Despite a turnout of less than 10, organizers of Carleton’s first annual Journalists for Human Rights (jhr) conference said they considered the March 10 event a success.
jhr is a Canadian organization that harnesses the power of the media to promote awareness of and media coverage of human rights issues.
The Carleton chapter is one of many across North America. The group organizes events to raise money for their head office and to alert more journalism students about the issues.
“When we initially started this [conference], our idea was to have a packed classroom,” said Carleton jhr president Monique Elliot.
But despite the 47 confirmed guests on the conference Facebook page, the delegates and most of the Carleton jhr executive barely filled the first three rows of the classroom.
After expenses like room booking, AV equipment, and parking and gifts for the guest speakers, Elliot said the event “definitely ended up in the red.”
“But I feel it was successful in getting a core group of people more dedicated to what they believe in,” she said.
Elliot said she received mostly positive feedback throughout the day, and those who attended were able to delve deep into important issues and have meaningful discussions.
After a short introduction, two former Carleton students shared their experiences from their three-month jhr internship in Ghana.
Later, a panel of three women whose husbands had been arrested for allegedly engaging in acts of terrorism spoke about their experiences – mostly negative – with the media following each arrest.
Fourth-year journalism student Yaelle Gang led a discussion about how journalists can act responsibly and without bias in light of the recent viral Internet campaign Kony 2012.
Ken Zolotar, jhr’s youth engagement co-ordinator, said those who didn’t attend the conference “missed out.”
“[This was] an opportunity to improve their skills as journalists,” he said via email.
“And to connect with the core message of journalism: to give voice to the voiceless and find truth in challenging places.”
What went wrong for the conference was a combination of communication breakdowns among organizers, differing priorities among the executive, and three important guest speakers falling through, Elliot said.
“It was one of those things where the logistics didn’t work out,” she said. “And we need a real superstar to front this. I’m one of those people who are actually better as the right hand.”
Carleton jhr has raised over $1,000 this year from awareness events HollerDay and Night for Rights.
She said the group will build on what they learned so they can make the conference much better next year.
“This chapter works really hard, and the people dedicated to it want to push the message further so people realize, ‘Yeah, we’re still here, we’re actually doing work,” Elliot said.
“And the more enthusiasm we get on board, the more we can do.”
