Preventing Genocide: a tribute to CNN

In some circles “CNN-bashing” is still a great sport. “Too American, too superficial, too conservative!”. And yet, while most other commercial media have been focused on the financial meltdown and the economic recession the Atlanta-based news channel has been broadcasting Scream Bloody Murder, (http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2008/scream.bloody.murder/index.html)
a fabulous and courageous programme on, guess what?, genocide.

Most media seem to be unaware that we are approaching the 60th anniversary of the adoption by the United Nations on December 8, 1948 of the Convention on the Prevention and the Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. CNN has not forgotten and by doing so the TV channel has made a very strong editorial statement. Despite all surveys and conventional wisdom implying that the public likes dumb and frivolous programmes, contrary to other media that downsize foreign news and serious commentary, CNN has bet on the intelligence and the ethics of its viewers.
The leader of this project, Christiane Amanpour is no stranger to genocide. She was one of the most committed journalists in the coverage of the horrors of the Balkan wars in the 90s. Sarajevo was her first war assignment and it was followed by Rwanda and other killing fields.
In the last months she has again travelled the globe to produce this documentary on the world’s most heinous crime. But this documentary is much more than reportage, much more than a succession of interviews with victims and children of victims. It practices a journalism of historical context and provides perspective, an approach that should be the essence of journalism but that, in reality, is becoming an exception in the soundbite-crazy and quick-paced mediasphere.
The programme brings a wealth of information on the issue: it tells the story of the Jewish Polish lawyer Raphaël Lemkin who, so shocked by the 1915 Armenian genocide in Turkey, spent his life working on the concept of “extermination of nations” and coined the word genocide, in reference to the Holocaust (in which 40 members of his family were killed). It depicts the tragedies and insanities of Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda and Darfur. It interviews victims and perpetrators, it fathoms out the darkest side of humanity.
It brings however a profound humanist message by showing that some people just said No. They refused to become the foot soldiers of extermination, they took immense risks to rescue their fellow human beings. Others, journalists, diplomats, humanitarian workers, priests, human rights activists, denounced, testified and advocated for a strong action by the "international community" to intervene and stop the mass killings.
“Thank goodness for the few good men and women who summon the courage to do something in the face of evil, to stand up and confront it, says Christiane Amanpour. They give me hope”.

Watch the programme. Boost the ratings. Send a message to the cynics of the media industry, tell them that quality and humanity can attract viewers. Write to CNN to congratulate them for daring to go against the grain.