In the forthcoming March 2013 Kenyan election journalists should be aware of their crucial role in the election process, and of the steps and interventions that they can take to prevent conflict, through the use of conflict-sensitive approaches to polarising issues. If media can incite conflict, then it can also be used to prevent and mitigate conflict.
Reporting on political violence can be a real challenge. Working effectively with victims and survivors of such violence requires skill, knowledge and sensitivity. These stories can also expose journalists to personal risk.
To perform well, journalists need to know about the potential impact of trauma both on their sources and themselves. Trauma can affect journalists reporting judgement and their ability to calibrate risk in significant ways, which traditionally have not been discussed as widely as they might have been but which has important consequences for the quality of their work. This workshop was supported by a grant from the Open Society Foundations.
