I want to start my concluding remarks with Maria Ressa, a peace prize winner and journalist. “The point of journalism is not to convince you to vote for one or the other but to pull us together to have the really difficult conversations that democracy needs, which requires not just speaking but listening.”
The counter reality to this, to make matters even more challenging is as Ressa says, “We can create great journalism, but it’s not going to get on your feed unless it’s incendiary. If you lace it with fear, anger, and hate, it will spread even more, but as journalists, we’re not going to do that. It’s not only the commodification of news but also the degradation of news.”
It’s been two days of not just of difficult issues but also contradictions. We have come together to celebrate 10 years of the MEKK Safety of Journalism conference – a special achievement. We need to thank Kristin and Roy. One of the reasons the conference at the MEKK is growing in its importance – isn’t just because of the excellent speakers, and fascinating sessions. I think the reason It is growing and becoming the leading safety of journalism conference is because it consistently exposes us to our increasingly contradictory, messy reality.
And it is a messy reality. This morning we heard from Yama and Katrin and about a mother who said her only wish is that she will die with her children. The pain of such moments was only too common to journalists and they highlight the contradiction of journalism. The strength and courage to carry on – and at the same time the gross inhumanity journalists are exposed to.
We know this year as the super year of elections. It is on the surface an incredible thing, as elections are fundamentally about people making informed choices for people to govern them. In our context that means journalism helping the public understand – enabling people to choose. With so many elections even if many are dodgy we should be feeling buoyed by democracy. And yet it seems we are seeing the opposite.
We heard how our keynote speaker, Dr Shahidul Alam is still facing criminal charges, years later. We heard how journalists are threatened, how female journalists are routinely targeted, in the build-up to elections. We heard about internet switch offs, about efforts to undermine media in Brazil, how journalists are censored, embedded and self-censoring. We heard about research on the impact of trauma on journalists, on the need for safety training. CPJ told us this morning of at least 131 killed in Gaza. At a time when we need critical fair accurate journalism, they are facing greater threats, and those who carry out the acts do so with greater impunity.
South African journalist Qaanitah Hunter described it, “we are facing triple or quadruple forms of trauma doing our job on a daily basis. We are exposed to the obvious Trauma arriving on the scene with first responders, smelling burning flesh of people in a fire for example, then going back to the office setting out the trauma and being told to grow a pair or deal with it – so trauma of workplace, then as people who need to be online – the device we have is always on – its in our homes, and it is used to ridicule, dehumanise attack insult and demean. On top of that as women, as women with brown skins each of these have their own elements of added traumas.”
In addition to the daily trauma’s the second focus of the conference has been on conflict. PRIO reports an escalation in armed conflicts 59 wars, and civil conflicts. See https://www.prio.org/publications/14006#:~:text=Oslo%3A%20PRIO.,of%20conflicts%20registered%20since%201946.
59 – an incredible number. It highlights not just the precarious state of the world but also links to another core theme of the conference – decolonisation. We have heard how theories are being used, interwoven with African expertise and theorists. And yet when we look at the conflicts we have to ask which ones are covered and which are forgotten. Whose lives matter, and whose don’t, and what does this tell us about where power lies. Are the lives of the 15 to 60 thousand (https://theconversation.com/sudans-civil-war-has-left-at-least-62-000-dead-by-our-estimate-but-the-true-figure-could-be-far-higher-242073#:~:text=As%20such%2C%20using%20ACLED’s%20data,more%20than%2062%2C000%20total%20deaths.) who have lost their lives in Sudan not worth our attention? If not why not? How many journalists have lost their lives in Sudan or the DRC covering conflicts? As much as we know and need to focus on conflicts that impact our nations foreign policy issues, if we are to take issues of decolonisation seriously we need to think more carefully about how we think about conflicts of the forgotten.
The shift to polarisation of conversation, micro targeting algorithm driven social media not only rewards the incendiary it also creates false legitimacy. We focus on a crazy man, who is seeking to normalise racism and misogyny – and of course we need to cover it but its impact is that it veils the real issues, and seeks to frame our world and events as binary us and them, as strong men needing to “sort out: the weak, the different, the marginalised, women. It seems pretty bleak… and yet.
And yet – along side the rise of repugnant populism, nationalism and racism we see stories and contradiction that are about hope and courage. The horrific story emerging from France where a husband over 9 years invited over 100 men to rape his wife. It is a story of depravity, of how “ordinary men” rape, dehumanise and defile. But that isn’t the story – the real story has been about the response of the survivor – Gisele Pelicot how she wanted the videos of her being raped to be shown in open court – because she wanted to flip the shame – from survivor to the perpetrator. Pelicot’s response to betrayal and mass rape have demonstrated a courage and humanity greater than any comic book super hero. I’m telling this because had it not been for the news media this story, the story of her courage, would not likely have been told. At the tip of Africa we take courage and inspiration from a woman in a small French village. Indeed Pelicot’s courage and heroism is also a shining example of the power of news media. How it can help inform and shape radically different approaches to rape. At a time where the likes of scum like Andrew Tate are rewarded by social media for their misogyny it is our journalists who have been able to shine a light on Pelicot’s extraordinary courage.
But even in the face of such darkness, bright spots emerge, there are hundreds of such stories, we have seen how journalists in the most challenging threatening spaces and places have stood up, from Dr Alam, Leandro Dameri, Alina Pollakova, reporters aligned to Report the World, journalists in Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Senegal, Turkey, and Gaza. Journalists risk their lives to report, to ensure the views of the marginalised, are heard, to ensure power is held accountable. But it isnt just the journalists that give us hope.
Our second keynote, Neena Kapur showed in practical terms what can be done to combat seemingly pervasive and overwhelming digital dark forces. We see students, professors, studying, analysing a staggering diversity of issues focused on journalist safety, from digital threats, harms and issues to AI. From trauma, training and best practice to what’s happening with laws and policies. We see experts on trauma, on methodology on technology, on conflict reporting – some working on big picture issues and others on defined critical pieces of the larger eco system.
Dr Alam challenged us at the end of his keynote what we are doing with our freedom? It is a great question as it demands, we do more. Too often we expect journalists to stand tall, to show courage when others may not, too often journalists stand alone.
This conference has demonstrated that journalists are not alone. We are surrounded by students, experts, professors, and lecturers who are committed to answering the call of how do we use our freedom. They are using research to fight for better solutions, learning how to support and protect media freedom, and applying their skills to hold the line.
As we prepare to depart, let us draw strength from the work we have done here. Let us leave with a renewed sense of hope and determination, knowing that our collective efforts will create a safer future for journalism. The work we do today will inspire and protect the journalists of tomorrow, and collectively we will hold the line.
