Peace in Syria and then what?

Bombs still fall from the sky in Syria, but according to IMS’ media advisor Henrik Keith Hansen it is never too early to plan for peace. In the autumn of 2016 IMS organised an exchange between journalists from five different Syrian media outlets and Bosnian journalists and experts. A key issue on the agenda was how the media can and should report to help the process of peace and reconciliation following an end to war

Q: What motivated this exchange?

A request from a Syrian radio editor looking to improve awareness on war reporting amongst her female staff led to an exchange of best practices with veteran female Bosnian media workers, facilitated by IMS. The Syrians wanted to continue the dialogue with the Bosnians, so we took things forward with a wider group, now also including men. We had a group of select Syrian media workers meet with Bosnian journalists, academics and former soldiers who relayed their experiences with prolonged war, atrocities, victims in large numbers and traumas.

When we started the workshop three of the Syrians were occupied with their mobile phones. Five minutes later none of them were and I did not see one single screen light up during the sessions.

I know they found the Bosnian experience relevant and their advice trustworthy – much more so than the plethora of Western experts that they have been exposed to earlier. An undercurrent of mutual understanding makes for a very effective one-to-one sharing.

Q: Why Bosnia?

Earlier in 2015 Some of IMS’ Syrian partners had asked me if I knew of any female reporters with experiences from covering a war, as they would like to learn more from others, more experienced. I have been traveling and working in Bosnia for more than 25 years and have many contacts in the media community, so I first turned to my friend, Borka Rudic, who is president for the only multi-ethnic Bosnian journalist organization and asked her if she would engage and involve her large network of Bosnian journalists and experts. She was immediately motivated and got others involved.

The first part of the project took place in Gaziantep, Turkey, where Borka Rudic and the famous female editor of the legendary Bosnian newspaper Oslobodjene, Vildana Selimbegovic, held a five day workshop towards the end of 2015 on “Women reporting on war” for reporters from the female radio station Nasaeem Souria.

This lead to another request from the visionary young director of Naseem Souria, Reem, who asked if we could do another project focusing on the role of journalists and female journalists in the transitional process after a war.

Q: What lessons was shared from the Bosnian experience

A big topic of discussion was transitional justice. Is it enough to get the perpetrators in prison? – does this heal the victims and the destroyed societies? As one Bosnian explained at the seminar: it is not only about punishment of the perpetrators – the media must also include reporting showing events from a perspective of the victims and understand their feeling of justice.

The only good thing with war is that they will all end at one point, but the end of a war is never the end of the war according to the Bosnians. Syrian media must prepare for the what now? A house is easy to reconstruct, but how do we rebuild the life of a 9-yer old child who was raped? Should we pretend nothing happened? What do we do with the perpetrators?

Q: Syria is still at war, but the training included a focus on post-peace media priorities. Why was this a priority?

The earlier you start thinking about peace, the better you will handle the post war process. Basically, I think that the minute a war starts you should start thinking about peace and transitional justice.

The Bosnian experience shows that there are two answers to the question on ‘How to rebuild society after a war’ – truth and justice. Media must shed light on all crimes committed during the war – this to establish what happened and to give a voice to the victims. All individuals remember and society must also remember – otherwise how can you avoid repeating wrong-doings in the future?

The media must help establishing the truth and give a voice to the victims. As one Bosnian put it: “You cannot defeat darkness with more darkness. You need light. This you must understand in the media. Don’t spread hate speech. This will only produce more hate and more violence. Stop it. Draw a line. Report the truth – also when it hurts your own people and fraction. Only truth can set us free.”

Q: Was there any discussions related to reporting on women’s issues?

War affects women and men differently. Men decide to go to war, women are left behind to take care of the logistics, the wounded, the dead etc. Women are not asked about the war, and they are not asked about the peace. However, the input from the Bosnians were that there is no real social justice if women are not represented in the peace process.

When you hear that 30.000 people were raped during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina it is just a figure. We don’t feel anything when we hear this figure. Is it a lot? Is it few? Here, the advice was simple: be concrete. Report on rapes and the subsequent suffering. Report on how it has impacted the lives of the victims. But this is not easy in a Syrian context. In a conservative Muslim part of the world there are reservations in society to hear about rapes of women and it will be difficult to report on for media, the Syrians said. And even more important, powerful religious and political forces will shame the girl for going public, and according to the Syrian participants making her life even more unbearable.

Q: To you, what was the most powerful message from the Bosnians to the Syrians

The Bosnian experience informed the discussion on what role journalists can take in building peace. A sounding advice from Bosnian media to Syrian media was to report the truth on what took place – no matter who committed what – even if it was committed by your own side.

We got overwhelmingly positive feedback afterwards from those who took part. And I sincerely believe that we’ve planted a seed in the Syrian media workers, who will now work very hard to prevent hate speech and avoid the stereotypical war stories in their own reporting.

“Try celebrate war heroes less and peace heroes more and de-glamorize the violence,” as one of the Bosnians rightfully put it.

Q: Is it really applicable for Syrians to apply such an approach in their reporting?

No, not entirely, some told that if they report too truthfully about atrocities done by their own side of the war they could be in immediate danger: “We understand the oral values and code of conduct but it is very hard to be on the side of good professional moral in the middle of a war, when your own village and your family is being attacked. I might become a victim myself if I report critically about my own side.”

Read about the first workshop aimed at female war reporters here