Democratic Republic of Congo
Support to communicating inter-ethnic dialogue, conflict reduction, demilitarisation and rehabilitation
'le silence des armes n’apportera pas nécessairement la paix des coeurs’ Jean-Marie Rusimbuka, UN High Commission for Human Rights, Goma
Executive SummaryAssumptions
The consultants worked under the following assumptions.
Recommendations
Acknowledgements
and Disclaimer
The consultants wish to thank the British Embassy, Kinshasa and all the media
and NGO representatives, the aid workers, journalists and UN personnel who kindly
facilitated our visit and who generously gave us their time and insights.
Due to a tight schedule and difficult logistics we were only able to visit Kinshasa
and Goma, thus the insights gained were necessarily partial. The views expressed
here are ours alone and do not necessarily represent those of DFID or the British
Government.
Gordon Adam (gmadam@btinternet.com)
and Mary
Myers (marymyers@zoo.co.uk)
October 2001
Overview
of Current Media and Communications Environment
The media scene in DR Congo is profoundly fragile. At base this is due to poverty
and war, but specifically it is due to
The following is a summary of the media sectorand the plans for MONUC radio as at September 2001, to the extent that we were able to ascertain it. More detail can be found in the useful study done by Search for Common Ground (Marks et al August 2001). Plans for the forthcoming MONUC radio are already in DFID’s possession, so we will not be repeating them here.
Radio
Infrastructure
Radio is the most important medium in terms of actual and potential reach
to ordinary Congolese. However, until now there has been no broadcaster capable
of nationwide coverage of DRC. The national Radio et Télévision
Nationale du Congo (RTNC) is the most extensive network, but its FM transmitters
are limited to urban centres, its equipment is in disrepair or broken-down,
and in the East it is controlled by the RCD. MONUC radio will – in theory -
remedy this coverage problem although not for at least 4 months from now, (ie.
SW coverage is due to start February 2002 on present schedule).
Meanwhile, there are a good number of private FM radio stations in Kinshasa (about 20 private stations in all) and the East (about 18) and a smattering in the other provinces. Opinions vary, but there is generally judged to be about 30 community-type radio stations in the DRC as a whole country. The others are either commercial/ entertainment oriented or evangelical. Many of them the community stations are run by the Protestant or Catholic churches and have limited programming, weak transmitters and intermittent power-supplies. In areas controlled by rebels (most of the North and East) they are subject to a certain degree of censorship. Some stations stand out, notably Radio Candip in Bunia, Radios Maendaleo, Maria and Kahuzi in Bukavu, Radio Réveil FM in Kinshasa, Radio Amani in Kisangani. These are either genuine community radios or progressive confessional stations. Several of them have staff who have been trained at the Radio Netherlands radio- for development training centre in Costa Rica. All transmit on FM. Their remit is mainly rural development, health, education, serving civil society and some human rights and news reporting. In more detail:
Radio Candip (Bunia) is a community radio broadcasting on both FM and SW which has existed for 24 years in the far north-east of the country. Funded by a Belgian NGO, it has a good network of listening clubs. It covers local rural development, social, health and educational issues. UNICEF and local child-protection NGOs such as SOS Grands Lacs (based in Goma) have used it to convey awareness messages about the demobilisation process for child soldiers. It is particularly valued by local NGOs for disseminating vaccination messages, due to its wide SW coverage.
Radio Amani (Kinsangani) is run by Catholic Archbishop Monsengo. We hear that it has some degree of autonomy from the RCD authorities, and carries development-oriented spots and programmes. One of their staff members is a graduate of the Radio Netherlands centre in Costa Rica.
Radio Réveil FM (104.5 Kinshasa) is run by Freddy Mulongo from an office on the main boulevard in Kinshasa. Freddy has returned to DRC after 20 years working and studying in Paris. With 15 core staff, the radio seems to be funded from his own private savings, sponsorship of certain programmes by NGOs, a small grant from Panos, and some advertising revenue. Programmes include debates and interviews with political, human rights and civil society figures and live phone-ins (using mobile phones!) from the public. The station has been instrumental in restoring street lighting and rubbish collection to certain areas of the city by popular pressure on the city authorities. Mulonga is also president of the Central African Group of Community Radio Stations (GRAC) which organised a ‘Free Airwaves Festival’ in Kinshasa in March 2001.
Radio Maendaleo (Bukavu) means ‘development’ in Kiswahili. It was founded by Catholics, is funded by a Belgian NGO and concentrates on rural development matters. Because it was producing its own local news and political debates it was closed down 2 years ago by the rebel RCD and has only just been allowed to re-open in July, on condition that it carries only RCD-produced news from Goma. Nevertheless, its re-opening is seen as a sign of a slight thawing by the RCD in its control over the media. It is one of the frontrunners in terms of broadcasting on peace issues, human rights and health education. We understand that Maendaleo, through Panos, is soon to appoint a women’s groups liaison person to increase coverage of women’s experiences of the war and their opinions about the peace process.
Radio Kahuzi (Bukavu) is funded by GTZ and, we assume, carries some development-oriented and civil society programming.
Radio Maria (Bukavu) is a small Catholic radio which carries programmes from Radio Vatican. It has recently got into trouble with the RCD authorities for re-broadcasting not only religious programmes but news produced in Rome. They were cautioned and directed to take the Radio Vatican news off the air.
International
Broadcasters
The BBC, RFI, DW, VOA and even Japanese and Iranian world services are all available
on short-wave throughout the country, with the usual fuzzy quality. The Kiswahili
services of the BBC and VOA are particularly popular. BBC and RFI in French
are heavily relied upon for objective news reporting. Our (very limited) enquiries
seem to indicate that listeners are content with the amount and quality of news
on DRC carried by the BBC French and Kiswahili services. We met the three BBC
correspondents in Kinshasa and were impressed with their dedication and energy
for investigative reporting. The BBC is available on FM in Kinshasa and Kisangani.
Audience
There are no reliable figures available on numbers of radio listeners in
DRC. However, rough estimates indicate about 20% radio ownership in rural areas
and 60% ownership in urban areas, with a great deal of sharing and the ‘bush
telegraph’ filling the information gaps. Small radio receivers cost about $10
each, and are widely available to buy in urban centres. These sets receive both
short-wave and FM. A set of good batteries costs about $1US; we were not able
to ascertain how widely available batteries are.
At present there are whole swathes of the country (for example the whole of the region of Maniema (pop. approx. 1.8 million), Sankourou, N. Bandundu and S.E. Equateur) which cannot receive any national radio, either public or private. In these cases the population’s only links with the outside world are foreign stations on short-wave – that is if they own radios at all. But apparently, radio ownership seems to increase once there is something worthwhile to listen to; for example when a local radio station sets up. We therefore expect ownership to increase if and when the MONUC radio becomes widely known and – hopefully – trusted.
We were told that women do not habitually listen to the radio, except to entertainment-style programmes and those designated as ‘women’s programmes’. Our own fleeting observations confirmed this. However, a proper piece of audience research needs to be done, which should include gender questions. We would encourage MONUC to consider doing this.
In terms of audience preferences, we believe that RTNC services are still the most widely followed, with international short-wave – RFI, BBC and VOA (probably in that order) – coming a close second. In rebel-held areas people are very reliant on international broadcasters’ Swahili services for unbiased news.
Training
There are one or two existing broadcast-training initiatives worth mentioning.
The most extensive is the French Cooperation’s support to a three year training
programme at RTNC in Kinshasa for up to 280 radio and television professionals.
We understand that the RTNC relies on old analogue technology and the approach
is of a traditional kind, rather than a two-way development-oriented style.
Nevertheless, it is encouraging that a new generation of broadcasters is being
solidly trained in basic techniques.
The UN High Commission for Human Rights has recently organised a number of training sessions in the East on human rights, including a 4-day training for journalists on human-rights communication techniques in May 2001 (UNHCHR, 2001). Also, MONUC, in conjunction with Radio Mandaeleo, organised an internet training session for 36 radio journalists in the East earlier this year. We spoke to one local AFP stringer – Jules Ngala - who had benefited from it enormously.In June 2001 GEDARES, the local NGO umbrella group working on child soldiers, organised a workshop between the military and civil society which produced some tentative messages which could be disseminated through the broadcast media. UNOCHA are planning a one-off training in conjunction with Radio Candip in Bunia for broadcast and print personnel in journalistic ethics – balance, thoroughness, impartiality etc. This had originally been planned for September, for those covering the ICD, but has now been put back until December 2001.
Apart from the above initiatives, there is not a great deal of support for broadcasters in terms of training, and there is a great need for basic refresher courses on all aspects of journalism, particularly in anticipation of reporting in a post-conflict environment.
Independence
and Censorship
In government-held areas most censorship is subtle and self-imposed, but
is nevertheless a reality. Journalists are continually harassed and threatened
by the security services; some print journalists are still in prison; the US$5,000
licence fee for radio stations is prohibitive by local standards and and is
a means of implicit governmental control.
As for the RCD controlled areas in the East, independent newspapers and radio stations operating here are required to keep within strict guidelines which mean that programmes of a political nature are rarely allowed. RTNC news from Kinshasa is banned and replaced by RCD-controlled news. Some stations like Radio Maendaleo have, until recently been closed down. Rebroadcasting of news from international broadcasters – such as Radio Vatican – has been banned. However, there is evidence of a softening approach by the new RCD Secretary General, Ruberwa.
He has agreed
to allow the broadcast of Internews summaries of the ICD process on radio stations
in RCD controlled areas. Furthermore, the point was made to us that once international
stations – and MONUC – start broadcasting openly about the ICD and other elements
of the peace process, then it will be difficult for the rebels to control what
local radios are saying, since ‘the truth will already be out' anyway.
As for the possibility of jamming the airwaves, it would be technically possible
for rebel or foreign forces to jam or interfere with any frequency, including
MONUC’s, but it is generally considered unlikely.
Negative
Radio
The fact that broadcasting freedom is a double-edged sword is nowhere truer
than in the Great Lakes region, as the experience of Radio Milles Collines demonstrated
only too well in 1994 in Rwanda. There is a fear that something similar might
appear on the DRC side of the border, whipping up latent hatred of Rwandans,
refugees from across the borders, and of Congolese of Rwandan extraction. Radio
Patriot was a Mai-Mai controlled station that was reportedly broadcasting this
sort of hate message from a mobile FM transmitter around S. Kivu up until late
last year. However, we gather it is no longer on-air; we assume that the RCD
authorities shut it down clamped-down on it.
But the RCD, for their part, are of course as cynical as almost everybody else
and are using the radio channels under their control to help recruit child-soldiers
in the Kivus; this they are doing despite official announcements about their
commitment to child-demobilisation.
Television
There are 9 terrestrial and satellite TV channels available in Kinshasa.
RTNC controls one, and private broadcasters like Raga and Tropicana run commercial
stations. The church also has several channels, and we were told that 30% of
advertising on TV is church-related. CNN, and French service broadcasters are
also present. We heard that Tropicana has run debates about the ICD in the past,
so it seems there is some objective coverage of political matters on TV. Again
on Tropicana one particularly popular journalist, Kibambi Shintaa runs a weekly
programme called ‘Oracle du Jour’ , which interviews key political personalities.
Television reaches a tiny proportion of the population in Kinshasa, but
nevertheless has a role to play among intellectuels and opinion formers.
Satellite TV channels (French TV5 and CNN/BBC World) are available in Kisangani,
Goma, and Bukavu and other regional centres. The RCD controls the terrestrial
TV in the Kivus. There is a private TV channel in Kisangani called TV Buyoma
with up-to-date equipment.
Television reaches a tiny proportion of the Congolese population but nevertheless has a role to play among intellectuels and opinion formers.
Printed
press
Seven daily newspapers and 13 other weeklies or monthlies appear
regularly in Kinshasa. One or two dailies, magazines and weeklies appear in
the Kivus. All operate on a shoestring, barely managing to pay their journalists
and printing costs, let alone making a profit. They have to cope with few computers,
inadequate premises and frequent power cuts. Generators are rare, and equipment
is sometimes home-made. Staff show remarkable dedication in bringing
out daily newspapers under these conditions.
Newspapers are expensive at $1US each – way beyond the reach of ordinary Kinois. Thus no newspaper prints more than 2,000 copies per day. However, they are eagerly read at the newsstands by passers-by, without ever being bought. There is also an informal system of ‘renting’ newspapers, whereby readers will pay the vendors a smaller sum (about $0.06 US) for the right to read the paper, then will hand it back to the vendor for ‘rent’ to the next person in the queue.
Five newspapers are seen as ‘independent’ or critical of the government, of which Le Reference Plus and Le Potentiel are regarded as the most serious and responsible. Some of the others are openly bankrolled by Kabila’s government. Some are given to sensationalist and false reporting in order to sell copies. For example, the Rwandan delegation at the Gabarone preparatory meeting of the ICD was said by one newspaper to have walked out of the talks, when this was not the case. In such a desperate economic climate journalists and editors can easily be tempted by rewards or bribes to print inflammatory and even ‘hate’ messages. Core support for the better newspapers and a regulatory framework would go some way towards counteracting the influence of the ‘gutter press’ on public opinion. Indeed, the US Embassy and other donors do offer this kind of support to a limited extent.
The editor of Le Potentiel newspaper, Modeste Mutinga runs Médias pour la Paix, an NGO funded through the US Embassy. This produces a daily printed bulletin which provides an up-to-date digest in French of international press reports about DRC. This is distributed to NGOs and posted outside the internet cafés run by CENADEP (see below). Most of the content of these bulletins pertains to the peace process. Médias pour la Paix has also organised four seminars of a semi-academic nature, involving politicians and civil society. Apparently two books resulted from these seminars, supported by the British Embassy, entitled ‘La Reconciliation: Quelle Définition? Autour de Quoi et de Qui?’ and ‘Le Nouvel Ordre Politique: Pourquoi et Comment?’. We were not able to ascertain how many readers these have reached – probably a tiny number - but they may well be influential in decision-making circles. Another seminar, which they this NGO ran for journalists, aimed at creating a better understanding of the work of the MONUC mission, following attacks on the UN in some newspapers. Médias pour la Paix have also been funded by the US National Endowment for Democracy to do media campaigns against tribalism, against corruption, and on civic rights. They have used local theatre groups, TV debates and radio spots to this end.
Panos are supporting a few peace-building initiatives through the written press. For example, they are supporting two journalists from Le Phare newspaper in Kinshasa to report from frontline towns like Kalemie and Kabinda in order that ordinary people’s plight in war-torn areas be understood in Kinshasa. The aim is to post these reports on a website for easy downloading by newspapers. Panos are also planning to produce a newsletter about peace issues in French, for distribution to civil society organisations and NGOs.
Internet
connectivity
Internet connectivity is very limited in DRC because of the almost complete
lack of any telephone infrastructure. However, those outlets which do exist
– mainly cyber cafés (both a commercial nature and those supported by
aid money) – are very popular. These work on wireless links to local mobile
phone servers. For example, the one and only cyber café in Goma is linked
up through Rwanda-tel. The commercial centres’ charges are too high for the
average Congolese (prices in Goma were $5 per hour), so they are used by a small
urban elite. We observed that people – mainly young males - use these centres
for sending messages to relatives and friends and for helping with studies.
However, they are also important for print and broadcast journalists who rely
heavily on such websites as IRIN and AFP for news about their own country. As
such they are worth supporting, and, indeed USAID has an ambitious programme
of supporting 112 cyber outlets. Unfortunately, due to the current freeze on
USAID funding (until after the ICD) this project has been put on hold.
USAID also supports CENADEP which is an NGO promoting democracy and good governance and receives funding from USAID, through Médias pour la Paix. It currently runs four internet cafés with about four 4 computers in each centre. Here, charges are kept low and are therefore more accessible to the general public. However, with only four centres for the whole of Kinshasa (population about 6 million), this is only a drop in the ocean.
Theatre
Theatre is a popular, though under-funded art form in DRC Congo, and the use
of irony and comedy seems to have been established over the past few years as
a means to implicitly criticise the political status quo, without attracting
censure. The other advantages of theatre are that it is relatively inexpensive
and, unlike the press and radio, it attracts women and children. We understand
that there are several semi-professional troupes in Kinshasa; at least 2 in
Goma; 2 in Bukavu and 1 in Kisangani, if not others elsewhere as well. UPEC
use a local Kinshasa-based theatre troupe called ‘Les Béjarts’ run by
Eric Ntalani to convey civic education messages, both live and on radio and
TV. The UN High Commission for Human Rights in Goma is using theatre to good
effect to convey human rights messages in the East (see below).
Organisations
which use the Media for promoting Peace
UPEC
UPEC is a civic education production unit which produces and records its
own radio and TV programmes about human rights. To date they have produced over
one thousand 30-minute pieces in 5 languages on subjects such as torture, child-soldiers,
the inter-Congolese dialogue etc. These have been broadcast throughout the government-held
part of the country on 18 local radio stations. They receive funding from a
Belgian NGO called CIRE (Coordination et Initiative pour les Réfugiés
et Etrangers) and therefore need no further support. However, their personnel
could both be a resource and an object of training in any programme of post-conflict
reporting and awareness-raising which DFID supports.
UN High
Commission for Human Rights (UNHCHR)
In Goma the UNHCHR have been sponsoring live theatre and radio dramas about
family issues, corruption and girls’ education. They have been extremely popular,
both as live shows and on the radio. UNHCHR now wishes to go further and plans
to give training to local theatre groups to do dramas about human rights and
peace issues. They are planning to extend this beyond the Goma area to the areas
around Bukavu, Kisangani, and Ituri. They plan to tackle issues such as the
rights of children not to be draughted drafted into the army, the proper conduct
of the army and police, the proper treatment of prisoners, arbitrary arrests,
inter-ethnic understanding, and respect for the rule of law. For example, the
issue of ethnicity will be explored implicitly by setting a drama about family
conflict in a mixed nationality – Rwandan/Congolese - marriage. Hema/Lendu ethnic
conflict will also be tackled, as well as the belief in ‘irrational values’
such as poisoning and witchcraft which, tragically, has led recently to massacres
of up t o 1,000 people in the North-East.
At the moment it costs UNHCHR $200 US to devise, produce and broadcast one 45-minute drama on the radio. Their project officer, Jean-Marie Rusimbuka is an impressive man with a long track-record in human rights and civic education work at the national and local level. His ideas for the use of theatre are imaginative, and the UN has authority and a degree of immunity operating in the East. Hence our recommendation for further support (see Recommendations below).
Other UN agencies such as WHO have, apparently, used radio, throughout the country, for vaccination messages, but we did not have time to learn more.
SCF has
used various radio stations in the Kivus to promote peaceful cohabitation of
ethnic and linguistic groups, prevention of child-soldier recruitment, and some
pilot messages about child-soldier demobilisation. For example, in June 2001,
SCF helped GEDARES, the local NGO umbrella group working on child soldiers,
to organise a workshop between the military and civil society which produced
some tentative messages which could be disseminated through the broadcast media.
(Malia Robinson of SCF can be contacted for further details).
We found that SCF was doing some very worthwhile work with children in the East,
and we understand that they have a separate proposal with DFID at the moment.
It is for support for training of local NGOs in the running of transit centres
for demobilised children. Having visited two of these centres in Goma, we would
thoroughly endorse this proposed project.
In S. Kivu SCF had a difficult experience when using the RCD-controlled radio for such messages: they were accused by civil society groups in Bukavu of siding with the RCD. SCF remedied the situation by making a video for broadcast on Bukavu TV which aimed to explain the purpose of their transit centres and to restore their credibility. Thus, for SCF, the advent of MONUC radio as a neutral outlet for their messages would certainly be welcome.
One of SCF’s collaborators, a local NGO called SOS Grands Lacs is using Radio Candip to disseminate messages about demobilisation of child soldiers in the Ituri area. Another NGO, CAJED, is using the communiqué slots on radio to help trace and reunite family-members who have been displaced by war. CAJED has also organised awareness-raising debates on the RTNC radio about the responsibilities of the families of former child-soldiers. However, they are frustrated by the radio’s limited reach beyond Goma, and will also welcome MONUC radio’s greater reach by means of short-wave.
CETRACO (Centre for the Transformation of Conflicts) is a small Congolese NGO run by an American-educated activist named Mulegwa Zihindula in Kinshasa. It has distributed leaflets and booklets about the Lusaka ceasefire and the ICD process. He It also regularly uses radio stations in Kinshasa to run debates about the peace-process and the ICD and will be sending a small team to Addis Ababa to cover the Dialogue. CETRACO It has a good relationship with a number of local broadcasters as well as with VOA, and, indeed Joseph Kabila himself. It invites representatives of the media to its their public meetings and has also run seminars aimed specifically at the press about positive and non-inflammatory reporting. However, for a small NGO such as this, paying air-time – as they must - is difficult. It costs them $190 US for 6 half-hour programmes on a local private radio station in Kinshasa. Support to enable civil society organisations such as CETRACO to access the media is therefore important. At present CETRACO receives funding through USAID.
UNICEF is in the habit of using local radios to disseminate messages about vaccination and other health education topics. They are planning to use radio for demobilisation and reinsertion information on child soldiers. The RTNC and Radios like Candip, Maendeleo and Amani are the ones they favour. They must pay for airtime on all radios, but they find that RTNC works out most expensive as journalists also expect transport and subsistence expenses if they are to carry out Unicef’s campaigns. Unicef staff in Goma were particularly excited about the potential for using MONUC radio, particularly when it starts transmitting on SW, as it would enable Unicef to reach listeners in rural areas for the first time. However, because they feel that the population is in the habit of listening to local radios, they do not intend to abandon these outlets in favour of MONUC, but rather to use all channels available.
BUNADER (Bureau National de Démobilisation et de Réinsertion) is the Government agency overseeing the initial process of demobilising ‘vulnerable groups’ from the Congolese army. It is concerned with children under 18, widows and dependent children, the disabled and the chronically ill. It is working on the assumption that there are 75,000 of such people currently under the auspices of the army, the demobilisation of whom would help streamline it considerably. It has funding currently benefits from World Bank and ILO funding, but still suffers from being under-resourced. It is planning a mass-media campaign in the coming weeks in conjunction with UNICEF to inform child soldiers, their commanders, their parents and the public at large about what they can expect from the demobilisation process.
CENADEP is a small local NGO run by a dynamic individual named Baudoin Hamuli, who is also Panos Paris’ representative in DRC. CENADEP has set up a number of cyber-café’s on subsidised rates to service the community in Kinshasa. It also helps produce bulletins on the current political scene and the ICD. It is one of the organisations nominated by the Civil Society umbrella group to represent their interests and help report back on the ICD. It has regular contact with community radios and independent newspapers throughout the country. These contacts are facilitated by Hamuli being originally from Bukavu.
PANOS has recently established a small office in Kinshasa under the leadership of Baudoin Hamuli (see above). This office is helping to implement Panos’ African-wide initiative entitled Média pour la Paix en Afrique (which, we understand, already has some DFID funding, through Panos London), but for which local offices have to fund-raise separately (hence our recommendations for further support, below). So far PANOS has been giving small grants to local media: for example $2,000UsS to support Radio Réveil FM in Kinshasa and $2,400US for the Le Phare newspaper to appoint a journalist to write specifically about media pluralism.
Disarmament
Demobilisation etc.
The need for D3, or the disarmament, demobilization, reintegration, repatriation
or resettlement of armed groups, is a cornerstone of the peace-process and of
any lasting settlement in DRC and the region. As we see it, the D3 process needs
to be divided conceptually into four distinct areas.
All of the
above, except 4) as far as we know, are in process; 1) and 3) being the most
far advanced.
Having been asked to suggest ways to ‘support…radio programming on peace and
reconciliation issues, including D3’ (ref. the consultants’ TOR, DFID Sep 2001)
we see radio as lending itself to each of the four areas above, but in different
ways.
Recommendations
Support for Radio MONUC
Once it is on the air, the single most important media outlet in DR Congo will
be Radio MONUC. We were impressed by this project for a number of reasons
There are some uncertainties:
We believe
that Radio MONUC could have a very positive impact on the peace process and
would suggest that DFID considers funding it. We suggest this funding
should be made available on the understanding that MONUC makes every effort
to put the Goma FM station on air within the first three months. This is an
area which will not be reached by the initial SW transmissions, and it is a
key target covering as it will do the RCD strongholds of Goma and Bukavu.
Such a large-scale operation will inevitably draw staff and resources away from the struggling state and private media. We believe it is important for DFID to support MONUC because of its potential in reaching so many Congolese with professionally produced programming at a critical juncture in its history. But we are also convinced that indigenous media and civil society initiatives should not be ignored, hence our support for projects outlined in 4.4 and 4.5 below above under the Panos umbrella.
Support
for Reporting on the Inter-Congolese Dialogue
The Inter-Congolese Dialogue (ICD) is widely seen as the only hope for peace,
and the process is fuelling high expectations and great interest. Observers
regard it likely that the peace process will be much longer than the initial
90 day meeting. Comprehensive, fair and accurate reporting will help reduce
the potential for misunderstandings and misinterpretation that always has the
potential to derail peace processes. Providing people with the means to follow
the talks, and for at least some of them to provide feedback to the negotiators,
will enhance the possibility of the final deal being widely accepted. The greater
the participative process, the greater chance that people will support the final
settlement.
At least five groups of Congolese media will be reporting on the ICD, along with groups from Civil Society. In the pre-conference gathering, there were examples of poor (politically motivated) reporting. While it is inevitable that this will continue to some extent, the office of the Facilitator has asked Internews, an American reporting and training organisation, to provide daily coverage in voice and text in French and three indigenous languages. Two Congolese journalists plus an expatriate trainer/ editor will attend the entire ICD. Editorial decision-making will rest in his/her hands. It is clearly desirable that these reports are accepted by all parties as the authentic account of what has occurred, so that predominantly one version is reported back to the DRC. Journalists and civil society leaders we spoke to agreed. We suggest that the Internews mission, which is 50% funded at this point, should be supported by DFID, with a particular brief to negotiate with members of he Congolese media to have the Internews reported accepted as the benchmark. Comment, analysis and interviews will remain at the discretion of the different journalists. An incentive could be offered by making available the planned Internews facility to upload the various media’s text and audio interviews and commentaries onto the web (set up for the ICD) so they can be easily retrieved by media users in the DRC.
This is not intended to result in 100% uniformity over the reporting of the ICD, which is clearly not desirable. The international press and boroadcasters will in any case be providing their own reports, albeit in less detail almost certainly with less consistency. However, buying into the Internews initiative could decrease the chances of major reporting gaffes and politically motivated misreporting which negotiators fear, and which cause them to be less open with the press. Sound reporting, and a flow of feedback from civil society in the DRC, should give the negotiators the confidence to share the detail of the discussions more openly. It could also lay the foundations of the structured "Reporting for Peace" training (see below).
Support
for community theatre
We were impressed by the UNHCHRRC (UN High Commission for Human Rights) Goma
Office’s project using community theatre groups to promote respect for human
rights and ethnic tolerance within the Kivus provinces. The lively and comic
productions in Swahili - and the radio programmes versioned from them - have
reportedly proved very popular, and WHO Goma has adopted the same groups to
convey immunisation messages. The man behind these initiatives is Jean-Marie
Rusimbuka, Project Officer in Goma. There could be significant benefits in expanding
this project:
We would recommend that an expansion of this UNHRC project, under the auspices of the UNHCHR, is supported by DFID.
Supporting
peace through strengthened reporting and production skills and cooperation between
media and civil society
Choices lie at the heart of journalism: what facts to include, what to exclude,
what "angle" to take, the positive or negative, whether to sensationalise
to make an impact, or reflect the reality of events. In a conflict or post conflict
situation, these choices can impact significantly on the delicate negotiations
that are the hallmarks of peace processes.
In recent years much thinking has taken place about the role of media in conflict. Inside Congo, the Panos Institute, Paris, has put forward a project "Renforcement des mMeédias pour la pPaix dDurable au Congo". It aims to reinforce a culture of peace in Congo and to foster cooperation between journalists and other civil society organisations. Other NGOs are also actively involved in peace building work, as described in the overview above. However, although there is unanimity that more work needs to be done with the media on working with, rather than against, the peace process, there are few precise ideas of how exactly this should be achieved.
One of the most interesting initiatives internationally, has been Internews’s specialised training workshops for journalists aimed at producing solutions-oriented dialogue in conflict and post conflict areas. Internews has worked with a total of 150 journalists in Indonesia since 1999 and has now put forward a proposal to customise its curriculum for use in DRC. In brief, their approach is to make journalists and programme makers more aware of their own attitudes towards conflict, how to tackle sensitive issues such as ethnic and linguistic diversity, how not to take sides, to de-escalate rather than inflame through balanced and objective reporting. Case studies – not from the participants’ own country – are extensively used to draw parallels with the conflicts close at hand. Participants are chosen, if at all possible, from both sides of the conflict. It is recommended that Panos and Internews combine forces to produce a version of the Internews reporting curriculum a for use by journalists, radio and TV broadcasters in DRC. Panos’s staff in DRC are highly informed and well connected, and would find people to provide invaluable insights for the Internews team on how to adapt the existing curriculum. Internews will have already been involved in working with the Congolese media in reporting the ICD (see above).
Two or three "Reporting Media for Peace" workshops of 2 weeks each per year would be appropriate, with the aim of all participants attending at least twice within two years. The media sector in DR Congo is very small, so there is a significant opportunity to work with a large proportion of the best people in the field. The impact of their reporting and programme making on the peace process, including the difficult process of disarmament and demobilisation, could be considerable. A number of media managers, including the Radio MONUC station director, indicated they would like their staff to take part in such an initiative.
Further, we recommend setting up a media monitoring unit under the auspices of Panos’ DRC representative which would track the work of the participants in particular and the media in general, so that examples (good and bad) can be picked up and developed in subsequent workshops with participants learning from real experience. The Belgian NGO, CIRE, has expressed interest in such a unit and is likely to part-fund it.
Some funds should also be made available to allow media trainees professionals to take ideas forward through cooperating with civil society and producing D3-related and other peace building broadcasts and articles. For example, Panos wishes to establish contracts with ten newspapers and radios by which women’s groups would be given direct access to these media to express their and their children’s suffering due to war. Panos also wishes to hold ten open discussion fora for youth in each of the country’s 11 provinces entitled ‘Youth and Conflict’. It also wishes to support 165 listening-clubs in remote areas, equipped with radios and able to ‘animate’ discussion, comprehension and feedback related to peace-oriented radio programmes.
Enhancing
audibility and supporting the feedback loop
The civil society movement in DR Congo is small, but is vocal and active. Its
efforts to involve a greater number of people in participating in the democratic
process are hampered by poor media coverage in the country and by lack of opportunity
for ordinary people to make their voices heard. E mail is beginning to give
people this opportunity, although it is still costly to access the web even
in the USAID supported cyber cafes planned in initially for eight cities. Despite
the desirability of encouraging this trend, and the temporary break on USAID
funding for this project, we do not recommend that DFID support the expansion
of cyber cafes at this stage. This is a major project that requires specific
expertise and probably a DFID presence on the ground. Also, the Belgian government
and USAID are tackling this issue, particularly with regard to key users such
as radio stations and newspapers in Kinshasa.
We do, however, recommend that DFID supports a simple technical solution to enhance the effectiveness of local and community radio stations, which is another passion of the civil society movement. With no reliable landline telephone service, hardly any radio stations are connected to the Internet. In cities, they use cyber centres, if they are available. A partial, and cost-effective solution would be to equip a number of stations with a Worldspace radio receiver (cost about £70 each) plus a modem (£25) and PC plus UPS voltage regulator (£1400) which would allow them to receive a wide number of radio stations in digital quality direct from satellite. It would also allow them to receive digital streams of information ranging from the subscription- free African Learning Channel to special services which could include audio and text reports of the ICD in French and a number of local languages. MONUC radio could use the technology to feed a daily stream of educational and news programmes to the local radio stations. This could provide regular quality programming for rebroadcasting on these isolated radio stations. We saw the Worldspace system work effectively in Goma, downloading health information to an NGO.
The constraints include the control often exercised over the radio broadcasts by political or religious interest. However, the access to the data (albeit it one-way – the stations cannot upload data through the Worldspace system) would provide a variety of non-contentious educational as well as news material which could significantly enhance broadcasts in the information starved environment of much of the DRC.
The costs of providing a customised data-stream for DRC, and of providing more material in French, would have to be explored with Worldspace. It would be advisable to appoint an experienced trainer/ technician on a four-month contract to supervise the installation of the equipment and make sure the station staff are familiar with it. We suggest DFID consider equipping and servicing fifteen stations. We suggest that the responsibility for this is placed in the hands of the Panos Institute, Paris. They have an existing civil society/ media programme in the DRC, and their representative is experienced in development radio, and would be in a good position to advise on which radio stations would make best use of the equipment. Panos could also be involved in implementing other recommendations.
The BBC
World Service
An option would be to offer support for expanded BBC broadcasts to DRCongo.
The consensus is that the BBC is highly respected for its Swahili and French
coverage, and it is editorially free from interference by local authorities.
But we rejected this option for the following reasons:
Monitoring
and Evaluation
Since DFID has no presence on the ground , we have suggested support be
given through mainly international NGOs and UN organisations so that there is
no need to micro-manage the financial and organisational arrangements. However,
there will still have to be some monitoring and overall evaluation to ensure
that DFID money is well-spent.
The media monitoring unit that we propose will require a consultancy visit within
the next 3 months in order to help set it up, in cooperation with Panos and
CIRE. We also suggest a brief follow-up mission after 6 months to see that all
is on track, followed by another mission after 12 months to do a process and
impact review. This could possibly include a qualitative audience survey to
gauge the popularity and impact of the MONUC radio.It is also recommended that
DFID looks favourably on requests for subsequent year funding, as improving
the effectiveness of the mass media in DR Congo after decades of neglect will
be a long term process.
References
Collin Marks, S. et al. 2001, Report of the Assessment Mission Undertaken by
Search for Common Ground to Recommend a Comprehensive Communications Strategy
to the Office of the Facilitator of the ICD, August 2001, Washington DC (scmarks@sfcg.org)
DFID 2001, ‘Terms of Reference DRC support to communicating inter-ethnic dialogue, conflict reduction, demilitarisation and rehabilitation’ September 2001, Deparmentfor International Development, London
UNHCHR, 2001 Techniques de Communication en Droits de l’Homme, Actes du séminaire organisé à Goma du 18 au 21 mai 2001, DRC Field Office (contact jm.rusimbuka@caramail.com)
Acronyms
and abbreviations
AFP – Agence France Presse
BBC – British Broadcasting Corporation
BUNADER – Bureau National de Démobilisation et de Reinsertion
CAJED – Concert d’Action pour Jeunes et Enfants Défavorisés
CENADEP – Centre National d’Appui au Développement et à la Participation
Populaire
CETRACO – Centre de Transformation des Conflits
CIRE – Coordination et Initiatives pour les Réfugiés et Etrangers
D3 – disarmament, demobilisation, reintegration, repatriation or resettlement
of armed groups
DFID – Department for International Development
DRC – Democratic Republic of Congo
FAC – Forces Armées CongolaisesFLC – Front de Libération du Congo
FM – Frequency Modulation
GEDARES – Groupe d’Action pour la Démobilisation et la Reinsertion des
Enfants Soldats
GTZ – German Development Agency
ICD – Inter-Congolese Dialogue
ILO – International Labour Organisation
MONUC – United Nations Organisation Mission in DRC
RCD – Rassemblement Congolais pour la Démocratie
RFI – Radio France Internationale
RTNC – Radio Television Nationale Congolaise
SCF – Save the Children
SW – Short Wave
UNHCHR – UN High Commission for Human Rights
UNICEF – UN Childrens Fund
UNOCHA – Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
UPEC – Unité de Production des Programmes d’Education Civique
VOA – Voice of America
WHO – World Health Organisation