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Media involvement in the peace process
Publication New book on Media and Conflicts as vectors for War or Players for Peace
Description: In association with Groupement de recherche et d’information sur la paix et la sécurité (GRIP) the Institut Panos Paris has co-produced a book (in French) entitled Central Africa – Media and Conflicts as Vectors for War or Players for Peace? published in June by Complexe.
The book was edited by Marie-Soleil Frère, a researcher with the Belgian National Scientific Research Foundation, at the Belgian Free University (ULB) and specialist advisor to Panos Paris. It looks at the role of the media during armed conflicts and peace building, using case studies in nine countries of Central Africa, and analysing the difficulties encountered by journalists working in this turbulent region. The study ends with a look at the ways media in the North cover African crises.
Contact: FRERE Marie-Soleil
E-mail:msfrere@ulb.ac.be
Publication Africa’s Great Lakes: Understanding the Crisis: a joint publication by IPP and MFI
Description: With support from Cordaid, the European Union and AIF (Agence intergouvernementale de la francophonie) Panos Institute Paris (IPP) and Média France Intercontinents (MFI), the wire service of Radio France Internationale (RFI) have joined forces to publish a special report entitled Africa’s Great Lakes: Understanding the Crisis.
This 93-page pocket guide retraces the history of the crisis in the Great Lakes region, with its diplomatic, economic and social issues, and takes a look at efforts by the international community and civil society to promote peace. The book is aimed not just at journalists from the Great Lakes, but also at anyone interested in current developments in this region. It should also help the reader understand the wider issues of peace, security, democracy and development that were addressed during the International Great Lakes Conferences. The book has been published to coincide with a meeting in Dar es Salaam on Peace building in the Great Lakes region, organised by Panos Institute Paris from 13 -15 December for the media and civil society.
Contact: INSTITUT Panos Paris - Pluralisme
E-mail:pluralisme@panosparis.org
Meeting Media professionals from Great Lakes region get together Nairobi
September 03 2005 - September 04 2005 Description: On 3 and 4 September, ten journalists representing media in Burundi, DRC and Rwanda gathered in Nairobi to follow up on recommendations arising from a series of focused workshops on “The media and the Great Lakes conference process” which were held in Bujumbura on 12 August 2005, in Kigali on 25 August 2005 and Kinshasa on 29 August 2005.
Supported by Institut Panos Paris, the meeting enabled participants to target the priority activities for the regional Bagamoyo plan of action. Participants were also able to study the various opinions of journalists that came out of the focused workshops, concerning projects for the media sector drafted by experts at the Great Lakes conference.
Other recommendations included strengthening existing initiatives in the sub-region, such as joint reporting assignments, and the creation of multiplex sub-regional broadcasts, able to be transcribed for publication in newspapers in the sub-region. The first multiplex broadcast was scheduled for November. The second activity that won approval was the creation of a Regional Production and Broadcast Centre.
At the meeting, Professor Julien Nimubona, consultant to the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region on issues of democracy and good governance, presented two media projects that had come out of the Great Lakes conference. Participants expressed their concerns regarding the independence and freedom of the proposed media watchdog body, given that it would come under State administration. They also recommended improving the proposed protocol by adding amendments on State commitments regarding legal and fiscal frameworks favouring greater professionalism, independence and freedom of the media.
Contact: NDIKUMANA Cyprien
E-mail:ndikumanac@panosparis.org
Workshop Workshops on media and the ongoing peace process Kigali
August 23 2005 - August 23 2005 Description: A workshop will be held in Kigali (Rwanda) on 23 August on the media and the ongoing peace process in the Great Lakes region. This meeting follows on from a similar workshop in Bujumbura (Burundi) on 12 August. A third workshop will be held in Kinshasa at the end of August.
These workshops were initiated by Panos Paris, with two main goals. First, they bring professionals together to discuss the institutional process of the International Bagamoyo Conference, which effectively integrated “the media” in the design of its projects and long term proposals. The workshops also aim to give the profession a boost, mainly in Rwanda, Burundi, and DRC, with more concrete actions, on the ground, suggested by journalists themselves as part of the Bagamoyo conference (Peace building in the Great Lakes region: the media’s commitments, 13-15 December 2004 – Tanzania).
The workshops are split into two sessions. In the mornings are presentations by national coordinators on the development of the institutional aspects of the peace process and by media experts on current progress on proposals from the eleven states regarding the media. The afternoons are set aside for discussions on the regional and national action plans arising from Bagamoyo, led by representatives of the national follow-up committees. There is also a report on the Brussels Conference by the two committee members who attended, and a presentation of a recent publication by Panos Paris and GRIP on Central Africa: Media and Conflicts, are they vectors of war or agents for peace?.
These workshops also aim to prepare for a meeting of Bagamoyo follow-up committee representatives to be held on the eve of the Nairobi GTT at the end of August, where the media experts’ deliberations will be discussed.
The workshops receive financial support from British and Irish development funds, the CCFD and the Dutch NGO, Cordaid.
Contact: INSTITUT Panos Paris - Pluralisme
E-mail:pluralisme@panosparis.org
Conference Conference on the media and peace building in the Great lakes region Bruxelles
June 22 2005 - June 22 2005 Description: On 22 June, Panos Paris held a conference on Media and Peace Building – how to support ongoing dynamics? at the Hôtel Métropole in Brussels.
The main aim of the meeting was to raise the issue of media involvement in the peace process in the Great Lakes region and the various institutional initiatives (in the framework of the international conference) and professional initiatives (via commitments made in Bagamoyo from 13 - 15 December, 2004) in order to stimulate thoughts on how best to support the ongoing movements.
The day was divided into two parts. The morning session was devoted to an overview of the peace process, with 150 participants and contributions from Ibrahima Fall, Special representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations for the Great Lakes region, as well as the national coordinators for this process for DRC and Burundi (Baudouin Hamuli and Balthazar Habonimana). After this overview, the Burundi, Congo and Rwanda representatives of the Bagamoyo conference follow-up committee presented the commitments of the media of their respective countries to the peace process. In the afternoon, donor agencies and operators involved in support for the media took part in a round-table discussion on their various actions in the Great Lakes region.
To download the report in French
Contact: FRERE Marie-Soleil
E-mail:msfrere@ulb.ac.be
Workshop Séminaire-atelier en faveur des journalistes des pays des Grands Lacs Bukavu
May 09 2005 - May 13 2005
Contact: ELENGE NYEMBO Sylvie
E-mail:mifedcongo@yahoo.fr; sylvielenge_ny@yahoo.com
Workshop Bujumbura workshop on joint reporting assignments for newspaper journalists
April 04 2005 - April 08 2005
Description: From 4 - 8 April 2005, Panos Institute Paris, in partnership with Syfia International, held a regional workshop in Bujumbura for twenty journalists from the print media (newspapers and wire services) of Burundi, Rwanda and DRC. The aim was to prepare them to carry out joint reporting assignments, first of all in Burundi, and then in the other two countries in the coming months. The theme of the Burundi workshop was “Elections in a country emerging from war”. First of all, participants heard presentations by three speakers. Former President of the Republic, Sylvestre Ntibantunganya, spoke on “The present political situation in Burundi”; the chairman of the Burundi Human Rights League (Iteka), Jean-Marie Vianney Kavumbagu, spoke on “The elections as seen by the Civil Society Coalition for Election Monitoring (COSOME)” and Father Astère Kana, spokesperson for the Independent Electoral Commission (CENI), spoke on “The ongoing electoral process”. Participants then broke into six groups of three (one from Burundi, one from DRC and one from Rwanda), with each group meeting the principal players in the subject they had chosen to report on.
These groups carried out joint reporting assignments in the provinces of Kayanza and Ngozi in northern Burundi, where they met with displaced persons, demobbed soldiers, disabled people and officers from the United Nations Burundi Operation, to hear what their expectations were regarding the forthcoming elections. By the end of the workshop, the participants had written ten articles to be published in their respective newspapers.
Contact: INSTITUT Panos Paris - Pluralisme
E-mail:pluralisme@panosparis.org
Broadcasting and mailing of information Reporting back on the Bagamoyo Conference Burundi et Rwanda
March 20 2005 - March 29 2005 Description: On 20 March, journalists from Rwanda’s media gathered in the Hotel Okapi in Kigali to learn of the outcome of the Bagamoyo Conference, in particular the Declaration and Plan of Action, which involve the media in peace building in the Great Lakes region. Burundi’s national conference follow-up committee held a similar meeting on 29 March for their national media.
At the Kigali meeting, Mrs Solange Ayanone, president of the Rwandan conference follow-up committee, explained that the Bagamoyo commitments aim to support the efforts undertaken by heads of state from the Great Lakes to restore peace and stability in the region. Rwandan journalists used the meeting to discuss the national action plan and find ways to implement its commitments. As a priority, they decided to set up a network of journalists working for peace. “This network should enable journalists to circulate appropriate information with the aim of maintaining peace in the country”, explained Solange Ayanone. She also pointed out that the network should act as a link to other journalists in the region to guarantee high-quality information on the peace process.
At the Burundi meeting, forty journalists joined stakeholders from civil society to discuss the Bagamoyo national media plan of action, regional media actions and the Declaration by heads of state. They also noted that the press has a primordial role to play in the peace process, but is critically short of resources. At the end of the meeting, they drafted a series of recommendations that should enable the media to honour their commitments to help build peace in the region.
These Bagamoyo Conference reporting sessions were organised by the national follow-up committees, in partnership with Panos Paris, and with support from the UK (DFID), Ireland (DCI) and Cordaid.
Contact: FRERE Marie-Soleil
E-mail:msfrere@ulb.ac.be
Workshop Reporters in the Great Lakes carry out joint assignments Bukavu
January 31 2005 - February 06 2005 Description: From 31 January to 6 February, fifteen journalists from DRC, Burundi and Rwanda took part in a regional workshop on radio production on the theme of Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR). The workshop was held at the Bukavu / Nguba Protestant Centre.
First, all of the journalists taking part were able to meet various resource persons concerned with former child soldiers. They then broke into three groups (each with a mix of all three nationalities) to produce three joint assignments: Children at school, not at war; The child at the heart of the conflict; and DDR in South-Kivu, based on interviews carried out in the field. At the end of the workshop, all participants left with the resulting joint stories, to be broadcast by their respective radio stations.
The Bukavu workshop is the third of its kind, following on from those in Bujumbura in October 2004, and Kigali in November the same year. The workshops were organised by Panos Paris (IPP) and Search for Common Ground (SFCG) with the aim of consolidating exchange and collaboration between journalists from these three countries, while also helping to raise awareness of the common issues preoccupying all countries in the region.
Contact: BANGWENE Aziza
E-mail:cbangwene@panosparis.org
Meeting Building peace in the Great Lakes region : commitment of the media Bagamoyo
December 13 2004 - December 15 2004 Description: From 13 - 15 December 2004, in Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), Panos Institute Paris (IPP) has held a meeting for the media and civil society on Peace-building in the Great Lakes region.
The meeting aimed to enable media working in the Great Lakes region to provide professional coverage of regional issues dealing with peace, security, democracy and development. These issues had already been touched upon at the International Great Lakes Conference in Dar es Salaam from 16 – 21 November on the initiative of the United Nations and the African Union.
The aim of the Panos Paris meeting was to bring together the different partners and players operating locally or nationally and to stimulate joint initiatives for peace building in the Great Lakes.
The meeting was supported by the UK development agency, DFID, Cordaid, Irish development aid (DCI), Agence intergouvernementale de la francophonie (AIF) and CCFD.
Contact: FRERE Marie-Soleil
E-mail:msfrere@ulb.ac.be
Debate Bagamoyo Declaration and Plan of action Bagamoyo
December 13 2004 - December 15 2004 Description: Download the Bagamoyo Declaration
Download the Bagamoyo Plan of action
The Sixty journalists along with some twenty civil society stakeholders had come from Burundi, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Tanzania and Zambia to attend the meeting held last month, on the initiative of Panos Paris Institute, on Media commitment to peace-building in the Great Lakes (Bagamoyo – Tanzania, 13 – 15 December, 2004).
The aim of the Bagamoyo workshop, also organised in cooperation with Panos East Africa, was to address the low level of involvement of the region’s media in the International Conference on Peace, Security, Democracy and Development, launched by the United Nations and the African Union. The first major event in the run-up to the conference was a Summit meeting (16 - 20 November, 2004) in Dar-es-Salaam, which brought together Heads of State from 11 countries concerned by the ongoing crisis in the region.
But the media mostly stayed away from these preparatory meetings, providing little coverage of the events. That is why Panos Paris Institute felt it was necessary to bring together journalists from the main media in each country to reflect on the issues facing their profession during the Great Lakes crisis, and then to come up with ways to improve their own performance to provide rigorous, honest and fair coverage of these issues, both nationally and regionally.
At the end of the meeting, the journalists taking part adopted a Bagamoyo Declaration , stating the media’s commitment to work towards peace in the region, with a corresponding 16-point Action Plan outlining what should be done on national, regional and inter-regional levels. Each respective national delegation also adopted its own action plan to foster greater solidarity within the media around peace.
An inter-regional consultative committee, to be led by Panos Paris Institute, was set up to ensure follow-up to the meeting. A first step will be to promote the Bagamoyo Declaration in each respective country, along with the Summit Declaration adopted by Heads of State in Dar es-Salaam, and then subsequent actions (publishing the Bagamoyo declaration, joint reporting in the field, networking of existing professional associations, respecting the journalists’ own pact of non-aggression…) are foreseen in order to pursue the begun dynamics.
Contact
Institut Panos Paris
domitilled@panosparis.org
Contact: INSTITUT Panos Paris - Pluralisme
E-mail:pluralisme@panosparis.org
Conference National preparatory workshops for the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region Bujumbura - Kigali - Kisangani
14 septembre - 5 octobre - 30 novembre
Description: As part of its project supporting the media and the peace process in the Great Lakes region, Panos Paris (IPP) has held three national workshops, respectively, in Bujumbura (Burundi), on 14 September, Kigali (Rwanda) on 5 October 2004 and Kisangani (DRC) on 30 November. The workshops aimed at raising the awareness of journalists from these countries on the main issues in the cycle of international conferences on peace and security in the Great Lakes region. They also provided a platform for media professionals to meet representatives of civil society, through national preparatory committees. The aim was to encourage exchanges of information and views on the main themes of the International Conference, to draw up relevant and concrete actions to raise public understanding of the issues, and to help consolidate peace.
The three workshops were supported by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, AIF, the Comité Catholique Contre la Faim et pour le Développement (CCFD), Cordaid and Irish development (DCI).
Contact: FRERE Marie-Soleil
E-mail:msfrere@ulb.ac.be
Workshop Regional radio production workshops as part of the International Great Lakes Conference process Bujumbura - Butare - Kigali
10-18 octobre / 15-20 novembre
Description: Panos Institute Paris (IPP), in partnership with Search For Common Ground’s (SFCG) Studio Ijambo held two workshops on radio production, one in Bujumbura (Burundi), from 10 - 18 October 2004 and the other from 15 - 20 November in Butare and Kigali (Rwanda). Fifteen journalists from Burundi, Congo and Rwanda from various media were invited to take part in sessions devoted to learning by producing broadcasts. Several programmes were prepared by teams of journalists from the three countries on themes dealing with peace in the Great Lakes, such as refugees and displaced persons, democracy and good governance, and social and humanitarian problems, like demobilisation and disarmament, etc. These reports were recorded using press conferences, interviews, on-the-spot reporting and were subsequently broadcast by media taking part in the workshop.
Contact: FRERE Marie-Soleil
E-mail:msfrere@ulb.ac.be
Programme implemented with the support of:
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| Bi-lateral Co-operations |
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| Non Governmental Organisation |
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