barkingsparrows: November 2005

What is journalism?

"The strategic adversary is fascism... the fascism in us all, in our heads and in our everyday behavior, the fascism that causes us to love power, to desire the very thing that dominates and exploits us." - Michel Foucault

In Azerbaijan 40% of the population live below the poverty line. The families we talked to get only $7 a month from the government, which they call "bread money". Did you know that these families soak the bread in milk, water or stock just to soften it, so that they don't break their teeth when they chew it. Or that they are afraid to go out to work – mainly on construction sites – because if they get injured they don't know how they will pay for medicine. When we asked a father how how his children's health is, he replied "healthy... the children are never healthy". But ironically the country holds 1% of the world's oil resources, which for a population of 8 million seems like quite a lot, don't you think?

Following the Azeri elections I have a new take on the whole media machine. I shadowed a good journalist around the event, lucky enough to be on the inside, and to watch the entire process unfold. There were interviews, conferences, demos (well we kind of missed the important one), but the highlight of the trip was a visit to a camp for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs as they call them in the land of NGOs).

The elections were covered, stories were filed, the world media was there and watching the political process take its due course in Azerbaijan. I was disillusioned by the whole idea of journalism that exists in the world today. Not by my colleague who did an amazing job of reporting the whole affair, namely because he got out there an spoke to real people about what was going on in the capital, but mainly by the fact that I saw the egos of the press who blew into town with the western wind and then blew back out again, not prepared to stick their neck out and tell the stories of the refugees that live below the poverty line in Azeri land. One in every eighth person you meet in the country is displaced or with refugee status. Doesn't anyone care about them? Who can help them? The world media?

One key moment for me was at the OSCE press conference, when a Turkish journalist, who must have been at least 55 years old – from Anatolian Ajans – stood up and told the members on the panel that he had never heard such a ridiculous ruling. This was with regards to the fact that the the committee had ruled the elections undemocratic, but that's all they did. It was good to see a a journalist criticize the panel and try to provoke a reaction. The microphone was quickly taken away from him and handed to the LA Times correspondant, who asked the US government official if he knew that he was wearing an orange shirt. The conference ended in an intellectual giggle, and the real issues were just swept away, forgotten to replies of, "I wouldn't like to make a comment on that, it's all in the press release."

I and my colleague, who had spent three days with young Azeris, felt sad for the lack of change any international body was able to make in offering Azeris a free and fair election.

When a journalist friend of mine commented on my photos from Azeri land, the only thing he could say was ..."What do you mean? Do I like the story? Or the quality of the photos?" My first reaction was one of disgust that he would ask me about the quality of the photos and not the quality of the children's lives. No, "So that's what Azerbaijan is like." Or "How old were the kids in the picture?" Or "Were they studying?" Or "How was your experience?". No, simply the comment I got was, "Well your Turkish is shit so how could you talk to them?"

I have lived in Turkey for five years, and while my Turkish is not the best. I did actually interview in Turkish to get the current jobs I hold within the Turkish media. Hmmm, do I speak Turkish. Well enough to talk to local Azeri children and make them smile at the shock that I am an English girl, who knew how to ask them: How are you? What is your name? Where do you come from? Where are you going? How many brothers and sisters do you have? Do you like school? What do you study? What is you dream? What do you want to be? Take care and work hard!

I mean isn't that enough to make a connection with these kids? Isn't it great that I could speak to them at all. Isn't that what humanity is all about? About trying to be understood and about trying to understand them?

Sure the definition of journalism is: style of writing for presenting bare facts to describe news events. The main issue lies with "what to report". The point is that unless you are within an organizationn then it is difficult to get your stories out. Not that I don't, I get my work published regularly and read by thousands of people. But I have still got a long way to go, the access I have in terms of telling the stories I want to tell is still very limited.

We pitched a story about IDPs to so many dailies back in the UK, that I forget who we talked to. First the FT, then the London Times, The Guardian... the list goes on. They liked the idea, there was a dialogue, but they didn't go with the story. It was so sad to see these people in desperate situations but with no voice to be heard. "Not really pressing for our readers," Or "We run mostly politics and economyy and softer stories on Saturdays. " Isn't this story all about economy and politics? Isn't it about the distribution of oil wealth and the ruling party's policy on the distribution of it. I don't really know how much more political and economic it could be? And nobody hears their voices. We thought that as Azerbaijan was in the news it would be a good way or time to bring this story out. But the only service that ran it, was the well-known Arabic service that everyone in the west knows for broadcasting tapes of America's favourite terrorist.

It just sickens me to know that people who could maybe put more effort into getting stories of unfortunate people out into the world for others to understand. And create some sort of change, regularly do nothing about it. Even if one person were to make a short film using the metaphor, it could maybe affect 200 people sitting in a western cinema.

I have seen the same story about "Istanbul Tourist Hotspot" on almost six sources (by the same writer a wire journalist) over and over in how many publications in the past two weeks. It's a well written piece, but just think of how many stories have been told about Istanbul being cool, and how many stories of displaced people are not told regularly.

The main problem I see in the world today is the unjust distribution of wealth. If only every person (who could afford it) gave $10 a month to reputable charity, then maybe we could create some sort of change in how the world's wealth is distributed.

In Azerbaijan 40% of the population live below the poverty line. The families we talked to get only $7 a month from the government, which they call "bread money". Did you know that these families soak the bread in milk, water or stock just to soften it, so that they don't break their teeth when they chew it. Or that they are afraid to go out to work – mainly on construction sites – because if they get injured they don't know how they will pay for medicine. When we asked a father how how his children's health is, he replied "healthy... the children are never healthy". But ironically the country holds 1% of the world's oil resources, which for a population of 8 million seems like quite a lot, don't you think?

It's only when we let go of our own egos that we will really ever be able to do anything for the people who need our help in the world. When we just for one second, stop and try to do a little something extra in journalism. When we use the media machine, should we be lucky enough to be inside it, to tell the stories of people who need the help of others. The key to getting an editor interested in a story is to be within an organization, or, and come up with an interesting angle on it all, which any good journalist working inside any organization can do.

I remember a friend saying to me once, "You only teach that poor kid to make yourself feel better," in fact maybe there is some truth in that, but the fact that I did take the time out of my incredibly expensive life to go and teach him, well let's just say it does take some effort, something that goes beyond one's self ego and when you're're sitting in a room with a 12 year old who doesn't speak your language, ego doesn't come into it, dancing and singing usually does, it's something that you do, because you really feel that you might make a difference. It's easy to look at someone and say these things, but only when you give one hour of your time to someone less fortunate can you really understand how much harder it is to actually participate in that one moment than it is to satisfy your own ego.

If you can donate anything to charity regularly, please make an effort to do so. Praying is not enough to make a change in the numbers of people living below the poverty line in today's unbalanced world.

Anyway, I think I said enough... for now .It's late.There is more... There's always more

barkingsparrows

Monday, November 14, 2005

Wednesday, November 09, 2005