By the first decade of the twenty-first century, anti-state armed actors had become a defining feature of South Asia’s political landscape. Given the targeted use of surveillance and disinformation in recent times, the landscape of political violence has also started shifting. Amidst the ever-darkening clouds of geopolitical turmoil and climate change, journalists have assumed the roles of negotiators, fact-checkers, researchers, facilitators, campaigners, and advocates.
It is a recognition of this fundamental truth and its implications that lies at the heart of Bearing Witness: Reporting War, Conflict, Crisis, and Disasters. The essays in this volume, while focused on South Asia, touch upon a wide range of realities that journalists must engage with, understand, capture, and communicate, from civil war (in Sri Lanka), insurgency (in central India), migration (of Rohingyas), and political regression (in Afghanistan), through natural and man-made disasters across the region, to the crucial yet often-overlooked issue of journalistic safety, both physical and mental, and a media landscape increasingly vulnerable to political and corporate imperatives.
With contributions from journalists, photojournalists, environmentalists, scholars of media studies, human rights, law, sociology, politics, and psychology, this volume serves as an introduction to the challenges faced while reporting conflicts. It is a reminder that journalism is a serious and critical profession, and an effort to advance the discussion on how to conduct it safely and ethically. It will be invaluable to students of journalism, and also useful to those interested in South Asian politics, modern history, and environmental issues.
Kishalay Bhattacharjee is currently Professor and Dean, Jindal School of Journalism and Communication, O. P. Jindal Global University.
INTRODUCTION Kishalay Bhattacharjee 1. LETTERS ON A BLACKBOARD: A Lost Generation SinhaRaja Tammita-Delgoda 2. REPORTING SRI LANKA’S UNCIVIL WAR Raisa Wickrematunge 3. THE LURE OF EMBEDDED JOURNALISM Sanjay Ahirwal 4. THE INTERSECTION OF CLIMATE CHANGE-INDUCED CONFLICTS AND THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM IN ASSAM Abdul Kalam Azad 5. HOW TO COME BACK FROM A DISASTER ALIVE AND WITH A STORY Ushinor Majumdar 6. NAVIGATING SILENCED VOICES: Humanising Rohingya Refugees in India Priyali Sur 7. A SMELLY SOUP WITH A SIDE ORDER OF CABBAGE: Reporting on Human–Wildlife Conflict in India Bahar Dutt 8. WATCHING MILLIONS OF AFGHAN WOMEN DISAPPEAR Arpan Rai 9. PRESS FREEDOM IN KASHMIR: A Study of Censorship and Reprisals Burhan Majid 10. PERFORMING MEMORY THROUGH CITIZENS’ ARCHIVES IN JAMMU AND KASHMIR Sana Shah and Jigyasa Sogarwal 11. WOH HUMSAFAR THA: The History of the Bangladesh War from India and Pakistan Uttaran Dasgupta 12. WORK-RELATED TRAUMA AMONG JOURNALISTS AND THE NEED FOR MENTAL HEALTH AND TRAUMA TRAINING Manjushree Palit, Yasmine A. Shilla, and Jaitshree Naik
13. OF ROMANTICISATION AND VILIFICATION: A Case of Flood Reporting from Assam Manoranjan Pegu 14. WATER CONFLICT AND THE ROLE OF THE MEDIA Joydeep Gupta 15. A TRIP INTO THE HEARTLAND OF SALWA JUDUM Vijay Pandey 16. PEERING BEHIND CONFLICT REPORTAGE: The Theatre of Violence and Its Mediation in Sri Lanka Kasun Ubayasiri 17. JOURNALIST SAFETY: Q&A with Kunal Majumder, India Representative, Committee to Protect Journalists