Voice of Peace Initiative - 2013/2014
USA Embassy and NFDHR
Voice of Peace Initiative: Observation of language of War, Hate and Violence across Media Outlets in Yemen is an initiative that came up as a result of the current Yemeni situation in which media has played a major role in making people more divided into groups and parties, some of which are politically derived, while others are religiously derived.
NFDHR raised this issue during its 2012 planning workshop with the participation of 20 youth volunteers who worked hard and met regularly to come up with the final goal and plan of the initiative, which is to increase community monitoring and enhance public pressure on the Yemeni media outlets during the National Dialogue and transitional period.
• Research and a case study were conducted for mapping the language of war, hate and violence used in 4 local newspapers during the preparation phase of the national dialogue. The newspapers studied were Al Methaq, Al Sahwah,
Al Thawri, and Al Hawiyah), and how their messages affected people. The results of the two studies were shared with 200 journalists, media professionals, youth and women activists, and a number of decision makers in the Ministry of Information, which reflected that newspapers are biased and used language of hate, war, and violence every day.
• A workshop for 160 activists and journalists was conducted where the results were discussed and further recommendations were developed and sent to all media outlets asking them to be committed to support the transitional period by using language of peace and promoting tolerance, understanding, and dialogue.
* Main activities:
1- Attracting of 60 young men and women activists to advocate for peace through media as members of Voice of Peace Initiative
2- Training the members of the initiative on Culture of Peace vs Culture of War and on basic journalism skills
3- Conduct a research study on using the language of hate, violence and war in the Yemeni newspapers during the preparation for the National Dialogue (March 2012 – March 2013)
4- Celebrates the International Day of Peace (21 September): a workshop for presenting the results of the research study in participation of 160 media leaders, journalists, youth and women activists on social media.
5- Mural Art: in the International Day of Peace, parliamentarians, academicians, women and youth activists, journalists, participated in painting for peace.