October 1997 Peacewatch
VIRTUAL DIPLOMACY

Hate Radio or Peace Propaganda?

Radio broadcasts can be used to spread conflict, but they can also foster tolerance and post-conflict reconciliation, experts say.

 he recent confrontation between the Stabilization Force (SFOR) peacekeeping troops and Serb hard-liners for control of television stations in Bosnia's Srpska Republic is a high-profile example of how valuable broadcasting can be in conflict. But a much less advanced medium is also a major contributor to the spread of conflict in so many regions around the world: radio.

"Radio's Role in Conflict and Conflict Resolution," a conference jointly sponsored by the U.S. Institute of Peace and the Voice of America (VOA) on October 7, examined radio's role in contemporary conflict and the measures conflict managers can undertake to counter the negative effects of broadcasting in regions plagued by internal war and humanitarian crises.

Tom McConnell, public affairs officer in the Institute's Office of Communications, and Gregory Pirio, coordinator of VOA's Conflict Resolution Initiative, organized the day-long conference, which was attended by radio producers, broadcast and print journalists, scholars, representatives of the U.S. Department of State and congress, and heads of international and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that provide humanitarian relief and assistance in conflicts.

Institute president Richard H. Solomon delivered the conference's opening remarks, noting the intimate connection between conflict and communications--particularly radio, the dominant medium in many of today's conflict zones. "Radio has the capacity to exacerbate conflict, and unfortunately we see its most negative effects in the terrible 'hate radios' in the Rwandan genocide," Solomon said. "Radio leaves a great deal to the imagination compared with television, yet it has a powerful capacity to mobilize people for action."

However, the use of radio to end conflict has its critics, too, cautioned Robert Manoff, director of New York University's Center for War, Peace, and the News Media. Quite apart from Western, particularly American, notions of objectivity and impartiality in the practice of journalism, many of the methods NGOs use to manage conflicts around the world involve "desired-outcome broadcasting," or tailoring the themes of news broadcasts and other programs to make the warring parties end their fighting. Inevitably, such programming forces conflict managers who use radio to choose sides in the conflict and risks becoming propaganda--albeit "peace propaganda" aimed at halting a conflict's outbreaks of mass violence--rather than objective reporting, Manoff said.

A broad range of international news staff discussed their work in conflict zones, including the effort in Serbia to provide independent news broadcasts and information about the opposition movement's protests last winter after then Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic shut down the country's independent media outlets. Others discussed attempts in Rwanda to counter the infamous Radio Mille Collines, whose broadcasts helped incite Rwanda's Hutus to slaughter more than a half-million of the country's minority Tutsis.

Developing effective broadcasting strategies for resolving conflict was another major topic at the conference. Col. Mike Seidl, with the U.S. Army's Psychological Operations Division, and Neguisse Mengesha, with VOA's Kinyarwanda/Kirundi Service, said that in practically every conflict that was aggravated by a humanitarian crisis, simply providing information on when and where food would be distributed, where separated family members could be found, and where medical services could be obtained drew the biggest audience in the region--and away from a warring faction's radio propaganda. This is why coordination between peacekeeping forces, NGOs, and independent radio stations is crucial to the success of peace operations.

Seidl discussed the task of peacekeeping operations deployed to enlist popular, impartial radio stations in a conflict zone to air appeals for cease-fires among factions. They often take on the added responsibility of protecting the stations and their broadcasters from attacks by any one of the conflict's various factions, he said.

Once a conflict is over, said Bill Yaeger, with the U.S. Agency for International Development's Office of Transition Initiatives, programming resources should focus on the most critical tasks in efforts to recover. After the war ended in Bosnia, radio ads were used to remind listeners about the high costs of war, because, he said, "people forget that there is a cost of war."

This conference was part of the Institute's ongoing project examining the impact of new information and communications technologies on international conflict and its resolution. In April, the Institute hosted a major conference on "Virtual Diplomacy: The Global Communications Revolution and International Conflict Management," and in June 1996, the Institute and the National Defense University jointly sponsored "Managing Communications: Lessons from Interventions in Africa," which investigated how communications technologies can improve monitoring and coordination of efforts between conflict-management and humanitarian-relief organizations.

© 1997 United States Institute of Peace

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