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Media in conflict and post-conflict areas:
What should the role of the international community be?
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by the Secretariat of the World Press Freedom Day
If, as the old saying goes, "truth is the first casualty of any war", then restoring a free, independent and pluralistic press should be a crucial step towards the reconstruction of democratic institutions immediately after the conflict has ended. Since Montesquieu we have seen that whenever violence prevails, "les lois se taisent" (the laws remain silent). Therefore, promoting free expression as soon as hostilities end means returning voice to the law and to the people.
In this difficult process of rebuilding a civil society devastated by war, the efforts of the international community have not been successful enough, and this has not gone unnoticed. For example, in the case of Kosovo, several newspapers have been sharply critical of efforts made by the OSCE to propose new rules for the media that, in many eyes, could actually hurt the cause of democracy and a free press, rather than promote it. Critics argue that these efforts go against the OSCE mandate to develop democratic media institutions in the region. Among the chief concerns are attempts to ban hate speech or other conflictive views, mainly through the establishment of media controlled or run by international organizations instead of local ones.
According to the critics, the best way to combat this kind of speech is not to ban it but to ensure that citizens have access to alternative views, by promoting independent and pluralistic local media, as favored by UNESCO and the professional media organizations. One example of this strategy currently underway is the project led by UNESCO, in conjunction with professional organizations and the UN, to rebuild an independent media landscape in East Timor. Similar issues could be observed in other conflict and post-conflict areas of the world, such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia and Rwanda, where the international community has attempted to rebuild the media after conflict.
With the aim of furthering the debate on this issue, UNESCO and the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, in collaboration with professional media organizations, are holding a two-day Round Table in Geneva on 4 and 5 May 2000, following the celebration of World Press Freedom Day on May 3. The theme of the Round Table will be "Media in conflict and post-conflict areas: how to combat war and hatred propaganda without undermining press freedom and editorial independence of local media. The role and duties of intergovernmental organizations". This will be the first time that a high level meeting has taken place between media NGOs and all IGOs dealing with media in conflict areas.
In order to examine the evidence of the success and failures of these types of initiatives in recent years, UNESCO has commissioned a study on this topic. At the request of professional media organizations, the study will be carried out by an independent team of researchers including journalists, media professionals and academics, led by Prof. Monroe Price, of the Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy of Oxford University and the Benjamin Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University, New York. Prof. Price is a respected specialist in media in conflict areas with substantial experience of the subject. The study aims to analyse, from a comparative point of view, the cases of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Cambodia and Rwanda. The results of this study will be presented during World Press Freedom Day and the Round Table.
[March 2000]
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