WORKSHOP ON MEDIA AND HUMAN RIGHTS
30 March 2004 DC Auditorium, Kottayam
SCHOOL OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Mahatma Gandhi University
&
DC KIZHAKEMURI FOUNDATION Kottayam
MEDIA AND HUMAN RIGHTS
K.M.Seethi ( Mahatma Gandhi University )
The School of International Relations, Mahatma Gandhi University , Kerala is organising a one-day workshop on Media and Human Rights as part of the UGC-sponsored programme currently underway in the School. The workshop, scheduled to be held on 30 March 2004 , seeks to provide a forum for academics, journalists, students, research scholars and social activists to interact and debate on different dimensions of Human Rights as depicted by and through the mass media.
Focal Theme of the Workshop
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers ( Article 19, United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights ) .
It has been well over fifty years since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and, yet, the abuses continue to grow in almost all parts of the world. Freedom of Speech and Human Rights are taken for granted in many countries but the new century saw the Human Rights conditions remain unchanged, or in some countries, actually worsen, around the world. In fact, the UN has reported that even though over a hundred governments have agreed to help outlaw some of the worse violations of rights, abuses are still on the increase. India is no exception.
As the present global order marches forth, the new century doesn't look as bright and cheerful for most people as one imagines it to be. There are so many examples of various countries, corporations and institutions violating human rights. Some are contributing to suppressing rights in other countries or ignoring the plight of people in other countries where their rights are denied due to the political and economic interests of various powerful lobbies.
Freedom of expression, and media freedom in particular, are in danger in many states. In too many countries, severe restrictions and abuse afflict committed journalists whose writings focus on sensitive topics, such as problems of development, abuse of power and corruption. These violations are in and of themselves abhorrent; but they also deserve serious attention because of the detrimental impact they have on efforts to combat all social ills, including growing corruption—a pervasive inhibitor to the political and economic development.
While many countries have signed the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 19 (about freedom of expression, opinion and information) has not been made a reality. A free and impartial media is a key pillar to a functioning democracy to help spread informed views and opinions. Yet, developed and developing countries alike are plagued with various problems in the media in numerous ways. News coverage pertaining to problems of development is declining which is an increasing concern at a time when the world is attempting to globalise. In many countries, journalists face threats of censorship, beatings and even death for reporting issues that may be controversial or not in the interests of power holders. Thus, media is a critical realm where sensitive human rights issues – not only of journalists but broad sections of the masses - are to be addressed most seriously. It is in this context that the workshop on Media and Human Rights becomes relevant. It is a modest beginning of a series of dialogues that the School of International Relations has planned for the next few years.
Objective and Focus of the Workshop
The proposed workshop on Media and Human Rights is designed to sensitise both the academic and the media community of the growing importance of Human Rights against the backdrop of the problems generated by the current pace of globalisation and its accompanying things. The focus of the workshop is on:
- Media and Human Rights: Conceptual Questions
- Development Issues, Human Rights and the Media
- Human Rights Violations: Role of Print and Electronic Media
- Problems of Women and Marginalised Sections: Media Images and Interventions
- Case Studies of Media Engagements with Human Rights
Workshop Participation
The workshop is purported to be in the nature of interfaces among academics, journalists and social activists. About 150 participants are expected for the workshop, which include academics, students, research scholars, journalists and social/human rights activists.
Resource Persons
The resource persons are drawn from various universities, research institutions and the media. The papers will be presented by Gouridasan Nair (The Hindu), N.MadhavanKutty (New Indian Express), B.R.P . Bhaskar (Human Rights activist and formerly with Deccan Herald) T.G.Suresh (Jawaharlal Nehru University), Vinod Kumar (Financial Express), M.Kunhaman (University of Kerala), V.M.Sathish (International Herald Tribune), Kurian Pambadi (formerly with Malayala Manorama), Anil G. Nair (Hindustan Times), Bernd Pflug , A.K.Ramakrishnan and Teresa Joseph ( Mahatma Gandhi University).
MEDIA--INSPIRER OR MANIPULATOR?
Kurian Pampadi ( Formerly with Malayala Manorama)
It is easy to speak volumes about the influence of the media on society rather than quantify the actual influence. It has always been a debating point whether the media exerts any influence in charting the course of human behaviour. Even if there is any influence, it has to be ascertained whether it has been benign or malignant. Goebbels was able to influence the course of history by manipulating the media by blatant lies to endorse the actions of his megalomaniac master Adolph Hitler. We saw the same being repeated in the recent theatre of war in Iraq when we saw the media being manipulated by the Western war machine. The edifice of the justification of war has started to crumble as lies one after another are being exposed. More
Reflections on Media and Human Rights in the Gulf Region : a case study of Oman
By V M Sathish M.A.M.Phil *
“Human Rights” is a much used jargon by the Middle East media as every newspaper, TV channel and Internet sites prominently report the rampant human rights violations by Israeli forces against Palestinians. Due to historical reasons and a religious frenzy created by the century old Arab Israeli issue, human rights, read Palestinian rights, captures the headline of the media almost every day. However, on domestic issues including human rights violations and the journalists’ role in society, a number of subtle measures are adopted to keep the media within strict control. Full Report
Letter from Oman: Tale of two sparring dotcoms
|By Sunil k. vaidya | 24-07-2003 Gulf News Dubai.The lack of official information on various issues and keen interest among the Indian expatriates in their community school management affairs have given rise to Oman-based websites at a time the dot com business has seen a major slump. The two much talked about web sites deal mostly with issues related to Oman yet they are named keralamonitor.com and newkeralamonitor.com.
The keralamonitor.com started first and with reports of labour woes, thefts, suicides, crimes and other stories that the local papers would not touch, the number of visitors to the site grew steadily. Interestingly, a scribe working with the official daily Oman Daily Observer is the brain behind the keralamonitor.com. Somewhere along the line the site took up the cudgels on behalf of the Indian ambassador, K. M. Meena, who began asserting his authority as the patron of the Indian School Board. Hitherto, the ambassadors had not interfered in the running of the schools.
The ambassador's decisions to "correct" what he perceived was wrong made him unpopular among Indians, especially the business lobby. His decisions to make changes to the school committees were seen as interference. With the leading Oman Daily Observer keeping a stoic silence on the Indian school controversy and the other daily Times of Oman first praising ambassador‚s decisions and then critisising it, the keralamonitor .com took a strong pro-ambassador stance.
There were facts, some substantiated and some unsubstantiated, which keralamonitor.com highlighted but the print media could not publish for the lack of official confirmation. The interrogation of some businessmen for financial irregularity could not be confirmed officially thus obviously didn't get space in the print media.
However, keralamonitor.com, which doesn't come under the purview of Omani press laws, had a field day in speculating on the subject. And, suddenly everyone in Oman was talking about the website. It is a different matter that the website slightly went overboard with the language in reporting the matter.
While the keralamonitor.com was growing in popularity, another website, with a prefix new‚ added, was floated sometime last year. The brain behind the newkeralamonitor.com, has remained a mystery but since it was started the focus of reporting issues has been sidelined and the two websites are waging a war of words in the cyberspace. One extols ambassador Meena's virtues and the other one slams the ambassador's decisions.
A lot of dirty linen was washed in this war of words but sadly both the websites have failed to keep decorum and journalistic ethics while calling names. Paradoxically in this cyber war‚ the ambassador is a protagonist for one website and anti-hero for the other.
The two Indian expatriate-centric websites are good source of information for the news-starved residents of Oman but at the same time the two should maintain a decorum of the language they use. Then there's Omanforum.com, run by an Omani citizen, which provides people to get together and discuss, well gossip.Oman is a place where news travels pretty fast. The time was when news spread by a word of mouth, then the phones came handy, now it travels via SMS and websites.
So dot coms keep spreading the news.http://www.gulfnews.com/Articles/news.asp?ArticleID=93382
Weblokam Challenges Century Old Monopoly of Newspaper Houses in Kerala
Thiruvananthapuram - June 11, 2003 -Welcome to weblokam, the premier Internet portal in Malayalam which is revolutionising the average Keralites use of Information technology and the Internet to read and communicate in their own mother tongue. As in other parts of the world, the Internet is slowly becoming a powerful medium in Kerala, the most literate state in India, with large number of newspapers, weeklies, magazines, TV channels, radio, and other means of information dissemination. In a special interview with KM editor, T.Sashi Mohan, senior journalist and founder editor of weblokam.com speaks about various aspects of web portals and the new media.More
Liberalisation of the Indian Press
13 Journalists Killed in different parts of the world in 2002CPJ Media Award Winning Journalists
HUMAN RIGHTS AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT: A PERSPERCTIVE
M.KUNHAMAN
( Professor of Economics, University of Kerala )
Conflating human development and human rights in discourses, a heterodox and welcome intellectual project of relatively recent origin, is by now very popular. It is ironical that more and more violations of human rights are occurring even as there has been a proliferation of agencies and mechanisms for protecting and promoting such rights. Similarly, there has occurred a proliferation of development agencies focusing on human development; yet, deprivations are taking place at an incredible pace. More
MEDIA PRACTICES AND RIGHTS CONSCIOUSNESS IN SOUTH ASIA : A Preface to the Critique
T.G. Suresh ( Jawaharlal Nehru University , New Delhi ) Anil G. Nair ( Hindustan Times , New Delhi )
The way mass movements take shape in the contemporary world may look paradoxical. On the one hand, there are resistance movements challenging the national political establishments and increasingly radicalising popular consciousness. New solidarities are formed, social alliances are created and collective actions are imagined all over the world to fight against the unjust wars, predatory capitalism and other forms of reaction in a scale and intensity not witnessed since Vietnam . The most striking feature of these waves of collective social dissent in the Americas , Europe and Asia is the reinvention of peoples’ rights. In other words, they are inspired by a profound sense of rights, freedom and democracy and are provoked by rights violations. These movements seek to redefine the concept of rights, understood more in terms of sovereign political community in Iraq , right to live in the homeland in Palestine and right to livelihood in the case of Muthanga. What we witness today is a spectacular rainbow of resistance movements against unpopular regimes and their wars, conquests and exploitation of nations, peoples and resources. And the idea of rights and freedom have become so central to these solidarities that cut across nations, race, religions, languages and cultures. More
Compubase Gets Education Ministry Approval for ICDL Training
Detained journalist's wife missing, says Reporters San Frontier
ABIDJAN, 4 September (IRIN) - The lobby group for media freedom, Reporters sans frontieres, has said the wife of Hassan Bility, the Liberian editor who has been held incommunicado for more than two months by the government, went missing two weeks ago. It said Bility's wife, Maria Nyenetue, left the capital city, Monrovia, on 20 August to try to see him, after apparently receiving word from him that he was in Klay, 50 km to the northwest, and needed some money. More
Cuba second from last, just ahead of North Korea
United States and Israel singled out for actions beyond their borders
Saudi Arabia (156)
Reporters Without Borders today published its second world press freedom ranking. Like last year, the most catastrophic situation is to found in Asia, with eight countries in the bottom ten : North Korea, Burma, Laos, China, Iran, Vietnam, Turkmenistan and Bhutan. Independent news media are either non-existent in these countries, or are constantly repressed by the authorities. Journalists there work in extremely difficult conditions, with no freedom and no security. A number of them are imprisoned in Burma, China and Iran. More
51,960 Newsperson registered with RNI
- Moideen Koya
- Popular journalist from Dubai, Moideen Koya, was in Muscat for a short visit to participate in a public function. Koya, former programme director of 'Asianet is now heading the Middle East Television Malayalam Channel
- More
Media Monitor
- Times of Oman Versus Indian Social Club Malayalam Wing Gulf Madhyamam, Malayalam News, Gulf News, Khaleej Times totally Neglected -Kerala Monitor.com, it is all rubbish, which we don't read-Bahrain Will have the First Independent Journalists Association in the Gulf - Times of Oman Versus Indian Social Club Malayalam Wing- Gulf Madhyamam, Malayalam News, Gulf News, Khaleej Times and keralamonitor.com totally Neglected, New Breed of Self Proclaimed Journalists? Meet the Minister without my permission? No way? -New Breed of Journalists take the front seat - Dubai Media City and Dubai Internet City Communications Infrastructure
My Reports in the International Herald Tribune
http://iht.com/pdfs/dstar/DS09-23_01.pdf
http://www.iht.com/pdfs/dstar/DS05-08_12.pdf
Column in Weblokam.com