Shyama has taken on pioneering work for most of her career. Heading One World Media, highly regarded in the developing world as well as in the UK where it is headquartered, she is overseeing an organisation that runs a prestigious annual journalism awards event attracting international entries and supported by all leading media networks.
Sitting with the patio door open at a big table in the kitchen of her London home, Shyama explained what One World Media does.
“One World Media celebrates good media practise about, in, and from the global South. By media we mean film, print, or online content made anywhere in the world, covering stories in the developing world. The test is whether it’s ethical. By that, we mean: accurate, inclusive, evidenced, independent, and accountable. We also provide bursaries for students making stories in developing countries. Our partners include BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera, Sky News, ITN News, Channel 4 News and Google. The agenda is Fair Filming and fair journalism.”
Asked for an example of ethics, Perera says: “Take Sherpa Tenzing and Edmund Hillary. Tenzing was on home ground. He understood the terrain, the people, the language, the customs, the pitfalls, and he negotiated them to make it work for Hillary. Journalists are sent to alien landscapes at a moment’s notice. There, we rely on ‘fixers’ to broker our stories and make them happen, but fixers are never given opportunities to develop their skills and become the suppliers of frontline content. OWM is currently working on a scheme to bring the best fixers working for the UK arms of western media networks onto a training scheme that would equip them to report directly for those organisations. That’s ethical practice at its best.”
She continues: “One of my jobs in my year at OWM, is to highlight the importance of Fair Filming. It’s not just looking after those who work for you, but those you portray, and this applies equally to the huge media networks in the developing world as to those in the west. Is permission sought before you film people; are they being safeguarded; are both sides of the story being given; have you left their environment as you found it? What about access? When footage will still be available on a server somewhere in twenty years time, people must know how they have been portrayed, because it can come back to bite you. We can sum it up using Eastern principles: always treat others as you would have them treat you.”
For Shyama, the most uplifting prize at the annual awards evening is for media from an emerging country. Recent winners include a TV station in Azerbaijan, a radio station in Lagos. There are prizes too for best international reporting, documentary, student short films, published print, and online journalism. New media networks like Vice and Monocle actively compete against the old guard.
“We have put markers down that apply across the world, developing or developed. We also have a new focus at a time when anyone can record and film on an iPhone, creating content and posting on Twitter, Buzzfeed and Reddit in seconds. Citizen journalists are starting to move into the front line and we’re looking at ways of demonstrating good practice to them, so they too can work and compete professionally. OWM asks everyone: “have you thought about how you are doing it, whether you’re being fair, and how that content will affect others?”
It looks as though Shyama is the person who will be making sure media organisations address and answer that question.
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“It’s not just looking after those who work for you, but those you portray”
