Representing Justice on Radio: A Case of Post-war Northern Uganda

Taking the case of the ‘Facing Justice’ radio programme, this research aims to analyse the relationships of power that exist between different actors involved in making the programme. In particular, the study analyses the various meanings of ‘justice’ produced in the programme, using the analytical tools of framing and focalisation. Justice on the radio is an account of meanings created through narratives, and placed within the context of geopolitical relationships of power and ‘donor’ partnerships. This study found that Western-based media agencies can be grounded in specific – often legal and hegemonic - ideologies and definitions of justice. And the study finds that such, strongly legal and retributive definitions, can be at odds with more critical understanding of justice, whether academic or advocacy-based. The gap with local meanings of justice can be even greater, given that justice in a context of the complex relationships of post-war recovery needs to deal with the inequalities and injustices of everyday life, of livelihoods and well-being of the majority. In conclusion, the study finds that whilst definitions of justice in Facing Justice are widely dispersed and multiple, some meanings have become hegemonic, and others are contested, or even ignored. In all the frames, including gender justice, contested terrain remains between dominant legal justice approaches and more locally-based restorative definitions of justice which propose various forms of resistance to hegemonic meanings of justice.