Human rights journalism: advances in reporting distant humanitarian interventions

Drawing on case studies of the reporting of distant humanitarian interventions, especially in Eastern Europe and Africa by the mainstream Western media, €Ibrahim Shaw illuminates how journalists can create a more informed and empowered public sphere. He argues that journalists do not only hold the power to inform the public, but have the moral responsibility as duty bearers to educate and increase awareness of their rights and monitor, investigate and report all human rights violations. It is the first book to exclusively and critically explore the role of the media in the promotion and protection of human rights. Drawing on Kant's cosmopolitan principle of global justice, Shaw puts forward the case for human rights journalism as a more proactive approach in prioritising the deconstruction of indirect structural and cultural violence, and as the best way of preventing or minimising direct political violence.

Foreword by Stuart Allan -- Introduction : background and scope of human rights journalism -- Human rights journalism : a conceptual framework -- Critical comparative analyses of human rights journalism and peace journalism, global journalism and human rights reporting -- Public, citizen and peace journalisms : towards the more radical human rights journalism strand -- The dynamics and challenges of reporting humanitarian interventions -- The 'us only' and 'us+them' frames in reporting the Sierra Leone War : implications for human rights journalism -- 'Operation Restore Hope' in Somalia and genocide in Rwanda -- Politics of humanitarian intervention and human wrongs journalism : the case of Kosovo vs Sierra Leone -- The Politics of development and global poverty eradication -- The 2007 EU-Africa Lisbon Summit and 'the Global Partnership for Africa' -- The reporting of asylum seekers and refugees in the UK -- Conclusion : a case for human rights journalism and future directions -- Afterword by Jake Lynch.