Need a Hand? No Thanks! Media Representations and Peace Building Indicators: The Case of UK Foreign Aid Programmes in Colombia

Abstract

This article considers research approaches often associated with media and journalism studies as complementary assessment strategies to inform decisions associated with evaluating foreign aid. In order to do so, the case of British foreign aid towards Colombia in the context of the War on Drugs is examined as a case study. The authors explore the relationship between aid giving and the receipt of aid by focusing on how the media can be used as a peacebuilding indicator. There is a dearth of academic inquiry into these issues. This article attempts to flesh out some future lines of scholarly enquiry using the UK–Colombia case study example. It uses research interviews with state officials, multilateral organizations and NGO representatives as well as a review of press coverage in Colombia over a two-year period. The article argues that media could potentially be used as an important indicator of peacebuilding success and failure in the context of aid giving and receipt but that to achieve that there are specific pre-conditions and issues to be addressed by the different parties.

Keywords:

• Colombia
• foreign aid
• peacebuilding
• war on drugs
• armed struggle
• media
• media representations
• journalism
• public opinion
• perceptions

Notes

1  Interview with Andrea Vanegas, Press Officer of the British Embassy in Bogota, Colombia, 11 July 2011.

2  Furthermore, Colombia, where the condition of the press has been described as ‘worrying’ by Freedom House, does not have full press freedom, being ranked 125 in the world (out of 195) in 2009 and near the bottom of the rankings for the Americas region (Freedom House 2009). Indeed, according to Reporters Sans Frontier, Colombia, where conditions are worsening for reporters, ‘havoc caused by the country's Administrative Department of Security (DAS) was accompanied by two murders of journalists (one of which involved a confirmed work-related motive)’ (RSF 2010). Four journalists were killed between January 2010 and August 2011, three of them in connection with their work. Two of these were witnesses in judicial investigations into links between paramilitary groups and politicians. Journalists are threatened by right-wing paramilitaries and guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) are said to still pose a danger. ‘Journalists often censor themselves or flee abroad or to another part of the country’ (RSF 2011).

3  Interview with journalist in Bogota, 12 July 2011. Identity is not disclosed.

4  Interview with Gustavo Valdivieso, UNHCR official, 11 July 2011.

5  This in light of internal power struggles characterized by the intention of President Uribe to be re-elected for a third period and the fact that initial elite consensus around Plan Colombia had weakened, which was widely reflected in increasingly more critical media reports.