Author

Susan Oh

From Right to Left: Christiane Amanpour, Daniel Pearl Magnet High School Student Journalists, Susan Oh, Arturo Siguenza UCLA Photography

UCLA and the World

The Evolution of Journalism – An Exclusive Interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour

written by Susan Oh

On April 13, 2016, CNN’s chief international correspondent and award-winning journalist Christiane Amanpour spoke at UCLA’s Korn Convocation Hall for the Daniel Pearl Memorial Lecture Series. The series was created to commemorate the life and work of Daniel Pearl, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal who was kidnapped and brutally murdered by Pakistani militants in 2002. Ms. Amanpour, who sits on the board of the Daniel Pearl Foundation, has covered breaking news from across the globe for over 20 years and is known for her exclusive and hard-hitting interviews with world leaders, including former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. Both during the lecture and in an interview with The Generation Editors Arturo Siguenza and Susan Oh, Ms. Amanpour spoke about the power and importance of journalism as a civic duty and the changing environment of journalism today.

Amanpour began by addressing how important it is for Americans to be connected to the world. 9/11, she recounted, was a game changer for Americans. It impacted not only our response to terrorism, but the manner in which we absorb and emit news in the international sphere.

9/11 is the modern day equivalent of Pearl Harbor and all of that which made the world and brought the world home for Americans in a way that hasn’t been true in the previous generation or so. I have always believed that 9/11 or no 9/11, the world is a massively important place that Americans particularly cannot get along with not knowing about.

9/11 forced America to be engaged and conscious of the world outside our borders, and the need for this awareness has grown exponentially. “It’s a two way street, and there’s no choice… other than to be engaged,” she argued, and it is foreign correspondents, like Daniel Pearl and Amanpour herself, that serve as conduits for this interdependent relationship. It is journalists who “have dedicated their lives to being your eyes and ears around the world, and actually sacrificed their lives to make that happen.” This is where the power of journalists stands firmly. Journalists and foreign correspondents respond to a calling to connect the world we live in by telling the stories of those desperate to be heard. These stories cross borders, dissect political views, and unite people through the words and images that journalists proliferate.

Born in Iran, Amanpour responded to the call. She experienced firsthand the toppling effects of the Islamic Revolution on her friends, family and country, fueling her passion for journalism.

So I came to the United States, with the idea of being a journalist, because the revolution in Iran taught me, bizarrely, to be interested. It fired my imagination. It fired my curiosity, born of a very personal life experience. I wanted to understand what was going on in the world that could all of a sudden turn my life, and my friends, and my parents, upside down.

From then on, she came to push the boundaries of journalism, covering stories from Bosnia to Iraq, from Rwanda to Somalia, from Afghanistan to Turkey, and far more.

Her bold and courageous reporting style has set her apart from her peers, as she not only tells a story, but takes a stance and calls for action from the global community. She recounted her coverage of the Bosnian War in the early ‘90s explaining how she and her colleagues used their platform as journalists to push for world leaders to respond to the atrocities they witnessed, especially the massacre in Srebrenica.

I think the fact that we were able to do that in Bosnia made a difference and eventually brought an end to the war, because our reporting made it impossible, eventually, for Western democracies to turn away.

Since then, she has made it her mission to “take the torch of light and truth and shine it in all the dark corners,” and bring justice to places where she finds impunity. “If that makes me an activist,” she added, “then yes, I am an activist.”

In her years as a journalist, she reported directly from battlefields, experiencing the dangers of her profession firsthand. However, as she looked back, Ms. Amanpour reflected on how much has changed. She noted that while journalists have historically been caught in the crossfire of war and conflict, it was during the Bosnian War that journalists started to be deliberately attacked. “[Daniel Pearl] was perhaps the first of the brutally murdered journalists in our generation…Today, and especially since 9/11, the leading cause of death for journalists is murder…people want to shut us up.” The increased risks of death, kidnapping and imprisonment for journalists today makes it incredibly difficult to report from war-torn places like Syria, which has led to underreporting of the war. She believes the lack of information from Syria, coupled with the West’s reluctance to intervene, has allowed ISIS to grow, terrorism to flourish and has resulted in a refugee crisis in Europe–an issue that Western countries are scrambling to mitigate. This is precisely why she argues that the global community must be engaged and invested in what is going on around the world.

The world is way too interconnected now for…any country to sit contentedly in its fortress…This is too globalized a world for anyone to be able to make it, for anybody, any country to be able to make it alone.

Amanpour reminded us that journalists hold the ability of forcing the world and its leaders to take notice, “whether it’s your school leader, whether it’s community leaders, whether it’s the mayor’s office, the governor’s office, the president, Congress, dictators around the world, whoever it might be, the more we shine the light on these stories, the more difficult it is for impunity to take hold.”

In addition to the concerns she has about the increased dangers of reporting from the field, Amanpour is also troubled by how journalism is consumed today. In today’s age of smartphones, social media and the barrage of viral content, she is concerned that journalism is losing its ability to garner focused attention to pressing issues. With more people self-selecting the news they want to read and superficially lending attention to stories via “likes”, she feels that society is losing its collective consciousness, or the “critical mass that [we] need to affect any kind of reaction to what is happening”. She fears that this “flash in the pan” reporting, makes everything seem important, while at the same time, makes nothing important at all. We came together to #BringBackOurGirls in Nigeria and #JeSuisCharlie after the Paris attacks, but she asks, “What now?” She admits that journalists are still trying to figure out “how to make [technology] work” for them and, in her case, how to engage activism in today’s climate of fleeting attention.

Today, journalists walk a fine line between performing a civic duty to the world, and putting their lives at risk in the face of leaders and organizations that deem us enemies. From Syria to Egypt, from Russia to Turkey, from Mexico to the Philippines, leaders have aimed to punish journalists not only physically, but also by voiding freedom of expression.

They don’t have to kill you, although they do, but they can put you in jail. They can put you on trial. They can just silence you whichever way they want to.

Amanpour has dedicated significant time to questioning those who seek to silence and suppress journalism, sitting face-to-face with leaders like Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and bravely pushing them for answers. However, she recognizes the evolving nature and danger journalism has taken on. While she faces increased challenges of spreading truth to the masses and increased danger in the field, she remains committed to her religion of truth–the same religion of truth that Daniel Pearl risked his life to uphold–to be the “eyes and ears” for all of us at home.
A link to the full audio of the interview can be found here.

June 15, 2016 0 comment

Asia Featured Security and Conflict

Frenemies: Strained Relations Between North Korea and China

written by Susan Oh

Less than two weeks after terrorist attacks in Brussels shook the world, the U.S. hosted the fourth Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, D.C. Representatives from over 50 nations met to continue a discussion started by President Obama in 2009 on the need to secure global nuclear material to prevent nuclear terrorism. While the summit addressed recent terrorist attacks and the threat of ISIL, it also focused on meetings between President Obama, Shinzo Abe (Japan), Geun-hye Park (South Korea), and Xi Jinping (China) to discuss recent advancements in North Korea’s nuclear program. Ironically, just hours after these meetings, North Korea, who was not present at the summit, tested a short-range, anti-aircraft missile off of it’s east coast.

This year, we’ve seen North Korea ramp-up development of its nuclear and weapons programs: it conducted an alleged hydrogen bomb test in January, a rocket launch to space in February, multiple missile launches in March, and weapons tests since early April. This recent activity reflects Kim Jong-un’s commitment to his father’s “Songun”, or “military first” policy by focusing on the expansion of weapons development to secure North Korea’s presence in the global community. He has also taken the policy to a new level through increased, targeted threats to the U.S. and South Korea.

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) is notorious for sending mixed signals regarding its position on nuclear and weapons development. For example, in 2009, North Korea withdrew from the Six Party Talks, a multilateral effort to denuclearize the country, but shortly after increased diplomatic engagement with the international community. In August 2015, North and South Korea engaged in marathon negotiations and reached what was perceived to be a landmark agreement, ending a military standoff between the two nations that occurred just weeks earlier. In December 2015, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon received “positive signs” from North Korea regarding a proposed visit to the country, signaling a possible end to its isolationist behavior. However, a month later in January 2016, DPRK undermined this progress by allegedly detonating its first hydrogen bomb, undoing any peaceful diplomatic efforts it had made until then.

In response to North Korea’s increased nuclear and military activity, the 15-member UN Security Council reached a unanimous vote in early March to toughen sanctions against the country. This agreement was negotiated for weeks between the U.S. and China, whose partnership in countering North Korea’s weapons advancements has strengthened in recent months. At the Nuclear Security Summit, President Obama and President Xi Jinping stated that they were committed to the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and united in wanting to prevent North Korea from carrying out any more nuclear tests. China’s cooperation with the UN Security Council and international community to curb DPRK’s nuclear program adds to growing tensions between China and North Korea, and possibly signals a new era in relations between the two countries.

China has has been North Korea’s largest trading partner and greatest ally since the Korean War, especially after the fall of the Soviet Union. According to the Council of Foreign Relations, China accounts for more than 70% of North Korea’s trade volume and serves as its main source of food, arms and energy, showing just how heavily North Korea relies on its northern neighbor. Economic trade between the two countries do not show signs of slowing, as bulk cargo shipping and high speed bullet train routes were established between the two countries in late 2015. Politically, China has been North Korea’s most outspoken ally, historically opposing sanctions and actively speaking out against reports of human rights violations in the country. More recently, China began to use a mix of both soft and hard power with North Korea, urging North Korean leaders to rejoin the Six Party Talks, but also punishing North Korea’s military activity through sanctions. Militarily, China is obliged to defend North Korea against “unprovoked aggression” under a treaty signed in 1961, but experts believe that China’s commitment to the treaty is waning.

Strained relations between the two countries began a few years after North Korea withdrew from the Nonproliferation Treaty and test-fired several missiles in 2006, under then Supreme Leader Kim Jong-il. For the first time, China took a punitive approach to North Korea’s actions through its support of UN sanctions. Since then, China has also sent mixed messages to the international community regarding its relationship with North Korea. On the one hand, China has been active in publicly denouncing North Korea’s recent military activity. On the other hand, it showed support of Kim Jong-un’s regime by sending a high-level official to Pyongyang to celebrate the seventieth anniversary of North Korea’s ruling party in late 2015. These conflicting actions hint that there is perhaps a deeper and more stable connection between the two countries that is able to resist the day-to-day inconsistencies in behavior toward each other.

It is in China’s interest to maintain stability in the Korean peninsula. If North Korea were to initiate an act of war on either the U.S. or South Korea, China would have to take decisive action on whether or not to defend North Korea; upholding the 1961 security treaty would jeopardize China’s relations with many of its allies, but abandoning the treaty would likely end ties between the two countries. In addition, the collapse of the North Korea’s regime would not only result in an influx of North Korean refugees to China, but would also dismantle the buffer zone that North Korea provides to China. Since the end of the Korean War, U.S. and South Korean troops have been stationed along the demilitarized zone separating North and South Korea. The destabilization of North Korea would bring U.S. and South Korean military forces closer to China’s border, which China does not want. Likewise, North Korea depends on China for the majority of its livelihood: food, aid and energy. With rumors that North Korea is facing another famine, China will be North Korea’s main lifeline for assistance.

Cooperation between China and North Korea is essential to maintaining stability within each country and the region, but Kim Jong-un’s increasingly erratic behavior and unilateral decisionmaking will undoubtedly strain the relationship. Without China’s support, North Korea would become a true hermit kingdom in the global community, isolating its leaders and citizens from any connection to the outside world. While its rocky relationship with China may not be ideal, it is North Korea’s last chance at maintaining some sort of leverage within the international community and nonviolent interaction with the rest of the world, making it one of the most crucial partnerships in foreign relations today.

April 14, 2016 0 comment