Journalists convene in Pristina, Kosovo
(Pristina, Kosovo)--When it comes to remembering and reporting about the past, the Balkans provide a valuable case study, and one hopes a laboratory for change.

I'm here with journalists from Kosovo and North Macedonia this week working with the German NGO forumZFD to discuss peace journalism and how its principles can be used to improve reporting in the region.

Journalists here face many challenges, chief among them breaking free of 'us vs. them' reporting patterns that marginalize and demonize 'the other.' (A good report detailing with was published by forumZFD).

I'll be updating this blog several times this week and next with details about this 'remembering the past' seminar.

The New Peace Journalist magazine has arrived!
The new Peace Journalist magazine has hit the virtual newsstands, and features insightful articles on a cross border reporting project involving Pakistani and Indian journalists; marginalizing women in the Ukraine war; and info on a special journalism summer school in Greece.

The magazine is available on Issuu at https://issuu.com/peacejournalism/docs/the_pj_oct_2022_web_-final .

A downloadable.pdf copy of the magazine can be found at https://www.park.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/peace-journalist-oct-2022.pdf .

The next edition of The Peace Journalist will be published in April, 2023. Please see page two of the magazine for submission details. The next deadline will be approx. March 1, 2023, but it’s always wise to get your articles in earlier.

Enjoy!

Steven L. Youngblood
Director, Center for Global Peace Journalism
Editor, The Peace Journalist magazine
Assoc. Professor of Communications and Peace Studies
Park University, Parkville, MO USA
@PeaceJourn

International Peace Day Special: What Peace Means to Me
From the Park University Peace Journalism class:

Peace is when everyone is living together peacefully and not caring about our differences. –Samuel White

Peace means to me when people live happily with each other together. –Elias Eichhorn

Peace is not being singled out because of the color of your skin. –Tina Campbell

Seeing many differences but accepting them as if they were family is true peace. –Matthew Mazza

Peace is living in harmony with people in a society while respecting everyone’s culture and religion. –Coem Serem

Peace means that living in equitable and anyone has the ability to be great. It is in the hands of those who have power to create change. –Makyla Artis

If peace is likened to a spark, the love of peace gathered in one place is enough to light up the night. –Yi Li

Peace is when we respect and accept the differences and put first the wellness of the people instead of our own wishes. –Diego Granados

Peace means to me when everyone respects each other’s opinions, religions, and beliefs. –Jessica Goggles

Journalists reach across borders, inspire
(Kathmandu, Nepal and Parkville, MO)—It’s hard not to be impressed by those actively working to build bridges across conflict-reinforced divides.

In this case, the bridge builders are 60 Pakistani and Indian journalists who gathered in Nepal last week as part of a cross border reporting workshop sponsored by the East West Center.

It was inspiring to see these supposed enemies working together as professional journalists while developing friendships in the process. The Indians and Pakistanis are teaming up to report stories of mutual interest on the environment, agriculture, health, and business. They’ll be publishing these jointly reported stories this fall in media across South Asia and, we hope, worldwide.

Nepali journalist Kunda Dixit

The environment group, for example, is working on such fascinating stories as transgender climate change activists, single use plastics, and the impacts of air pollution on street sweepers. Journalists will collect data and conduct interviews in India and Pakistan, then put the stories together with information from both countries. It’s gratifying to see peace journalism reflected in their story topic approaches, and in their ‘voice of the voiceless’ reporting plans.

It was an honor working with the team from the East West Center and with fellow trainers Sara Shipley Hiles, Randall Smith, Steve Rice, Erin Jordan, and Laura Unger; and with South Asian journalists Dilrukshi Handunnetti and Kunda Dixit, who taught an inspiring session on peace journalism and reconciliation.

I have been inspired to continue developing projects with a cross boundary reporting theme. There is no better way to plant the seeds of peace than through this type of people-to-people contact and collaboration.

Pakistani, Indian reporters explore climate, waste disposal
(Kathmandu, Nepal)—On day four of the Cross Border Reporting workshop with Indian and Pakistani journalists, we got to venture out into the field for interviews.

Shree Saraswoti School, impacted by flooding

I tagged along with the environmental reporting group, expertly led by Sara Shipley, a professor at the University of Missouri. We visited two sites. The first, an elementary school, exemplified urban flooding, a major problem here exacerbated by climate change. The journalists interviewed a local climate activist and teacher on how urban flooding disproportionately impacts poor and marginalized communities. The second site visit was less glamorous—a waste sorting facility, or if you prefer, dump. We took a brief, malodorous tour, and interviewed a local climate reporter and several waste management officials from the city of Kathmandu about the numerous waste disposal challenges here.

Interviewing climate change expert

It will be interesting to see how these journalists apply the information they learned on the field trip to stories they’re producing about climate change in India and Pakistan.

On this same day, three other groups took field trips to other sites around Nepal including a farm and a health care center.

Next week, I’ll wrap my coverage of the conference, sponsored by the East West Center and underwritten by the U.S. Embassy-Islamabad.

 

At a waste sorting facility, Kathmandu