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Information from Radio Reloj Cuba, Prensa Latina and Prensa Latina

On March 14, with the cry of Fora Temer replicated in tens of thousands of voices, the Brazilian city of Salvador de Bahia opened its doors to the thirteenth World Social Forum.

The traditional march opened the meeting officially, with an intense program for which more than 1600 self-managed activities by groups, organizations and entities were registered.

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This Friday, the World Assembly of Women will take place, with more than twenty thousand participants and from which it is intended to constitute a single front to defend women´s rights and face machismo and violence.

Mariana Dias, President of the National Union of Students, pointed out that the meeting takes place in the midst of a difficult situation in Brazil and Latin America, marked by setbacks from the social and political points of view.

The conference began on Tuesday, March 13th and runs until Saturday, March 17th. . . .

Even before the opening march, the first denunciation launched here today at the World Social Forum was against the attempts of Michel Temer”s government to leave Brazilian civil society without a voice.

The denunciation was made at a press conference, after the public media network Brazil Communication Company (EBC) announced that it will not cover the event because its board did not authorize correspondents to travel here.

Shortly after taking the Presidency of the Republic, Temer eliminated the Curator Council of the EBC, appointed a new director by decree and changed the functional structure of the company.

On the importance of this 13th World Social Forum (WSF), President of the National Union of Students (UNE) Mariana Diasin told the media that the event is taking place in the middle of a difficult situation, not only in Brazil, but in Latin America and the world.

She said that in recent years there have been historical setbacks, from the social and political points of view, as a result ‘there is a perverse withdrawal of rights’, which were achieved after many years of struggle.

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World Social Forums, Advancing the Global Movement for a Culture of Peace?

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She said that Brazil is living a very delicate time after the interruption of the democratic process (with the parliamentary-judicial coup d’etat carried out in 2016 against constitutional President Dilma Rousseff) and currently a neoliberal agenda is implemented without taking into account the opinion and willingness of the people. . . .

This is the seventh time since its creation in 2001 that Brazil welcomes thousands of participants at the World Social Forum. . .

With a birth certificate in Porto Alegre, where it was held again in 2002, 2003, 2005 and 2012, the great meeting of social, people’s and trade union movements was also organized in 2009 by another Brazilian city, Belem.

Besides Brazil, another five nations were already witness to these events: India, in 2004; Kenya, in 2007; Senegal in 2011: Tunis, in 2013 and Canada, in its more recent edition of 2016.

In its Salvador de Bahia event, starting today with a grand march from Cmpo Grande until the Castro Alves square, in the ancient center of the city, the World Social Forum ‘has everything to i9mpact politically in the present situation’, valued the member of the Facilitating Group, Carlos Tiburcio.

For the journalist and director of the web Radio Democracia en el Aire – Red de Resistencia Democrática, there are strong reasons for this global venue to become a great trench of resistance to the offensive of international capital, and will also have special importance for tje social and political Brazilian forces.

According to the also founder of the Forum, over 1300 self-paid activities were already registered for the event, whose fundamental nucleus will take place in Campus Ondina, of the Federal University of Bahia.

The Forum’s program includes, among others, a colloquium on March 14 on the state of exception in Brazil and inequalities, democratic fragility and power of elites.

Work sessions of the meeting will start with the panel ‘Tutoring democracies: media, power and manipulation’, in charge of journalists Ignacio Ramonet and Martin Granovsky.

Other issues to be debated there are judicialization of politics or the politicization of justice; Inequalities: which, why and until when?; Racism, violence and discrimination: human rights in the coup d’état Brazil.

The colloquium will conclude with a debate about the left’s challenges: the fight for unity in an uncertain future, for which he announced the presence of director of the Center of Social Studies of Portugal, Boaventura de Sousa Santos.

As part of the program there will also be the World Women and Peoples Assemblies, Movements and Territories in Resistance, as well as the so-called convergence activities, the self-managed ones and others of political-cultural nature.

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An article from Iberoeconomia (translated by CPNN)

The Ibero-American General Secretariat is organizing the Laboratory of Civic Innovation for Peace between February 13 and 24 with the support of the High Council for the Postconflict of the Presidency of Colombia, the Governorate of Nariño, and Nansen Center for Peace and Dialogue with the support of the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation for Development.

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The Laboratories for Citizen Innovation, which will be held annually in Ibero-America, make it possible for hundreds of citizens from all the countries of the region to work together to develop innovative projects to improve society. The Laboratory of Civic Innovation for Peace in Colombia will be the first time that citizen innovation and solutions that citizens of all Latin America propose will be part of the construction of peace.

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What is happening in Colombia, Is peace possible?

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As of February 13 and for 12 days, 100 citizens from Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Spain, Honduras, Italy, Mexico, Norway, Panama, Peru, Portugal, Uruguay and Venezuela will work together on 10 projects of innovation that will provide solutions to key post-conflict challenges in Colombia in the field of human rights, coexistence, alternative local development, culture of peace and reconciliation.

The Innovation for Citizens Peace Laboratory will work on innovation and technology solutions for problems that arise in Colombia in this post-conflict stage, for example: 3D prosthesis manufacturing for victims of conflict, sustainable systems for water use in rural areas, digital platforms to organize citizen activism and documentation of the experience of an indigenous people that resisted drug trafficking.

During the Laboratory 15 conferences, meetings and free courses will be held with experts in peace and innovation processes from around the world that will be open to the public and can be followed through Facebook Live.

On February 24, the participants will present to the public all the projects completed at the Imperial Theater of Pasto in the presence of Minister Rafael Pardo and the Ibero-American General Secretary, Rebeca Grynspan, together with the governor of Nariño, Camilo Romero.

(Click here for the original Spanish version of this article)

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An article from La Jornada Zacatecas (translated by CPNN)

January 20: The Zacatecan Radio and Television System (Sizart) will modify its contents to introduce as a”the culture of peace” as a transversal theme. The workshop “Sounds for peace, the acoustic landscape of public media in Zacatecas” in which 50 radio and television producers participated, reviewed the programmatic grids “to know what we are doing”, said the director general of Sizart, Teresa Velázquez Navarrete.

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She added that two experts collaborated in this review, one of them from Colombia, who was asked to offer an advance of what is being done in that country in the context of the peace process in the media, “because here we already walk more or less in the same struggle.”

Tito Ballesteros López, a radio producer of the “free networks of Colombia”; was a participant in the recently held International Radio Biennial along with Graciela Martínez Matías, who is a research professor at the UNAM, a PhD in Political Science and an advocate for the Radio Education audiences. The “critical and self-critical review was made with all the producers of the -Sizart-, and then we realized that to remake the contents we would have to speak of a culture of peace “.

The workshop “Sounds for peace, the acoustic landscape of public media in Zacatecas” lasted 30 hours and was held from Monday to Friday of this week with discussions and contributions. Velázquez Navarrete and experts proposed the drafting of a Manifesto “Public radio as a force for peace in Mexico”, which was read yesterdayby the participants.

“We came up with the experience of Colombia with a manifesto to start making a navigation chart of the public media, which we would like everyone to share, but for the time being we assume it as something we can do. We can not speak for others.”

Tito Ballesteros, also a research professor at the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana located in Bucaramanga, Colombia, mentioned in a short interview the projects he has participated in, referring to the peace process in his country. The 2016 Peace Agreement, a document of 297 pages, was diffused to the people through social networks and read over the radio, point by point.

In Colombia, there was a radio series in which about 20 professors from different cities participated: Cali, Medellín, Cartagena and Bogotá, who were asked to offer their opinion and discuss the points of the Peace Agreement. Also the European Union supported a training workshop for community radios, at the proposal of President Juan Manuel Santos.

“And that’s how training was done at a national level in the different regions reflecting on the agreements, and how to build stories for peace.”

Ballesteros Lopez mentioned another collaboration with the European Union, “in which the Colombians who were in the media accessed content that had to do with acts of peace.”

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(Click here for the original Spanish version of the article)

Journalism in Latin America: Is it turning towards a culture of peace?

How can peace be promoted by radio?

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The manifesto read yesterday is divided into a series of sections, one aimed at professionals of public radio, which talks among other points, their training and training on issues related to “tolerance, reconciliation, inclusion and peace, so that they are reflected in the day to day of radio programming.”

The manifesto calls on the media to avoid “inappropriate practices in the use of discriminatory speech, verbal and visual language that appeals to violence”, and “urges those who communicate their ideas from the microphones of public media to speak calmly when reporting (…) to reassure the audience.”

Regarding the management of news, it is proposed to start and end programs with positive news, to include at least one story related to “peace events” and to avoid “headlines with half-truths and / or sensationalists” and to “focus the information in depth” , as well as to respect the privacy and dignity of persons.

The section dedicated to music suggests to diffuse sound montages that “invite serenity, calm and calm before moments of crisis”, to support the use of musical artistic expressions as a form of dialogue and healthy coexistence, and to avoid content that appeal to violence, as well as to highlight national productions “that exalt our values ​​and heritage”.

Regarding programming in general, the manifesto calls on each radio station to feature marathons at least every quarter, with “readings, verses, songs and poems related to acts of peace and healthy living”, open spaces to offer profiles of people who have contributed to the peaceful coexistence of the country and the world, and to expand the content to “generate moments of reflection on the culture of encounter”.

It also suggests that program makers should “use sound landscapes from spaces previously suffering from violence and now recovered as spaces of peace”, in order to show how change is possible. And they should strengthen the Mexican identity based on manifestations of popular culture, high culture and history.

With regard to culture, it is added that “radio actors” need to know the country’s past to understand its current context “and how violence has spread to the different corners of the nation”.

Finally, a section was added for the audiences, of whom it was said in yesterday’s event, that their participation is expected in this new communication paradigm.

The manifesto calls for a horizontal communication by the media with audiences to work together in actions for peace through audiovisual media, as well as the importance of the right of reply as a mechanism to make Mexico a tolerant country, and the consolidation of public spaces of citizen participation where the audiences can produce content in order to end the “unidirectional” media.

Finally, it is stated that audiences from social networks “also have the responsibility to share information inspired by values ​​such as truth, respect, and responsibility.”

Yesterday, Tito Ballesteros also announced that there will be “a 30-episode radio program. 15 minutes of duration, which will be broadcast by all public broadcasters in the country. That is, Zacatecas and the Sizart will present a sound program for all radios derived from the manifesto released yesterday.

The students of communication, producers and conductors of Sizart radio and television, communicators, and the Attorney General of the State of Zacatecas, the Deputy Prosecutor for Prevention, the Municipal President of the State Capital, and the General Secretary of the UAZ, all participated and contributed elements to enrich the aforementioned document.