Conflict Reporting: Techniques and Challenges

The Journalism and Mass Communication Department organized an interactive session on techniques and challenges of conflict reporting with Ms Ipsita Chakravarty, News Editor, North East and Kashmir in Scroll.in, an independent online news venture. Winner of Priya Chandra Shekhar Memorial Award for the most promising young editor and joint winner of Red Ink Award for Human Rights Journalism for her stories from Kashmir, Ms Chakravarty believes that there are several versions of a single story.

She enumerated her experiences in Kashmir and how she never lost the courage to compose her story only with facts, rather than false information. She said, “We have to understand what conflict does to a place.” To draft a complete news report, she shared, one needs to reach out to sources like security forces and local people and then compile the story accordingly. She revealed interesting information about the life and encounter of Hizbul Mujahideen Chief, Burhan Wani, having faced the unrest herself.

The lecture was followed by an intense question-answer session with students and teachers asking and listening to the dialogues and deliberations intently. Ms Ipsita Chakravarty, while answering the questions, threw light on how to maintain objectivity and unbiased attitude while reporting on such sensitive cases. The session, which was organized to acquaint the students with field reporting, saw success with an interactive crowd and a more interactive speaker.