social problems of men and women.
Neutrality must be rejected. Activism for peace must be assumed. There must be a new informative sensitivity that advances to that space where peace will be a consequence of fight for justice, a new appraisal of the family, respect toward truth and the person. At the bottom of all violence there is unjustice, disorder and irrationality. All aggressive attitude is always unfair because it hurts.
For Soria the clue is: if peace lives in the hearts of men, peace lives among the community.
Peace journalism explores the historical genesis of conflict, their actors, the context, doesn’t establish temporal or territorial limits, finds multiple causes and multiple solutions and searches for transparency.
Peace journalism looks for the truth. Has the ability to discover all the lies of different conflict groups. Onthe contrary, the war journalist exposes their lies, plays, makes propaganda, apologize.
War journalism concentrates on two sides that look for a goal: victory. It develops under defeat-victory scheme. Sees solutions in the space of war and becomes a propaganda tool of we-they, and they are the problem. Waits for violence to occur and concentrates itself only on visible effects like killings, wounded, damaged buildings. Echoes terrorism.
Peace journalism concentrates on everybody’s sufferings: opens space to women, children, tries to diffuse works that help to build peace and helpful information, looks for solutions, puts an emphasis on peace initiatives to prevent the increase of war. On the contrary, war journalism looks for victory and hides peace initiatives until there is a winner and a looser.
Peace journalism leads to the resolution, reconstruction and reconciliation. War journalism goes elsewhere to cover other war.
THE CASE OF ORLANDO SIERRA
Seven mass media -El Colombiano among them-investigated during eleven days to try to clarify the killing of Orlando Sierra, Deputy Director of La Patria, a daily newspaper.
The value of the investigation was the simultaneous appearance of the report in the seven media. We decided to investigate because everybody in Manizales, the city where Sierra was killed, said that the crime was political and came from a very powerful group leaded by two well known politicians, but nobody wanted to denounce because of panic about possible consequences.
Pages for Dialogue in Uraba
Uraba is a very conflictive zone in my region and Colombia. It limits with Panamá, the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean. All violent groups are present there.
In August 1995, Peace Talks stopped.
We decided, then, to open our pages to speak about how to build peace and describe the development different groups wanted for the region.
We asked organized groups, (guerrilla, paramilitar, political, social, ethnic, economic, religious), to answer a set of questions we posed in advance. We organized the process to have a specific answer to a specific question and publish the set of answers the same day on the same page. All answers had an extent limit. We didn’t titled them.
There was a second round about the same questions where those who participated in the first round could participate. This was a long process. It went from October 1995 to February 1996.
This material has been used by different organizations to look for coincidences and divergences and promote solutions for the region. IRCC said that it was the first time that violent groups in the zone contacted themselves with words instead of bullets.
Peace Building Through Investigation
A guerrilla group were preparing to gather in a zone to begina peace process with the Colombian Government. Two of their leaders arrived in official helicopters to pick up guerrilla men in a region. They were killed by members of the Armed Forces. The news from the Army said that they were combating. But everybodyin the community said quietly that they had been executed by soldiers eventhough they had cried that they were sent by the Government. But none was capable of denouncing the military. So a group of institutions from the civil society made an investigation team. We were members of that team. We visited the President and the Attorney General to announce them the goal of the commission. We told them that as soon as we had our report we will give it to them to help in the investigation and that we would keepa copy to decide when to publish it. Our report helped very much. It was the first time in many years that military men were prosecuted. The peace process, that was in crisis, continued and peace was signed one year later. We didn’t publish the report first. We gave a complete copy to all mass media and they decided how to publish it.
Annex 1.
The Conflict in Colombia and Atacks of a Freedom of Speech and Journalist
The Colombian conflict is, no doubt, one of the most serious social conflicts in the world. It lasts 50 years more than a million Colombians have died. The confrontation is between the State and two major guerrilla groups. There is a rightist paramilitar resistance.
Each month 600 Colombians die as a result of war actions. Three fourths of them are civilians. Of the 334 political crimes per month, 13 are against sindicalist leaders. In 2001, 147 sindicalists were killed.
Up to now there are 2 million displaced people. 64% of them are children. 30.000 per month.
Each month 259 people are kidnapped. 12 of them are children. 9 are political kidnappings.
According to a survey by Universidad de la Sabana, 42% of journalists censured themselves as a consequence of menaces by violents.
Five towns are attacked by guerrillas or paramilitars. 4 indian leaders are killed and 6 journalists must ask for protection due to menaces. 6 Colombian are mutilated by personal mines. Businessmen are extorted for 34 million dollars. 70 personal mines remain in 105 towns and 150.000 capture orders are not done.
2001 was a very tragic year for Colombian journalists. Nine journalists were killed. Most of the menaces occurred in conflict zones where there is presence of guerrillas and paramilitars and of corrupt officials. Most attacks went to regional radio journalists, then written media workers and TV. journalists. On January, three journalists had to abandon their country for direct menaces. On February, journalist Jorge Enrique Botero was censured by a big radio group who prohibited the transmission of a program with kidnapped soldiers and policemen.
The AUC, the paramilitar organization, menaced six journalist because that organization considers that they cooperate with guerrilla groups.
The State Department of the United States says that Colombian journalists work under high risk.
On March, the country was condemned to pay compensation to the family of a journalist because Justice found guilty the Armed Forces for the crime. And Farc guerrilla kidnapped Radionet’s journalist Guillermo Angulo. On April, RCN radio made public a message from the government asking them not to broadcast an interview with Carlos Castańo because it would affect negatively the peace process with Farc. On May, Journalist Edgar Artunduaga resigns to a radio program for “direct presidential pressures”. A car bomb is found in front of communist weekly Voz.
On August, the oldest daily newspaper in Colombia, El Espectador, became weekly due to financial problems. It is owned by the most powerful Colombian economic group.
- The ideas and opinions expressed in this website are always those of their authors and not necessarly those of UNESCO -
Some academics assure that terrorism is a type of language, a violent language necessary to the existence of terrorism, and mass media are the perfect tool for its diffusion.
Margaret Tatcher said “Mass media give advertisement oxygen to terrorism”. Media are accused of facilitating terrorism.
But does this influence affect public opinion and favors political decisions that favor terrorists?
Most academics believe that the answer is NOT. Public acceptance of terrorism is cero. Of course, terrorism makes people feel vulnerable and forces governments to act faster than under normal pressures, and this can lead to wrong decisions.
"In this new era of mass media in which the “information revolution” has transformed communications at a world level as a result of the advances in transmission in real time, the hurry to fullfil the exigencies of time for an edition and the consequent precipitated judgements and immediate decisions can mean moreopportunities of manipulation for terrorism and more influence than before”, says Bruce Hoffman.
Soria says that according to an investigation by Brian M. Jenkins since Munich Olympic Village terrorist acts of 1972, terrorists acts have increased 12 to 15% per year. Speed and coverage is the clue. Lincoln assassination was known weeks or months later. Kennedy’s magnicide was known by 70% of American citizens half an hour later and seen directly on TV by millions of people.
Satellites allow the diffusion of terrorists acts in a way they are known by millions of people in a few minutes. The whole world knew immediately about the first attack to the Twin Towers in New York and watched live how the second plane hit the other tower.
Through information and mass media images people know that they live in a violent world, see the facts, listen to them and incorporate them to their environment. A complement to this perception is offered by violent movies and TV series. So, children can’t tell apart when they are real or when they are fiction.
Jonathan Alter, Editor in Chief of Newsweek proposed several practical norms for TV. Among them: homogenize images to avoid the risk of exclusive news,. avoid live transmissions because in them terrorists become the program directors. But this is not an easy task because of the impulse to be the first to inform and the idea that bad news is good news.
Silence or information on terrorism?
Marshall McLuhan said “It is necessary to reduce to a maximum thespace devoted to terrorists because the mass media become resonance boxes. He advised the informative blackout. Jadel Jacobelli, on the other hand, considers that to silence violence is not ethic and may become a new type of violence. Hubert Beuve-Mery, founder of Le Monde, approves journalists’ self control.
Carlos Soria poses three basic principles to inform on terrorism:
1. No silence. Keep silent promotes rumor and anguish and uncertitude. Silence wouldn’t eliminate the problem and, on the contrary, could aggravate it.
2. However the silence has exceptions. It is good to keep quiet when the terrorist group is unknown.
3. Inform about terrorism must follow some ethical principles.
What is terrorism?
It is a very specific violent act. It is the real use of violence or the menace to use it for the purpose of intimidating governments or social groups to try to achieve political religious or ideologic goals.
Terrorists choose places and people that have a symbolic importance. Terrorism attacks symbols that rule specific groups to terrify people.
Ethical principles to inform on terrorism:
1. Say No to neutrality when informing about terrorism. Journalists can’t be simple mirrors ofreality.
2. Be careful with language to avoid falling in violent words.
3. Be careful with images. They must reflect reality but need to considerer human pain of those affected by terrorism.
4. Inform trying to interpret the pain of victims to move readers and watchers to reject terrorism and to solidarity.
5. Before informing on terrorism one must learn what terrorism is to be able to eliminate propaganda and lead information in favor of peace.
6. Not to create panic but solidarity through information.
7. Be precise paying attention to avoid sensationalism and, on the contrary, go to the important.
8. On TV. and radio, pay attention to the tone of the voice.
9. Choose well the persons you are going to interview.
10. Avoid photos and camera angles that let recognize witnesses, because they become terrorists’ targets.
11. Avoid repeating the same information and images all day round.
12. Avoid becoming the Public Relations "employee" of terrorists.
Chaos, Panic, Lack of Confidence, Sense of Power
Terrorists try to promote chaos among people. Chaos produces panic and lack of confidence. People don’t know what to do. These feelings are also a goal of terrorism. On the other hand, terrorists want people to feel that they are powerful.
How to avoid spreading chaos?
Organizing the information and facts they have. Apply their five senses to the information. But they need to go further: Apply intelligence to the information, investigate more and give moredata.
How to avoid producing panic?
Presenting the possible ways to overcome the problem. Showing reasonable gates. Showing people acting to solve the problems produced by terrorism. Searching for more ideas of solution. Search for proposals. When people see solutions, fear disappears.
How to avoid that terrorists appear powerful?
Destroying the myth. It is important to say who is the terrorist, what are his goals, purposes, etc. What are his tools. Let people know everything we know about the terrorist and his organization.
Ethical Tips
Reason must master feelings.
Reject “mirror journalism”.
Reject aseptic journalism lacking intentionality. Intelligent journalists are required to go and appeal to the intelligence ofsociety.
Journalism must go further to analyze the underlying motivations and goals of terrorist groups. What appears before light is only the evident but not the essential. And the essential is what lets arrive to a solution.
Journalists must be known by the people. How they feel, what they believe. So people can say “I know who is speaking, I am confident”.
Journalists are a type o volunteer. Their job is a mission.
Sensationalism, “show-like treatment of news” led 39 Editors of mass media in Colombia to sign up an agreement called Agreement for Discreetness about the information on violent acts.
1. The informative coverage on violent acts will be truthful, responsible and balanced.
2. We won’t inform about rumors as if they were facts. Accuracy must prevail over speed.
3. We will define clear criteria about direct live transmissions to avoid violent manipulations.
4. For ethical and social responsibility we won’t press families of victims.
5. We will establish criteria to avoid diffusion of images that might cause rejection, move people toward violence or make them indifferent.
6. We will be respectful of ideological or political pluralism and will promote it. We will use expressions that contribute to the act of living together among Colombians.
We prefer to miss a news instead of missing a life.
Journalism to Build Peace
Carlos Soria says that the behavior of mass media is definitive to accelerate or speed down violence. Media must promote peace not only in their editorial but in the way they manage information on terrorism.
Journalist must devote to the goal of peace and human dignity. Violence is not the way to solve individual or social problems of men and women.
Neutrality must be rejected. Activism for peace must be assumed. There must be a new informative sensitivity that advances to that space where peace will be a consequence of fight for justice, a new appraisal of the family, respect toward truth and the person. At the bottom of all violence there is unjustice, disorder and irrationality. All aggressive attitude is always unfair because it hurts.
For Soria the clue is: if peace lives in the hearts of men, peace lives among the community.
Peace journalism explores the historical genesis of conflict, their actors, the context, doesn’t establish temporal or territorial limits, finds multiple causes and multiple solutions and searches for transparency.
Peace journalism looks for the truth. Has the ability to discover all the lies of different conflict groups. Onthe contrary, the war journalist exposes their lies, plays, makes propaganda, apologize.
War journalism concentrates on two sides that look for a goal: victory. It develops under defeat-victory scheme. Sees solutions in the space of war and becomes a propaganda tool of we-they, and they are the problem. Waits for violence to occur and concentrates itself only on visible effects like killings, wounded, damaged buildings. Echoes terrorism.
Peace journalism concentrates on everybody’s sufferings: opens space to women, children, tries to diffuse works that help to build peace and helpful information, looks for solutions, puts an emphasis on peace initiatives to prevent the increase of war. On the contrary, war journalism looks for victory and hides peace initiatives until there is a winner and a looser.
Peace journalism leads to the resolution, reconstruction and reconciliation. War journalism goes elsewhere to cover other war.
THE CASE OF ORLANDO SIERRA
Seven mass media -El Colombiano among them-investigated during eleven days to try to clarify the killing of Orlando Sierra, Deputy Director of La Patria, a daily newspaper.
The value of the investigation was the simultaneous appearance of the report in the seven media. We decided to investigate because everybody in Manizales, the city where Sierra was killed, said that the crime was political and came from a very powerful group leaded by two well known politicians, but nobody wanted to denounce because of panic about possible consequences.
Pages for Dialogue in Uraba
Uraba is a very conflictive zone in my region and Colombia. It limits with Panamá, the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean. All violent groups are present there.
In August 1995, Peace Talks stopped.
We decided, then, to open our pages to speak about how to build peace and describe the development different groups wanted for the region.
We asked organized groups, (guerrilla, paramilitar, political, social, ethnic, economic, religious), to answer a set of questions we posed in advance. We organized the process to have a specific answer to a specific question and publish the set of answers the same day on the same page. All answers had an extent limit. We didn’t titled them.
There was a second round about the same questions where those who participated in the first round could participate. This was a long process. It went from October 1995 to February 1996.
This material has been used by different organizations to look for coincidences and divergences and promote solutions for the region. IRCC said that it was the first time that violent groups in the zone contacted themselves with words instead of bullets.
Peace Building Through Investigation
A guerrilla group were preparing to gather in a zone to begina peace process with the Colombian Government. Two of their leaders arrived in official helicopters to pick up guerrilla men in a region. They were killed by members of the Armed Forces. The news from the Army said that they were combating. But everybodyin the community said quietly that they had been executed by soldiers eventhough they had cried that they were sent by the Government. But none was capable of denouncing the military. So a group of institutions from the civil society made an investigation team. We were members of that team. We visited the President and the Attorney General to announce them the goal of the commission. We told them that as soon as we had our report we will give it to them to help in the investigation and that we would keepa copy to decide when to publish it. Our report helped very much. It was the first time in many years that military men were prosecuted. The peace process, that was in crisis, continued and peace was signed one year later. We didn’t publish the report first. We gave a complete copy to all mass media and they decided how to publish it.
Annex 1.
The Conflict in Colombia and Atacks of a Freedom of Speech and Journalist
The Colombian conflict is, no doubt, one of the most serious social conflicts in the world. It lasts 50 years more than a million Colombians have died. The confrontation is between the State and two major guerrilla groups. There is a rightist paramilitar resistance.
Each month 600 Colombians die as a result of war actions. Three fourths of them are civilians. Of the 334 political crimes per month, 13 are against sindicalist leaders. In 2001, 147 sindicalists were killed.
Up to now there are 2 million displaced people. 64% of them are children. 30.000 per month.
Each month 259 people are kidnapped. 12 of them are children. 9 are political kidnappings.
According to a survey by Universidad de la Sabana, 42% of journalists censured themselves as a consequence of menaces by violents.
Five towns are attacked by guerrillas or paramilitars. 4 indian leaders are killed and 6 journalists must ask for protection due to menaces. 6 Colombian are mutilated by personal mines. Businessmen are extorted for 34 million dollars. 70 personal mines remain in 105 towns and 150.000 capture orders are not done.
2001 was a very tragic year for Colombian journalists. Nine journalists were killed. Most of the menaces occurred in conflict zones where there is presence of guerrillas and paramilitars and of corrupt officials. Most attacks went to regional radio journalists, then written media workers and TV. journalists. On January, three journalists had to abandon their country for direct menaces. On February, journalist Jorge Enrique Botero was censured by a big radio group who prohibited the transmission of a program with kidnapped soldiers and policemen.
The AUC, the paramilitar organization, menaced six journalist because that organization considers that they cooperate with guerrilla groups.
The State Department of the United States says that Colombian journalists work under high risk.
On March, the country was condemned to pay compensation to the family of a journalist because Justice found guilty the Armed Forces for the crime. And Farc guerrilla kidnapped Radionet’s journalist Guillermo Angulo. On April, RCN radio made public a message from the government asking them not to broadcast an interview with Carlos Castańo because it would affect negatively the peace process with Farc. On May, Journalist Edgar Artunduaga resigns to a radio program for “direct presidential pressures”. A car bomb is found in front of communist weekly Voz.
On August, the oldest daily newspaper in Colombia, El Espectador, became weekly due to financial problems. It is owned by the most powerful Colombian economic group.
- The ideas and opinions expressed in this website are always those of their authors and not necessarly those of UNESCO -
