The nearly two-year-old peace talks between the
Colombian Government, and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia - FARC -, have been subject of continuous criticism by the media, the
opposition, and basically everyone else, because of the confusions caused by
the lack of communications on the topic. Why?
At the beginning of the negotiations, the delegations
from the Government and FARC agreed to maintain absolute confidentiality on the
conversations and agreements concerted in the table in order to safeguard the
continuity of the process. The secrecy of the negotiations generated multiple
speculations about it. Therefore, media outlets, willingly or not, distorted
the information about the peace process.
In
addition, opposition figures, including former President Alvaro Uribe Vélez, constantly
alleged that the talks were too secretive, and his questionings about the
process, among other criticism, divided opinion in Colombia.
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| Former President and now Senator of Colombia, Álvaro Uribe |
Many have been the efforts of the Colombian Government
to solve the communication problems of the peace talks during this past two
years in order to neutralize the polarization of the Country. Recently,
President Juan Manuel Santos announced the disclosure of the first three points of the agenda in
order to give transparency to the process. As mentioned earlier, “details of
the agreements had previously been kept under wraps to protect the negotiations”,
said President Santos.
Taking
in account that this is the closest that Colombians have ever been to a real
possibility of achieving the so desired peace, the role of the media is more
crucial than ever, by providing accurate information about the process and
teaching their audiences about such complicated topic.
Other efforts, such as that done by the Gabriel García
Márquez Foundation for Good Journalism - FNPI -, in support to the Office of the
Peace Commissioner have also been important. The FNPI, aware of the uttermost
importance of the media in the process, has been implementing a program for journalists that cover the peace process offering insights,
guidelines and tools for a better understanding of the dynamics of the peace
talks in Cuba. Currently, more than 450 journalists have been taught how to
analyze and communicate properly the available information about this issue.
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| Sergio Jaramillo, High Commissioner for Peace and Jaime Abello, FNPI Director |
So informative! It's great to be able to read the opinion of someone like yourself, who understands both Colombia and the media. This whole blog has been extremely easy to read and informative. Each post is organized in a way that makes it easy to retain and understand. Do media channels in Colombia tend to lean left vs right as they do in the United States or does it really depend on the state of the government? Do you think the FNPI process helps journalists in their reporting?
ReplyDeleteWell said. The point regarding speculation is one that interests me the most. The fact that speculation leads to strong suspicion amongst the public and generates media reporting accordingly is a difficult dilemma to face. There's not much you can do to prevent speculation. It's simply unavoidable. However, with the right communications plan and strategy, you can clarify the situation without coming off as defensive or as if hiding something. On the other hand, being transparent from the start, while predicting how the public may likely interpret past and current events could be a valuable approach.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for leaving commenting! I definitely agree with what you say.
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