FES Media Seminar on Diversity Journalism concludes Concept of social obligation to help ease conflict: Experts

November 12, 2003
7 MIN READ
A
A+
A-

By NIRAJ ARYAL

Kathmandu: Why the women residing in Nepal’s remote villages were attracted to the Maoists movement? She replies bluntly: “Maoists with their slogans like free sex, choice in choosing partners, no discrimination, equal participation etc. are some of the special features that has become a matter of attraction for the female sex to which the Maoists have been cashing in from.

It was not clear whether the distinguished lady was all praise for the Maoists or been talking other wise. It will have to be watched as to how the Maoists’ react to the lady’s conclusions.

Listening to the lady’s surprising remarks some body asks from the gathering, ” Is it possible to implement catchy slogans like free sex in the rest parts of the country?” She beamingly replies, “If you can do it, why can’t I? So says the distinguished lady Dr. Durga Pokhrel, the incumbent Chairman of the Women’s Rights Commission who is, as a matter of fact, married to a foreigner which presumably allows her to advocate free sex in a blunt manner.

But the question is do we really know what family planning is and do we know how to use condoms? Are we educated enough to accept these changes given the present day conservative societal structure of the country? Who will then be responsible for the population explosion or for that matter of the epidemic of HIV/AIDS, the Maoists or the Women’s Right Commission or at best Ms. Pokhrel who forcefully pleads the theory of free sex.

Do we have to use sensational headlines just to increase our sales? One of the women participants running a local newspaper said using sensational headlines she at times has tremendously benefited. Others said the State should help local newspapers by providing advertisements or by providing monetary supports. But the question remains: “how the government be made accountable and responsible for the newspapers’ for not writing truths?.

At a FES organized four-day workshop on ” Peace and Diversity Journalism in Conflict situation” men and women from the Nepali media were present in almost equal numbers. Participants from daily newspapers, weeklies, FM radio stations, news agencies from around the country were present to listen to a German expert Mr. Joergen Klussmann on Conflict Resolution.

The German expert who had been flown to Nepal to share his expertise on the said topic stressed the need to be responsible while reporting and preparing news. He said a reporter has to avoid making reports from the reports which has been already reported in the media. However, the participants, on the other hand, opined that in the present context as the reporters were not allowed to visit Maoists’ affected areas and hence it was not possible to subscribe to Klussmann’s views.

According to Klussmann, both peace and conflict could be described as a “state of mind” which meant that a conflict or peace could be an individual concept of how a situation, person or environment is being perceived. “The concepts of peace and conflict are highly dependent on someone’s assumptions, feelings, impressions and thoughts”, adds Dr. Klussmann.

“The basic precondition for solving a conflict of the sort of the Maoists in Nepal is reconciliation and that reconciliation is an active communication tool with a clear aim at achieving a compromise”, says Dr. Klussmann.

Guest speaker, Dr. Durga Pokharel who is the Chief of the Women’s Right Commission focussed her presentation on Women’s related issues in the conflict situation.

She said that the country is already fragmented in the issues of gender, rich and poor, caste etc. Citing an example of a village which she recently toured said that Women in the western region become happy to see their husbands getting killed in the fight between the Maoists and the Government. According to Dr. Pokhrel, the Maoists have been using male drunkards as human shields as and when there is a fight with the government forces. She said Maoists raising voices against the traditional societal loopholes are gaining lots of support from the villagers.

“The atrocities perpetrated on the villagers by the Royal Nepal Army was more visible that those of the Maoists”, revealed Dr. Pokhrel. She stressed the need to address these pertinent issues by the government and the members of the civil society. However, she revealed that the Maoists were getting support from India and said unless there is an initiative to solve the problem from the southern neighbor, the issue of the insurgency will remain intact.

She, however, did not reveal as to on what basis she alleged that India had been supporting the Nepali Maoists.

Among other guest speakers, senior journalist Mr. Ram Krishna Regmee, said that Nepalese society is handling conflicts since long so it was not at all a new phenomenon for the country. He said this conflict is unique to Nepal because the cause of the conflict is neither religion, nor a linguistic one or even a geographical or for a conflict seeking autonomy. He however, maintained that due to the insurgency, Nepal has already incurred a loss of about 18 billion Rupees worth of infrastructure and that there is already a decline in the GDP by 2.2%. He said looking for a solution to the conflict towards media could be a mistake but accepted that media can play a role in minimizing conflict. Hitting towards the donor countries Mr Regmee said they are also accountable for continuous governance failure in the country.

Mr Dhurba Hari Adhikari, a very senior Nepali journalist said that Nepali media has not acted responsibly while reporting the stories on conflict which, adds Adhikary, have flared up the situation which is what should have been otherwise. However, Adhikari hoped that the Nepali media in the future acted in a manner that contributed to the easing of the conflict rather than flaring it up.

Mr. Shrish Rana, a political analyst speaking on the topic of actors of conflict and peace said political leaders are responsible for the chaotic situation that has gripped the country of late. He said that the solution to the conflict could well be found in our own society rather than looking towards the West because the problem is unique to Nepal and hence the solution lay right here in the country. “Let’s explore the indigenous tools for addressing the issues of the conflict”, added Mr. Rana. He rejected the idea that the King being responsible for the current crisis.

Mr. Rana urged the political actors to adhere to the widely accepted concept of social obligation.

At the inaugural of the seminar, Dev Raj Dahal, FES Nepal office, dwelt at length on the processes that are generally brought into action while managing the conflict or for that matter resolving the conflict.

P. Kharel, the media advisor at the FES, made his concluding remarks on the last day of the workshop. He assured the participants that the FES would take initiatives of this sort in the future as well in order to provide knowledge to the media persons on varied topics that are relevant for Nepal.

The attending participants lauded the efforts of the FES and thanked the trainer from Germany, Dr. Klussmann, for his enlightened lecture on the said topic.

The FES awarded training certificates to the attending participants.