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Peace Journalism Strives for Balance in Middle East Reporting
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by Patricia Cretilli, W A M M
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The future of peace in the Middle East and other areas of the world will benefit from the roles of this form of journalism.
Peace journalism is a form of reporting that avoids sensational language and biased stories. It recognizes that multiple groups and influences must be considered in any conflict, activity, or accomplishment. Acknowledgment of peace work throughout the world is the important purpose of peace journalists.
How does peace journalism apply to the coverage of the Israelis and Palestinians? The simplest answer is that there is not one type of Palestinian or Israeli, no more than any one American is like the next. Yet many press agencies continue to represent Israelis and Palestinians as two groups. Popular press generally focuses on one-sided reporting. The risks to journalists to report outside the stated guidelines created by corporate and governmental pressures deter many or most from embracing the concept of peace journalism. There are several thousand peace groups in the world dedicated to peace in the Middle East, and yet media coverage of these efforts is minimal.
Peace journalism takes into consideration areas of conflict, peace building, influences on journalism (e.g. public forums, think tanks, NGOs, governmental agencies, diasporas). Although peace journalism requires self-scrutiny, the authors discussed below question how well that goal is met. The future of peace in the Middle East and other areas of the world will benefit from the roles of this form of journalism.
We have examples of less biased journalism that does not ignore the conflicts that exist. The Associated Press recently portrayed the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas with an emphasis on challenges that Israel and Palestine each face. (“New round of violence ushers in Gaza truce; Israel and Hamas express hope, large doubts,” Associated Press, Matti Friedman, June 8th, 2008). Recently, an article in The Economist described the peace efforts by an Israeli peace group (B’Tselem) that opposes the settlements. The article describes the use of technology given to Palestinians by this group to record frequent abuses by extremist settlers. The article also reports on the Peace Now movement, which is touring Israelis who have not seen the settlements in the West Bank. Although the article favors the movements of peace and justice, it also balances the report to explain what each group is aiming to accomplish. (The Economist, 7/12/08, p. 59).
Peace journalism also focuses on peace building. The Western Herald (University of Michigan and Western Michigan University) includes daily peace reports in the universities’ newspapers and websites. OneVoice, a world peace movement, invites dialogue among Palestinians and Israelis and others as part of university coverage. OneVoice promotes unity with moderates on both the Israeli and the Palestinian side. It offers courses in youth leadership, public speaking, conflict resolution, and debate training for youth to promote peace. Miriam Ashnes, public relations director for OneVoice, commented in a recent debate among students that “extremists are successful because the media tends to focus on messages of extremism and acts of violence. OneVoice has created a way for moderates to be extreme and positive and be as big and eye-catching as the extremists, OneVoice is an alternative. There is a choice; there is a way to be a moderate.” (Western Herald, 2/07/07).
OneVoice newspapers and the website offer students dialogue as a grass-roots effort toward understanding. Loay Albisyouni, 28, an engineer at Data Corporation: “There is an occupation, there’s no conflict. When you talk about conflict, you talk about a conflict between two states . . . you are asking people to vote, but it’s not a real vote . . .” Nelly Soudah, a student from Birzeit University in the West Bank, responded: “We know it’s an occupation. We know that, they know that, but that’s not enough. We’ve had negotiations for hundreds of years, and we’ve gone nowhere.” She said she wants a two-state solution, where Israel and Palestine would each have their own institutions, armies, and border controls, among other things. She added that both sides want to live separately: “We want to live inside ourselves and separately. I wish we didn’t care about our independence and all of that, but we do.”
Adi Frum, a 30-year-old Israeli, joined OneVoice after completing his army service as a medic. “As a medic the first thing to do is to check where the person is hit and [the] second is to clear an airway,” Frum said. “I couldn’t do that. I first had to check for any explosives he might have had on him, I didn’t manage to save that person.” Soudah responded to a question about Palestinian terrorism: “Of course I condemn the use of violence, but why are we called terrorists? Just because we are not allowed the title of an army – we are forbidden to have an army.”
International forums for media change can have influence on the movement toward peace journalism. At a forum held in Kyiv May 15, 2003, experts examined the media coverage of Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Speakers identified several problems with coverage. Differences in the language of Palestinians and its Israeli translation, for example, such words as “road map’’ have significant differences in translation in Arabic and Hebrew. In Arabic the phrase road map means “one right road”; in Hebrew, it means “many roads.”
Think tanks such as this were recognized to be of paramount importance due to their influence on media. Members of think tanks should include international educators, media, students, citizens, as well as representatives of heads of state, NGOs, churches, corporate interests, and peace groups. Think tanks can help bring balance to one-sided coverage in media.
The consideration of the influence of the diasporas of the Palestinians and Israelis is also powerful. As in the conflict in Ireland, the power of the media supported by diasporas outside Palestine and Israel cannot ignore such support or interference. The Jewish Voice for Peace recently challenged the lack of governmental sanctions, the NGOs’ passivity, and corporate activity with shareholders. Endorsing responsible actions in the cases of Caterpillar military sales to Israel and the continued building of settlements were among the targets of JVP. (JVP, New York, 6/25/08).
Self-scrutiny by news centers is required for promotion of peace journalism. Dr. Walid Al Saqaf, a Yemeni invited speaker, illustrated weaknesses in media reporting. He suggested that Al-Jazeera’s lack of reporting “truly neutral and peace-oriented news . . . when it comes to the Arab-Israeli conflict” is a weakness. (Sweden’s Peace Journalism Conference and the Middle East Conflict, May/08.)
A major weakness is the media’s inability to identify differences and timing needs of Palestinian and Israeli people. Ahmed I. Samatar at the Macalester Civic Forum, Meditations on Global Citizenship (Spring 2008) stressed a need to focus “on a rich variability in interpretations and personal practice of faith.” In reporting differences in Palestinians and Israelis, one of the major challenges to peace journalism may be inherent in the process.
Peace journalism does face challenges as described above. Reports of conflict may take into consideration all or both sides yet reflect a bias. The pressure on journalists to stay neutral is complicated by human bias and pressure from corporate, governmental, and special interest groups.
Though not lacking in weaknesses, peace journalism provides a viable alternative to the standard popular press. Sustaining journalists who choose to report fairly about the Palestinian and Israeli peace groups and media coverage of those activities may help us move toward real peace in the Middle East.
Patricia Cretilli is a member of WAMM’s media committee, holds a Ph.D. in Middle East Studies, and is a counselor in private practice. |
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© 2008 Women Against Military Madness. All rights reserved.
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