Journalists discuss dynamics of media in conflict

The last day of the media conference at the CEJ-IBA kicked off with a session concerning reporting from a conflict zone.

Moderated by journalist Aamer Ahmed Khan, the session featured CNN’s Sophia Saifi, journalist and editor Raza Hamdani, WION bureau chief Anas Malick, TNN’s Khalida Naz and BBC’s Sahar Baloch.

The panelists discussed at length the dangers of reporting from a conflict zone and shared their personal experiences. They talked about the importance of safety trainings and ensuring mental health.

“Woman have to think about additional safety measures when reporting in conflict zones,” said Sophia. Malick was of the view that one could be never prepared enough for a conflict zone regardless of how well he or she knew the region. Sahar concurred with him stating that anything could happen while working on field in a conflict zone.

She explained that working for the print media from a conflict zone was easier than working for the electronic media. “In print, it is easier as you can write it but on TV or on camera it is different. It sets a tone for your entire coverage,” she remarked.

At the second session of the day titled ‘Beyond Conflict?’, the moderator was media personality and lawyer Ayesha Tammy Haq. She was joined on stage by journalists Iftikhar Firdous, Shahzad Sharjeel, Umber Khairi and Zia Ur Rehman.

The panel discussed reporting in a post-conflict world and the need for media houses to invest in their reporters. Talking about how the panel and participants were born in times of conflict and were products of conflict, Umber said conflict was everywhere and the entire country was in conflict.

Referring to an earlier session at the conference in which Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s Musadiq Malik and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Fawad Chaudhry were present, she remarked: “Yesterday at a session, we saw two politicians who had so much conflict in their tones and what they were talking about. I think it is important that when you look at conflict, you need to have some form of a reconciliation process as well.”

Rehman said he had witnessed conflict since birth. “I was born in Karachi, my entire upbringing – school and university, everything was and still is in conflict. I don’t think conflict has ended, I think it has transformed and has a new face,” he said.

“If you look at Karachi, the conflict might look like it has gone away but it has just been pushed into the background. The political, ethnic and sectarian conflict still exists but is not in the mainstream right now. We haven’t tried to understand or investigate why,” he added.