Opinion Forum

Communication has been described as the mechanism through which human relations develop all the symbols of the mind. The Media are “the institutions and forms in which ideas, information and attitudes are transmitted and received.” The media create the space for communication within societies and among communities and between nations. They can create either a societal conversation or conflict. Communication scholar James Carey states, “We first produce the world by symbolic work and then take up residence in the world we have produced.”

Truth, justice, revenge and forgiveness are societal reactions to collective violence. They are also emotive murmur words used in discussions of post conflict societal reconstruction. Justice is a complex and innate human need. It is essentially, a formal and tempered process of punishment for wrongs committed. Justice as punishment is retributive and should be in proportion to the crime. In situations where the distinctions between victims and perpetrators are blurred and where both must rebuild society together, retributive justice may not only be insufficient but impossible. The purposed Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Nepal is to be aimed to restore a balance in society and the dignity of people by exposing the truth by documenting the narratives of their collective history. This process should be geared to repair social connections, moving victims beyond anger and powerlessness and ultimately enabling the reintegration of delinquents into the society.

Conflict may be natural and normal but violence is a choice – as is reconciliation. The media can help turn collective storytelling into public acts of healing. Conflict resolution expert Jean-Paul Lederach explains, “People need opportunity and space to express to and with one another the trauma of loss and their grief at that loss, the anger that accompanies the pain and the memory of injustice experienced. Acknowledgement is significant in the reconciliation dynamic. It is one thing to know; it is a very different social phenomenon to acknowledge. The media can assist in the releases feelings of shame and humiliation in victims, so that the story becomes one of dignity and virtue. Removing the humiliation from the victim to the perpetrator creates a sense of justice and retribution.

The media’s capacity for public humiliation is an extremely important one, especially in more traditional societies where concepts of honor and reputation still drive behavior. The media in the impulsive post-conflict atmosphere must not succumb to pressure to exploit or sensationalize stories which would only retraumatize victims as well as society in general. Nor should they reduce testimonies to mere lists of atrocities which remove vital context and accountability. Careful reporting must facilitate the societal conversation, respecting victims and the effects of trauma on themselves as well as society.

Reprisal and forgiveness are marks along the scale of human responses to atrocity. Yet they stand in opposition: to forgive is to let go of reprisal; to avenge is to resist forgiving. Perhaps justice itself partakes of both revenge in the form of punishment and forgiveness. In order to affect lasting change and reconciliation, larger patterns of atrocity and complex lines of responsibility and complicity must be investigated, acknowledged and documented. Finding alternatives to reprisal – such as government-managed prosecutions, institutional reforms or other social processes – is a matter, then, not only of moral and emotional significance, it is urgent for human survival.

Laxman Datt Pant