Ross Howard - Media development

•	Media and peacebuilding CV
•	Media& Democracy Group
•	Recent publications
•	Recent speeches and statements

Why media development?
by Ross Howard

Media development in fragile and conflict-stressed states is absolutely necessary for democratization. Without news media competency there can be no rule of law.

International Development Workshop, Canadian Bar Association, August 2005

During the past 10 years, the international community has increasingly recognized the critical i
mportance of media development in fragile states and post-conflict societies. A reliable and independent news media is now considered a necessary condition for democratization.

Much of this was powered by the realization that technology has made the media nearly pervasive even in closed places. There is also the previous decade’s success in media-based humanitarian initiatives. And there is recognition that intentionally or through incompetence an irresponsible media can fuel genocidal tragedies such as Rwanda and Serbia. But conversely it is also true that with professional skills and standards the media has an innate capacity to contribute to the mediation of conflict, and ultimately to the rule of law.

Democratic change in The Ukraine, eased tensions in Africa’s Great Lakes region, declining conflict in Indonesia, and the creation of a pan-Arab public space all reflect the emergence of more reliable, more independent and more diverse media in those places.

There is now an international community of practitioners of media development, which is charting patterns of intervention (1), sharing techniques (2) and assessing lessons learned and best practices. (3)

Lessons learned include the importance of sustainability and the realities of media development amidst crippled economies and repressed rights. Media development and good governance have an almost symbiotic relationship. Local partnering is the only way to ensure a long-term successful outcome.

One of the greatest ironies about conventional journalism is how much we rely on conflict for news and yet how little we know about it.

University of British Columbia School of Journalism, 2006

However, media development is still inadequately supported in development policies of most states, international actors and private institutions. While technology and capital continues to expand the number of media outlets, far less attention is paid to professional training for journalists and regulation in the public interest. Partisan interests and commercial profit increasingly dominate the news agendas. Media laws remain toothless or repressive. Advocacy for professional standards remains a low priority among many international institutions. And courage among professionals practising in repressive environments goes too often unrecognized.

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Ross Howard has been engaged in almost all aspects of international media development from training in the field to development of curricula and handbooks to research and analysis. His Operational Framework for Media and Peacebuilding in 2001, done for IMPACS Canada and CIDA, was an early “thorough analysis of various stages of conflict and the role of media at each stage” (4) mapping potential intervention opportunities and cataloguing patterns of interventions. He has also surveyed international media assistance donor activities and the lessons learned, for the Royal Netherlands Institute of International Relations, and recently analyzed Canadian media law for a multinational comparison of press restraints and media regulation.

When it adheres to professional standards, the news media inherently has a positive influence on conflict resolution and peacebuilding.

Trudeau Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Toronto, 2006

He has conducted journalism training in several conflict-stressed countries including Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Rwanda and Burundi. His journalist manuals for conflict-sensitive reporting, election reporting, talk-show radio for peacebuilding, election reporting coaching, and gender reporting are now available in several languages. He has worked with intervenors including International Media Support, IMPACS, Search for Common Ground, Panos Paris, the International Centre for Journalism, UNESCO, and the United Nations.

He has lectured on Media and Peacebuilding at American University in Washington and other institutions and presented papers at international conferences, and is included in three books on conflict resolution and post-conflict reconstruction.

In 2006 he served as principal researcher and author of recommendations on the media’s role in Islamic and Western world relationships, for the Alliance of Civilizations initiative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations.

The bottom line? Journalists mediate conflict whether they intend to or not.

Media in Peacebuilding experts’ roundtable; European Centre for Conflict Prevention, Amsterdam, Dec. 2003

He is also the president of a new Canadian-based international consortium of professional journalists, called Media&Democracy Group, dedicated to media development in fragile states and emerging democracies.

Media&Democracy Group engages senior journalists whose individual experiences cover almost every aspect of news media practice and of media development, at home and abroad. The values Media&Democracy Group members and associates seek to promote are quintessentially democratic--a diverse and independent media practising accurate, impartial and responsible journalism, supported by a regulatory infrastructure, and respecting human rights, fair elections and civil society freedom.