Reporting Religion In Pakistan And
Nigeria: Perspectives And Realities
Good journalism is difficult work
at the best of times. There is never enough information and not
enough time. Reporters rely on their training and standards to
overcome these difficulties and deliver news which is accurate
and impartial. That is the traditional role of journalism — to
enable the public to make well-informed decisions.
But every passing year, decade and period brings new challenges
and difficulties, with evolving areas of coverage/reportage
bringing new dangers. In this case reporting religion. We try to
examine the Nigerian and Pakistani examples.To Salman Khan, a
journalist working with Pakistan’s largest circulated newspaper,
Dawn, covering religion in journalism is a taboo and
entails complications and, in some cases, life threats.
“In my view religion should be
left to the public as a private affair of their lives and
journalists had better focus on socio-economic condition of
the public. Even cricket is a good area which attracts the
attention of a large section of readers,” he says in
response to my query about hazards of reporting religion in
Pakistan.
Pakistan came into being on
August 14, 1947, in the name of religion in the eastern and
northwestern regions of British India, where there was a Muslim
majority. Since its inception, religion has been an important
part of people’s lives. In the modern Pakistan, one can seen
mosques with four tall minarets, churches and walls full of
religious graffiti. Politicians love to talk on Islam and vow to
make Pakistan a castle of Islam where other religious minorities
will live in peace and religious freedom.
But religion has been the most conflicting issue and a cause of
bloodshed in the country in recent years and still journalists
are not ready to cover it as beat. “Every religion is
controversial to other and newspapers cannot afford
controversies,” says Maqbool Ahmed, another journalist. But talk
to Mehdi Haider, also a journalist, he says journalism should
have covered the facts regarding religious controversies.
He cited the example of the
massacre of Shiite sect at the hand of religious extremists
belonging to hardcore Deobandi-Salfi sect of Islam, which has
backing of the official sect of Saudi Arabia and other Middle
East states. No newspaper tried to raise the issue of funding to
militants from the Arab countries. “If we publish the names of
backers of militants, we will face serious threats,” said Mehdi.
Javed Ahmed Ghamdi is an Islamic scholar who has been living in
Dubai for the past five years. He was forced to leave the
country after he preached a moderate Islam in his TV shows.
Militants threatened the TV channel to close the program or
face the consequence.
Pakistan, which has been under violent attacks from religious
extremists of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), has
seen 68 journalists murdered since 1994. Since 2001, 28
journalists have been killed by TTP militants for not following
their orders in coverage. Besides this, every political party
uses religion as their slogan to attract voters, journalists
cover it as a routine matter.
On March 23,
cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan addressing a mammoth
rally in Lahore said: “I take inspiration from the life of the
Holy Prophet and so I urge the youth of Pakistan to take
inspiration from me.” He cited a Quranic verse and that it was
his manifesto. The next
day newspapers' did not mention the overuse of Islam by Mr Khan
to exploit religious sentiment of the public. “Should I vote for
Mr Khan?’ asked Ijaz Masih, a Christian, who works for a
Charity. The media again willingly ignored the view of people
from other religion.
“The issue is journalists are not trained to cover religion
as a beat and that is why they don’t know the importance of
religion in journalism,” said Fakhar Durrani, a journalist
educator based in Islamabad. He said beside lack of
training, journalists also ignored religion for safety
reasons.
“It’s time we should use religion reporting to lessen
controversies and promote harmony among religion for a
tolerant society,” he said.
The situation for Journalists and
Journalism is not any different in Nigeria, as it is with
Pakistan, it may only have it's own dynamics, officially the
Federal Republic of Nigeria, it is a federal constitutional
republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory,
Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land
borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and
Cameroon in the east, and Niger in the north. Its coast in the
south lies on the Gulf of Guinea on the Atlantic Ocean. The
three largest and most influential ethnic groups in Nigeria are
the Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba.
The Hausas largely Muslims, the Igbos majorly Christians and
Yorubas a very strong balance of both and a handful of
traditionalists and pagans.
By and large Nigeria is roughly
divided in half between Muslims, concentrated mostly in the
north, and Christians, who mostly live in the South. A very
small minority practice traditional religions, although the rate
of syncretism is high.
Since 2002 there have been a spate of clashes, particularly in
the North of the country, between government forces and the
Islamist group Boko Haram, militant jihadists who seek to
establish sharia law. Reporting this brings with it several
risks. Many reports divided on the casualties, are they just
Christian targets or Muslims and in recent time why Muslims have
been attacked.
"Reporting this religious colored conflict has brought so many
challenges" says Katdaba Gobum, chairman of the Union of
Journalists Plateau State. He adds "very few are trained and
have the knowledge to report this conflict".
On April 26th 2012 there
were coordinated bomb attacks on ThisDay Newspaper Offices in
Kaduna & Abuja. Abuja the federal capital and Kaduna, the
foremost Northern city.
The attack left six people dead and several others injured. The
first attack was at the Newspaper’s office in Abuja while the
second occurred at a complex that houses a ThisDay Newspaper
office along Kontagora road by Ahmadu Bello way in Kaduna.
ThisDay’s editorial board chairman Olusegun Adeniyi said.
“The suicide bomber came in a
jeep and security guards opened the gate for him. The guy
drove in through the gate and rammed into the building and
exploded. Two of our security men died, and obviously
suicide bomber died too.”
Five support staff were wounded.
“Fortunately the newsroom is a bit far from the back of the
building, so all the people in the newsroom escaped unhurt.”
ThisDay is based in southern Nigeria and is broadly supportive
of President Goodluck Jonathan’s government, the main target for
Islamist insurgent group Boko Haram. ThisDay, a newspaper owned
by the politically connected media mogul Nduka Obaigbena. The
Islamic sect, Boko Haram has in the past not made any deliberate
attacks on media houses until that particular attack and made it
clear that they would attack media houses and Journalists who
'misreported' them.
This threat has affected in no small measure the way and manner
the conflict is reported. Before now, the notion of reporting
religion has been a page or two in most national dailies on
Friday for Muslims and Sundays for Christians. In Nigeria there
are few Journalists that venture into Religious reporting or
even write on Religion and politics.
This writer believes though whether in my native Nigeria or
Pakistan, professional news reporters, whether being aware of it
or not, are specialists in conflict. For reporters, change is
news. And when there is change, there often is disagreement or
conflict. There is conflict among those who like the change and
those who do not, or those who want more change and those who
oppose change. So journalists deal with conflict very often in
their work. But many journalists know little about the idea of
conflict. They do not know the root causes of conflict, or how
conflicts end. They do not know the different kinds of conflict
or the inter-marriage of religion and politics in festering
these conflicts.
"Journalists do not set out to reduce conflict on religion by
reporting. They should seek to present accurate and impartial
news". This is the argument of Steve Aluko of the Civil
Liberties Group.
But it is often through good reporting that conflict is reduced.
The news media is often the most important channel of
communication that exists between sides in a conflict. Sometimes
the media is used by oneside to broadcast intimidating messages.
But other times, the parties speak to each other through the
media or through specific journalists. Journalism which explores
each side’s particular difficulties, such as its politics or
powerful interests can help educate the other side to avoid
demands for simplistic and immediate solutions. The above can be
noted in the call for dialogue between Boko Haram in Nigeria and
government and the issue of amnesty. Good journalism is what
this writer and a few preach, believing we can also present news
that shows resolution is possible by giving examples from other
places and by explaining local efforts at reconciliation.
There is need to run from the regular reportage that all news is
all bad, it is violent news and does not seek other sides or
points of view. It declares the worst: “peace talks...lay in
ruins.” It uses emotional and unnecessary words: massacre,
mutilated, atrocity. It emphasizes the violence with words such
as “mutilated bodies.”
These reportage takes sides: it
describes the event from the point of view of the army
spokesman. He says the patrol was attacked. The news is full of
blame and accusations with no proof. It takes the government
side. It says the attackers were Boko Haram terrorists.
How does he know? It uses emotional language: massacre,
terrorists, assassination squad. It reports a claim by the
police captain without proof. It reports unnamed government
sources who say other unnamed people say they saw the BH leader
and blame him. There is no proof of this. These are the problems
encountered by regular/traditional reportage which even puts the
Journalists in trouble.
The Nigerian Guild of Editors puts a guide "Report should go
further than violence and report people who condemn the
violence. News should be balanced quickly: BH denies it attacked
the JTF, but admits there was a battle. The other side is given
the name it calls itself: The use of 'unknown gunmen' when most
know there is nothing like 'unknown'. Violence is not hidden or
ignored. But it is stated as a claim and not as a fact". These
tips can help and does help in nations with shared historical
perspectives in religion like both Nigeria and Pakistan does.
Journalists should report only what is known. The bomb is a
mystery, words should be carefully chosen. In religion and
politics both sides’ explanation and comment is necessary. It
is the believe of these writers that Journalism can and should
play a great role in bridging the gap and bringing about mutual
understanding and resolving some of these conflicts.
*************
Ahsan Raza is a sub editor with Dawn Newspapers based in
Lahore, Pakistan
Prince Charles Dickson is a freelance Journalist, blogger,
and media practitioner of over a decade standing. One time
correspondent chapel vice president with expertise in religion
and conflict reportage, Investigative writing and developmental
journalism. Has continually covered ethno-religious conflicts in
Nigeria's volatile north. He is a columnist in several
mainstream and online news outlets. Writing on good governance,
religion, social justice and peace and anti-corruption.
He is a member of, Nigerian Union
of Journalists, Guild Of Editors and Global Editors Network, the
Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism and
The International Association of Religion Journalists/Writers
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