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Can media contribute to combating terrorism?
Mahfuz Ullah
Can media, electronic and print both inclusive, contribute to combating terrorism which is plaguing many countries across the globe, or is it contributing more to the glorification of terrorism and terrorist activities? This has of late become a hotly debated issue. Generally speaking, there are four issues involved here: terrorism, the role of media, how media can contribute to combating terrorism and what should be the role of Bangladeshi media.
Though the word terrorist was originally used with reference to the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution, nevertheless the question remains: who is a terrorist? Were people fighting British imperialism in India, or fighting German troops invading French terrorists? Were Shikhs who fought in preserving the sanctity of the Golden Temple of India were terrorists?
Terrorists won Nobel Peace prize!
Were terrorists the resistance fighters against the American troops invading Iraq or members of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) fighting for independence, or the Maoist guerrillas fighting for a Marxist India, or Karen guerrillas fighting the Myanmar government? Or looking at it the other way, Nobel Peace Prize laureates Menachem Begin and Nelson Mandela were called terrorists by the Western governments or media when involved in struggle to uphold the rights of their people. But after the prize was given they were called statesmen by the same organizations and individuals. There are many more examples: Maoists in Nepal, Chechen rebels, Palestine Liberation Organisation, the Tamil Tigers.
The United States confronted the issue of terrorism and its mass-mediated transmission on its own soil at the end of the 70s, Western European states during the 60s and 70s, for example Red Brigades in Italy, Red Army Faction in Germany, IRA in Northern Ireland, the Basque separatist movement ETA in Spain.
United States’ experience with terrorism was the hostage taking of the US Embassy in Tehran by Iranians in 1980. Bangladesh had also some feel of terrorism in January 1978 when a JAL aircraft hijacked by Red Army landed in Dhaka. Incidentally, this coincided with an abortive coup and in the process Bangladesh Air Force lost a number of brilliant officers and airmen, but the government has, so far, not come up with any credible explanation of the incident.
The European Parliament, defining terrorist acts, says these are: “Acts which are intended to create terror, fear or chaos among the public. The spread of public terror, fear and feelings of chaos depends largely on the images and messages being carried by media reports about the terrorist acts and threats.
US State Department’s definition
The omnipresence of the mass media at global level frequently exaggerates these effects out of proportion.” The US State Department defines terrorism as, “Premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against non-combatant targets by sub-national groups or clandestine agents.” In today’s world, anyone, not involved but may be sympathetic with terrorist activities, is a terrorist as per definition. These definitions are different from what were used in the past. Probably, the much quoted statement of President Bush, “you are either with us or you are against us” has created enough space for controversies about definitions of terrorism.
Based on political judgement, many identifications of the act of terrorism have evolved over the years. These are: international terrorism, domestic terrorism, white terrorism, state terrorism, state-sponsored terrorism, biological terrorism, agro-terrorism, eco-terrorism, narco-terrorism, nuclear terrorism, cyber terrorism et al. Probably there would be more classifications in the coming days. The term may also refer to one of the following: Red Terror, Russia, 1918-1922 — the most common usage, Spain during the Spanish Civil War, Ethiopia of 1977-1978, and Hungary of 1919.
In general, the term White Terror refers to acts of violence carried out by reactionary (usually monarchist or conservative) groups as part of a counter-revolution. In particular, during the 20th century, in several countries the term White Terror was applied to acts of violence against real or suspected socialists and communists.
Incidentally, Bangla translations of both these words were frequently uttered in former East Pakistan by leftists loyal to Chinese way of Marxism and in the early years of Bangladesh by the anti-Mujib activists of different left groups especially one led by Siraj Sikder and Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD).Today, suicide bombings have become a new icon of terrorism. However, statistics does not justify the claim that the cause of suicide bombing is religious fanaticism. Many groups adopting suicide-bombing tactics, including those in the Middle East, are entirely secular.
Specifically, the idea that Islamist belief is the root cause of suicide bombing is false. If so, then about twenty million Muslims living in different European cities would have acted as terrorists. This became clear after the Madrid bombing of 11 March 2004. The Tamil Tigers, representing a predominantly Hindu culture, conducted the majority of the suicide bombings in the last two decades of the 20th century in Sri Lanka. Records show virtually all suicide bombers were volunteers.
New dimension after 9/11
The live telecast on 11 September 2001of the destruction of the Twin Towers has created a new dimension of media impact on society. The global reach of the event has created the necessity for re-thinking the role of media in the context of terrorism. But the maxim still holds that ‘war is ultimately coercive while terrorism is impressive.’ Media experts tend to agree that the correlation between terrorism and the media is close, maybe, even almost symbiotic.
There are unavoidable links between the mass media and terrorism. The media are attracted by acts of terrorism not only because it is their duty to report on any major event but also because, at the same time, the dramatisation and spectacular aspect of terrorism attracts large-scale attention. Of late, hardly any kidnapping takes place where there is no video message distributed globally addressing directly the public and the political institutions. This has two consequences: Firstly, there is more access to a global audience than ever before including the possibility to reach any specific group. Secondly, with this situation it has become more difficult to establish professional and ethical codes to be applied along all communication channels. The media professionals, unfortunate though, no more control, filter and interpret the events and the images.
Media professionals, many recommend, should be conscious of the fact that some terrorist activities are directed at the empowerment of their followers. It was therefore, considered relatively risky to broadcast the first Bin-Laden videos after Twin Towers incident as they might have contained hidden or cipher messages for the supporters of Bin Laden. Media can cover any aspect of political violence including supporters and groups, which may be sympathetic with terrorist goals.
Terrorist vis-à-vis freedom fighter
To over-generalise the label terrorist can be dangerous. Because the value judgement can be confounded as “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter”. In many cases, the journalists make a moral judgement in describing the incident. Comparison of some of the words would help comprehend contextually how words are used differently: criminal, revolutionary, terrorist, guerrilla, murderer, freedom fighter, subversive element, liberator, mercenary, soldier, threat, warning, propaganda, communiqué, extreme, fanatic, dedicated anti-imperialist, murder, revolutionary justice, weapons of mass destruction, nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, aggression, preventive counter strike and so on. The media also uses controversial words like pre-emptive strike; rogue states and in the process set the primary parameters of public debate.
Terrorists not only use the media as instruments of distribution; often, journalists are also affected by those activities. They become victims as hostages, killed, used for negotiations, or, beyond purely reporting the facts, they interpret and comment on the attacks. Thus journalists become an active part of the violent events. The issue of how to deal with terrorism in the media has different meanings across borders and so are the use and interpretation of individual images. They have one thing in common however. Strong, single icons and visual impressions increasingly determine the public debate probably more than detailed analyses and background information. The events of 11 September 2001 have definitely altered the media environment as a whole. Listeners and viewers had a greater need than ever for a source they trusted, for unbiased analysis on which they could base their own opinion, as well as for a discussion forum.
Bangladesh scenario
But what is the Bangladesh scenario? The Speedy Trial Act 2000 of Bangladesh defines terrorism as, which through intimidation or using force to extort money (otherwise known as chandabazi), intentionally obstructs free movement of transport, or cause damage, intentionally destroys any movable or immovable property owned by government, company, private institutions, diplomatic enclave or offices of foreign organisations, cause harm to young girls in their homes and educational institutions, create reign of terror in different institutions either individually or collectively, obstruct in tendering process of any organisation.
This law has been further strengthened by the Emergency Powers Act 2007, but these acts are basically directed towards quelling domestic problem. Incidentally, seven members of the Bangla Bhai were hanged under the provisions of the existing law. A mobile phone message attributed to office of the Chief Adviser of the army-backed caretaker government was distributed on 11 January 2008 said, ‘Sontrash (terrorism) ebong durnitee mukto desh gore tuli.’
This is a new initiative to use of one of the media channels. But the question remains: what sort of sontrash we are referring here to cleanse. Sontrash, the Bangla word for terrorism probably does not carry the wider canvas the word carries in English.
The word Sontrash in Bangla does not mean what terrorism in English today stands for, nor the word Jangi tatparata carries the same impression. Any future discussions will have this problem of semantics until a new coinage is worked out. Nevertheless, discussions can remain limited to the terrorism being discussed globally and in some instances Bangladesh had experienced such incidents, though most of the analysts do not perceive these as residual left over of any global initiative.
The media in Bangladesh, as it traces its history to the founding days during British rule, had never accepted the issue of terrorism as defined by the British masters. During the British colonial days many of the opponents especially those of the Anushilan Samity were termed terrorists by the rulers but media sided with their cause. Not only Anushilan Samity all peasants’ uprisings against the British rule were termed terrorist activity and the Sepoys who took part in the 1857 War of Independence were also branded terrorists.
After 1947 the opponents of the Pakistan regime were in many cases accused terrorists but that was different from the prevailing situation today. Unfortunately, any opposition to the then Pakistan government in both the wings were seen as terrorist activities. The independence of Bangladesh should have brought in new interpretations of opposition to the government of the day but the political scenario was different.
Siraj Sikder and others
Two political forces, one led by Siraj Sikder and other left groups promising to establish a People’s Democratic Republic and the Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD) promising to establish Scientific Socialism, initiated armed struggle against the Awami League government headed by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. These were by definitions of the government terrorist activity and the government was left with no other option but to deploy Jatiya Rakhi Bahini (JRB) to suppress the opposition termed terrorism.
Excesses of the confronting groups are all records of history and in the process people acquired the Bangla meaning of the two words Red Terror and White Terror. This had a slight deviation when the then Home Minister warned in Parliament of deploying Lal ghora (Red Horse) against political opponents.
Incidentally, it is not clear whether the opponents of the government had any external or international patronisation except that JRB was trained, equipped and in cases funded by India. But the events of those days need to be explained from the perspective of prevailing cold war politics. Bangladesh, externally remaining loyal to Indo-Soviet axis was not tolerant of any domestic opposition to the axis trying to exert control over the country.
Gagged press: 1972-7
During the period, 1972-75 media, with some exceptions, were scared of exposing the contradictions of the people of Bangladesh with Indo-Soviet axis and government control gagged the freedom of any media from reporting anti-government voices. In some cases, the media ran the risk of being termed un-patriotic and enemies of independence. Despite control, there were critics, which include Holiday, the daily Ganakantha, organ of the JSD, who were quite candid about opposition to Mujib but were shy about reporting actions committed by Gana Bahini, the armed wing of JSD. While Holiday was more committed in explaining the phenomenon of state-sponsored terrorism, the Ganakantha was more for reporting events. Some of the activities of the Siraj Sikder were reported but mostly as criminal acts like looting banks, storming police stations or killing class enemies. Analysis would reveal that the media did not consider these as examples of terrorism but government response, by all records including court judgements, could be called state-sponsored terrorism. The situation is quite comparable when Indian government was employing all out efforts to suppress Naxalite movement in the early seventies of the last century.
The issue of terrorism, as defined today, started dominating the Bangladeshi media after the Twin Towers incident. This incident has even corrupted the media thought process and is often referred to as 9,11 and of late, it has an- other team-mate when media people love to call the change of 11 January 2007 as one-eleven. Even before, newspapers carried reports of Bangladeshi youths joining Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) or Talibans in Afghanistan. But these were, in most cases not reported as caravan of jihadists but seen as poor young people looking for jobs abroad.
But the scenario changed with the Twin Tower incident and the fall of Taliban regime in Afghanistan. Media joined the campaign originating from non-Bangladeshi source. The situation had a shift when political struggle with slogans for secularism had a confrontation with forces sympathetic to or upholding religion-based politics.
In this situation the incident of Bangla Bhai and his associates is a glaring example. The exposure of Bangla Bhai almost died down had it not been for the simultaneous explosion of bombs on 17 August 2006 in 64 districts of the country immediately after the Prime Minister Khaleda Zia left Dhaka for a visit to China. Earlier, the grenade attack on 21 August 2004 during Sheikh Hasina’s public meeting was also covered extensively by both the print and electronic media.
It is difficult when was the wakeup call came for the media but content analysis show media more interested in reporting events, than process. Incidentally, media was not given high commendation for exposing the brutalities committed by the Bangla Bhai and his followers. Even some members of the then ruling alliance, suffering from colonial hangover, claimed that the incident was media discovery. It seems, the media in Bangladesh is more interested in reporting an event but they do not analyse the process leading to an event. This also happened when, barring one or two exceptions, the media used more space in reporting the events.
SPA scrapped in 1991
Incidentally, with mushroom growth of the media after certain clauses of the Special Powers Act (SPA) were scrapped by the government in 1991, the media is competing more for events which would satisfy the readers or to put it in other words trying to influence the primary definitions of social reality. This is more applicable to electronic than print media. Besides, claims by India that domestically thriving terrorist receive support from ISI, the Pakistani intelligence organisation; get an easy space in the media without questions raised.
Bangladesh media also suffer from the problems of semantics, which gets complicated because of reported bias by certain section of the media. The reports about JMB, HUJI, and so on are all stereotyped and in most cases do not answer who they are, why they joined the ranks of these forces. One common denominator of the allegation is that they were once members of Jamaat-i-Islami, which is not enough argument to dock these activists, rather opens up avenues for blame game.
This got a new dimension as the visiting British Home Secretary Ms. Jacqui Smith commented in Dhaka on 9 April 2008 that, “There is a potential linkage between terrorists in Britain and terrorists in Bangladesh and we have shared interest and endeavour to tackle through both short and long-term measures.” She further added, “It is highly likely to have such links as the terrorists travel widely. We agree to the US analyses about HUJI-B (Harkat-ul- Jihad-al-Islami Bangladesh) as a potential threat.” Probably this is the first ever blunt and public statement by a British Minister, which is also a reflection about the practising Bangladeshi Muslims living in United Kingdom for ages. The statement was made in a press conference where the
Minister also appreciated Bangladesh’s move against terrorism but warned that there were no room for complacency.
Party-extremist nexus
Most of the media also prefer not to discuss the reported nexus between the political parties and the extremist elements claiming loyalties to political ideologies. Add to this the other form of state-initiated terrorism, which has been practised under both democratic and authoritarian rule in Bangladesh. Death of a criminal in encounter with members of elite force is part of the state-initiated terrorism but here it has escaped media scrutiny. A careful examination thus makes media’s position more subjective on the issue of combating terrorism.
These are all challenges for the media and there is no single, final solution. The link between media and terrorism demands a permanent political and public debate across definitions. Media professionals should be aware of the fact that they carry a responsibility for the effects of using and distributing terrorist images. For both politics and media the consideration and realisation of several principles would reduce the likelihood that any violent activity could ever reach this goal. Taking into consideration the domestic situation certain procedures could be thought while dealing with terrorism in the media: easy flow of information, accurate and impartial coverage of an event, writing on the process that breeds terrorism, expressing both sides of an opinion, caution should be maintained in using terminology, individual privacy and dignity should be respected, striking a balance between duty to inform and risk of instrumentalisation and opening up government store of information.
Discussion of the role of information in societies afflicted by terrorism, would be ever-present in the media, and should be transparent and involve public participation.
Most ordinary people expect accurate and varied information which did not simply echo the propaganda put about by terrorists and their accomplices. Silence, or laws restricting the right to information, is no longer an option in the face of terrorism. A democratic society would take shape only if people were aware of the facts. Before conclusion, let us quote Victor Hugo, who defending the freedom of press in 1848 said, “Freedom of the press, alongside universal suffrage, means freedom of thought for everyone, which implies enlightened government for all. Undermining one is tantamount to undermining the other.” This should be the reminder while discussing role of media in combating terrorism.
(The writer is Secretary General, Centre for Sustainable Development, an independent think tank of Bangladesh. But opinions expressed here are purely his personal).
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