Journalism practice during war period

The first topic: is it right to say that “it is often through good reporting that conflict is reduced'? For understanding this questions, we would better have a look of what conflict is first.

Conflict is a situation where two or more individuals or groups try to pursue goals or ambitions which they believe they cannot share. And also not all the conflicts are violent. Conflict is normal when a change comes. For a reporter, news is change.

Violent physical conflicts is easily to identify and described by journalists, like Iraq war. However, As said before not all the conflicts are violent, some of the conflicts do not include physical violence, but still can do a great harm in a society.

Such as cultural violence, including: xenophobia, hate speech, religious justification for wars, gender discrimination.

And structural violence: colonialism, institutionalised racism or sexism, extreme exploitation, structural segregation.

For a war reporters, not only need to understand what is conflict, also need to be aware what course conflict?

The International Relations theory defines that conflict comes 1). when resources are scare and not shared fairly, such as lands, food, shelters, or jobs 2). There is little or no communication between the two groups 3). The groups have incorrect ideas beliefs about each other. 4). Power is unevenly distributed.

The relations between journalism and conflicts are mainly through communication, which is the root of conflict resolution. For two sides in a conflict to move towards a non-violent resolution, they must first talk. That is where good journalism comes in.

Professional journalists do not set out to reduce conflict, but try to present accurate and impartial news, which help the communication between the two sides and in order to reduce the conflicts.

There are several elements of conflicts resolution that good journalism can deliver: such as confidence building, educating, channel of communication, framing the conflict.

What is the requirements for war journalism keep citizens well-informed and in the meantime melt the conflict.

Should not: defamatory, derivative, malicious, corrupt;

Should do: accuracy, impartiality, responsibility,

Accuracy + Impartiality + responsibility = Reliability of Journalism

It applies to every aspect of the job — assigning stories, editing copy or sound bites, writing headlines, directing, producing, or managing newsrooms.

Reliable journalism encourages, supports and stimulates democracy, because people's right of free speech and expression guaranteed by UDHR article 19 is fulfilled through journalism and different media outlets, TV, Radio and multimedia.

Examples