Cross border workshop launches in Nepal
(Kathmandu, Nepal)—Two fascinating presentations kicked off the Cross Border Reporting Workshop this morning. The workshop brings together 60 Pakistani and Indian journalists to collaboratively study and report on issues of mutual interest.

The first keynoter, Nepalese Journalist Kanak Dixot (pictured, center), made a plea for bolstering tolerance and cooperation in the region. He said that since journalists are “gatekeepers of society…they should have an open mind so that they can open the mind of society.” Dixot’s appeal is for South Asians to develop an identity as South Asians, one that transcends a “super nationalistic mindset” and instead embraces a “shared future.”

Sri Lankan journalist Dilrukshi Handunnetti followed up with a fascinating presentation and workshop centered around issues of disinformation. She began her presentation with a very peace journalism-oriented discussion of story framing, and the tendency to tell stories in the region only through the frame, or lens, of the India-Pakistan conflict. PJ, of course, asks journalists to transcend these frames, and offer counternarratives. She said these frames are often ‘us vs. them’ presentations by media in both countries of threats to national security, of ‘them’ as the enemy or threatening our ideals. Frames centering around Kashmir are also prevalent, Handunnettis noted. She finished by giving the journalists some tools for thinking about disinformation, including focusing on actors, networks, and behaviors of those spreading information.

In the afternoon, the workshop participants met in four subject matter areas (business/econ, health, agriculture, environment) to discuss cross border, collaboratively reported stories they will be producing in the coming months.

The workshop is sponsored by the East-West Center, and underwritten by the U.S. Embassy-Islamabad.

I’ll have more from Nepal later this week.