IMS to train 400 Myanmar reporters in conflict sensitive journalism

“I never made an effort to get the views of all sides in a conflict,” says Than Htoo, a senior reporter at the popular weekly 7 Days News in Myanmar. “Now I realise that pain and suffering are the same for everyone involved in a conflict.”

Like the majority of his colleagues, and despite entering his tenth year on the job, Than Htoo has never received any formal journalism training. Alongside twenty peers, he took part in an IMS-supported workshop on conflict sensitive journalism in December.

“We were a closed society until very recently. We never asked ‘why’, because we were used to the system we had. Now we try to think differently,” says Than Htoo coming out of the workshop.

Held in Mandalay, the three-day workshop was one of twenty training workshops on how journalism may contribute to resolving conflict.

Over the coming months, 400 journalists are set to take part in similar trainings across the country. This includes Kachin State where renewed fighting between the Kachin Independence Army and the Myanmarese army broke out in 2011, and Rakhine State, where an ethnic conflict between Rohingya Muslims and ethnic Rakhine broke out in 2012.

Watch a video from the training below
 

Towards mutual understanding

With five decades of military rule, Myanmar’s journalists are only just emerging from a system of heavy censorship and repressive media laws. The workshops that discuss journalism methods and conflict-sensitive approaches were attended by both senior journalists familiar with the watchful gaze from authorities, as well as young reporters who joined journalism after the country commenced its reform process in early 2011.

Held together with the Myanmar Peace Centre and other local institutions, the workshops include brainstorming sessions for identifying story ideas, safety measures for journalists working in conflict-affected regions, as well as techniques for producing balanced reporting to facilitate increased understanding between conflict parties.

In Myanmar the work on conflict sensitive journalism is part of a comprehensive package of activities supporting the country’s reform of its media sector over the next three years, including work on media law and policy reform, expanding the media’s outreach and citizens’ access to information, as well as skills and capacity building of media professionals.