Indian, Pakistani reporters resume cross border conversations
Among the dozens of media and peace journalism projects I’ve done, the cross border journalism initiative launched by the East-West Center stands out for the quality and audacity of its participants—Indians and Pakistanis who transcend boundaries and unite for the cause of good journalism.

In this project, Pakistani and Indian journalists learn together (production, peace journalism, economic, health, and environmental reporting), and then break up into teams of one Indian and one Pakistani to jointly report issues of importance.

I had a chance to meet some of these journalists last night on Zoom for a concept we call, Cross Border Conversations. Our discussion began with journalists Ravinder Singh and Shiraz Hasnat, who discussed their jointly produced story about a radio station that reaches across the border. Both said there were obstacles in producing and publishing the stories, and especially getting Indian publications to use the Pakistani reporter’s byline, and vice-versa. Despite these challenges, the feedback from readers were very positive since the story took such a unique angle.  

Then, Husnain Raza from the media NGO Global Neighborhood for Media Innovation (GNMI) gave a short presentation about five recent workshops for radio journalists (called Frequency +) held in Sindh and Balochistan provinces in Pakistan. I was fortunate enough to meet and train these 108 journalists in January. The workshops included content production, AI, writing multimedia copy, and scriptwriting for podcasts. (See my blogs describing my wonderful experiences in Pakistan).

Finally, we closed with a discussion about the future of cross border programming. One possible cross border project would be with and through GNMI, and involve Pakistani and U.S. journalists. However, that’s on hold due to the pause of U.S. government funding. Another possible cross border project is in the works with a different media NGO. This is in the planning stages, but might tentatively focus on teaming up newsrooms in India with their Pakistani counterparts.

As always, it was a pleasure seeing and chatting with my South Asian colleagues. I look forward to our next cross border conversation in May.

 

Aid, refugee cutoff reporting reflects peace journalism principles
As USAID is dismantled, government workers are laid off, and the refugee resettlement program is halted, there is at least one small ray of sunshine—ubiquitous news media reporting about these events that reflects the best principles of peace journalism.

As a peace journalist, the focus should naturally be on the humanitarian angle of the story, on storytelling that gives a voice to the marginalized and victimized, and on discussions about mitigating the fallout of these government decisions moving forward. There is an abundance of journalism that is doing just that. 

The results of a small Google news search study done on Feb. 12 for stories filed during the last month are interesting. The search looked for “USAID” and then drilled down by adding different terms in quote marks.  The good news--there is an abundance of news about the foreign agencies that depend on USAID funding. A search for “crisis foreign aid organizations” showed 198,000 stories, while there were 344,430 hits combined for “overseas agencies impacted,” “impact local provider,” and “local agencies.” For example, "USAID Kenya partner has no funds to carry out PEPFAR waiver" on Devex discusses how a program to fight AIDS may have to stop, while “Nonprofits, NGOs scramble to provide global aid amid USAID uncertainty” by ABC News discusses the battle to keep aid agencies afloat. In the article, a humanitarian aid organization leader “described conversation with lawmakers who were, they said, in disbelief to hear that organizations who are trying to continue lifesaving work delivering food and water were still locked out the federal payment system and unable to access cash. ‘Surely, there is cash?' I had to say, 'No, no, there is no cash.’ the humanitarian aid leader told ABC News. ‘We are having to first get through that disbelief that this would actually be happening in this way.’”

Similarly, there have been a number of published stories that highlight the humanitarian impacts of the foreign aid cutoff, especially in those domains most impacted. The Google search study showed, for example, 333,000 stories on “USAID” and “health programs” and 114,000 stories on “USAID” and “AIDS.” There are many exemplary peace journalism-style stories reporting the human toll angle of the story, for example, several Nicolas Kristof pieces in the New York Times, including “The USAID chaos already has dire effects;” “Fear, pain and Hunger: The dire impact of U.S. funding cuts” in the Washington Post; and “USAID freeze risks 'deadly consequences' as work halts in Gaza, agencies warn” on NBC News.

There has also been a laudable spotlight on the victims of the stoppage in refugee resettlement to the U.S. The Google news search showed 179,000 such stories using the search “refugee resettlement.”  These include excellent stories like “‘Life is so dark’: Trump cancels flights to KC for 108 refugees fleeing war, persecution” in the Kansas City Star; and “A Utah agency rented apartments, bought food for refugee families. Now they’re on hold” in the Deseret News.

Peace journalists need to remain vigilant when reporting the aid and refugee cutoffs, and need to keep their focus on humanitarian issues more generally as they report about the myriad impacts of the drive to slash government programs and workers.

Call for Articles: The Peace Journalist magazine
The Peace Journalist, a semi-annual magazine produced by the Center for Global Peace Journalism/Steven Youngblood, is seeking submissions for its April edition. Submissions should be 600-1600 words, and

address peace journalism/peace media research and projects. Please also submit photos, if possible. We do not run articles about general peace projects or processes unless they have a strong media component or angle.

The previous edition of The Peace Journalist, our 25th published magazine, can be found at
https://www.scribd.com/document/774752030/The-Peace-Journalist-mag-Oct-2024

The deadline for submissions is March 5. The magazine usually fills up quickly, so the sooner you can get your pieces in, the better. Please submit to steven.youngblood@fulbrightmail.org .

Thank you in advance for your submissions.

Best wishes,

Steven L. Youngblood
Editor, The Peace Journalist
Journalism Program Coordinator, East-West Center