notes on cotabato city

Fact: Cotabato City is not located in North nor in South Cotabato. It used to be the capital of Cotabato Province, which used to be the largest province in the entire country. The province has since been divided into North Cotabato, South Cotabato, Maguindanao, and Sultan Kudarat. 

Fact: Cotabato City is found within the borders of the province of Maguindanao, but is not considered part of that province. (It used to be, though.)

Fact: Cotabato City is "the regional center of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao," but it is not part of the ARMM. It is actually part of Region XII or SOCCSKARGEN.

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The members of the Cotabato City Tourism Council were very accommodating and patient in answering all our questions. More than this, one could sense their genuine pride in sharing with us various facets of their collective story as Cotabateños -- from the Palasyo ng Masa (People's Palace) to the etymology of the name "Cotabato," from the uses of inaul to the "lost wax" brass making process, from the finer points of eating durian to the hows of preparing agar-agar (seaweed) and the different delicacies of the area.  

It was an experience I don't think I'll ever forget, and I do hope to return there someday.

journalists in a 'peace-time democracy'

The "peace-time democracy" mentioned in the title of this post is the Philippines. Under normal circumstances, I would have cheered that my country was being called this. At today's presentation of the 2009 Global Impunity Index of the Committee to Protect Journalists, however, it is most definitely an irony -- considering that, of all the peace-time democracies included in the index, the Philippines ranks highest.

Overall, it is sixth in the index rating of 14 countries -- higher than Afghanistan -- with 24 unsolved journalist murders from 1999 to 2008.

Though the countries topping the list are those currently caught in armed conflict -- Iraq, Sierra Leone, and Somalia -- most that made the list are peace-time democratic countries. Aside from the Philippines, these countries are Russia, Mexico, Brazil (the only newcomer to the index), Bangladesh, and India.  

The index measures the number of unsolved journalist killings in relation to a country's population. As such, the Philippines has 0.273 unsolved journalist killings for every one million people.

an emblematic case

Impunity is defined by Merriam-Webster Online as "exemption or freedom from punishment, harm, or loss."

The fact that the murders of journalists have gone unsolved shows the incompetence or unwillingness -- maybe both -- of the powers-that-be to do anything about them. But more than this, they encourage more killings. They send the message that if you're going to kill a journalist, you're going to get away with it scot-free.

The launch of CPJ's Global Impunity Index today was a way of marking the murder four years ago of Marlene Esperat. Esperat was killed in her own home and in front of her children. 

Though charges were filed late last year, the arrest warrants have not been served. 

The case has become "emblematic of the struggle against impunity," said Elisabeth Witchel, CPJ's impunity campaign coordinator.

just doing their job

Killing a journalist is the ultimate censorship. 

Most -- if not all -- of the journalists killed were playing watchdog in their own localities. And all but one journalist were based in small towns outside Metro Manila, which rarely get any attention from national media. 

The journalists were reporting on corruption and crime. They were speaking out against those who had misused and abused their power.

They were just doing their job. And they were killed for it.

What a thankless job it is indeed. 

If this is the kind of treatment journalists get at peace time, I would not want to know what kind of treatment they would get during a war. 

many small fish

Some very striking concepts and vivid images will remain with me now that the PJ1 workshop has ended.

One of these was the image of a small fish up against a huge, mean-looking fish (a shark?) -- one of the last slides in PECOJON International Coordinator Antonia Koop's presentation.

That is what peace journalists are. No longer part of the status quo, they swim against the tide. They are aware that how they report can contribute to the escalation -- or resolution -- of a conflict.

Many times, we have seen media practitioners making mountains out of molehills, or fanning the flames of conflict. It is unfortunate. But now we know that we don't have to sell conflict, pitt A against B, or report things from the same tired old box. Though we've been trained to recognize conflict as one of the things that make news newsworthy, we know that we don't have to highlight it in our reporting.

It won't happen overnight. But one day, maybe peace journalism will become the status quo. And many small fish together will have the power to change things.

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I had the opportunity of a brief but educational exchange with Antonia. What she said strongly echoed James Nachtwey's sentiments: It's all about the people most affected by conflict situations.

People caught in conflict situations are very much like small fish in the sea of humanity. Media practitioners often reinforce this. While journalists focus on the powerful, the top brass, the big players, and the celebrities, any reportage that examines ordinary people's lives is lost.

Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel said journalism's first obligation is to the truth. Certainly, to tell the truth means more than just to meet the standards of veracity. I think that philosophically -- and maybe from a human interest perspective -- it means finding an ordinary person's truth and telling it.

So this is how we fulfill another of Kovach's and Rosenstiel's journalism standards: to give voice to the voiceless. When we point our cameras and our voice recorders or microphones to tell their stories, it is a glimmer of hope to them, a possibility that maybe -- just maybe -- they matter after all.

'evoking a sense of humanity'

Yesterday's sessions ended with War Photographer, a film documentary about photojournalist James Nachtwey. I found it to be an eye opener not just for Nachtwey's stunning photos, but more so for his insights about his work. Certainly, covering war is one of the most dangerous things one can do -- yet, Nachtwey seems to have succeeded in capturing heartbreakingly truthful images.

Through it all, he has kept a level head. "The people I photographed were much more important than myself," he said in the film. This explains his success in being "invisible" in his documentation of people living in difficult conditions. He is not a paparazzi but a sensitive storyteller. The photos are not eye candy but they must be seen. In the film, he says of his photography, "We must look at it. We're required to look at it. We're required to do something about it." A long pause, and he continues: "If we don't, who will?"

One might describe Nachtwey as an advocate of the power of photojournalism: "The strength of photography is its ability to evoke a sense of humanity," he said. "If used well, it can be a powerful antidote to war."

Fittingly, Nachtwey has won numerous awards. In this TED talk, he accepts his 2007 TED Prize:

when the word 'press' can kill

Today was the start of Peace and Conflict Journalism 1, a training workshop given by the Peace and Conflict Journalism Network (PECOJON) to media practitioners involved in reporting conflict situations. From today up to 10 March, I will try to blog daily about the workshop.

One of the things PECOJON International Coordinator Antonia Koop talked about briefly, by way of introducing tomorrow's sessions, was the changing media landscape. The above title, borrowed from the Al Jazeera documentary Shooting the Messenger, underscores the shift in attitudes toward the press -- and for that matter, toward their work: Previously, identifying oneself as a member of the press could get you a measure of protection, if not respect, for what you did. Today, it can get you killed -- in places like Gaza, for instances.

But we don't have to go very far to cite other examples. Right here, in the Philippines, three journalists have been killed since the start of 2009.

Antonia left us with these thoughts as the last session for the day ended: With such changes in public perception and treatment, how do journalists adapt?

life happened

It's been a while since the last post, and I have no real excuse except this: life happened.

Since the previous post, and as of this writing, a number of issues have cropped up involving the media. Indeed, as long as press freedom is curtailed in any way, the media will continue to be beset with issues.

As such, what I might post on these issues may very well be anticlimactic or even irrelevant at this point.

So, life goes on.

when the media are the message: looking back on the manila pen siege

On November 29, 2007, those who report the news became the news.

At last year's standoff at the Manila Peninsula between Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim, and their men on the one hand, and government forces led by the Philippine National Police on the other, the media found themselves in the middle -- a sort of gray area where the reporter met the reported and became both victim and culprit.

For even as the reporters were teargassed and shot at along with the rebel soldiers after the PNP's 3pm deadline for leaving the hotel, they were among the more than 100 people arrested that day.

The Manila Peninsula incident not only raised many questions on the arrests and on the sometimes opposing sides the media and the government take, it also called attention to how journalists make judgment calls.

They were asked to leave the hotel by 3pm, but did not. A story was unfolding, and they had to be there to cover it.

What happened after the deadline is now known and has been the subject of many editorials, reports, debates, and perhaps most important of all, dialogue.

In a story by Newsbreak's Carmela Fonbuena last year, journalism professor and media ethics advocate Chay Hofileña pointed out that things could have been different:

[S]he expressed the belief that the media should have left the hotel as requested. She agreed that to leave an area of coverage was a reporter’s call, but she questioned the news judgment that was employed in this case. To her, the story did not merit extensive media coverage.

By the time the police requested the media to vacate the hotel shortly before the 3 p.m. deadline, Hofileña said that surely the reporters had already “enough” coverage for their stories. And because the incident occurred in a confined area, “chances of your reporters getting hurt are higher,” she added. “Is it worth putting your reporter’s life on the line? Was the story of such importance? My sense is it was not. There was no massing of people and there were only a few soldiers. It appeared that it wasn’t well organized. From the onset, as experienced journalists, you had an indication that it was doomed to fail.”

Of course it would have been a bigger story had Trillanes and his men succeeded. But the more important point here is the threat to the journalists' safety.

Fortunately -- and no thanks to the soldiers who later on sealed all exits and kept the reporters effectively trapped inside the hotel -- no one was hurt.

When the press conference turned into a war zone, the reporters didn't have to be there. But their being there didn't make them rebels. And it certainly didn't make them conspirators.

At the end of the day -- after the wet handkerchiefs, the smoke, and the handcuffs -- the media were there simply because they had a job to do.

How well they continue to do that job will rest on many things. One of these is how well they make judgment calls to secure their safety or to secure the story no matter what.

notes after a workshop in banaue

The other week, my colleague and I gave a workshop in Banaue, Ifugao Province.

I guided the participants through the basics of news writing while my colleague talked about design and layout-related matters.

It was our first workshop in Banaue -- and I must say, our first at a resort, the Banaue Ethnic Village Inn. The participants, however, were students from the four high schools of Asipulo. Also for the first time, we had older participants as well: the students' advisers, and the editorial staff of the LGU of Asipulo.

Aside from the change in location and environment, it was much like the previous workshops. The participants were there because they wanted to be able to write for and produce their newsletters.

But because it was a mixed group, we had a wider range of questions.

Some of the teachers and LGU staff showed much interest in the practical side of newsletter production -- offset printing and photocopying, for example. An LGU staff wanted to know if identifying people "left to right" in photo captions meant the viewers' left to right. A teacher asked me if the basics of news writing could be applied to the Filipino language, and if their newsletter could be in more than one language.

In all, it was interesting to have this surge of interest in producing school -- and for that matter, LGU -- newsletters. Our LGU contact, in particular, expressed concern that the absence of a newsletter among the community translated to their lack of awareness of ongoing community projects. Did the community members know, for example, that their LGU had bested all the other LGUs in the country to win an award for a community project?

All this should tell us that no matter how small the circulation or how few the pages, a newsletter has very real use -- especially in a remote town like Asipulo. With some areas yet to be electrified, and radio broadcasts and cellphone signals hard to come by, people have to rely on -- and even produce -- their own print media to keep the information flowing.

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There's more I'd like to say about this workshop: how inspiring it was to interact with the students and teachers, how gracious the owners and staff of the resort all were, how cold and crisp the air was in this part of Banaue, how verdant the mountains and trees were, how fresh the vegetables tasted, how special it felt to be served lemons when I had asked for calamansi. 

But my colleague has already blogged about all this. For a much better story, see her blog here. Anything I write after her account is, to be honest, a bit anticlimactic.

ma journ fellowship application period starts

Applications for the 2009 Fellowships for the Master of Arts in Journalism are now being accepted by the Konrad Adenauer Asian Center for Journalism at the Ateneo de Manila University (ACFJ).

Fifteen fellowships are awarded yearly.

Deadline of applications for the coming academic year is January 16, 2009.

The fellowships are awarded to full-time Asian journalists who have outstanding professional and academic record, a strong commitment to good journalism and leadership qualities. A grant covers tuition and other expenses for the two-year MA Journalism program offered by the Ateneo de Manila University.

As of March 2008, about 60 working journalists from Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Sri Lanka have earned the degree.

Designed for working journalists, the MA Journalism program is an online distance learning program with limited classroom sessions held at the Ateneo campus in Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines.

The curriculum consists of 12 courses including specialized reporting and writing courses such as International Reporting, Investigative Journalism and Reporting about Religions. The program is designed to allow working journalists and other media professionals to study at their own pace and time, and in their own homes or workplaces. The international faculty includes experienced journalists and academics from Australia, Canada, US, UK, Germany, the Philippines, India, and Malaysia.

ACFJ, a joint project of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) and the Ateneo, was founded in June 2000 to promote good journalism in Asia by providing training opportunities primarily for working journalists.

For admission to the MA program, a separate set of application forms are required. These are also available from ACFJ or the
Ateneo's Office of Graduate Studies (OGS).

For more details, please contact Rose Madjos or Clara Baquilod at (+632) 4266001 locals 5296 and 5211. Or visit the ACFJ website at http://www.ateneo.edu/acfj.

online youth unite

It's about time young netizens of the world were recognized as a force to reckon with.

This article from inquirer.net strengthens the idea that today's online youth can do much, much more than IM and connect with their friends on Facebook or Myspace.

According to the article, the US State Department plans to tap online youth groups in the fight against terrorism and crime.

To get things started, 17 youth groups will come together on December 3 to 5 for a conference at the Columbia University Law School.

Although groups without an online presence will also participate in the conference, these plans demonstrate that having an online presence is an empowering force.

In many cases and for countless organizations and even individuals worldwide, it spells the difference between having a worthwhile cause and mobilizing people for that cause.

Read more about the US State Department's plans to empower online youth here.