In closing we drew attention to the situation in Nigeria’s Niger Delta where violence has been raging. The truth out there is clear: the resources of the people have been seized; being used to develop other parts f the country. And they are living in dehumanizing conditions. The truth is that under a just federal system, they should have the first call on the resources located on their soil. So what is the journalist- peacemaker’s role in the Niger Delta? Propagate this truth in season and out of season. Anything short of the truth may bring tenuous peace, the type in Kenya and the type being cobbled together in Zimbabwe, but not enduring peace. Only the Prince of peace’s methods can bring enduring peace and that method is one of truth.
Tomorrow, Christian journalists from across the globe will gather in Cape Town, South Africa to discuss the place of journalists in peace making. The forum, which will be the fourth congress of the World Association of Christians in Communication (WACC), holds October 6-10, 2008 and has the theme, “Communication is Peace: Building Viable Communities.”
The congress, according to its organisers, will focus on the role of communicators in conflict situations and offers participants the opportunity to learn more about how they can contribute to creating conditions which lead to sustainable peace in their communities.
WACC states among its objectives, the promotion of communication for social change. It posits “that communication is a basic human right that defines people’s common humanity, strengthens cultures, enables participation, creates community and challenges tyranny and oppression.” The association states on its website that its “key concerns, are media diversity, equal and affordable access to communication and knowledge, media and gender justice, and the relationship between communication and power”. It listed “advocacy, education, training, and the creation and sharing of knowledge” as among its means of pursuing these objectives. WACC partners worldwide “with faith-based and secular partners at grassroots, regional and global levels, giving preference to the needs of the poor, marginalised and dispossessed.” Being WACC, it emphasises “means ‘taking sides’”.
Preparatory to the congress at which Mr Lekan Otufodunrin, Editor, Sunday Nation, would be one of Africa’s delegates, Journalists for Christ (JFC) which he also coordinates held a pre-Congress seminar on Saturday, September 20, 2008. The seminar had its theme as “Journalists as Peacemakers” and saw yours sincerely as one of the speakers. And that is where today’s piece developed from.
Before, I continue, however, I wish to place on record my very sincere appreciation to Lekan and the rest of his team at Journalists for Christ, not just for the opportunity to speak at the seminar, but the clever packaging of my presence at that gathering as a kind of 60th birthday gift! It was touching to listen to so many professional colleagues sing the “birthday song” in my honour. Thanks a million, gentlemen.
Now, I found the topic of journalists as peacemaker a bit ironic at that particular point in time. I rather thought, journalists as peace-receivers, as professionals needing a peaceful atmosphere to operate, would have been more current, against the background of the Federal Government of Nigeria’s recent invasion of Channels Television on account of a certain report it found unpalatable. I did say that I disagreed with the indecent haste with which Channels went to town with an unconfirmed story, but I pointed out that unless the Gestapo tactics of the government was firmly and legally resisted, this may well be the beginning of fang-bearing by the rule-of-law touting administration.
I could not stay away from the theme, however, and so had to contend with the subject of the peace making journalist. Strictly in context, one noted that a genre of journalism, known as peace journalism was already being developed. Revolving around a book of the same title written and published in 2005 by Jake Lynch and Annabel McGoldrick, this genre will probably develop into a full fledged branch of Advocacy Journalism in no distant time. And why not, we asked. If many acclaimed journalists made their names as War Correspondents and, peace is sometimes seen as the absence of war, there is no earthly reason why we cannot soon be having peace correspondents in our media houses! Don’t laugh, although my audience did, particularly when I publicly applied to be considered for such an opening.
But, I wasn’t led to discuss the role of the journalist in making peace in such troubled zones of the world as Iraq or Afghanistan or even Darfur. My thesis was that the journalist, particularly, Christian journalists, who constituted my audience, had no business being anything but peace journalists!
And I began like this. To be a Christian anything, lawyer, medical practitioner, anything at all, is to be that thing in a Christ-like manner. In other words, A Christian journalist is supposed to practise journalism in a Christ-like manner. In this context, the most important attribute of the Lord Jesus can be gleaned from the prophesy about him in the book of Isaiah Chapter 9. It reads in verses 6-7 like this: “For to us a Child is born, to us a Son is given; and the government shall be on His shoulder; and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. There is no end of the increase of His government and peace on the throne of David, and on His kingdom, to order it and to establish it with judgment and with justice from now on, even forever. The zeal of Jehovah of Hosts will do this”.
These verses of scripture say Jesus symbolizes peace, a peace that will endure forever. So, for a journalist to be Christ-like, he or she has to stand for peace; that is he/she has to be a peacemaker. And, so enamoured of peace and peacemaking was Jesus that he declared: “Blessed are the peacemakers! For, they shall be called the sons of God” (Matthew 5:9).
The questions that followed were, what is peace; what is the peacemaking process practiced or endorsed by the Lord Jesus; how might a journalist go about being a Christ-like peacemaker? We turned to the scriptures for guidance. Declaring has become recognized as his manifesto; Jesus opened to the book of Isaiah and read to a Sabbath day audience in one of the synagogues like this: "The Spirit of the Lord is on Me; because of this He has anointed Me to proclaim the Gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim deliverance to the captives, and new sight to the blind, to set at liberty those having been crushed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord" (Luke 4:18-19).
Standing out from this manifesto is freedom: free the captives; set at liberty those ensnared, proclaim jubilee. In other words, freedom is a major tool of the prince of peace. This is because at the root of most wars is deprivation of one kind of freedom or the other. There is no doubt that Jesus took the subject of freedom seriously, such that you could liken him to a freedom fighter! But this was not your ‘all is fair in war’ kind of fighter. He wasn’t a guerilla hiding in the shadows to snipe at the unwary foe. This was a fighter who proclaimed and displayed his weapon for all to see. In the book of John chapter 8, verse 32, he presented his freedom fighting weapon in these words: “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free”.
Flowing from all of these, we posited that propagating the truth is a critical assignment of the journalist, if he is to enhance freedom, which is a non-negotiable condition for peace.
Of course, we noted that the question would be asked, what is truth? After all didn’t Pilate ask the same question of the Lord? As it was then, so it is today. The truth is under attack; it is subjected to the concept of relativity, such that there are shades of truth! But it doesn’t matter how much verbiage and philosophies we try to bury the truth under, the truth is the truth. Jesus defined it like this in one of his parting prayers for his disciples and the rest of us: “Sanctify them through Your truth. Your Word is truth. (John 17:17). Put simply, the only truth there is, is the word of God. So, if anything runs counter to the word of God, it is untrue. If it is untrue, it is incapable of bringing freedom; if it cannot set free, it cannot bring enduring peace. So, the Christian journalist desirous of being a peacemaker must not propagate it.
In closing we drew attention to the situation in Nigeria’s Niger Delta where violence has been raging. The truth out there is clear: the resources of the people have been seized; being used to develop other parts f the country. And they are living in dehumanizing conditions. The truth is that under a just federal system, they should have the first call on the resources located on their soil. So what is the journalist- peacemaker’s role in the Niger Delta? Propagate this truth in season and out of season. Anything short of the truth may bring tenuous peace, the type in Kenya and the type being cobbled together in Zimbabwe, but not enduring peace. Only the Prince of peace’s methods can bring enduring peace and that method is one of truth.
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