Republique Centrafricaine: Pour un journalisme sensible au conflits

Conflict sensitive journalism (CSJ) empowers journalists to report conflicts professionally without feeding the flames. This special edition of IMS’ Conflict Sensitive Journalism series is a handbook in French for journalists in the Central African Republic (CAR).

The handbook was written as a response to the request for guidance on how to best cover conflict voiced by Central African journalists during meetings with IMS over the last year.

The Conflict Sensitive Journalism Handbook series

Off the back of some initial experiences working with journalists during conflict in Sri Lanka, IMS published Ross Howard’s handbook as one of the organisation’s first tool-kits in journalism training in 2003. It has since been used by journalists in Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Pakistan and developed into country-specific handbooks for the likes of Zimbabwe (2009) and Kenya (2007).

The book is a practical guide for journalists on how to cover conflicts, a method of reporting which avoids exacerbating conflict. The argument for such a tool was simple: providing “reliable information to the public in a time of violent conflict requires additional journalism skills. Reporters need to understand more about what causes conflict, and how conflict develops and ends. Reporters need to know where to look for these causes and solutions. By providing this information, journalism makes the public far more well-informed about the conflict beneath the violence, and can assist in resolving it (Ross Howard, 2003).