Forging Peace Intervention Human Rights & the Management of Media Space

The bloody conflicts of the past decade have focused international attention on the strategic role of the media in promoting war and perpetuating chaos. Written against this backdrop, Forging Peace brings together case studies and legal analysis of the steps that the United Nations, NATO, and other organizations have taken to build pluralist and independent media in the wake of massive human rights violations. It examines current thinking on the legality of unilateral humanitarian intervention, and analyzes in graphic detail the pioneering use of information intervention techniques in conflict zones, ranging from full-scale bombardment and confiscation of transmitters to the establishment of new laws and regulatory regimes. With its focus on the role of media in preventing human rights violations, Forging Peace will influence policy and debate for years to come.

Monroe E. Price is the founder and co-director of the Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy at the University of Oxford. He is also the Joseph and Sadie Danciger Professor of Law at Yeshiva University. He is author and editor of numerous books, including Television, the Public Sphere and National Identity.

Mark Thompson is a freelance writer and consultant. He is author of A Paper House: The Ending of Yugoslavia and Forging War: The Media in Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia-Hercegovina--chosen as "Book of the Year" in The Guardian and The Observer.

Preliminary Table of Contents:

Introduction, by the Editors

Part I

1.Defining Information Intervention, by Mark Thompson

Part II

2. Hate Propaganda and International Human Rights Law, by Stephen Farrior

3. Preemptive Unilateral Information Intervention, by Eric Blinderman

4. Note on Legality of Information Intervention, by Julie Mertus

5. A Module for Media Intervention: Content Regulation in Post?Conflict Zones, by Peter Krug and Monroe E. Price

Part III Country Studies

6. Neutrality and the Negotiation of an Information Order in Cambodia, by John Marston

7. Escalating to Success? The Intervention in Bosnia and Hercegovina, by Mark Thompson and Dan DeLuce

8. Silencing the Voices of Hate in Rwanda, by Alison Des Forges

9. The Learning Curve: Media and Intervention in Kosovo, by Julie Mertus and Mark Thompson

10. Preparing a Plebiscite under Fire: The United Nations and Public Information in East Timor, by David Wimhurst

Part IV

11. Information Intervention and Military Strategies, by Philip Taylor

12. The Role of Non?Governmental Organizations, by Helen Darbishire

13. Information Interventions, Media Development and the Internet, by Patrick Carmichael

Notes on the Contributors