April 29, 2009

By Theo Dolan

On February 15, 2009 Theo Dolan traveled to Baghdad with Julie Montgomery in order to meet with civil society organizations, media and government officials involved in youth and/or media sectors.

In meeting with numerous civil society organizations, educators, government officials and Iraqi youth, the general conditions for youth to seek and receive education and information, including on peacebuilding themes, are extremely difficult. The people we met with consistently identified the following challenges faced by youth:

1. Unemployment (no hope for the future)
2. Poverty (youth must work after school or university or in place of school)
3. Lack of cultural identity
4. Poor communication among youth and also between youth and government
5. Weak educational infrastructure and administration
6. Lack of recreational/entertainment options outside of school
7. Little focus on gender, ethnic tolerance and human rights issues

In addressing youth peacebuilding themes through the media, the following recommendations were made:

1. Focus on a diversity of youth around the country
2. Peer to peer learning is most effective so kids should learn from those in their own age group – train youth how to communicate with each other
3. Address day-to-day challenges faced by youth in a format that offers solutions to these problems
4. Take into account local context – the concept of peace differs from one region to another
5. Be realistic about the Internet - for those who have access, the Internet is mainly used for music and social networking purposes and not to gather information
6. Media outlets and government officials indicate they are open to distributing peace media, but NGOs warn permission is needed by the government to distribute media through the education system
7. Multi-media approaches are effective in spreading peace themes – the oral history traditions in Iraq can be used to bring storybooks alive as TV productions, or mobile theater performances can be replicated on the TV screen.

Preventing Incitement in Iraqi Media

Based on feedback from Iraqi media (journalists, editors, managers), incitement remains an issue since the media sector opened up in 2003. Although the provincial elections in 2009 showed positive signs that the media is covering electoral issues professionally, the political influence on the vast majority of media outlets in Iraq means that it is more difficult to represent "the other" in a neutral manner. Especially during the 2005-2007 period, media was a common vehicle for incitement – not necessarily by directly advocating violence, but by portraying certain groups as "victims" (and some of the dead fighters as "martyrs"). Other factors that contribute to incitement through the media include:

• Foreign ownership of Iraqi media outlets – these outlets represent their own interests and in some cases can focus on violence as a means of obtaining higher ratings
• Media culture – citizens and media had been conditioned to receiving and providing information during the Saddam era, when media existed purely as a PR engine. It is difficult to change this collective mindset quickly in order to combat incitement  
• Limited legal foundation and oversight – with a draft media law frozen in parliament and limited government oversight of the media sector, there is little incentive for those engaged in incitement to stop this kind of coverage.

In considering possible ways to combat incitement in the media, the following measures were discussed:

• Developing a self-regulatory code of conduct on incitement for all media (print, broadcast, Internet) building on Istanbul Declaration of 2008
• Working with USIP facilitators to develop a citizen monitoring network that will provide oversight on media coverage across the country.
• Collaborating with the National Communications and Media Commission to lobby for the formation of an independent watchdog group.

It is also important to note that the lines blur when considering whether media coverage contributes to inciting (ethno-sectarian) conflict or if such coverage is used as a political tool to convey rumor and innuendo. Therefore, baseline research is needed at the national and local levels to provide a baseline for determining project outcomes.

Engaging Regional Arab Media for Peacebuilding in Iraq

Iraqis indicated that the regional Arab media cover Iraq issues based on the agendas of these outlets. Even though many of the pan-Arab satellite networks have journalists in Iraq, the ownership of such channels determines the content, according to some Iraqi media professionals I spoke with. The difference between covering violence in Iraq and the relative success of the provincial elections was presented as a key example. Violence is often the lead story for some regional media outlets, while the provincial elections earlier this year were virtually ignored. Another example identified during my meetings was the slanted coverage of the "shoe thrower." In this case, some satellite channels broadcasting from outside the country portrayed the shoe-throwing journalist as a hero, while not presenting other interpretations (such as those of other Iraqi journalists).