Communicating efforts for peace

An independent media is essential to the prevention of war. But in Indonesia, with no broadcasting bill and a weak press law, there are many instances where journalists' newfound freedoms have been exercised without any accompanying sense of responsibility.

In some cases, intense media competition has led journalists to respond with provocative reporting to create sensational headlines; in others, a lack of training has led to articles being published, or information being passed on in a form which has had an inflammatory effect in some of the conflict stricken provinces.

Rumour can tear through a community and speed up the cycle of violence by increasing people's fear. Take the recent house- burnings on the island of Morotai, in North Maluku. Information filtered out through rumor; for 350 islands in the province, there is only one daily paper, along with 10 weekly tabloids and 10 radio stations, almost all located and circulated in Ternate.

Even telephone connections are not available in many areas, so people from Malifut or Sahu have to travel for hours to reach the nearest communications stall in Jailolo.

So when rumors about the situation reach, for example, the thousands of refugees from North Maluku who still live in camps in Manado, they have no way to assess accurately the conditions in their old homeland and, therefore, to reach an informed decision about the advisability of returning there.

Fear and suspicion prevail -- people assume that, for everything they do get to hear about, many other things will happen that they don't hear about. They tend to exaggerate the dangers in their minds.

What is being done? To improve the reliability, professionalism and sense of responsibility of the conflict reporting reaching Indonesian readers and audiences, the British Council has backed three peace journalism training programs here, working with some of the leading media organizations such as Antara, Kompas, Jawa Pos, RCTI and SCTV.

Internews, the international media NGO which supports over 40 radio stations in the country, not only supplies its own balanced news service but also sponsors its own "Reporting for Peace".

Then there is Communicating for Humanity training, supported by USAID and based on the premise that we are all communicating, all the time, and we all have a share of the responsibility to communicate messages based on peace and mutual understanding.

Musa Kiye, a religious leader from Obi island, made a wall magazine after the training where he put his poems and talks attached in front of the local Mosque.

Parada, a community leader from Parigi, central Sulawesi, held a modero, a traditional dance, which involved 5,000 people, lasted a whole night until 7 a.m. the next morning, and contained various peace messages within the dancing itself.

Annabel McGoldrick and Aya Muchtar