300,000 Dead, 2.7 million
Refugees
How good has press coverage of
Darfur been?
Has it solved the problem?
What lessons for Congo coverage?
-Thank you to the Basque Country
Committee for the UN High
Commission for Refugees
for caring
-Thank you for inviting me to share
our research at the U of Colorado’s
School of Journalism and Mass
Communication
• My presentation has 3 parts
1. How good has the press coverage been?
2. What good has it done?
3. Recommendations for future coverage of
Darfur and the Congo
• What is good coverage?
-Comprehensive coverage that includes
1. Who, What, When, How hard news
plus
2. Why and So What features and background
stories
and
3. Quotes from people on the ground (Darfur
refugees, human rights monitors) and not only
officials
-Timely coverage
• High comprehensive coverage (CC):
news papers whose home states did not influence their
coverage because they had low national interest in
Sudan
News daily
% of total
CC score
Interest in
Sudan
State press
owners
US W Post
70
Low
No
Fr Le Mon
66
Low
No
SAfr M-G
66
Low
No
US NYT
64
Low
No
UK Guard
59
Low
No
• Lower comprehensive coverage (CC): news papers in states
with higher national interest in Sudan (water, oil, trade), state
role in ownership of the press, local readership/pol constituency
News daily
% of total
CC score
Interest
in Sudan
State
Readers’
ownership political
constituency
AlAhram
Arabic
49%
Medium
(water,
pol stab)
Yes
China
Daily
49%
High (oil, Yes
trade)
Global,
English
People’s
Dl
35%
High (oil, Yes
Local, mass
Local, mass
readership
• Variation in coverage of crimes against
humanity:
• None of the dailies scored over 70% on
the Comprehensive Coverage Index—
room for improvement
• Five news organizations scored around
60% or higher
• When did the crisis start? When was it first covered
substantially?
Rebel attack to draw attention to neglect in Feb 2003
Egypt’s Al Ahram Arabic coverage Jun03
China Daily (English) Aug 03
S Africa’s Mail and Guardian Nov 03
11 months later: NYT, LeMonde, UK Guardian
13 months later: Chinese language China Daily
14 months later: Wash Post
• How many articles with over 50% paragraphs on
Darfur in first 26 months?
Over 150: SAfr’s Mail and Guardian
Over 100: NYT, WPost
Over 50: UK Guardian, China Daily (English)
Less than 50:
Arabic-language AlAhram in neighboring Egypt
Chinese language People’s Daily for the masses
• Did news media express editorial
opinions?
Over 30% of articles: Wash Post
10-20% of articles: NYT, Al Ahram daily,
Guardian, People’s Daily
10%: LeMonde
Less than 5%:China Daily, Mail & Guardian
How many articles paid attention to the
causes of the crisis?
Around 30% Wash Post
Around 20% Le Monde, Guardian, China
Daily, Mail and Guardian, Al Ahram Arabic,
NYT
Less than 10% People’s Daily
• How often was the stereotypical
perception of ethnic, tribal and racial
causes mentioned?
-Most frequently mentioned by LeMonde,
UK Guardian, South Africa’s Mail &
Guardian, China Daily
-Regional inequity mentioned most
frequently as a cause by NYT, WashPost,
Al Ahram Arabic, People’s Daily
How many articles mentioned climate
change as a cause of the crisis?
30-40% Wash Post, Al Ahram Arabic, China
Daily
10-20% NY Times, UK Guardian
8-9% S Africa’s Mail and Guardian,
LeMonde
• How many articles provided details of
groups working on ending the crisis?
Over 90% China Daily, People’s Daily
Around 70% Mail and Guardian South
Africa, Le Monde France, Washington
Post USA, Guardian of UK
30-40% NYTimes, Al Ahram Daily
• How many quotes were from human right
monitors and non government
organizations as sources?
10-15% Washington Post, Mail and
Guardian, New York Times
6% China Daily
0% Al Ahram Arabic, People’s Daily
• Summing up patterns
1. News media from the global South
(China, South Africa, Egypt) covered the
crisis earliest, but China and Egypt’s news
media provided least details, scoring
lowest on comprehensive coverage. Thus,
the state-owned press from the global
South gave least attention to negative
events among one of their own.
• Patterns (contd.)
2. Dailies located in states with higher
national interest in good relations with the
Khartoum government (for reasons of
water, political stability, oil and trade)
gave less coverage to this negative news.
• Patterns (contd.)
3. The privately–owned dailies gave more
attention to Darfur than state-owned
dailies constrained by their
intergovernmental relationships.
• Patterns contd.
• News dailies owned by the same organization
(namely, Communist Party of China) covered the
news on Darfur differently for its different
political-linguistic constituencies. China Daily
produced for the English-speaking global
community strategically provided more
comprehensive coverage than the People’s
Daily produced for local-language speakers
who have no alternative source of news
• What good has this coverage of Darfur done?
In 1915, 1 million Armenians were killed in spite of
very good coverage in 145 articles in the New
York Times. The US, British and German
governments did nothing to stop the genocide
then.
We can hope that the Obama administration will
live up to its election promises and act on Darfur
now.
• The Samantha Power book (A Problem from Hell
2002) on the major genocides of the 20th century
shows:
-despite graphic media coverage, policymakers,
journalists and citizens are extremely slow to
muster the imagination to reckon with evil
-the real reason the US did not do what it should
have is lack of political will, not lack of
knowledge
• Power lists the following actions that could
make a difference:
-creating awareness of genocide
-highlighting activities needed to stop it
-shaming governments for inaction
• Recommendations for reporters:
Use sources strategically to set the agenda for
policymakers, to initiate thinking and discussion
on specific prevention, remedy and punishment
options for crimes against humanity rather than
reporting them only when they happen to be
raised. This agenda is based on journalists
having historical knowledge of what might have
helped in past genocidal wars, e.g economic
sanctions, freezing foreign assets, prosecuting
perpetrators and closing their embassies
• Recommendations for journalism
educators: produce specialist reporters
with knowledge of the history of particular
problems (in this case, genocide) who can
suggest alternatives for action by strategic
use of sources. Darfur is unresolved and
the war in east Congo needs advanced
analysis
• Recommendations for EACNUR:
Encourage the UN’s Integrated Regional
Information Network (IRIN) and the Romebased Inter Press Service to do what news
organizations constrained by state politics
find it hard to do.