Does just discussing peace mean you're taking sides?

(CAMEROON)—After less than one day in Cameroon, a theme for this project has already emerged: the safety of journalists, and those who train journalists.

My first meeting today was with a journalist who fled the western Anglophone region of the country after he and his family were threatened. I won’t use his name here for obvious reasons. In those Anglophone regions, the northwest and southwest, there is a violent, anti-government insurgency led by separatist rebels. My new journalist friend said he was targeted by rebel groups for doing his job and reporting factually.

Hearing this, I shared the story of an editor I worked with in Indian controlled Kashmir several years ago who was recently shot and killed for nothing more than doing his job. (See my blog below).

This led to a discussion about how a journalist, or a peace journalism trainer like me, becomes a target in the northwest or southwest regions. The reporter said that discussing peace in the Anglophone regions put him in jeopardy since a pro-peace message is seen by the rebels as a pro-government, anti-rebel stance. He said that he’s even been accused of being bribed by the government to discuss peace.

Selfishly, perhaps, I asked about what this means for me, and for our month-long peace journalism project held with the Cameroon Community Media Network, much of which is scheduled to occur in cities in the northwest and southwest regions.  The journalist firmly advised me to not go to the regions because he believed the seminars' trainers and participants would be targeted by rebels. He said the rebels would see our peace journalism program as pro-government, and that some rebels would even believe that I am being paid off by the government to blanket the region with pro-peace and thus anti-rebel messages. 

Of course, this is preposterous, I commented. My friend agreed, but said that the rebels would believe this nonetheless. He pointed out that anti-government forces actually accused UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres of being bribed by the government to come to Cameroon and advocate for peace. I guess if they think the UN secretary general was paid off by the government, it’s not a stretch to believe that I could be paid off, too (presumably for much less than Guterres!)

Based on the journalist’s advice, and on information we are receiving from other experts on the ground, it now looks like we won’t be traveling to the northwest or southwest.  Instead, we will transport journalists from those regions to safer locales to learn about and practice peace journalism.

We can keep the journalists safe for a few days during the PJ seminars. It’s their safety after the seminars that worries me.