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Concerned journalism is a new genre, anti-West, created by modern wars
By Antonio Fabrizio
Posted: Nov 05, 2006
Today’s wars have given birth to a different type of journalism, which is somehow more “involved” and
“active”, therefore, highlighting its concern for civilians, their safety and their daily life. It may be called
“concerned journalism”. This approach forges reporters who develop a sense for peace and social
justice and who contribute, through their reports from war zones, to diffuse a knowledge of how people
live where wars occur and what can be done to help them.
These journalists, like many other journalists, are ready to risk their lives for the sake of their
profession and its principles of accuracy, fairness and authenticity. Moreover, they care about civilians
and act through real actions, by cooperating with NGOs and by spending a great amount of time “in the
field”, to provide evidence of how civilians’ lives are devastated by war. They are often very critical of the
West, and especially of the way Western armies handle conflicts, often ignoring civilians’ needs.
An example of “concerned journalism” is www.peacereporter.net, an Italian online publication, which
also has an English version. Peacereporter is a project of MISNA and the humanitarian association
Emergency, which reports news about wars worldwide. It is very different from the official newspapers,
because it has less funds, counts mostly on unknown writers and has a very clear position towards
war.
Its mission is “to spread a culture of peace and respect of human rights”, because it believes that
“there are many concrete and successful experiences alternative to the use of force, of that deadly
instrument that war is”.
Although it has unambiguous position towards wars, Peacereporter is highly reliable. It has in fact
sources “in the field”, NGOs’ operators, diplomatic personnel, and tens of brave journalists, often
volunteers, who are ready to endanger their lives, going in the most dangerous areas, just to report
what they see.
Enrico Piovesana is one of the editors and writes about Central Asia. He reported from Afghanistan,
and his reports “in the field” are great examples of “concerned journalism”. Being in Afghanistan, he
had the chance of witnessing how local people live their everyday life; he interviewed common people,
local politicians, human rights organizations and warlords.
Among others, he interviewed Sima Samar, the President of the Afghan Independent Human Right
Commission (AIHRC), “one of the most loved and most hated women in Afghanistan”. Talking to
Piovesana, Samar denounced the corruption of political organizations, the mistreatment of Afghan
women, the lack of a justice system, the illegal detention and torture of detainees both in Afghan and
US military prisons.
He also interviewed famous warlards. Haji Mohammed Mahaqiq, a former warlord who took part into
Karzai’s provisional government and was the candidate who gained the highest number of votes in all
Afghanistan in 2005, received him in his Kabul residence.
In one of his reportages – “In the Heart of Afghanistan”, released in October 2005 – Piovesana visited
a remote Afghan village, Baba. He observed and described the living in a typical Afghan house –
focusing on issues such as the role of the head of the family, the relationship between men and
women, the work in the farm, the discussions among men. He also interviewed local people and
asked them about Taleban forces and Western soldiers, and found out that local people had a critical
view of both groups. Taleban were described as violent and brutal; the Western coalition, instead, was
criticized for not finishing the work it had started.
Piovesana then explored the village, and highlighted the lack of food, because drought had made
critical to irrigate fields. The other critical situations concerned the lack of classrooms for children, of
sanitation services, of passable roads. He visited the school and the clinic and found a worrying
situation everywhere. The clinic was short of medicines and people had to buy what they needed; there
was no ambulance to carry people to other villages, where they could be cured; therefore many died,
due to the scarcity of adequate assistance. The schools – small structures which could not contain all
the children in Baba – had very few teachers, because the government paid only for some of them,
therefore the older students had to teach the younger ones.
These and other Piovesana’s writings are just some examples of “concerned journalism”: the
approach is clearly both journalistic and humanitarian, and it has the merit of being useful to local
people, much more than any analysis concerning NATO strategy or world leaders’ opinions. These
issues, covered by major media, are obviously important, but they often do not take into account what
local people do and think, even if it is on their heads that decisions are made.
Statistics and numbers, interviews with military spokesmen and international analysts, isolated from
their context, may appear somehow abstract or even prove useless. “Concerned journalism”, instead,
conjugates accurate analysis and impressions collected among local people.
This type of journalistic experience should be borne in mind by military coalitions, governmental
institutions and the international community: only by trying to understand people’s life, their habits and
their needs, it is possible to help them to overcome a difficult phase and focus on reconstruction, the
priority in today’s Afghanistan.
### ### ###
Antonio Fabrizio is a Global Affairs Intern, The Atlantic Affairs.
By Antonio Fabrizio
Posted: Nov 05, 2006
Today’s wars have given birth to a different type of journalism, which is somehow more “involved” and
“active”, therefore, highlighting its concern for civilians, their safety and their daily life. It may be called
“concerned journalism”. This approach forges reporters who develop a sense for peace and social
justice and who contribute, through their reports from war zones, to diffuse a knowledge of how people
live where wars occur and what can be done to help them.
These journalists, like many other journalists, are ready to risk their lives for the sake of their
profession and its principles of accuracy, fairness and authenticity. Moreover, they care about civilians
and act through real actions, by cooperating with NGOs and by spending a great amount of time “in the
field”, to provide evidence of how civilians’ lives are devastated by war. They are often very critical of the
West, and especially of the way Western armies handle conflicts, often ignoring civilians’ needs.
An example of “concerned journalism” is www.peacereporter.net, an Italian online publication, which
also has an English version. Peacereporter is a project of MISNA and the humanitarian association
Emergency, which reports news about wars worldwide. It is very different from the official newspapers,
because it has less funds, counts mostly on unknown writers and has a very clear position towards
war.
Its mission is “to spread a culture of peace and respect of human rights”, because it believes that
“there are many concrete and successful experiences alternative to the use of force, of that deadly
instrument that war is”.
Although it has unambiguous position towards wars, Peacereporter is highly reliable. It has in fact
sources “in the field”, NGOs’ operators, diplomatic personnel, and tens of brave journalists, often
volunteers, who are ready to endanger their lives, going in the most dangerous areas, just to report
what they see.
Enrico Piovesana is one of the editors and writes about Central Asia. He reported from Afghanistan,
and his reports “in the field” are great examples of “concerned journalism”. Being in Afghanistan, he
had the chance of witnessing how local people live their everyday life; he interviewed common people,
local politicians, human rights organizations and warlords.
Among others, he interviewed Sima Samar, the President of the Afghan Independent Human Right
Commission (AIHRC), “one of the most loved and most hated women in Afghanistan”. Talking to
Piovesana, Samar denounced the corruption of political organizations, the mistreatment of Afghan
women, the lack of a justice system, the illegal detention and torture of detainees both in Afghan and
US military prisons.
He also interviewed famous warlards. Haji Mohammed Mahaqiq, a former warlord who took part into
Karzai’s provisional government and was the candidate who gained the highest number of votes in all
Afghanistan in 2005, received him in his Kabul residence.
In one of his reportages – “In the Heart of Afghanistan”, released in October 2005 – Piovesana visited
a remote Afghan village, Baba. He observed and described the living in a typical Afghan house –
focusing on issues such as the role of the head of the family, the relationship between men and
women, the work in the farm, the discussions among men. He also interviewed local people and
asked them about Taleban forces and Western soldiers, and found out that local people had a critical
view of both groups. Taleban were described as violent and brutal; the Western coalition, instead, was
criticized for not finishing the work it had started.
Piovesana then explored the village, and highlighted the lack of food, because drought had made
critical to irrigate fields. The other critical situations concerned the lack of classrooms for children, of
sanitation services, of passable roads. He visited the school and the clinic and found a worrying
situation everywhere. The clinic was short of medicines and people had to buy what they needed; there
was no ambulance to carry people to other villages, where they could be cured; therefore many died,
due to the scarcity of adequate assistance. The schools – small structures which could not contain all
the children in Baba – had very few teachers, because the government paid only for some of them,
therefore the older students had to teach the younger ones.
These and other Piovesana’s writings are just some examples of “concerned journalism”: the
approach is clearly both journalistic and humanitarian, and it has the merit of being useful to local
people, much more than any analysis concerning NATO strategy or world leaders’ opinions. These
issues, covered by major media, are obviously important, but they often do not take into account what
local people do and think, even if it is on their heads that decisions are made.
Statistics and numbers, interviews with military spokesmen and international analysts, isolated from
their context, may appear somehow abstract or even prove useless. “Concerned journalism”, instead,
conjugates accurate analysis and impressions collected among local people.
This type of journalistic experience should be borne in mind by military coalitions, governmental
institutions and the international community: only by trying to understand people’s life, their habits and
their needs, it is possible to help them to overcome a difficult phase and focus on reconstruction, the
priority in today’s Afghanistan.
### ### ###
Antonio Fabrizio is a Global Affairs Intern, The Atlantic Affairs.
| (c) 2006 New Criterion Foundation, London |
| Security. Ideologies. Multiculturalism. |