The tools of peacebuilding: Using the media to build peace in Georgia

In an earlier article, I wrote about the importance of youth participation in peacebuilding. The media is another vital component of successfully building a durable, just peace after conflict. Like any tool, the media can be used in constructive and destructive ways. As an instrument of propaganda and hate speech, the media has fuelled and exacerbated many violent conflicts, but the community of peacebuilders also recognises the power of the media to contribute to peace processes and reconciliation between divided communities.

The media is crucial for peacebuilders in many ways. During armed conflicts, the media is often exploited by the belligerents to demonise their opponents, mobilise their supporters and legitimise their actions to outsiders. This manipulation can continue long after the shooting has stopped, making peace and reconciliation almost impossible. Peacebuilders can respond to this negative use of media, not through censorship or responding in kind, but by articulating a counter-narrative that exposes the lies and propaganda of violent actors and highlights the will and desire of the majority to live in peace. In other words, peacebuilders should actively contribute to the public sphere rather than ceding it to polarising hate speech and incitements to violence.

This can take many forms, from countering inaccuracy through unbiased and reliable reporting of the facts to drawing attention to positive stories of cooperation and integration that undermine the narrative of those who use violence to achieve their ends. If truth is the first casualty of war, the trust and confidence building required for a lasting peace needs a credible and reliable media. Armed conflicts create information gaps – there is a need to know what is happening where and to whom, so the right sort of help gets to the right people, and the right decisions can be made. The media plays a vital role in answering the question, What don’t we know that we should? This works along multiple dimensions, connecting communities with each other and providing links between governments and people.

Conducting interviews in conflict-affected areas of Georgia [Image credit: www.kartlosinews.wordpress.com]

The media also has less reactive and defensive roles because of its enormous power to shape opinions, change attitudes and mobilise people to action. The very power that makes it so dangerous when used for violent ends also makes the media a resource peacebuilders can use to meet their objectives. This is distinct from journalism in the sense that it is not reportage of ‘just the facts’, but peacebuilding requires more than this. Peacebuilders need to use all the tools at their disposal to change attitudes and create trusted means of communication that are pivotal for a just and durable peace.

To help the process of post-conflict justice, the media can also be used to document and record the testimonies of people affected by conflict, bringing recognition of those who have suffered in war and entering their experiences into the historical record. This is important not only for the dignity of those affected by conflict, but also makes it harder for anyone in the future to try to rewrite history and reignite old conflicts.

Peacebuilding in Georgia: How a local NGO is using media as a peacebuilding tool

Trust in the media is not very high in Georgia. The number of people who ‘fully trust’ the media declined from 50% in 2008 to 24% in 2013, but at the same time the number who distrust the media has not changed much. Rather, Georgians are most likely to neither trust or distrust the media. And while freedom of the media has improved, it is politically very polarised (for example between pro-Western and pro-Russian groups, and on dealing with the past), and there is little in the way of serious, non-partisan analysis available to the public. Public scepticism makes the work of peacebuilders using the media to promote peace and reconciliation all the more difficult, and highlights the need for credible and trusted sources of information in conflict-affected areas. For example, a 2011 report on peace, security and stability in Shida Kartli by three prominent NGOs recommends that local media “endeavours to properly report on the conflict-related needs and priorities of the regional population” – a need that arose from the lack of objective information about security issues.

Kartlosi, a grassroots peacebuilding NGO based in Gori in Shida Kartli, recognises the potential of the media as a peacebuilding tool. Forged in the experiences of a long-running conflict between the breakaway region of South Ossetia and Georgia, the peacebuilders working at Kartlosi have witnessed first-hand how neighbours can become enemies and historical relations of cooperation break down when trust and communication between groups disappears. To meet their aim of helping the peace process, Kartlosi make extensive use of different media. According to local journalist, Makho Mikeladze, who works with Kartlosi, journalists have “a big responsibility and a mission.” He sees his role in terms of a responsibility “to show society and the government the real situation in the conflict zone.” It is vital, he argues, that journalists are trusted to be objective by society so they can contribute to peacebuilding.

For example, much of what Kartlosi does is focused on villages on the Administrative Boundary Line (ABL) that separates the breakaway region of South Ossetia from the rest of Georgia. Kartlosi document their work in these communities as a way to record the testimonies of people affected by the conflict and use social media as a tool to lobby local government for change. Makho stresses the importance of producing balanced material that expresses all the positions. In a conflict situation, this means having the confidence of the “other side of the conflict.” But beyond journalistic objectivity, Makho says it is necessary to be sensitive to the interests and concerns of the population in conflict-affected areas: “I try to broadcast issues like they are and don’t add anything” in order to improve ratings, he says, because of the effect this would have “on a population [living on the ABL] who already live in a stressful atmosphere.” In this kind of atmosphere, the need for trusted news sources is substantial. Makho gives the example of detentions – a fairly frequent occurrence along the ABL, when villagers are detained by the Russian military in Tskhinval/i (the de facto capital of South Ossetia) and their families have to pay for their return – and notes the importance of broadcasting these incidents so they are known to the government and to society.

Kartlosi journalists at the ABL [Image credit: www.kartlosinews.wordpress.com]

One of the most notable media projects Kartlosi have carried out was ‘Kartlosi News’, a free newspaper published for several years in cooperation with partners in Tskhinval/i. The paper was distributed to Georgian- and Ossetian-populated areas of Georgia (including areas where mixed Georgian and Ossetian families live) and IDP settlements, and a Russian language version of newspaper was distributed in Tskhinval/i, Akhalgori and Vladikavkaz in South Ossetia. Around 50 editions were published. The aim was to help create a “positive informational of space” and facilitate dialogue between Georgians and Ossetians. The newspaper covered different aspects of Georgian-Ossetian relations and Georgian and Ossetian communities, informing people who live in the conflict-affected area of the situation on both sides of the ABL. The focus was on personal experiences rather than political issues, building bridges between the communities divided by the conflict who would otherwise have very few unbiased sources of information about the ‘other side’.

The current divisions between Georgians and Ossetians mean that there are few opportunities for interaction between these communities. This means that young people in Shida Kartli “will not grow up in contact with ethnic Ossetians across the ABL”, leading to greater estrangement between Georgian and Ossetian cultures. For there to be a sustainable resolution of the conflict, the peace process must include ventures such as those conducted by Kartlosi, enabling communication and mutual learning between Georgians and Ossetians and providing trusted sources of information.