Journalists in Jakarta: Highlighting the media’s role in covering conflict

Asia:NZ Media Advisor Charles Mabbett travelled to Indonesia in March 2010 for the East Asia Regional Media Programme, which was organised by the New Zealand Government.

From the start of the East Asia regional media programme held in Jakarta in March, the focus immediately went on recent conflicts within Indonesia and the lessons learned in how to bring peace to conflict ridden communities.

A key feature of the gathering of journalists from 16 countries around the East Asia region, including Australia and New Zealand, was the keynote address by the former Indonesian vice president Jusuf Kalla who described his role in bringing peace to the sectarian wars in Maluku and Sulawesi since 1998.

By talking to the troubled communities, Kalla emphasised that those who killed would not become martyrs but were destined to go to hell. His words carried weight as a national leader but also as a fellow Muslim and a native of Sulawesi, one of the troubled provinces.

It was also through other presentations that a full picture became clear of how these conflicts originated – through disenfranchisement of political representation, inequality, internal migration and provocation – as well as how peace initiatives used in concert helped to solve the troubles.

The Maluku conflict which began in 1999 led to several years of ethnic cleansing, forced religious conversions, attacks on mosques and churches and the deaths of up to 10,000 people. The situation has been relatively stable since 2004.

Dein Kelilauw and Lucas Sopacua of the Maluku Media Centre explained how local news media had worsened tensions between Christian and Muslim communities with the Muslim local media favouring Muslims while the Christian media favoured Christians.

“Even two newspapers owned by one person attacked each other’s community. As reporters we were in a difficult position because as a Muslim I couldn’t go to the Christian side and Lucas couldn’t go to the Muslim side,” Mr Kelilauw said. “I can say that a conflict based on religion is very terrible because I have experienced it myself.”

Peace efforts included getting journalists from both communities to meet and sign a declaration to call for an end to the conflict, the arrest of leaders of armed militias such as the Lashkar Jihad as well as calls for peace by respected leaders such as Jusuf Kalla.

The three day programme, organised by the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and co-sponsored by the European Union, was attended by up to 40 journalists, many of whom were able to talk firsthand about covering conflict in their particular countries.

• Nani Afridi of the Jakarta Post talked compellingly about covering the Aceh conflict and even how the media conferences to detail progress in the peace talks between both sides were less than peaceful.

• Veteran Pakistani journalists Rahimullah Yusufzai (pictured) of The News International and Zahid Hussein of Newsline Magazine discussed years of covering the Taliban insurgency in both Pakistan and Afghanistan which included doing interviews with Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden.

• Senior Thai journalists Don Pathan of The Nation and Supara Janchitfah of The Bangkok Post both talked about the issues faced in covering the ethnic Malay insurgency in southern Thailand. 

• Al Jazeera reporter Marga Ortigas, Philippine Star executive editor Amy Pamintuan and Carol Arguillas of the Mindanao News talked about the conflict in southern Philippines and highlighted the daily threats faced by Filipino journalists as demonstrated by massacre in Maguindanaolate last year, which left 57 people and 32 journalists dead.

The theme of the programme – Journalism at the Intersection of Politics, Religion and Culture – also included discussion about the difficulties faced by journalists in a changing media environment as well as issues of censorship, self censorship and the training of new journalists.

“We have seen examples of how media reporting on sensitive issues, particularly in situations of conflict and terrorism can exacerbate tensions,” Chris Langley, New Zealand’s Charge d’Affaires in Jakarta said. “This is especially the case where reporting delves into cultural and religious issues but is not well founded or balanced.”

Participants also received a reminder of the security aspect of the programme’s theme when a scheduled presentation by the head of Detachment 88, Indonesia’s elite police counter-terrorism unit, Brigadier General Tito Karnavian was cancelled because of a raid on suspected Islamic militants in a town south of Jakarta.

The East Asia regional media programme was held at the ASEAN Secretariat headquarters in Jakarta from March 9-11. It was attended by journalists from China, South Korea, Japan, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, India, Pakistan, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand.

The New Zealand participants were former NZ Herald journalist Julie Middleton, NZ Herald journalist Edward Gay, AUT University journalism lecturer Prof David Robie, Massey University journalism lecturer Alan Samson and senior Radio New Zealand journalist Graeme Acton.

It is the second time the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affair s and Trade has organised the East Asia regional media programme – the first was held in November 2008. The 2010 event was co-sponsored by the European Union and supported by the Indonesian Government and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).