Inside the glass house: by Thalif Deen

21st November 1999

When world TV choose not to see evil

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NEW YORK - Former UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali once described Cable News Network (CNN), the widely-watched US TV network, as the 16th member of the UN Security Council.

"If I am a member of the Security Council, how come I am not allowed into closed-door meetings?" a CNN's UN correspondent shot back, conscious of the customarily secretive meetings where the media is barred.

The love-hate relationship between the media and the United Nations was evident at the Fourth UN World Television Forum held at UN headquarters last week, as TV networks were both praised and savaged at the same time.

Attended by more than 750 participants from about 80 countries, the meeting focused on ''the impact of television on peace and development.''

Theo-Ben Gurirab, Foreign Minister of Namibia and president of the UN General Assembly, set the tone of the debate when he said that the power of the television image remains unmatched whenever it influences and galvanises society into action.

"We see this regularly, in the quick responses of the international community to the many humanitarian disasters around the world," he said.

Gurirab said in two recent crises – in East Timor and Kosovo – it was television news and its images that unfolded the disaster before the eyes of the world.

But still he faulted the TV networks for ignoring or downplaying the ongoing ''bloodletting and human suffering in some regions of Africa'' such as the Horn of Africa where Ethiopia and Eritrea are involved in a conflict.

The conflict, described as the world's largest war this year, has involved more than a quarter of a million soldiers, tens of thousands of casualties and 600,000 displaced persons.

The Assembly President also complained that the major TV networks continue to ignore the humanitarian crises in Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (former Zaire) and Burundi.

"These bloody conflicts and humanitarian crises are virtually forgotten because there are no television news to record the carnage and anguish," he told the media gathering.

There is no way, therefore, to jolt the collective conscience of the world, especially those who can make a difference, he asserted.

"Without any doubt, I believe that our perceptions and public opinion are significantly determined and shaped by the images and sounds of television."

"But let us face facts," Gurirab said, "the best television programming won't mean much, if the people who need them the most – the developing world – lack the necessary equipment and logistics."

So, first and foremost, they need television sets and the transfer of requisite technology.

For a vast majority of the world's population, who live in abject poverty, even the thought of owning a television set borders on madness.

"Given this reality," he asked, "how can television programming positively and continuously impact on war, peace and development in places where there is no television?."

He said he was reminded of an instructive philosophical question: "Does a tree falling in the forest make a sound if no one is there to hear it?."

By the same token, he argued, how can the best television programming in the world impact on people who will never see it?

Ambassador Francesco Paolo Fulci of Italy pointed out that satellite television travels across national borders, speaks in different languages, and reaches all the people of the world, without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion.

Fulci said that TV could be a formidable instrument in the struggle for peace and development and the battle to eradicate poverty, which is one of the priorities of ECOSOC.

"But if television fails to observe an ethic of communication", he warned, "it can also unleash dangerous dynamics and create destabilising elements in many countries at vulnerable moments in their history."

Fulci said that "in the wrong hands, television can amplify political and social discord, exaggerate cultural differences and values, and promote strife and confrontation rather than harmony and reconciliation." This must be avoided, he added.

"Thus, you all have a major responsibility to assure that the news you broadcast is constructive rather than destructive, and that it helps the never-ending quest for peace and development," he said.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said the United Nations must find new partners in its unending struggle against war and poverty.

"You in the media, especially television, are very high on our list."

"And so I ask you: Can television be a weapon in the fight to win freedom from want? Can it help make the difference between war and peace? Can it transform the response to a crisis from one of inattention to one of intervention?."

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