CIJ's forum on peace journalism gets a place in 'The Sun'

The Sun report on the forum quoted all speakers and did a fair job of informing the purpose, not forgetting the launch of the 2009 annual review on freedom of expression in Malaysia by the Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ).

It highlighted Maluku journalist Insany Syahbawarti's personal epiphany regarding the importance of doing one's job as a journalist first and foremost. "During the conflict there was pressure from my own community to produce reports that only reflected favourably on our side," The Sun quoted her as saying. "But as time went on, I realised my reports were playing a role in fuelling the conflict."

All panellists agreed that the media has to provide space for inter-community interaction as well as portray the diversity of peoples and views. More.

Forum reported in BERNAMA

National news agency BERNAMA's report captured guest speaker Insany Syahbarwati's points really well. Sinar Harian too published BERNAMA's report.

Among Insany's points:

"Media pula ada menyampaikan berita yang provokatif dan secara jelas menyebabkan masyarakat terus beremosi selain memberi akibat buruk kepada perkembangan perdamaian di Maluku."

And her parting shot, during which you can almost hear how the whole room went pppp because of the gravity and wisdom of her words:

"Malaysia sebuah negara multietnik yang mana perbezaan itu amat nampak sekali. Jika media di Malaysia bisa menjaga yang namanya perbezaan itu ialah hal yang biasa dan semua orang boleh lebih berfikir secara rasional dalam menghadapi perbezaan maka segala sesuatu akan menjadi lebih baik.

"Maka diharapkan media di Malaysia akan dapat sama-sama menjaga keamaan dan keharmonian masyarakat di sini dan jangan sampai apa yang pernah berlaku di Ambon berlaku di sini."

As she said during the forum, this is a lesson that she paid a high price for to learn. Thanks, Insany, for sharing it with us, so that we may save ourselves from having to tread a similar path of violence before we could learn to live in peace.

Full BERNAMA report.