MARAWI CITY, Lanao del Sur, April 23 (PIA) -- A peace communication forum held last week in Cotabato City has emphasized the big role of media in attaining peace.
“A minor skirmish can escalate into a major war because of irresponsible reportage,” said Carol Arguillas of MindaNews during the first Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Peace Communication Summit held last week in Cotabato City where she discussed the role of media in promoting peace in the coverage of armed conflict.
She noted that many journalists who are covering armed conflict in Mindanao do not care about the impact of their stories.
Thus, she reiterated the need to focus on reporting not only the characters and context but most importantly on the repercussion of conflict.
Other speakers during the summit were Assistant Secretary Rosalie Romero of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) who presented the updates on the peace process and the Payapa at Masaganang Pamayanan (PAMANA) program of the government, Consortium of Bangsamoro Civil Society (CBCS) Chairman Guiamel Alim who discussed the role of civil society organizations in peace communication and Prof. Arnold Molina Azurin of the University of the Philippines (UP) College of Anthropology who talked about changing the mindset to create culture of peace.
After the presentations, the participants broke into groups to discuss ways to improve news gathering and reporting on peace and conflict; the elements of peace communication that are acceptable to media, civil society organizations (CSOs), private companies and the government; building partnerships among media, news sources, and other stakeholders; and exploring alternative media to foster peace communication at the grassroots level.
The participants, mostly media practitioners and representatives from the academe and civil society, also expressed their support to the Open Government Partnership (OGP) in the ARMM by signing the multi-sectoral declaration of commitment pledging to promote transparency, help empower citizens, and harness the power of new technologies to make government more effective and accountable.
With the theme “Beyond Conflict, Political Coverage: Is There a Room for Peace Communication in Muslim Mindanao Reportage?,” the peace summit was aimed at finding ways to help reduce conflict in Muslim Mindanao through more responsible communication from all sides.
It was a collaborative undertaking of the Bureau of Public Information in the region (BPI-ARMM), the Communications Unit of the OPAPP, the Asia Foundation, the Australian Agency for International Development Program (AusAID) and the CBCS.
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