Media Vigilance Can Help Save Darfur

People working in the anti-genocide movement, particularly since Darfur has become our focus, seem to spend a lot of time harassing politicians or organizing letter-writing campaigns to try and harass them some more into doing something. In most cases, we don’t get a lot of visible results from this and I’m starting to think that perhaps a shift in strategy is necessary. After all, who is even more responsive to public opinion than politicians? The media. They’ll show anything that people want to see, because for them it doesn’t mean getting votes, but money. And even more than that, no force has such a strong influence over public opinion as the media does.

This is why I was so disappointed to see a blatant mistake in an article about Darfur in a national Canadian newspaper, The National Post, last week. It was nearly a full-page article on the first page of the world section and I was excited, until I read more. The caption clearly blamed the rebels in Darfur for killing 200 000 people. The article contained further mistakes which were blatantly slanted in favour of the Sudanese government and I was driven to contact the newspaper in disgust. Soon I was contacted by the reporter in question with an apology and an explanation of a copy editor changing his words. The newspaper printed a small correction the following day.

I bring this up because we must be vigilant with the media. First, we have to make sure that the things they report about Darfur are correct and true and hold them to account when they are not. Furthermore, we must all strive to influence the media in any way we can to report more on Darfur. Media attention and public opinion build each other up and this is what politicians really pay attention. A letter to the editor of your local newspaper or local television station manager may in the end be more productive than ten letters to your elected representative.