The armed conflicts that caused the most severe humanitarian crises in 2014 were in South Sudan, the Central African Republic, Iraq, and Syria. All of them were situations designated by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) as Level 3 (L3), the highest level of emergency. In addition to casualties from violence in the conflicts, large numbers of refugees and internally displaced persons emerged, and disease and food shortages produced massive humanitarian crises.

Resource-rich South Sudan officially gained independence from Sudan in 2011, but the power struggle between the president and vice president escalated into armed conflict. By 2014, about 1.5 million internally displaced persons had been created. In the Central African Republic, although rebel forces overthrew the government, conflict intensified due to backlash against the new regime, and in connection with that, religious and ethnic groups became targets of massacres and persecution. According to OCHA, even in 2016, when the conflict had somewhat subsided, the humanitarian crisis persisted, with 2.3 million people—more than half the population—requiring humanitarian assistance. In Iraq, the armed group IS (Islamic State) seized control of the north of the country and also expanded into Syria, which was already embroiled in another armed conflict. Large numbers of refugees and internally displaced persons emerged from both countries, and at the same time numerous areas became inaccessible for humanitarian assistance due to security concerns.

However, the volume of reporting on conflicts around the world did not reflect the severity of each crisis. The figure below shows the total amount of Yomiuri’s conflict reporting for 2014 (the total number of characters in articles primarily about conflicts). Coverage of the Central African Republic was almost nonexistent. There were only four articles over the entire year, and one of them focused on a Japanese UN volunteer. Coverage of South Sudan was greater than that of the Central African Republic, but still relatively limited. Moreover, in the background of that coverage was the dispatch by the Japanese government to UN peacekeeping operations (PKO), and 18 out of 29 articles mentioned Japan’s involvement.

(Data collection: Naho Hashimoto, Sota Dokai)

As for Iraq and Syria, there was comparatively more reporting on the conflicts, and the volume of coverage may appear commensurate with the humanitarian toll; however, in both cases most reporting focused on IS, and especially in Syria, one could say the overall picture of the complex conflict—including other armed groups inside and outside the country—was not adequately conveyed.

That said, by far the most heavily covered conflict in 2014 was Ukraine. From the standpoint of the humanitarian crisis caused by the conflict, it was smaller in scale than the conflicts above, yet it received many times more coverage (for example, 154 times that of the Central African Republic). Major factors included the fact that it occurred in Europe, which news organizations routinely prioritize. In addition, the involvement of the great power Russia (especially the Crimea issue) and the shooting down of a civilian airliner were major reasons for the attention.

Finally, the Israel–Palestine conflict, which is comparatively smaller in scale, also drew major attention, and a factor behind this is the strong political interest in the United States. Globally as well, many news organizations tend to show consistently strong interest in this conflict regardless of the scale of the conflict or their own national interests.

In domestic reporting, the scale of a problem—such as the number of victims resulting from an incident or accident—is a major determinant of how much coverage it receives; but when it comes to international reporting, in many cases the relationship between the scale of a problem and the amount of coverage is very weak. With regard to armed conflicts, it is no exaggeration to say that the most important factors are not the scale of harm, but which country and which race the victims belong to.

Writer: Virgil Hawkins
Graphics: JT-FSD