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Pasternack addresses conference on media conflict

Date: 08/01/2001
Writer: Julie M. Hughes, 575-646-1953, juhughes@nmsu.edu

The head of journalism at New Mexico State University recently spoke to more than 150 journalists from across Indonesia about the role of media in escalating conflict.



From left, Voice of America Governor Mark Ledbetter, Common Ground Executive Director Sandra Mellone, Voice of America East Asia Editor Don Benson and New Mexico State journalism department head Steven Pasternack in Jakarta, Indonesia, at the July 25-26

Steven Pasternack, journalism and mass communications department head at New Mexico State, addressed a Voice of America Conference July 25-26 in Jakarta, Indonesia.

At the conference titled "The Role of Media in Covering Conflict," Pasternack spoke about the role of the media in Africa.

"I referred specifically to the media in Rwanda in 1994 calling for the slaughter of people based on their ethnicity and the large role the media played in the genocide that took almost a million lives," Pasternack said.

Pasternack spent a six-month sabbatical leave last year in Rwanda. Funded by a Fulbright grant, he helped to build a journalism program at the national university.

Voice of America, a multimedia international broadcasting service supported by the U.S. government, has correspondents and news bureaus throughout the world.

During his trip, Pasternack also conducted a one-week workshop for journalists from seven southeast Asia nations in Bangkok, Thailand. His training covered writing, editing, ethics and law.

He will conduct two training workshops, one for reporters and one for editors, during August in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The trip, which is sponsored by the Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, also will include a meeting with educators at the national university about curriculum development.

Photo is available at http://kiernan.nmsu.edu/newsphoto/pasternack.jpg.
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