Activities
Acitivies of Innovative Media for Change
Activity 1: Launch of JusticeInfo.net
Objective: Promote awareness of JusticeInfo.net in the UK and beyond
At the heart of ‘Innovative Media for Change’ was the June 2015 launch of JusticeInfo.net, an online media platform, covering conflict and post-conflict transitional justice processes. JusticeInfo.net is a joint project of OTJR, Fondation Hirondelle and the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative. It breaks new ground as the first TJ media platform, which offers original journalistic coverage and academic analysis of TJ developments in conflict and post-conflict countries to multiple audiences: the general public, local media, policy-makers and TJ practitioners. It aims to help different TJ stakeholders to engage with and tailor justice initiatives to meet both local needs and to help them navigate the constraints of political decision-making locally as well as internationally. JusticeInfo.net wants to be both, a source of reliable, first-hand information for the public and affected communities as well as an analytical tool for decision-makers and practitioners.
Activity 2: The Innovative Media for Change Workshop
Objectives: develop a better understanding of the role media can play in TJ; raise awareness of those roles, and, initiate a discussion between TJ, media and academia
To discuss and analyse the different roles that media such as JusticeInfo.net can play in conflict and post-conflict contexts, we organized the two-day interactive workshop Innovative Media for Change on 22 and 23 June 2015 at the University of Oxford. It enabled a space for the exchange of ideas between various stakeholders on the different understandings of what role media plays and on how to effectively inform TJ policy-making and practice in affected countries through different media outlets, including JusticeInfo.net.
The workshop was organised around six panels and break-out sessions with 24 invited speakers and around 50 participants from different professional and academic backgrounds on the following topics:
- The Role of Media in the Colombian Peace Negotiations;
- Media and the Search for Criminal Evidence;
- Media in Divided Societies;
- Innovative Media for Change?;
- Documentaries, Social Media and Advocacy in TJ;
- Transitional Justice Institutions, Outreach and Local Communities.
The interactive workshop built the foundation for the development of the report 'Innovative Media for Change in Transitional Justice: Opportunities and Challenges'.