Kamel Shiaa Prize winning article: Violence is spreading among the Iraqi children

The EJC and the Kamel Shiaa Foundation are pleased to announce that the first Kamel Shiaa Prize for Iraqi press freedom has been awarded to the Iraqi journalist Maryam Mohammed Jaafar for her article “Violence is spreading among the Iraqi children”.

The jury, composed of six international journalists, chose the winner out of 33 candidates. It was unanimously decided that the strength of Jaafar’s article rests on its promotion of children’ s rights and intercultural dialogue. Jaafar will have the opportunity to spend three months in Brussels to report on subjects throughout Europe in addition to receiving skills training to further improve her craft under the auspices of the EJC.

Violence is spreading among the Iraqi children, by Maryam Mohammed Jaafar

The car stopped suddenly in one of Baghdad’s streets. The driver came down to inspect the engine, asking the passengers to assist him to repair it. And after moments a large number of armed men, led by their leader, came waving their guns towards the passengers.

The leader of the group shouted in the face of the passengers “Are you Sunni or Shiaa?” Replied one of the passengers “Shiaa”, the leader shouted “Kill him” and another asked “Are you Shiaa or Sunni?” He replied ”A Sunni”. The leader said “This is a wrong answer ‘Kill him…”

This is not a scene from a film recording the killings in Iraq, but only a game played by the children in a suburb of Baghdad before their father calls them. “Come, O my children, it is the first day of Eid, let’s go to the city of fun fairs.” The dead regains standing position and holds guns and knives of plastic with the promise of resuming the game in the amusement park.

Mohammed and his brothers, just like any other Iraqi children, spend the money of Eid to buy plastic guns in order to play a game of murder and terrorism. That game has spread recently among children and became their favourite one.

In the northern Baghdad neighbourhood of Kadhimiya, the little Abbas, aged 11, is at a checkpoint near his home and always sits next to the guards trying to imitate them.

His mother says she feels uncomfortable about Abbas since he does not leave his plastic gun as if living in a military barracks. And when he plays with his brothers at home he pulls his plastic gun in their faces and start screaming like insurgents.

She adds that “when he gets some money he goes and buys a plastic pistol or rifle.” “I am afraid that one day he will carry a real weapon and pull it against others,” she adds.

Lots of fathers and mothers in Iraq are complaining that their children have become addicted to tough games and expressed their fears that events in Iraq will affect their future behaviour.

Some parents noticed that their children began to use violence with the younger siblings, and prefer isolation, withdrawal from community and fear the dark. In addition the use of bullying that enjoins others to listen to their words.

Children in Baghdad, 2009 (photo credit: jrseles, via Flickr, some rights reserved)

In a study published by the Iraqi Psychologists Association, the violence has affected millions of Iraqi children and became constituting a source of serious concern on future generations.

The study urged the international community to assist to establish psychiatric units for children and mental health programs.

Dr Muzaffar Jawad Ahmed, a researcher and teacher at the Centre for Psychological Studies and Educational Research in Baghdad, said that “the aggressive behaviour of children depends on two factors: one is the influential genetic, and the second is environmental. And this effect varies according to the social status of children. A child since the age of two tries to imitate others in their behaviour and starts with the family members, school, street, and so on.”

Dr Ahmed pointed out that “different degrees of violence in children and the reason is that every child has energy which may be discharged through sports, play, violence, aggressive behaviour and often against the younger.”

He adds “our society is encouraging violence. The father tells his son when he goes to school: if someone hits you, try to hit back, but he does not inform him on the proper methods to resort to the school administration.”

He adds that “the political systems of Iraq embarked on the militarization of society. A child every Thursday used to watch the flag raising ceremony and the launch of bullets for the flag, but he does not know the meaning of the flag, the national sentiment. He knows only what the rifle means.” 

He points out that “the violation of the child’s dignity, insulting physical and psychological contempt make him resort to violence when they cannot react to the insult, therefore, you see children use force with the younger.”

He adds “the violence faced by the majority of children is a result of immediate trauma. When an explosion occurs, or when one of their parents is killed, the child loses his consciousness, collapses, gets nervous or immediate hysteria at the same time.”

He points out that “the disorder begins to appear after the shock, ranging from two weeks to six months of the trauma in a form of sleep disturbance, depression, nightmares and self inward, will have greater effect than the immediate shock.”

He emphasises that the Centre of Psychological Research and Educational Studies has the tools and rehabilitation techniques known worldwide for the treatment of mental disorders and a laboratory in which people with mental disorders can be rehabilitated through the images of virtual reality. The treatment extends from one month to six months, according to the situation.

It is worth to note that the human in general can deal with all types of diseases without shame except two diseases, sexual dysfunction and mental illness. In addition to that a lot of parents do not accept the idea that their children may be living with disorder or self deviation.

Note: The original article by Maryam Mohammed Jaafar was submitted in Arabic. The translation was provided by the late Kamel Shiaa’s family, who was directly involved in the selection and translation of the articles in competition for the prize.

 

Posted on June 3, 2011 by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Filed under announcements, news, blogging, work.

“His legacy is a free newspaper, an independent newspaper”

 

It is with sadness that the European Journalism Centre reports the death of Portuguese journalist, EJC Advisory Counselor and friend, Mario Bettencourt Resendes, who died on Monday 2 August, 2010 in hospital in Lisbon at the age of 58.

A renowned political commentator, both on television and radio, he is perhaps best remembered in his role as Director of the newspaper Diario de Noticias [Daily News], a position he held from 1992 to 2003.

Born in 1952 in Ponta Delgada, Mario Resendes began his career in journalism in 1975, following his involvement in the April 25 Portuguese revolution for democracy in 1974.

After a journalism internship with Diario de Noticias in 1975, he joined the founding team of the anti-Gonçalves daily New Journal. He also briefly worked for weekly magazine Choice, before returning to work for Diario de Noticias in 1976. He became its Director in 1992, witnessing the newspaper’s purchase by Portuguese integrated media corporation Lusomundo.

In addition to his journalism career, Mario Resendes was a prominent political analyst and a Professor in Political Science at San Diego State University, as well as a spokesman for the Information and Freedom Movement.

He assumed the vice presidency of the European Directive Committee of the Association of European Journalists, the presidency of the General Assembly of the Portuguese section and in 1994 was appointed by the European Commission to serve on the Advisory Board of Users.

A much valued board member and counselor of the European Journalism Centre, he was awarded the European Prize for Journalism by the Association of European Journalists in 1993.

Tribute from Portuguese EJC colleague, Alexandra Lobao

“His name was synonymous with Diário de Notícias” – From the left to the right of the Portuguese political spectrum, everyone subscribes this remark by the current director of Mario’s newspaper.

Mario had an unusually colorful coffin: by his own request, it was covered by three flags - the flag of his beloved newspaper (DN), the flag of the Azores Islands where he was born, and that of Benfica football club. He used to say it was out of the question to die before Benfica once again became champions of the Portuguese league. They did so, last year.

In recent times Mario was the only DN director who managed to put the newspaper at the top of the most read daily publications list. He led it through the difficult 1990s, the years of privatisation, demonstrating his negotiating ability and deep social conscience, as he tried his best to prevent people from being fired and working conditions from deteriorating. Once he left the top position, DN was bypassed by competitors.

As a reporter, he started working during the unstable year of 1975, a couple months after his country’s democratic revolution that put an end to the era of dictator Salazar. He also covered from Madrid, Spain’s liberation from the other Iberian dictator, Franco. He is known to have thought independently, “by his own head”, but never hid his preference for the Portuguese socialist party (social democrat).

“Wise”, “competent” (he was one of the few Portuguese journalists ever invited to attend the Davos economic forum; he interviewed some of world’s most powerful leaders) “patient”, “lucid”, “balanced”, “cheerful”, “generous and smiling”, “intelligent”, “honest”, “a man of culture and intellectual curiosity”  –  superlative adjectives keep on being repeated on the Portuguese news both by Mario’s many friends and numerous bloggers and politicians as well.

Some thoughts from EJC colleagues and friends

We remember him for his wisdom, his loyalty to the EJC and, not least, for his cheerful and optimistic nature, also in the face of his illness.  
Ove Joanson, EJC Chairman

Really sad news. Mario was an extraordinary person and journalist. Diario de Noticias said, “His legacy is a free newspaper, an independent newspaper”. Can’t imagine anything better to say about a journalist.
Vicent Partal, EJC Vice-Chairman

I am extremely sad to hear this. Mario was a great journalist and friend who was both warm and wise. We will miss him greatly.
Jonathan Fenby, EJC Counselor

What sad news. Mario was one of those people who had the gift of making others feel better about themselves. And his contributions to meetings were thoughtful and well argued. I shall miss his cheerful presence.
Kieran Fagan, EJC Counselor

I am shocked and very sad. Mario has become a real friend since I met him for the first time. Mario was a defender of the freedom of the press and a convinced European who was very engaged in bringing journalists and publishers in Europe together.
Mercedes Riederer, EJC Counselor

Posted on August 9, 2010 by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
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Nuevos Medios!—Youth and New European Media

Erratum: The more eagle-eyed among you may have noticed a mistake in the latest newsletter, which slipped out quietly but effectively to thousands of subscribers on 6 May. 

In the headlines, we mention how “EJC Director Wilfried Ruetten joins a round table on 8 May at the ‘Youth and New European Media’ conference in Valencia, Spain. With the European Elections just two months away, he’ll talk about communicating Europe - and how much new media can help.”

Clearly, this should have been updated from the April newsletter and should have read “just ONE month away from the European elections…”. Our thanks to Mikael Carpelan for being the first to notice. Several thousand apologies are therefore in order! HH

Posted on May 6, 2009 by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
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OmnyNews International citizen reporters Forum

Last week saw the third edition of the Citizen Reporters Forum. Thanks to all engineers for “video on the web” so that everyone can see and hear what was said last year and hopefully soon what was said last week.

Three stakeholder groups - citizen reporters, readers and editors - met the OhmnyNews International Citizen Reporter Forum 2007 met in Seoul, South Korea, from 27 - 29 June to discuss “a user empowerment without exploitation,” as Oh Yeon-ho, the CEO and founder of OhmyNews points out.

This year’s lectures and speeches revolved around three questions. First, how can practitioners of citizen journalism balance user participation and editorial accountability? Second, how can citizen journalism foster cross-cultural exchanges and contribute to the vision of a global village as envisioned by Marshall McLuhan? And finally, how can we sustain citizen journalism by identifying the right business models?

According to the World Information Society Report 2007,  South Korea leads the “Digital Opportunity Index.”

“So the question looming large is increasingly less about digital opportunity and more about how we can best manage the abundance of content, Web platforms and user participation,” Yean-ho said.

The same observation can be made also here. Despite the total number of Internet users rising, broadband connectivity exceeding the expectations of analysts five years ago, “Web 2.0” means nothing less than “participation and contribution.” The number of people contributing content is, measured in percentage points, much lower than those who have NO access to the Internet at all in the European Union.

And when it comes to “blogging,” the European blogosphere is especially over-hyped. Not only by the practitioners, but also by the private sector. All in all between 5 to 8 percent of the number of people with access to “the highway of thought” produce some form of content. The reputation problem of bloggers within traditional media see blogs either as “marketing tools” or “marketing threads” because they drive traffic and opinions away from established platforms.

For today, a clip from a March speech about the “myths of the blogosphere” recorded at the Re:publica Bloggers Conference held by Jan Schmidt, a social scientist:

Posted on July 4, 2007 by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Filed under announcements.