The Challenges of Reporting on Conflict

1
The Challenges of Reporting on Conflict

• Anne Cadwallader
• Conflict Resolution Journalism and Professional
  Integrity and Ethics
• 14th Cleraun Media Conference
• Dublin, Saturday October 20 2012

2
The Troubles 1969-1998 (?)

• Causes still hotly-contested
• Unionists say terrorist conspiracy to destroy the
  state
• Nationalists (SDLP) say legitimate civil rights
  campaign for equality hi-jacked by republicans
  (IRA)
• Republicans (SF) say state oppression (Bloody
  Sunday etc) of civil rights movement made
  violence inevitable
• British governments have tended to side with
  unionists
• Irish governments have tended to side with
  nationalists

3
Proof Just This Week

• SDLP Press Release 16 October
• Foyle MLA, Colum Eastwood complained to the
  Broadcasting Authority of Ireland re RTE website
  contention that the Civil Rights Association in
  the North inadvertently triggered the Troubles.
• Eastwood To suggest that the thousands involved
  in the Civil Rights Association were somehow
  integral to the source of conflict here,
  inadvertently or not, is an insult to history.
• The NICRA were in fact the human wall which
  stood in the way of a tide of violence, a human
  wall of peaceful protest advocating democratic
  change.

4
IMAGES OF A CONFLICT LESS THAN 100 MILES AWAY
5
Human SufferingThose endless, endless, funerals

Bobby Sands (27)
Richard (11) Mark (9) and Jason (7) Quinn
Mark Quinsey (23)
Thomas McDonald (16)
6
Attitudes in Republic to Northern Troubles

• Young woman on RTÉ Frontline programme during
  October 2011 presidential campaign
• As a young Irish person, I am curious as to why
  you (Martin McGuinness) have come down here to
  this country, with all your baggage, your
  history, your controversy?
• And how do you feel you can represent me, as a
  young Irish person, who knows nothing of the
  Troubles and who doesnt want to know anything
  about it?
• Evidence of an abject failure by Irish press and
  broadcasting to explain the Northern conflict
• Mirrored by a parallel failure of British media
  to do the same

7
Attitudes in Britain The Troubles

• Indifference
• Wish Northern Ireland could be towed out into
  the Atlantic and sunk
• It was a religious conflict (Catholics versus
  Protestants)
• That killings were mainly tit-for-tat
• That British role limited to impartial arbiter,
  peace-keeping
• That IRA mainly to blame

8
Exceptions

• British media campaigned for Birmingham Six,
  Guildford Four
• Panorama/UTV revealed Pat Finucane collusion
• Yorkshire TV on Dublin/Monaghan
• Many fine articles, and responsible and dedicated
  journalists, did their best over 35 years
• But overall, I contend, day-by-day, the
  mainstream British and Irish media failed to get
  the story across in a compelling way

9
Cost of the Troubles

• Over 3,700 dead - equivalent in US 600,000 -
  Britain 150,000
• Over 30,000 injured (1 in 50) - equivalent in US
  5,000,000, Britain 1,000,000
• Aged under 5 23, Aged 6-11 24, Aged 12-17 210,
  Aged 18-23 898
• 37 under 24, 53 under 29 and 74 under the age
  of 39

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Who Killed and Was Killed?

• 91 were men
• Civilians (no affiliation to the security
  forces/paramilitaries) - 53.
• 48 of the dead killed in North and West Belfast,
  Derry and South Armagh.
• Republican groups killed almost 59 of the total
• Loyalist groups killed almost 28
• Police/British Army killed just over 11

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Personal Background - 1981

• Came to work in NI for BBC as a young,
  inexperienced journalist
• Intended to stay six months-a year
• Believed British justice was beyond reproach
• Believed the police could, almost invariably, be
  trusted
• First experience of (knowingly) being lied-to was
  a year later, in November 1982

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11 November 1982

• Gervaise McKerr, Eugene Toman, Sean Burns
• RUC said their car had broken through a roadblock
• Officers had opened fire in fear of their lives
• Over a hundred shots fired all three killed

13
My Small and Ignoble Part in their Story

• First solo overnight duty on BBC Northern Ireland
  news-desk
• Phoned by RUC press office
• Told car had broken through a roadblock
• Wrote story up for morning radio news bulletins
• Later read Irish Times report
• Local people said no roadblock
• I had reported a lie

14
Aftermath

• Three policemen charged with murder
• Acquitted by Lord Justice Gibson, who said he
  found them "absolutely blameless (June 1984)
• John Stalker (former Deputy Chief Constable,
  Greater Manchester) integrity, wrongfully,
  questioned
• Stalker/Sampson report never published
• Inquest into deaths never opened 30 years on
  London will not disclose Stalker/Sampson

15
A Hard Lesson

• A lie gets halfway around the world before truth
  gets its pants on Winston Churchill
• Rosemary Nelson Tribunal found
• RUC officers had legitimised her as a
• target by abusing and assaulting her in
• public
• Could not rule out the possibility that
• rogue members of the security forces
• had been involved
• BUT British government had report before others
  and put story out first
• That tribunal had cleared members of the
• security forces of collusion in her murder

16
Civil Conflicts Telling/Selling The Story

• Usually more than two sides to every conflict
• Each side sees media as another arena of war and
  hearts and minds are key
• ALL sides prepared to lie, manipulate facts and
  spin
• Journalists must be wary
• How do you tell if a politician is lying?

17
Hearts and Minds

• 21st century conflict has moved from
  battlefield/No Mans Land into villages, homes,
  streets
• Phrase believed based on John Adams, 2nd
  president of the US (in a letter dated 13
  February 1818) "The Revolution was in the minds
  and hearts of the people .
• US President Lyndon B. Johnson (of the Vietnam
  War) The ultimate victory will depend on the
  hearts and minds of the people who actually live
  out there.
• Hearts and Minds then became known as WHAM
  (Win Hearts and Minds) US policy to win over the
  Vietnamese people.

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Journalism Therefore Even More Central

• Journalists reporting back to where armies come
  from
• Can influence whether a war is popular or not
• Battle over WMD prior to invasion of Iraq
• Journalism lost that battle?
• Lesson Governments can still control the news
  agenda
• Governments tell lies untruths spin just
  like political parties, companies etc

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Role of Journalism

• To give the audience an impartial summary of
  both sides of the story so they can make their
  own minds up
• Does this make journalists mere paid technicians?
  
• To listen to both sides, analyse, decide who is
  good/bad or speaking the truth and convey that to
  the audience?
• A mixture of both?
• If you have 5,000 words of facts and can only use
  200 how do you choose?
• Does this choosing make the theory of
  objective journalism a myth?

20
Alternative Journalism

• Non-mainstream have to search
• Eg Robert Fisk/John Pilger (best known)
• Nick Davies Flat Earth News ( and phone
  hacking/Leveson)
• Others Jonathan Cook on Middle-East
  Disappearing Palestine
• Mark Curtis Unpeople Britains Secret Human
  Rights Abuses and Web of Deceit Britains
  Real Role in the World

21
The Internet Effect

• Internet challenging traditional journalism
• 24 rolling news no time to analyse or write
  considered pieces
• Citizen journalism can be positive/immediate
  prevents journalists being the only gate-keepers
  to news
• But who moderates?
• Who are the alternative gate-keepers?
• Not entirely negative

22
Who Watches the Watchers?

• Media Lens News and commentary are filtered
  by the medias profit-orientation, by its
  dependence on advertisers, parent companies,
  wealthy owners and official news sources
• The Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom
  To challenge the myth that press freedom is best
  served by current forms of ownership and control,
  and by 'self-regulation' on the part of the Press
  Complaints Commission
• Glasgow University Media Group
• Spinwatch Monitors the role of public relations
  and spin promotes greater understanding of the
  role of PR, propaganda and lobbying

23
Journalists As Participants

• Under Fire and The Year of Living Dangerously
  
• Should journalists even vote?
• In NI a long-standing TV presenter during the
  Troubles is now leader of the Ulster Unionists
• Another TV journalist is now SDLP Westminster
  candidate for Fermanagh/South Tyrone
• I am now a human rights activist some would
  say I have declared a position

24
Change of Tack

• Those are the big issues of the future
• Here are some factors as I have experienced them
  in the North
• Now seen from my new role as a Case Worker with
  The Pat Finucane Centre
• Now able to investigate human rights abuses
• Realise now how suspicious both officialdom and
  ordinary people are of journalists!

25
Covering Violent Events

• Inevitably means witnessing pain and death
• Intruding into the most personal moments of
  victims lives
• Only justification is the public interest
• Most journalists ambitious but should retain an
  ethical focus
• Guard against allowing your humanity being
  compromised
• In the end, youll still need to be able to live
  with yourself

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Questions to Ask

• Does my story portray victims of violence with
  accuracy, insight and sensitivity?
• Does it inform readers about more than the
  individual story?
• Is it representative of the wider conflict?
• Does it avoid sensationalism and melodrama?
• Does it portrays victims as more than just tragic
  or pathetic?
• In the NI conflict, this meant getting MORE than
  writing/filming dramatic scenes of riots or the
  aftermath of shootings/bombings

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Interviewing the Recently Bereaved

• Standard practice in NI
• Witnesses/bereaved often too shocked to say no
• Difficult for reporters also
• Justified on grounds that death was part of a
  continuing civil conflict
• Better to cover the death than ignore it
• Bereaved/witnesses often (usually) were grateful
  in retrospect for speaking

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Should Journalists Ever Hide Stories

• Does the public good ever justify not reporting
  news?
• Admit to this twice
• 1. Loyalists tipping maggots into the
  deep-freezes at Dunnes Stores, Portadown,
  Drumcree 1998
• 2. Cross-Community meetings involving lay people
  and priests/ministers Falls/Shankill early 1990s

29
Protecting Sources

• Should journalists sources be legally protected?
• Eibhlin Glenholmes 1984

This woman was once Britains Most Wanted. She
was chased through the streets of Dublin by armed
Gardai. She was said to have bombed London.
Metropolitan Police sought her extradition. Nine
extradition warrants accused her of murder and
other crimes. Should a journalist who interviewed
her be protected from giving evidence?
30
Journalists The Pack Instinct

• Pressure to come up with a story
• Example Holiday Inn, Gibraltar, 1988, after the
  shooting of three unarmed IRA members
• Speculation about a fourth gang member who had
  escaped
• Journalists talking, one asked where the theory
  of the fourth man came from?
• Oh, it's a woman and we are saying it's Evelyn
  Glenholmes we have a nice picture of her and she
  won't sue' "
• Amongst her other soubriquets Blonde Bomber,
  Angel of Death, Terror Blonde in Jeans

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Eibhlin Glenholmes Now
Shot and wounded by loyalists in Short Strand,
aged 16. Strong advocate within republicanism
for the Peace Process. Member of the Northern
Ireland Victims Forum. We didnt go to war.
War came to us.
32
My Part in Her Story

• Invited to come to an interview by man I knew to
  be IRA
• Taken by car with Irish Times reporter, Andy
  Pollak
• Interviewed her in, we believe, Tallaght
• Interview ran Page 1, Irish Times
• Lead BBC 9 OClock News
• Pressure to co-operate with Scotland Yard
• Offered any job within BBC if agreed to testify

33
Patsy Kelly Murdered July 1974

• Anonymous contact
• Two anonymous witnesses evidence of a named
  witness to murder
• Account of UDR and current MLA involvement
• Witness to murder now dead
• Refused PSNI demand for names
• Was I correct?

34
The Worthy But Dull Story

• SF documents
• Scenario For Peace 1987
• Towards a Lasting Peace in Ireland 1992
• Only three journalists at Dundalk ard fheis for
  discussions in 1992
• The press missed the story of growth in support
  for ending the IRA campaign
• More interested in covering day-to-day killings
• Did this prolong the violence?

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Compare to Lawyers

• Lawyers had to decide their relationships with an
  emerging civil rights movement
• Answer ethical questions on taking part in the
  courts under emergency/repressive laws
• Respond when other lawyers became victims of
  paramilitary and state inspired violence
• Whether to challenge long-held views on what
  constituted a neutral legal system.

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Lawyers and JournalistsWider Responsibilities?

• Are both neutral professionals?
• Responsibilities restricted to competence?
• Or should both lawyers and journalists face, head
  on, broader social, political
• and moral responsibilities in a society in
  conflict?

37
What Role Should Journalists Play in Civil
Conflict

• Adapted from Kieran McEvoy What Did Lawyers Do
  During the War? Neutrality, Conflict and the
  Culture of Quietism, Modern Law Review, 2011
• Did journalists do their jobs in very difficult
  circumstances? Is doing a competent job enough?
• Were public stances beyond their remit?
• What exactly are our expectations from
  journalists in conflicted societies?
• Should we view journalists simply as apolitical
  people who make necessary accommodations to
  sustain their own status/income?
• Is it fair to burden them with more pressing
  responsibilities?

38
Human Nature

• Do people want to hear distressing news stories
  from far-flung places?
• Especially if they feel they can do little to
  help?
• Do they prefer travelogues (Michael Palin etc) to
  complex and difficult questions?
• Are human beings, in short, ostriches?

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CONCLUSION

• Can Irish journalists consider their coverage of
  the North was a job well done?
• Can the British media do the same?
• Do newspapers, television and radio provide a
  global audience with enough information about
  current conflicts in, for example, Iraq and
  Afghanistan?
• Is it human nature to avoid distressing news
  stories?
• Is it possible to provide responsible, accurate,
  news reporting on foreign conflicts in a
  commercial context?