Conflicts

Deborah Kirkman reports on the session on the reporting of community conflicts at the Brisbane conference.

The first plenary session dealt with the reporting of conflicts. Whai Ngata, General Manager, Maori Programs, Television New Zealand, began the session. The roots of conflict in New Zealand go back to the end of the Second World War, according to Mr Ngata, at a time "when the country was in the process of building up its industries in the cities. Workers were in short supply so Maori manpower from the rural areas ... a race that had known the comfort of tribal lands and customs that suited their own environment, moved into an urban culture with all its attendant problems". It was the small number of Maoris who attended university which brought conflict to the attention of the wider population. It was the students, for example, who protested that there was a plaque commemorating British soldiers who had fallen in war, but none existed for the Maoris who had died in defence of their land.

For Mr Ngata, "the excitement during the sixties as a 27 year old journalist was the achievements of Maori. Protest, as long as it was within the law, was to me a fair means towards that achievement. Many of my colleagues saw only the protest, saw only those that were, shall we say indiscriminate about their means of protest". He maintains that "for the media to act responsibly, for the media to fulfil its role as the fourth estate, it has to have an understanding of its people". Resources have been the centre of conflict in New Zealand between Maori and Pakeha. And their respective journalists have not been co-operative in the past. "The few Maori speaking journalists had a standing rule for some years: if the story were in our time (whoever we worked for) we'd translate for our colleagues; if in theirs, they fended for themselves". And there are allegations of inherent racism, "There have been the predictable sweeping attacks on the media as a white system, unable, if not unwilling, to report competently Maori aspirations and concerns".

Land is still the issue today. "The difference now", according to Mr Ngata, "Maori have a voice on radio and television. Maori newspapers have not succeeded because of financial realities". He is concerned by the "bias in the Maori media towards the Maori side of the issue. You're an activist if you don't agree with me, and a leader of your people if you do!". There is a long way to go before social cohesion is reached. One can discuss the role and responsibility of the media in its coverage of communal conflict. Mr Ngata does not view this responsibility as only a local issue, rather, "It's a global responsibility and you, ladies and gentlemen, have the power to start making changes where those changes are needed most".

Francis Lee, Chairman of the Asian Media Council of Australia and Head of Cantonese Group, SBS Radio, was the second speaker. He spoke on the reporting of conflicts in the ethnic media, particularly the Chinese. Mr Lee noted that the large influx of Chinese nationals arriving in Australia since the late 1980s has correlated with the rapid expansion of the Chinese media. This was a result of many of these migrants experiencing "difficulties in the English-dominated job market (who) found their ways into small businesses or Chinese language media organisations". Some within the community began to enter the debate on politics, immigration and other matters. They began to see that their future and their descendant's future lie in having a "Chinese voice in politics. Suddenly, politics ceased to be a dirty word, and it became vogue to join in the war-cry of supporting Chinese into politics". Mr Lee considered two sets of conflicts: social and political.

Social conflicts such as community or religious have been few. "The Chinese media has exhibited a great willingness to accommodate the different view-points." And racial debate seldom occurs. "This is because community feelings, as expressed in the media, are quite unified. Not surprisingly, Pauline Hanson and The One Nation Party have not created much conflict in the Chinese media, which mainly carry sentiments opposing them." In answering the question of whether there is an ethnic vote, Mr Lee stated that, "if 'ethnic vote' means the whole community consciously putting their votes in any one direction to alter the outcome of an election, then I would say no". The topic of votes led the way to consideration of political conflicts.

The reporting of international politics reflects that of the mainstream media. Naturally, "politics of a homeland nature attracts more comments", and fixed attitudes "such as those concerning China-Taiwan relations still exist among certain groups". And in the Australian political scene, "there is little party-based animosity in the (Chinese) community". Even though they are slowly becoming players in politics, Mr Lee notes that "while the Chinese community has developed a new found eagerness to promote political participation, such eagerness has not yet transformed into a collective understanding of the essence of participation". It was Mr Lee's conclusion that "the Chinese community in Australia is gradually gaining confidence and maturity as part of the Australian society. It is hoped that the community and the media will continue to progress and benefit positively from their mutual influence".

Peter Cole-Adams, the foreign affairs correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald, was the final speaker of the session. His topic was the reporting of war, an occupation not for the faint-hearted. "For a reporter, covering conflicts - particularly in countries where one is unfamiliar with the issues, the terrain, the society, the history and, more often than not, the language - is an inherently risky business." In Mr Cole-Adams' experience, there are two types of war correspondents, "the brave, you might think foolhardy, reporter-adventurers ... then there are the rest of us". Whichever type you are, "No amount of experience or caution can protect you if your luck runs out." Correspondents need to be "close enough to the action to know what is going on and the need to be able to write and file within the constraints imposed by deadlines". Do journalists go with what they have, knowing that the story is incomplete? Yes. Mr Cole-Adams' view is that it is generally best "to file, acknowledging in the copy that the situation is still developing .. there is always a brand new edition the next day".

War correspondents are not impartial observers, "reporters, like the general run of humanity, are impressionable, even emotional beings .. when covering situations of violence and misery, that burden has to be handled with care". Mr Cole-Adams believes that "the best defence against the temptations of self-indulgence is to decide that, while true objectivity is an unattainable ideal, it is still one worth pursuing". There is also the difference between reporting conventional wars and civil wars. In the former, a correspondent is essentially "the hostage of one side .. (where) there is a natural, decent tendency to sympathise, even identify, with the people whose sufferings you are witnessing". In the latter, although "messy, and arguably more dangerous for those who have to report them, at least journalists can usually get to talk to both sides".

It used to be the case that censorship was one of the problems of covering wars. But, the "information technology revolution .. has made it much more difficult for even the most highly developed nations to impose censorship in the way they used to". These nations, however, can use technology against a correspondent. Mr Cole-Adams acknowledges that "it is easier for us to get information out, but it is also easier for them to find out what we have been up to". There is always a price to pay for advancement. He gave a chilling reminder: a recent threat of an East Timor pro-integration militia leader against allegedly biased Australian journalists: "I know who they are," he said. "I have the Internet."

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