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Peace on Television

Peace Direct Chief Executive Carolyn Hayman joined an esteemed panel from the media for a discussion on how peace is reported on television

TITLE: “War and Peace on Television: A Better Way?”

A Women In Film and Television Seminar in association with Peace Direct.

VENUE: Waterstones, Piccadilly, London. March 21st 2006

ON THE PANEL:

Vivian Creegor (Chair), former Presenter, Sky News

Dorothy Byrne, Commissioning Editor, News and Current Affairs, Channel Four

Carolyn Hayman, OBE, Chief Executive Peace Direct

Katie Barlow, Independent filmmaker

Here is a review of some of the main points covered during the evening:

So what is peace journalism about?

The importance of seeing the world from other people’s points of view, including reporting the news from a different perspective and as it is seen by other peoples – seemed to be an agreed way forward to promoting peace.

“We need to get away from the concept of heroes and villains when in reporting conflict”.

“We need to remember the people in the middle. The missing piece in the jigsaw is local people doing amazing things to resolve conflict.”

As Katie Barlow’s film and work in I/OT/PA demonstrates, there is a healthy movement of Palestinians and Israelis getting on with each other. This gets no coverage, particularly in the States, where watching the news leads you to believe every Israeli hates every Palestinian and every Palestinian hates every Israeli.

So what programmes are relevant? Programmes that help us to see the other world. We have to show people, opinions and stories going on in different countries and “we have to show them in and out of prime time”.

The theme of that its also important to understand that there is no homogeneity within communities and that film makers need to reflect that diversity was something that was reinforced during the discussion. As Peace Direct discovered in “Young Muslims Speak” which was a response to the July bombings in London giving ordinary young Muslims a voice. And the first thing that we found is that young Muslims don’t all speak with one voice.

What can Peace Direct offer?

It was a useful opportunity to meet the assembled group of program and film makers because Peace Direct can make a difference by offering film makers and news gathers stories, contact with the peace builders in their own communities. With Insight on Conflict which is a detailed database of peace building initiatives in certain conflict areas. It’s a resource for policymakers, the media, and anyone interested in conflict and its peaceful resolution.

How can we get Peace on our screens?

In many ways (it was suggested) that media doesn’t like peace activists, they get a bad press and it is difficult to get these stories onto our screens. It seems that peace activists only hit the headlines when they are killed. It is possible that sometimes people can’t relate to peace activists, that’s why you need to humanise them. In order to get Peace on the screens, we have to get away from the “Boys Own” way of reporting, eg. Whether it is 20,000 dead, or more than that, we need to show that these deaths are not just statistics. Remember the last time you went to a funeral? Think of the number of people who were there to mourn and had been affected. That is what we need to remember.

However, War is just as boring as peace. In many ways war is always the same – it’s about people being blown up. The war in Iraq IS a big switch-off. But it has to be covered. “One of the real problems though is that we are filming the Iraq War third hand. It simply isn’t safe enough to have our own camera crews on the ground. It is not a good situation”.

Finally, the recognition was that there are more people with more stories than there are outlets. There will always be ideas that will not be made.

“We can’t give people a false expectation of peace, but where it does exist, we have a DUTY to show it “

For more information on Women In Film and Television (WFTV) please go to www.wftv.org.uk/

For more information on the event please email chris@peacedirect.org