Conflicted in Kathmandu
From the Blog PkColumnist.com: Conflicted in Kathmandu - With all its spiritual heritage and ancient lore that is rooted in love and harmony, South Asia in our times seems infested with violent conflicts and suppression of the human rights of its citizens. This situation obviously raises some critical questions about how a rational and more informed public discourse can be promoted to understand the nature of these conflicts and their impact on human rights. And it is crucial to look at the role that the media plays in pursuit of this. It was this assignment that brought together twenty media professionals, human rights activists and social scientists in Kathmandu during the last weekend. This was 'South Asia Roundtable on Conflict, Media and Human Rights'. As one of the four participants from Pakistan, I should confess that I gained some new insights into a number of specific conflicts and insurgencies during two days of intense and intellectually invigorating discourse. It was surely a learning experience, mainly because of the multi-disciplinary composition of the participants. I have attended a number of workshops, seminars and conferences that were devoted rather exclusively to either the media, or peace initiatives in the region (Aman ki Asha), gender issues or human rights. Here, however, an attempt was made to address issues of media representation of conflict and human rights in the frameworks of policy, advocacy and academic research. Hence, it was quite a challenge for a poor scribe like me. What I should aim to report, then, is not the gist of the discussions, held advisedly without any multi-media presentations, that covered a broad spectrum of issues that germinate in South Asian societies. It helped that the participants were very candid and critical in analysing the state of affairs in not just within their own countries but also their localised areas of conflicts and insurgencies. An important point of reference was the construction of national interest. The Roundtable was jointly sponsored by the International Council on Human Rights Policy, based in Geneva and headed by our Hina Jilani, the Tata School of Social Sciences, based mainly in Mumbai, and Panos South Asia, which is a media-related NGO. As I said, we were four from Pakistan – three women and I. Apart from Hina Jilani, there were Sherry Rehman and Beena Sarwar. It would appear that I was included only to maintain some gender balance. But Afrasiab Khattak and I A Rehman were also invited and couldn't make it for some reasons. As an aside, the predominance of such accomplished women from Pakistan may underline some fascinating contradictions of our society at a time when religious extremists and socially regressive events are the stuff of international headlines datelined Pakistan. This was the week when Aasia Bibi, the poor Christian woman who was sentenced to death on a blasphemy charge by a lower court in Nankana, was very much in the news. Incidentally, out of the eight participants from India, only two were women: journalist Pamela Philipose, who is a friend because we have been together in a number of conferences beyond the barbed-wire boundaries of India and Pakistan, and Dolly Kikon, a well-known anthropologist and conflict researcher from Naga. The third India woman, Anjali Monteiro, represented the sponsors. She came from the Centre for Media and Cultural Studies of the Tata School of Social Sciences. Nimalka Fernando, a political commentator, was one of the two participants from Sri Lanka. As always, personal encounters at the sidelines of the Roundtable became an exciting and enlightening experience. I am particularly grateful to Najeeb Mubarki, a Srinagar Kashmiri who works as a print journalist in Delhi and Xonzoi – pronounced as Sanjay – Barbora for their deeply felt perspectives on two major areas of conflict in India: Kashmir and the North East. This was well outside the conventional wisdom that is purveyed by the national media of India and Pakistan. Xonzoi deals with the conflict and media programme of Panos and is based in Guwahti, Assam. Of the two participants from Bangaldesh, I had known Nurul Kabir, editor of a Dhaka daily, from before. The last time we met was also in Kathmandu, at the May 3 seminar last year on the International Day of the Freedom of Expression. When I congratulated him on the Bangladesh Supreme Court's decision to restore the country's secular status, he cautioned me about the derelictions of Bangladesh politics. It was sad for both of us to share our sorrows. In his remarks, Neelabh Mishra, who is editor of the Hindi version of 'Outlook', elaborated the significance of the Nira Radia tapes. This was almost 'breaking news' for me, though the tapes have since become a major scandal in the current revelations of big cases of corruption in India. It is really remarkable that several thousand telephone conversations of Nira Radia, a high-flying corporate lobbyist who also works for Mukesh Ambani were tapped by an official agency and copious excerpts have been published by some papers. It became relevant for the Roundtable because the tapes present peripheral involvement of two leading television personalities – prominent anchor Barkha Dutt and former editor and present TV host Vir Sanghvi – in promoting ministerial appointments and business deals. It was felt that this involvement could affect the coverage of the scandal in the mainstream media. The question to be asked is: what does this mean for journalism of integrity in India? Ah, but we do not appear to be doing any better in Pakistan and know about some leading media persons who would rather be news-makers. One columnist, writing from Delhi for a Pakistani English daily, has noted that just before the transcripts were published, Sanghvi was lecturing Indian audiences that they were 'within their rights' to dislike and isolate Arundhati Roy. He could never have guessed that the tapes "would expose him as a cheap, obsequious wheeler-dealer with no journalistic ethics at all". I had some time, also, to dabble in nostalgia. Shivam Vij, a journalist who is associated with a media blog, was with me when we searched out a touristy Italian eatery for drinks and dinner and talked about migration and divided families. Shivam lives in Delhi and his family had migrated from what is now our Punjab. Lahore, we know, is the lost paradise for so many who live across the Wagah border. A detailed report on the Roundtable is, of course, in the works. Vigay Nagaraj of the International Council on Human Rights has sent some initial notes from Geneva. With this, there has also been an exchange of greetings among participants. Neelabh wrote: "My adieu to all the knights of the Kathmandu roundtable – take knights to be a gender-inclusive term. Hoping for everyone to keep the ball rolling". To this, Sukumar Muraliharan of the International Federation of Journalists, based in Delhi, responded: "Knights are also known to tilt at windmills." . Read Full Post
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