Colombia  - IOM Colombia and government partners have trained more than 150 Colombian journalists on the importance of effective journalistic practices in a post-conflict environment.

The series of workshops titled How to Narrate Peace, Peace Building, Historical Memory and Reconciliation, were held in five cities around the country: Medellín, Pereira, Cali, Cartagena and Montería.

According to Marta Ruiz, workshop leader and editor for the influential political magazine Semana: “The sessions were important spaces in which to analyze the challenges confronted by journalists in the post-conflict stage, including all the difficulties that the new context implies, and new and relevant questions that each journalist must ask when reporting.  The workshops were also a space for dialogue, creativity, and consideration for journalists as storytellers.”

The workshops were designed to respond to the country’s need for journalists with the necessary training to play a role in the post-conflict phase, following the demobilization and reintegration of men and women who were part of illegal armed groups.

“It is important that we as journalists change our mentality and think about how to narrate peace in a post-conflict scenario.  In the workshop, we were given the opportunity to analyze how we can begin to discuss these processes and how to inform those who watch or read our media outlets,” said Ricardo Gaviria of TeleAntioquia Noticias, who attended the workshop in Medellín.

Other trainers included Peruvian expert Javier Ciurlizza, Director of the International Crisis Group, Latin America and the Caribbean.  Ciurlizza was Executive Director of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Peru between 2001 and 2003, and was in charge of informing the journalists about transitional justice and the importance of truth and memory in a similar context.

“Attending the workshop implies understanding what has happened to us as a society.  It also helps us to understand the topic of historical memory, and how the men and women who have left the war are going to help build that historical memory,” added Catalina Puerta, a journalist who attended the workshop in Montería.

The How to Narrate Peace workshops are an initiative of the Colombian Reintegration Agency (ACR), the Attorney General’s Office, and the National Center for Historical Memory - the entities in charge of implementing the reintegration law which helps ex-combatants with psychosocial treatment and assistance to return to school or job training. In exchange they agree to tell the truth about their involvement in armed groups, commit to non-recidivism, request for forgiveness, and perform community service activities. 

IOM Colombia, with support from USAID, supported the workshops as part of its communications strategy Paso a Paso, which aims to strengthen the capacity of government institutions involved in the reintegration process to encourage demobilized persons in the process of reintegration, receiving communities, and the media to better understand related Government initiatives and to generate processes that facilitate national reconciliation and peace.

For more information, please contact

Jadin Vergara
IOM Colombia
Email: jvergara@iom.int
Tel: +57.1.639.7777 Ext. 1715