A major form of infotainment raising issues of social stigma 

Debasrita Chakraborty

“Radio is nostalgia”, said Ms. Basudha Banerji, Programme Executive, AIR (All India Radio)  at the Radio Festival to celebrate World Radio Day 2018 at UNESCO house, New Delhi.

 It was organised on February 13, 2018, by the International Association of Women in Radio and Television (IAWRT) in collaboration with UNESCO. It brought together the three main tiers of broadcasting – public, private, and community along with independent podcasters. 

Well-known voices from the Indian Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, All India Radio (AIR), private FM, community radios, along with stakeholders from the Industry, and people from the NGO Sector attended the daylong festival.

The festival was described as “a unique and inclusive forum of radio, podcasters, and others engaged in digital audio offerings, which created an opportunity to showcase and share the experiences, technology, innovation, and plans for the future ” by one of the initiators of the event – Archana Kapoor, Managing Trustee of the Radio Festival and community media broadcaster.

The concept of celebrating the power of sound and gathering the different voices in one platform was a joint initiative involving herself and Pinky Chandran, radio practitioner and communication expert, and independent media consultant Rukmini Vemraju.

Mr.Al-Amin Yusuph, Advisor (Communication and information), UNESCO, New Delhi, described the “The radio festival is a very innovative idea for what is a democratising medium.

Journalist, Violet Gonda returns to Zimbabwe after 17 years in exile

Nonee Walsh

In August 2000, Violet Gonda left her home country to study for an MA in International Journalism in London. She expected it would be for one year. However, she was to spend the next 17 years in exile as a result of being banned from returning to Zimbabwe by President Robert Mugabe’s regime. 

But she found that her media work in exile meant that she was not a stranger to many Zimbabweans.

In January this year (2018) she was able to return home because the unthinkable had happened. After being in power for 37 years, 93-year-old Robert Mugabe was finally forced to resign. “It happened so fast. I never thought this day would come. I had spent almost two decades exposing Mugabe’s excesses but when he was finally removed from power, I was in the Philippines at the IAWRT Biennial conference” Violet said. 

In one of the ironies of this story, she was elected President of this organisation in the same week, having been a valued member since 1997.

Violet was already an activist for media freedom when she left Zimbabwe in 2000, she worked for a video/film production company, which produced political documentaries which would not be broadcast on the heavily censored Zimbabwean Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC). At Edwina Spicer Productions, the team travelled out to villages for community showings and began monitoring the ethical standards of Zimbabwe’s media. This was the start of the Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe (MMPZ)

Within a year or so, Mugabe’s media crackdown intensified, with intimidation of journalists, arrests and beatings leading to her colleague, Gerry Jackson, relocating to London, where SW Radio Africa was set up to broadcast back into Zimbabwe in December 2001.

Violet became one of the six journalists at the radio station which covered the ongoing political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe. Their broadcasts telling the stories of the oppression of Zimbabweans, in defiance of the extreme censorship of Mugabe, led to all six being barred from returning.

Those broadcasts about protests and attacks by ruling party supporters or the military on supporters of the then opposition led by Morgan Tsvangirai, were virtually the only news Zimbabweans heard about what was really happening. “It was so hard listeningthe stories of rape and torture and killings told by the people brave enough to call us” she says. Audio report about Violet and SW Radio broadcasts in 2005.

Violet returns to Zimbabwe

At the beginning of this year she arrived at Harare Airport. “It was an emotional homecoming. As I arrived at the airport I felt like a stranger. I had to show my British Passport.” Her Zimbabwean passport is yet to be renewed.  Despite the freedom of being able to return to see her extended family, she bore the weight of loss, but found an unexpected intimacy with strangers, with a little irony thrown into the mix. pic:reunited with her first boss Edwina Spicer in Harare

Over the years in exile, Violet also had to bear the weight of guilt she felt over how much her reporting contributed to some of her family members being victimised.  “Zimbabwe might be home” Violet says “but is also a land of painful separation and personal tragedy.” Ultimately, she says she must grapple with a place she calls home which has greatly changed in the last 17 years.

After SW Radio, Violet studied and worked for Voice of America – Studio 7 in Washington DC and was in demand internationally as an expert reporter on Zimbabwe’s political crisis, while in exile in the UK, the USA and South Africa. She also worked with a small group to launch 1^st TV from South Africa. “This was a cheeky and highly successful short-term free-to-air television station that sought to bring accurate news and information to Zimbabweans in the 2013 election” she says.  

She utilised social media such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, and recently set up web broadcasts on Hotseat with Violet Gonda, which features long form interviews as critical analysis of Zimbabwe as a country not returned to democracy.

So, she was no stranger to the immigration officer who viewed her British passport at Harare airport in January 2018.

“He immediately recognised me and said, ‘I hope you are not intending to produce journalism while you are here’, he sternly added, ‘because if you do, you must register with the government and get a license’. Of course not, I told him.” (The changing of the guard to President Emmerson Mnangagwa of the ruling ZANU-PF party has not led to the removal of a multitude of statutes hindering freedom of expression in the media).

In general, though Violet had hoped to lay low in Harare, and surprise her extended family, back in Mutare, Manicaland, in the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe.  But it was not to be.  “They found out I was back in the country when advertisements about a public debate programme I was going to launch was aired on television and radio,” An NGO supporting democratic process, known as the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN)  had signed up Violet to host their ‘Making Elections Make Sense’ dialogue series for this election year and they were paying to advertise on ZBC.

Violet laughs about those advertisement being aired on ZBC – which she delights in referring to as “the Dead BC” –  the local joke on how censorship makes it hardly worth listening to, or watching.  “The irony of it was in the way the original ban on us returning to Zimbabwe was announced by ZBC “We were described as pirates and enemies of the state …  and 17 years later the state controlled broadcaster actually is adverting , effectively announcing my return home!” 

“All these years, I had no idea of the impact our broadcasts had. I was surprised by the welcome from total strangers. Even the man wrapping my baggage at the airport recognised my name from my SW Radio Africa days and welcomed me back.”

The streets, however, were not the same, they were full of potholes, and major corporations have deserted the city centre, while the elite retreat to leafy suburbs with armed guards at the doors of their shopping centres. “ATM’s can’t dispense more than 20-dollars a day, the once vibrant Zimbabwe middle class is nearing extinction.

“Zimbabwe is still beautiful, sadly the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.”  

When she arrived home to Mutare after almost two decades to hug her grandmothers now in their 90’s, it seems they had also been doing a little advertising too.  She relates the story of when the announcement of Robert Mugabe’s resignation came through, her paternal grandmother called a prayer meeting with the neighbours to give thanks.  “She was crying and saying Mugabe is gone now. Vee (Nickname) can come home now. I will get to see my granddaughter before I die.” 

Then she went to her maternal grandmother’s farm just outside Mutare. “It was a journey that was beautiful and painful at the same time as it included a visit to the graveyard where a line of deceased aunts and uncles who died lay.  In my culture aunties and uncles are just like our parents, and I was not there for them.”

pics: reunited – maternal grandmother left and paternal right

“Robert Mugabe really robbed us, especially when it comes to family.” 

Violet has now hosted two election discussions in Harare since January – on the elections and on the state of the parties and the prospect of credible fair elections. She has also moderated a panel discussion on the new president’s first 100 days.

The true test of this new government’s return to democracy will be seen in the level of tolerance shown, as journalists like Violet tackle critical issues on elections and highly sensitive political issues.

“I need to be home for multiple reasons: for my country, as a journalist, and for myself. For 17 years, I have only been able to visit home in my dreams. But I was watching history being made, via my mobile phone, in the Philippines. It was an extraordinary and exhilarating feeling, following those fast-moving events, yet not knowing how it would all turn out, and being a part of it”, she says.

“Clearly there was a lot more going on around the ‘soft-coup’, about which I can only guess. What private deals were being made that now affect my country’s future, and millions of Zimbabweans overseas?”

Was it a national revolution, or just ‘more of the same’ she asks?

Once in a phone interview, Mugabe’s spokesperson, George Charamba, threatened to shoot Violet for pressing him about media reforms. “So I want to test the levels of reforms and tolerance for an open media landscape. This is key for Zimbabwe’s democratic future, for a government working for all the people, not just the privileged few.”

Most of all, I want to see my relatives, and breathe the fresh air of home.”

Myanmar’s neighbourins are left struggliing with hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees. Now they could be forced to go home.

Debasrita Chakraborty 

India has a large population of Rohingya refugees spread all across the country in search of basic amenities. While Bangladesh receives the largest number, estimated to be 655,000 to 700,000, while India is trying has not less than 40,000 Rohingya refugees, to deal with.

The reality of what these numbers can mean is starkly presented to me a few kilometers before the city of Nuh in north-west India. There is an open field right behind the Mewat Development Area Transit Hostel, and a few tents, occupied by Rohingya refugees. The tents, with black tarpaulin roofs and walls, stand on makeshift frames of bamboo and wood; there is no permanency in these houses. Their tenements serve as a bitter analogy for the circumstances that the ethnic group finds itself in: forced to leave their homeland in Myanmar.

Nuh, the city and the district, was earlier called Mewat—the home of the Meo Muslims, (Meo – also called Mewati – is a Muslim community from North-Western India, in Rajasthan.

The Rohingya people came to Nuh as early as 2012, when it was still called Mewat, in the hope of finding a home amidst a community of fellow Muslims. They set up their houses on this land, which was given to them by members of the community. However, now they are now to be ousted from India.

Generation after generation of Rohingyas have been subject to subject to restrictions on movement and everyday life by successive governments in Myanmar – the community has been living in inhumane conditions, “To get married we had to take permission and bribe the administration. To get birth certificates too, we have to offer a bribe. We had land and [now] we have no right to it,” said Abdul, a middle-aged Rohingya refugee putting up in Nuh.

In an attempt to escape the barbaric conditions of their homeland, thousands of Rohingya Muslims cross the border every day and find their way to different refugee camps mainly in Bangladesh’s Cox Bazaar.

Many of them lose their lives in the process. Now reports are emerging that the Myanmar Army is laying landmines along the border with Bangladesh to maim, kill or deter the fleeing Rohingyas.

Violence is not new to the Rohingyas, but this time the retaliation by the military was on a huge scale. Several villages were set ablaze and, according to reports, thousands of people are left stranded in mountainous regions without food or water. Recently an exclusive investigation by the Associated Press news agency reported that many Rohingya villagers in Myanmar were massacred and buried in five mass graves.

With an initial hesitation, a couple of women also came up to speak. “I came here with my entire family, there were 10 of us. We landed up in Bangladesh but it was overpopulated so we decided to come here in India. We went to Jammu first and then came to Mewat,” said Shophika, a mother of three. Many like her have found their way to Mewat, looking for a better place, and currently, there are 327 families who live in six settlements in Nuh. “We travelled not knowing anything about India, only in search of acceptance, peace, and shelter,” she continued.

Many have braved much adversity to find refuge in India. They crossed borders by bribing officials and travelled on foot through heat, rain, and cold. “.. But now we hear that 40,000 Rohingyas should be thrown out,” said Ali Johar.

The bulk of Rohingyas have found their way to different refugee camps in Bangladesh’s Cox Bazaar. Thousands of Rohingya women of and children fear for their safety. There are no authorities to reach for official guidance and support.

Findings of a joint nutrition assessment conducted in October shows that, ‘over 3/4 of the surveyed population relies on food security coping strategies, including opting for less preferred and less expensive foods (90%), reducing number of meals eaten in a day (69%), and restricting consumption by adults in order for small children to eat (68%).’ Nearly one-third of families surveyed reported open defecation due to a lack of sanitation facilities, and the cleanliness of public latrines. where available, was one major concern.

Children are living in filthy conditions with barely enough food, clean water, and healthcare. There are acute malnutrition rates among child refugees under five, Many are underweight and suffering from anemia. And there is a high risk of diarrhea, dysentery, measles, respiratory infections and an expected rise in children suffering from mental health issues.

Many young Rohingya girls are being forced to marry simply to secure more food for themselves and their families. Drawing global attention to the Rohingya refugee children in Bangladesh, goodwill ambassador of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), actress and philanthropist, Kristin Davis said, “This is currently the fastest growing refugee crisis in the world and seeing the impact of this emergency on children is devastating.”

Back in North-west India , a middle aged  refugee ,Ali Johar tells me “We came here with the idea of living. In Rakhine, we were told that even animals are treated with dignity in India.” In the areas around Nuh, the Rohingya people do not have access to electricity, potable water or even sanitation, but this life, according to him, is more dignified than what they would have anywhere else.  For general health services, there is one primary health care at Nuh but for major illnesses and maternal health services, most of the people go to a Medical college hospital at Nalhad, which is 4 km away, while mostly the Rohingyas here opt for home delivery. “We are often made to wait aside for treatment but still we get it even if it is after the locals. In Myanmar we are left to die,” says Sader Khan.

In fact, in India, Rohingyas are treated as second-class refugees, they are constantly pushed to the margins and denied basic human rights. Johar said, “We have to live by a code. In July 2013, six girls got married to local people here. Following which we were called to the SP office and they asked us to stop getting Rohingya women married to the locals and asked for the number of women we had married to the Meos. There is a list of conditions that we have to abide by, at least 16-17 of them. It is written in English, Urdu, Rohingya language. We were made to sign that before getting our refugee cards.”

 “A few of us had Aadhar (12-digit unique identity number issued to all Indian residents based on their biometric and demographic data) but we were asked to return them… Due to lack of certified identification, our children are not registered in schools. Their future worries me a lot,” said Ali Johar. 

The lack of documents and the lack of safeguards has left them at the mercy of the local community. However, in the face of the threat of deportation, these are secondary concerns.

Sanjoy Hazarika, director of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, says the government is entitled to take decisions. “But now, it’s a question of humanity. However, if they are being deported then the point is, where will they be deported to? Myanmar does not recognise them, and they are certainly not from Bangladesh, Nepal or Pakistan. Also, there is a belief that these people are a threat but most of them are simple refugees. If the government has any specific knowledge of any particular threat, then it should clarify.”

Many reasons are being attributed to the government of India’s sudden aggressive pro-deportation stand on the Rohingyas. Some government officials have expressed concerns about violent extremism which has lead to greater community fears around this particular community alleged connections to terror groups. International communities have condemned the sudden decision of the Indian Government.

 On September 5, 2017, Prime Minister Narendra Modi undertook his maiden trip to Myanmar. India is urgently trying to counter Chinese influence in the region, and not opposing the recent spate of violence against Rohingya Muslims might help Modi earn brownie points, which could translate into clinching major infrastructure projects in Myanmar. China too has remained silent on the issue, . While this is at best speculation, the timing of the crackdown is suspicious.

Even though in early January 2018, Bangladesh and Myanmar have agreed to complete within two years the return of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who fled an army crackdown last year in Myanmar, fear does not seem to fade. Statements from the Myanmar and Bangladesh foreign minister said Bangladesh would set up five transit camps on its side of the border. Those camps would send Rohingyas to two reception centres in Myanmar. The repatriation process did not start even after a month of the agreement.

The Bangladesh statement said: “Myanmar has reiterated its commitment to stop (the) outflow of Myanmar residents to Bangladesh.”

Before we were about to leave Nuh, with a helpless and trembling voice, Ali Johar said, “It is not easy to get jobs as we don’t have aadhaar cards. We try to get daily wage work. It is also not possible to stay away from the family because there is also a constant fear and insecurity. There is no peace of mind.”

This article was adapted from an article published by the Hardnews Magazine, Delhi.