Media and Human RIghts Education

Media and Human Rights Education

Rorie R. FajardoProject Coordinator, Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project

Amnesty International Philippines’ Training of Trainers on Human Rights Education 25 October 2008. Ciudad Christia, San Mateo, Rizal

Media and Human Rights Education

1. Role of Media in Society 2. Contribution of Media in Human

Rights Education 3. Gaps and Challenges 4. Breakthroughs 5. Recommendations to Human Rights

Educators

Role of Media in Society

Fourth Estate Watchdog Brings news, information, and

analysis on issues to public Creates pressure on decision makers

or law enforcers to do their jobs Provides platform for discussion and

feedback on issues i.e. human rights


‘Protector’ of little people, especially in the countryside

Voice of the voiceless Agents of change


Successful campaigns thru support of the media:

EDSA Peoples’ Revolt, February 1986 Erap ouster, January 2001 Negros farmers’ campaign for land,

February 2007 Campaign vs. EJK, disappearances,

media killings, 2007

Contribution of Media in Human Rights Education

Human rights advocates and journalists are linked and share the same heritage: Modern journalism came from the pamphleteers – those who wrote leaflets and papers against unjust laws in the 18th and 19th centuries


Press freedom: needed to ensure all other rights in a society are respected and protected.

Attacks on press freedom go hand in hand with attacks on all other freedoms and rights.


Wide reach: Brings information on human rights to the biggest number of people and in the quickest manner (i.e. radio)

Strong impact: Reaches to peoples from all walks of life, especially those whose rights are usually violated (e.g. TV)


Raises awareness on human rights (i.e. other rights apart from civil and political rights)

Has the ability to mobilize people to recognize and protect human rights, and bring perpetrators to justice (e.g. successive killings of activists and journalists)


Helps monitor and improve human rights in their communities and country (e.g. Philippine Report to the UN)

Gaps and Challenges

Media is business. Human rights is seen as a ‘leftist’

issue. Many journalists have little or no idea

at all on human rights. Media gets interested only on events

vs. process on human rights (e.g. war)

Gaps and Challenges

Journalists are victims, too. (e.g. killings, threats, exploitation)

Lack of data, expert sources on human rights

Media losing journalism graduates to call centers, PR or advertising firms, politicians

Breakthroughs Some media outlets have internal

policies to ensure rights of sources or news subjects are not violated

Initiatives to train and support journalists for better human rights reporting and monitoring (e.g. Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project)

Breakthroughs Media campaigns for right to access to

information (HB 3732 or the Freedom of Information Act)

Media campaigns to stop journalist killings and threats

Dialogues with human rights organizations and implementers to improve media reporting of human rights

Recommendations

1. Understand how the media works. (Reporter, Desk, Editor/Executive Producer)

2. Tap media organizations and journalists which give prominence to human rights issues. e.g. MindaNews, GMANews.TV, Bulatlat.com

Recommendations

3. Continually improve your public relations/propaganda team. e.g. accurate and meaty new releases, worthy media events.

4. Tap public information programs in radio and television. (e.g. Advocacy Day on dzBB’s Bangon na Bayan with anchor Joel Reyes Zobel).

Recommendations

5. Make use of the power of online media.(3.7 M Filipino online users, 16-54 years old who are online almost daily; blogging)

6. Collaborate with media organizations to advance human rights education. (e.g. NUJP-Balai media forum on torture)

Recommendations

7. Continue using alternative media e.g. newsletters, streamers, placards, flyers, wall news, email brigade.

8. Demand for better media coverage on human rights issues.

American journalist Jerry Mitchell:

It is time for a journalism that perseveres in spite of hostile forces.It is time for a journalism that believes in doing the right thing.It is time for a journalism that desires to help the undesirable. It is time for a journalism that never forgets the forgotten. It is time for a journalism that cares.

Call it conscience journalism, if you like…Conscience journalism willing to expose the truth. Conscience journalism willing to seek justice for those who have suffered injustices. Conscience journalism willing to seek to correct the sins of our present as well as our past. Conscience journalism willing to stand up for the very people we have so long beckoned – the wretched refuse of our teeming shore.

www.rightsreporting.net

Media and Human RIghts Education

Education

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