The Book
By the first decade of the twenty-first century, anti-state armed actors had become a defining feature of South Asia’s political landscape. Given the targeted use of surveillance and disinformation in recent times, the landscape of political violence has also started shifting. Amidst the ever-darkening clouds of geopolitical turmoil and climate change, journalists have assumed the roles of negotiators, fact-checkers, researchers, facilitators, campaigners, and advocates.
It is a recognition of this fundamental truth and its implications that lies at the heart of Bearing Witness: Reporting War, Conflict, Crisis, and Disasters. The essays in this volume, while focused on South Asia, touch upon a wide range of realities that journalists must engage with, understand, capture, and communicate, from civil war (in Sri Lanka), insurgency (in central India), migration (of Rohingyas), and political regression (in Afghanistan), through natural and man-made disasters across the region, to the crucial yet often-overlooked issue of journalistic safety, both physical and mental, and a media landscape increasingly vulnerable to political and corporate imperatives.
With contributions from journalists, photojournalists, environmentalists, scholars of media studies, human rights, law, sociology, politics, and psychology, this volume serves as an introduction to the challenges faced while reporting conflicts. It is a reminder that journalism is a serious and critical profession, and an effort to advance the discussion on how to conduct it safely and ethically. It will be invaluable to students of journalism, and also useful to those interested in South Asian politics, modern history, and environmental issues.