The world is a busy, busy place. Despite training in journalism and the amount of newspapers I read – not a lot at the minute, admittedly - I often forget that so much can happen in a short space of time.
Part of the world of journalism is to follow the agenda and give the public the stories they want to hear about, whilst selling as many copies of your newspaper or drawing the attention of as many viewers as possible.
In this respect, so much goes on in the world that we just don’t know about. Sometimes too, they are things that perhaps we don’t want to know about.
Children and young adults go missing, shops get robbed, cars crash, human rights are abused.
All such mundane things, right? Perhaps.
Perhaps it’s just too much for us to take in. Should we have to be given bad news all the time? Can’t journalists tell us something good?
What if there isn’t anything good to tell?
Yesterday, walking through the glorious streets of Harrow, I was handed a leaflet from a member of the Tamil Community Centre.
“The most violent place in Asia at the moment is Sri Lanka, and the state has not taken any serious steps to bring it under control.”
These words immediately leap out at me, grabbing my attention and drawing me into Sri Lanka’s story.
According to the International Human Rights Day Statement, published in December 2006 on the Human Rights blog, Sri Lanka is incredibly violent at the moment.
The state blames the Tamil people for creating the violence in the country, who in turn blame the government for the overuse of its military and paramilitary forces. There is talk of a war from both sides.
Despite worldwide criticism of, and various inquiries into abductions, disappearances, extrajudicial killings and torture, there is still a lack of hope that the violence will relent.
According to the Human Rights blog, the violence in Sri Lanka has been aggravated by the collapse of the rule of law for a significant length of time.
“The policing system suffers from an institutional collapse; the judiciary is faced with a serious crises; the government lacks the capacity to carry out its normal functions of protection. Meanwhile, the enforcement of strict emergency regulations will only aggravate the violent situation, and there are no local or international initiatives to address the problems plaguing the country.”
The assistant secretary of state for south and central Asian affairs, Richard A. Boucher, said of the crisis:
“We remain very concerned about some of the killings, the killings of aid workers, killings of people at various places in the island that have occurred in the last year or so… We’ve seen reports of intimidation, reports of government power being used on newspapers and journalists; and then, of course, we’ve seen killings and violent acts committed against newspapers and journalists.”
A lot going on everyday in the world. Big Brother, anyone?!
www.humanrightsblog.org
Part of the world of journalism is to follow the agenda and give the public the stories they want to hear about, whilst selling as many copies of your newspaper or drawing the attention of as many viewers as possible.
In this respect, so much goes on in the world that we just don’t know about. Sometimes too, they are things that perhaps we don’t want to know about.
Children and young adults go missing, shops get robbed, cars crash, human rights are abused.
All such mundane things, right? Perhaps.
Perhaps it’s just too much for us to take in. Should we have to be given bad news all the time? Can’t journalists tell us something good?
What if there isn’t anything good to tell?
Yesterday, walking through the glorious streets of Harrow, I was handed a leaflet from a member of the Tamil Community Centre.
“The most violent place in Asia at the moment is Sri Lanka, and the state has not taken any serious steps to bring it under control.”
These words immediately leap out at me, grabbing my attention and drawing me into Sri Lanka’s story.
According to the International Human Rights Day Statement, published in December 2006 on the Human Rights blog, Sri Lanka is incredibly violent at the moment.
The state blames the Tamil people for creating the violence in the country, who in turn blame the government for the overuse of its military and paramilitary forces. There is talk of a war from both sides.
Despite worldwide criticism of, and various inquiries into abductions, disappearances, extrajudicial killings and torture, there is still a lack of hope that the violence will relent.
According to the Human Rights blog, the violence in Sri Lanka has been aggravated by the collapse of the rule of law for a significant length of time.
“The policing system suffers from an institutional collapse; the judiciary is faced with a serious crises; the government lacks the capacity to carry out its normal functions of protection. Meanwhile, the enforcement of strict emergency regulations will only aggravate the violent situation, and there are no local or international initiatives to address the problems plaguing the country.”
The assistant secretary of state for south and central Asian affairs, Richard A. Boucher, said of the crisis:
“We remain very concerned about some of the killings, the killings of aid workers, killings of people at various places in the island that have occurred in the last year or so… We’ve seen reports of intimidation, reports of government power being used on newspapers and journalists; and then, of course, we’ve seen killings and violent acts committed against newspapers and journalists.”
A lot going on everyday in the world. Big Brother, anyone?!
www.humanrightsblog.org
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