Disaster Dispatch
 
Editorial 
Learning from each other
Duryog Nivaran and Disaster Mitigation Institute (India) organized a regional Policy Forum on "South Asian Disasters: Future of Mitigation" in New Delhi, India, on 5-6 February 1999. A special session of this conference was allocated to bring the prevailing media reactions towards disasters in focus. Papers from each of the South Asian countries were presented there to give the country-specific overview of media dealing with disaster. During discussion the need to sensitize media in the case of disaster reporting was recognised unanimously. It was also deliberated that alternative channels of communication must be invoked to forge and strengthen a holistic strategy of disaster mitigation in the countries of South Asia. 

To proceed with the issues in consent, a South Asian Media Group on Disaster Mitigation was formed to develop linkages, disseminate information and strengthen alternative perspective on disaster mitigation. 

It was also suggested that incorporation of local knowledge systems in mainstream planning should also be accredited, specifically in disaster mitigation matters.
A South Asian perspective to understand disaster and vulnerability could become fully feathered by documenting and sharing the local wisdom behind centuries old coping strategies in the region. As a result, an advice for integrated intervention in disaster prevention and vulnerability reduction can be offered to the mainstream planning.

Disaster Dispatch is an effort to realize such an understanding. The understanding- more specifically speaking- is to set a propensity of seeing, reporting and analyzing disasters in media by cognizing the disaster-development linkages and socio-economic undercurrents of society in general.

It will be a bimonthly production, carrying the news stories of disasters, statistics of losses, profiles and interviews of victims, local mitigation initiatives, analytical comments on disaster events, reports on government initiatives, local responses and folk narratives on disasters etc. Victim-based and process-intensive reporting of disasters is to be considered the major theme to be introduced through this venture. South Asia may preferably be taken as a locus of thinking circulation in this regard. 

We welcome your comments, suggestions and contribution.
Amjad Bhatti  afbhatti@hotmail.com
Phone: 92 51 8 088, 8 009
Duryog Nivaran dnnet@itdg.lanka.net
Journalists Resource Centre jrc@syberwurx.com

An Online Bimonthly on South Asian Disasters  (June- July 1999) 
South Asia Media Group on Disaster Mitigation 
Collaboration: Duryog Nivaran, Sri Lanka & Journalists Resource Centre  Pakistan

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