Article Added On: June 17, 2004 - over 3 years ago
Title: Winnipeg Faith and Media Forum: Religion rises from obscurity
Author: Mary Lou Driedger
Publication: Winnipeg Free Press
Publication Date: January 01, 2002 - over 6 years ago
Themes: Religion and society
Abstract:
It wasn't until a couple of hours after the first airliner crashed into the World Trade Center when CTV News's Kirk Lapointe discovered a significant gap in the network's reporting.
"Just after 10:30 on the morning of Sept. 11, I remember looking around our newsroom and realizing I did not see a single Muslim face. We had no in-house resource, no one to explain the religion of Islam, or help us understand what the Muslim people must be thinking and feeling," recalled Lapointe, the senior vice-president of CTV News, during a forum on Faith and the Media held this week in Winnipeg.
The panel, moderated by the CBC's Donald Benham, examined how news coverage of religion has been affected by the events of Sept. 11. Panelist Gordon Legge said all kinds of difficulties have been created for the Islamic community because of reporting that has been uninformed and too general.
Description: Panel discovers lack of coverage in the wake of Sept. 11 attacks, reports Mary Lou Driedger of the Winnipeg Free Press.
It wasn't until a couple of hours after the first airliner crashed into the World Trade Center when CTV News's Kirk Lapointe discovered a significant gap in the network's reporting.
"Just after 10:30 on the morning of Sept. 11, I remember looking around our newsroom and realizing I did not see a single Muslim face. We had no in-house resource, no one to explain the religion of Islam, or help us understand what the Muslim people must be thinking and feeling," recalled Lapointe, the senior vice-president of CTV News, during a forum on Faith and the Media held this week in Winnipeg.
The panel, moderated by the CBC's Donald Benham, examined how news coverage of religion has been affected by the events of Sept. 11. Panelist Gordon Legge said all kinds of difficulties have been created for the Islamic community because of reporting that has been uninformed and too general.
Legge, a veteran religion reporter, who heads up the new Centre for Faith and Media in Calgary, hopes the tragic events in New York City have taught the press they are really unprepared to cover a major story with so many religious connections and implications.
The media received praise, however, from Riad Saloojee, executive director of the Canadian Council of American- Islamic Relations. He noted Canada's 500,000 Muslims have found some things about the coverage given their faith community in recent months encouraging. "There has been a sincere attempt to understand the Islamic perspective," he said. "Particularly during Ramadan, a significant effort was made to provide information which would help Canadians understand their Islamic neighbours."
Saloojee, hastened to add that some negative things needed highlighting, too. "Certain reporters have tried to minimize the backlash against Muslim Canadians. They have suggested the reaction has been limited to name-calling and verbal slurs. In fact, police have documented over 115 incidents including death threats and assaults."
Saloojee also suggested some columnists have thoughtlessly linked the words Muslim or Islam with the words terrorist, fundamentalist or holy war. Lapointe agreed with him. "We don't call terrorists in Ireland Protestant or Catholic," he noted.
There seemed to be a general consensus among the panel members that the press is not nearly as educated as it should be when it comes to understanding Islam, or any religion for that matter.
"We need to better equip journalists to cover religion", said Legge. "Poor religion reporting can promote intolerance and hatred."
Added Saloojee: "We want the press to be Muslim literate."
Lapointe feels the media is trying hard to get a better handle on Islam. "We realize now we have been too slow to recognize the diversity within the Muslim community and to understand how central peace is to their belief system," he said.
When asked to comment on whether the present war on terrorism was a religious conflict between Muslims and Christians, Nicholas Hirst, editor of the Winnipeg Free Press, responded with a word of caution. "This war has religious connotations and connections, but to say that's all there is to it, is far too simplistic. There are certainly political and economic elements as well. The job of the media is to bring the debate about this into people's homes."
Legge agreed and expressed his view that "Islam has been hijacked by the terrorists. Politics and economics were just as involved as religion."
The panel offered some ideas on how the media can improve its coverage of faith, and Islam in particular, post Sept. 11. Saloojee confessed Muslim spokesmen must become more media literate.
"We have been too reluctant to engage the media" he said. "We are inexperienced in things like writing press releases. We need to let people know that various Muslim groups act out their faith in different ways. Communication is the key."
Legge encouraged Muslims to approach other faith groups. "We need to work together to improve coverage of all religions in the media," he said.
Both Lapointe and Hirst talked about the role the public has to play in improving media coverage of religion. Hirst described a letter his paper carried on its faith page that offended many in the Muslim community. Within 24 hours a very effective campaign was launched by people around the world who wrote to complain. The paper published an apology.
