Maria Ressa's Blog, page 2

The future of journalism in the world's most dangerous place for journalists

Editor’s note: Ressa, head of the ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs Group and former CNN Jakarta Bureau Chief, wrote this piece for the blog of the CNN show, AMANPOUR. It was originally posted on December 9, 2009 at 12:32 pm.

Since this was published, the death toll escalated to 58, and according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Philippines dropped to third globally in terms of impunity behind Somalia and Iraq.

Fifty seven people killed in broad daylight, 30 of them journalists. It was premeditated murder because even before they were ambushed, their graves were dug. It was the worst election-related violence we have ever seen and the deadliest single attack on journalists anywhere around the world.

This is a story about the courage of one anonymous Filipino – a citizen journalist – who risked his life three times on Monday, November 23 to tell the world about the massacre in the southern Philippines. His courage gave the world the first photograph of the carnage released to the public. It also shows how professional journalists and citizen journalists can work together to circumvent fear, prevent a whitewash and get the Truth out.

ABS-CBN’s citizen journalism program began during our 2007 elections. We called it “Boto Mo, I-Patrol Mo.” Translated it means, “Patrol Your Votes.” It was the first time globally that a broadcast media organization used the power of mass media and combined it with mobile phone technology and new media for a political purpose: to help ensure elections are free and fair.

It’s important in the Philippines because our elections have always been plagued by rampant cheating and violence. The Philippine National Police declared the 2007 elections the most peaceful in our history – with only about 130 people killed in 217 incidents of poll-related violence.

It’s all relative isn’t it?  But this is what we live with.

Our culture in the Philippines is more passive than our western counterparts because of a history of feudalism and patronage politics.  It’s left most of our people believing they have little power to effect change.  So for 2010, we pushed to encourage personal empowerment and responsibility – “BOTO MO, I-PATROL MO: AKO ANG SIMULA” (Patrol Your Votes: Change Begins With Me).

Our May 2010 elections are particularly important.  It’s the first time ever that this country will try automated elections.  It’s historic, yes, but it also means that those who are used to cheating in elections will now have to find new ways of manipulating the ballots.

That uncertainty along with a culture of impunity in parts of the Philippines where political warlords command private armies created a combustible mixture that led to the massacre – in broad daylight – of nearly 60 people, including 30 journalists.  All sparked by one man, Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu, who decided – for the first time ever – to challenge an Ampatuan for the office of governor.  The Ampatuans have held power in Maguindanao since 2001 and have run unchallenged in every election since then.

Mangudadatu was warned that if he filed his certificate of candidacy, he would be killed.  So he sent his wife and two sisters, along with female lawyers and 30 journalists.  He believed his rival would not attack women.  He believed journalists would be safe.  He was wrong.

As we journalists were confirming exactly what happened that dreadful Monday, a citizen journalist – whom we call a patroller – emailed us three times, first at 3:47 pm, again at 3:58 pm and finally at 8:48 pm.

Based on what we received, we believe this patroller was a member of the security forces, probably the military because soldiers were first on the scene, or a member of the Mangudadatu family.  At the time the picture was sent at 8:48 pm, they were the only two groups to have visited the site.

We believe this man (at this point only men had been allowed at the site) wanted to make sure there was no whitewash.  So he emailed us, hoping we would tell the world about it.  We did.

His first post said, “Maguindanao gubernatorial aspirant Toto Mangudadatu’s wife was kidnapped together with two sisters of Mangudadatu and media men as well as legal counsels.”

He then wrote that the security forces charged with maintaining law and order – the Philippine National Police or the PNP and the military (in this case, the 6th Infantry Division) – actually allowed this to happen.  He told us why, and he told us who was behind the kidnapping.  He wrote: “The PNP were immobile because they were under the command/control of the incumbent Maguindanao government – Ampatuan family.  The 6th ID army have played dumb and blind despite heightened reports that there is a plot against Toto Mangudadatu.”

He emailed again eleven minutes later, this time asking for an impartial investigation because “the atrocities of Ampatuan family in Maguindanao is a secret public knowledge.  All are immobile for their fear of life.  These people are playing gods here.”

Nearly five hours later, he emailed a photograph – the first of the gruesome crime scene.  The photo seemed hastily taken because it was a badly framed picture of bodies in front of a white van – the kind of photo you could discreetly take from a cellphone camera held below the waist.  Two soldiers are at the periphery of the shot.  At that point, professional journalists had been prevented from visiting the site.  In fact, our reporter, Lerio Bompat, would be the first journalist to arrive at the scene and send a photo – more than twelve hours later.

On that first day, no one knew what would happen nor the extent of the crime.  Shortly before we received the photograph from our patroller, the military said it recovered 21 bodies from the site.  The military spokesman confirmed what our patroller wrote us hours earlier –  that members of the police as well as local government officials, including Mayor Andal Ampatuan, Jr. were allegedly part of the group which carried out the massacre.

At that point, everyone in Maguindanao was shocked and frightened.  It would be days before others would voice what our patroller had written.  On the day of the world’s single deadliest attack on journalists, we have a picture of our future with citizen journalists – people who are no longer disinterested nor objective but who have everything at stake.

The reality is that if this patroller had been caught by Ampatuan’s men he would have been killed.  Yet, he took the risk and told a compelling story about the breakdown of law and order in a community ruled by fear.

A week after the massacre, our citizen journalists – our patrollers – remain unusually agitated and uncharacteristically angry.  The call for justice is palpable.  On phone, via text messages and on email, they sent dozens of tips.  Hundreds clamored for retribution, and demanded death for the killers “by firing squad,” “by electric chair,” “by hanging.”  One patroller was unusually cruel: “we want to chop him up alive into 57 pieces to be given to the families of his 57 victims.”

As we condemn and mourn the deaths of our colleagues, we know the Truth will emerge.  Now we journalists have help.

Position Paper on Role of Media During Conflict Situations

Thank you for asking us to submit a position paper on the role of the media in conflict situations.  We have three parts:

1.    Media’s Role in our Society
2.    The Results of our Preliminary Investigation on Aug. 23
3.    ABS-CBN’s Standards & Ethics Manual: Ten Sections on Conflict Reporting

Media’s Role in our Society

In any democracy, there is a symbiotic relationship between the government and media, particularly during times of crisis.  Government officials must resolve the crisis, managing information for that end goal.  Journalists report events for the public, which holds them accountable for their actions.

Each of us has a distinct role to play.  The government, which has the monopoly of power, controls the situation and sets the ground rules.  That has always been the way it’s done, and the way it is expected to be done.

Media cannot do government’s job, just as you cannot expect government to do media’s job.

In more than two decades of reporting from conflict situations, I can tell you from experience that the rules always change depending on the situation, depending on the judgment calls made by the crisis leader.  I’d like to give you three examples of instances where authorities made requests and we followed.

Let’s go to March 2007 to a similar hostage-taking but with a very different outcome.  Then, it wasn’t a former policeman but a former marine.  Like Mendoza, this hostage taker was upset by perceived injustice.  Armed and holding a grenade, he took the Taguig Hall of Justice and four people hostage.  It lasted nearly 24 hours – and ended with the death of the hostage taker and the safe release of all four hostages.

During that incident, we had reporters and camera teams inside the Hall of Justice, but when the authorities requested we move out and go further away, we followed.  We reported that incident live.

Two years earlier in March 2005, we had the Bicutan siege – another crisis that lasted a little more than 24 hours.  Prisoners took the weapons of their guards, took control of their quarters and barricaded themselves in.

Although we were able to get inside, when authorities asked us to pull back and move to a site far from the prison, we did.  The police then cordoned off the area.  Vantage points, even at a distance, were not allowed.  One photographer climbed a water tank to try to get exclusive pictures.  The police immediately asked him to come down.

The third example was in November 2007 when military rebels effectively captured the Peninsula hotel.  Authorities called us before they began their assault and asked us not to show live pictures of the troops and the tank which burst through the doors of the Peninsula.  We followed and when the assault began, we trained our cameras on the façade of a nearby building.

Which brings me to an important point.  Not all conflicts are the same.  For example, our Standards & Ethics Manual makes a distinction between reporting crime – like the August 23 hostage taking – and political conflicts – like coup attempts and insurgencies. These are only some of the different types of conflicts covered in our Standards & Ethics Manual.

ABS-CBN also learns from each incident, trying to balance the State’s vested interests and our watchdog role.  In 2005, we followed authorities’ requests closely during the Bicutan siege.  However, at the end of the police assault, 26 people were dead in an operation the Commission on Human Rights condemned as “excessive.”

An International Criminal Justice Review document stated: “the evidence suggest that the Bicutan siege was a premeditated and concerted effort of the national government to eliminate identified enemies of the State (the members of the Abu Sayyaf Group or ASG) notwithstanding that they were already under government custody and were on or awaiting trial for their criminal acts.”

Media has an important role to play in our country because our institutions are weak, law & order is weak, corruption is endemic, and power is often abused.  A week before the hostage-taking, the Manila Police District faced charges of torture based on a cellphone video obtained by ABS-CBN.

When you put the facts together, the journalists’ watchdog role is necessary and dangerous.  Just barely four months ago, the Committee to Protect Journalists ranked the Philippines third globally in terms of our culture of impunity, behind only conflict-ridden Somalia and Iraq.

There is no better example of the role journalists play – and the risks we take – than the Ampatuan massacre last November.  Then, the Mangudadatus, like many Filipinos who feel vulnerable, thought that the mere presence of journalists would give some measure of safety.

I’d like, your Honors, to state for the record that it is an insult to journalists to say that we only do what we do because of ratings.  Ask Maan Macapagal and Ces Drilon who spent years reporting on the Abu Sayyaf, Jorge Carino, who covered the post-Maguindanao massacre skirmishes,  Pia Hontiveros, Jay Ruiz, Dindo Amparo, and Tony Velasquez, who covered the MILF and MNLF conflicts.  All of us have been in conflict situations, and ratings are the furthest thing from our minds.  The reason we risk our lives is to tell the story.  That is how journalists save lives. Because often, the presence of a camera, of one reporter, makes it just a little safer for those caught in the conflict.  People are more civilized when a camera is on.

I am proud of the men and women of ABS-CBN News.  Many of us were torn by the events on Aug 23 and were affected for days.  I have analyzed every moment of that day, and I can tell you we did our best with the situation handed to us because we were not in control.

None of us knew where it all was headed, but these decisions don’t wait.  You have to make them when you have to make them. So we did what we could and pinpointed where we could have done better.

We immediately assessed and released our preliminary findings three days later on Aug. 26.

ABS-CBN Statement on Aug. 23 Hostage Tragedy

Media’s job is to tell the story, but no story is worth even one life.

We will always cooperate with authorities in trying to resolve complex situations like the Aug. 23 hostage crisis.

If the government had called for a news blackout that day, ABS-CBN would have supported it.

We are done with an initial assessment of our coverage and continue to review our policies.

We exercised self-restraint on Monday:

1.    We refused to air the hostage taker’s threats live about a 3 pm deadline to avoid fuelling public fear.
2.    We refused to air the hostage taker’s interview until after negotiations were finished.
3.    We refused to be part of hostage negotiations.
4.    All throughout the day and until the first shots were aired, we kept our cameras 400 meters away from the bus, giving us shaky video that viewers complained about.  Our teams never crossed the police line.
5.    Although we had access to members of the police reaction team, we held back interviews which could compromise their plans and/or location.
6.    After the police tried to arrest the hostage taker’s brother, our team physically stepped back to comply with police request.
7.    After the assault began, we tried to limit our shots to avoid showing police movements.  We stayed with extreme close-ups or wide shots.
8.    We immediately complied when police asked us to turn off our lights explaining the grainy shots viewers complained about.
9.    We avoided tampering with evidence at crime scene.  Instead, we asked Soco to shoot the video instead of entering the bus ourselves.

This wasn’t enough.

We acknowledge airing a report that detailed the position of the police during the assault.

During the arrest of Gregorio Mendoza, we considered pulling away from the coverage but a man was crying for help.

In other countries around the world, governments set the ground rules for situations like this.  One network cannot unilaterally declare a news blackout.  Press freedom issues take a back seat during situations like this – where the government already has the power to define the terms to media.

We are taking the public’s views to heart.  Monday’s tragic events triggered intense soul-searching for us.  Such is the irony of a profession that wields so much power but relies entirely on self-doubt to gain – and keep – its credibility.

We ask our broadcast colleagues to join us in an industry review.  Let us unite and work together to put in place measures to collectively decide when we stop live coverage in the absence of government presence of mind.

Standards & Ethics Manual

We are submitting ten relevant sections on crisis reporting in ABS-CBN’s Standards & Ethics Manual:

5-16    Covering Crime
5-17    Threats and Claims of Responsibility
5-18    Covering Hostage/Barricade Situations
5-19    Covering Terrorism/Riots
5-20    Covering Contagious Diseases
5-21    Covering Religion
5-22    Stereotyping
5-23    Hostile Situations
5-24    Covering War
5-25    Information from Other Sources

These sections show our “policy is to report news, not suppress it,” that we “avoid becoming part of the incident,” and that we generally “obey instructions given by police or other authorities.”

However, all these guidelines are based on independent news judgment, determined by the reporting team in consultation with senior news management.

We take seriously media’s watchdog role in our society and are often hardest on ourselves. All these guidelines reflect our news organization’s commitment to preserve life and dignity while performing our role in our democracy – to give the public the information it needs.

Thank you.

ABS-CBN steps up 'Ako ang Simula' campaign

You are powerful.  You will make a difference.  If we all come together now, we will reach the tipping point when change becomes inevitable and irreversible.  These are the ideas behind Boto Mo, I-Patrol Mo: Ako ang Simula, and there is no better time than now.

When friends and family overseas ask me what it’s like to live in the Philippines today, I tell the story of a famous science experiment that’s been used to describe the Middle East, global warming, and in my book, Indonesia right before the fall of Suharto.  It’s about a frog and its survival instincts.  If you throw a frog in a pot of boiling water, it immediately jumps out. But if you put the frog in the pot on a burner with cool tap water, it stays there.  Then you slowly turn up the heat.  The temperature rises.  The frog, which can jump out of the pot at any time, gets so used to the water that it doesn’t feel the gradual changes in temperature.  Soon, the water is boiling and the frog dies in the pot, its natural instincts for self-preservation lulled into a fatal complacency.  That is what is happening today.

When Congress passed House Bill 1109 calling for a Constituent Assembly without the Senate, it changed our society.  The heat has been turned up, and despite assurances that we will have elections, yet another line has been crossed in the sand like Proclamation 1017 in 2006, the arrests of journalists at the Peninsula in 2007, the ongoing killings of journalists and activists – and just this weekend, the assassination of Sumilao farmer Rene Penas.

Along with the Constituent Assembly, congressmen also threatened to pass House Bill 3306, the right of reply – which if turned into law would put a sledgehammer in the hands of vested interests for the purpose of killing an ant.  By using that hammer, it risks destroying the entire structure the ant is standing on.  As it stands now, outdated Marcos-era laws like “obstruction of justice” and “wiretapping” are being revived and given new meaning to intimidate, harass and arrest journalists.  But those “laws” pale in comparison to what can be done to stifle dissent and free speech with the right of reply bill.

Journalists, united across news groups, organized last week to protest.  We called it unconstitutional, a form of prior restraint.  The bill is incomplete, chaotic, impossible to implement and a throwback to an authoritarian past at a time when the rest of the world is embracing new media and technology.  (It will affect bloggers and anyone else writing on the internet!)  While it wasn’t passed, it continues to hang like a Damocles’ sword over our heads.  The heat has been turned up again.

If you look closely, there are many instances like this affecting different groups – which ultimately change our society – and not for the better.  The strategy is effective: focus on the details and parse the Truth.  I recognize it from my days reporting on Suharto.  When you parse the Truth, details – disconnected from a larger whole – lose their meaning, and it becomes difficult to assess exactly when the line has been crossed … or in the case of the frog, when it’s time to jump out.  This is a time that requires vigilance and courage.

Last month (one year before elections), ABS-CBN and our partners, Globe, Bayan, STI, the Philippine Star, BusinessWorld, Comelec, PPCRV, Namfrel and YouthVote Philippines launched Boto Mo, I-Patrol Mo: Ako ang Simula nationwide – in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.  In one day, thousands of people lined up in the hot sun, waiting for hours to register to vote and become boto patrollers – citizens who promise to use new media and their cellphones to patrol the vote and push for clean elections in May 2010.  We held the first of our leadership series – with presidential candidates Francis Escudero, Richard Gordon, Ed Panlilio, Mar Roxas and Gilbert Teodoro – and we had to turn people away at the Ateneo auditorium!  The enthusiasm and the thirst for new ways of doing things was palpable that night.

It was the unofficial beginning of election season.  Comelec credited our aggressive registration drive for helping increase voter registration by 456% from April to May.  We weren’t alone.  We helped ignite a plurality of efforts – youth groups like First Time Voters, YouthVote Philippines and Ayala Young Leaders, along with politicians like Register and Vote (RV) and Kaya Natin.  Even the sometimes controversial Ako Mismo campaign followed and pushed the same idea of individual will and effort.

This month, we take it a step further.  On June 5, we held our second leadership forum, this time at the University of the Philippines with Jejomar Binay, Joseph Estrada, Bayani Fernando and Loren Legarda (Ping Lacson announced he would drop out of the race that night).  Like the first one, students lined up and were turned away after the house was packed hours before the program was slated to begin.  Despite the rains, they refused to go home, instead choosing to sit on the floor outside watching the monitors.  Inside, the candidates and audience braved the barely functioning airconditioning for nearly three hours for a spirited, substantive and often funny dialogue.  The forum aired on ANC live on June 5, on Studio 23 on June 6 and on ABS-CBN on June 7.  You can watch online on abs-cbnNEWS.com.

On June 11, ABS-CBN took the signature drumbeats from 2007’s Boto Mo, I-Patrol Mo to form the foundation of our music video launch of Ako ang Simula, spearheaded by singer-songwriter Rico Blanco, Imago lead singer Aia de Leon and Sandwich frontman Raimund Marasigan. They are joined by Barbie, Sinosikat, Rocksteddy, Chicosci, the Ambassador, Salamin, Pochoy, AstroJuan, the reporters, anchors and managers of ABS-CBN News in a musical call for change: “Wag nang mahimbing sa sariling mundo/Wag nang iwaldas ang dekadang bago/Ako ang tutupad sa pangakong ito/Ako ang Simula ng pagbabago.” It was shown live on ABS-CBN, ANC and Studio 23.

June’s cornerstone is Independence Day, our effort to fast-forward its meaning to the twenty-first century.  The core of our campaign is how traditional media can combine with new media and mobile phone technology to transform society and clean up our elections.  In 2007, we empowered ordinary Filipinos and they rose to the challenge – 500 messages a day in the run-up to elections and more than 2,000 messages on election day!  That is only a rehearsal for what we can collectively do in 2010.

On June 12, the full force of ABS-CBN kicks into high gear again nationwide – in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao – and, this time, internationally – in the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Australia.  Comelec works on a holiday so you can register to vote.  Become a boto patroller in 19 ABS-CBN stations nationwide and with anchors Pinky Webb in Legazpi City, Julius Babao in Iloilo City and Ces Drilon in General Santos City.  All day coverage begins at 5:15 in the morning and ends after midnight the next day.

The times, they are a-changing, and we are keeping pace.  Millions of Filipinos are taking part in our efforts through traditional media, but new media gives a chance for immediate feedback and action.  That is changing societies globally, and it is happening here. There are so many inspirational moments in the past month and a half – moments of yearning, anger, joy and tremendous patience from thousands of Filipinos waiting hours in lines – to register and vote, to become a boto patroller, to watch the leadership forums – which at one point had nearly 150,000 people chatting and tweeting (using twitter) on new media.  On the first night, the number of people who registered using their mobile phones increased by 1,700% after a TV Patrol World story!

Let me end the way I began and come full circle.  The heat is rising.  What we choose to do is up to each of us.  The core of our campaign is simple.  You are powerful.  You will make a difference.  If we all come together now, we will reach the tipping point when change – real, positive change – becomes inevitable and irreversible.  If you’ve had enough and want better, join us.  Stand up and say AKO ANG SIMULA.

ABS-CBN launches Boto Mo, I-Patrol Mo: Ako ang Simula

Long before any slick ad campaign or Barack Obama, I set out to change my world.  My inspiration was Mahatma Gandhi, who simply said:  “Be the change you want to see.”  My world was the Philippines, journalism and ABS-CBN in particular.

For a long time, I had a love-hate relationship with the Philippines.  I love being Filipino but hated the inefficiency, the lack of standards, the acceptance of mediocrity, our situational ethics, our systems of patronage, and our often unjust justice system.  Sometimes, when things don’t work, you hate that which you love.

While I was living outside the Philippines, that was ok.  But I realized I didn’t have the right to criticize if I didn’t pitch in and help. So I did – ending nearly 18 years with CNN to come home to the Philippines for good in 2005.  It wasn’t an easy decision, but I knew I wanted to retire here.  I was old enough to have real experience but young enough to still believe idealism and hard work can change our world.

I’m not the first to say this – that the big change – the revolution – happens after a series, maybe hundreds, thousands of small changes, are pushed by people like you and me.  If we each do our part in our areas of interest, then maybe we can reach what Malcolm Gladwell calls the Tipping Point – when the momentum for change becomes unstoppable.  It’s the same theory – whether it’s in ABS-CBN’s newsroom or strengthening democracy in the Philippines.  It starts with a vision for the future – how things can be better.  Then you spread that idea person to person before we reach the critical mass of the tipping point – and change the entire system.  I tested this theory in practice – and I can tell you – at least in the newsroom of ABS-CBN, it works.

This idea has powered every move we’ve made, every program we’ve created: that change begins with you.  That you need to stop standing by the sidelines complaining  and start doing something – anything – to change what you don’t like.  It starts with each of us – moving together in the real hard work of nation-building.

We created a newscast called BANDILA, which won the Philippines’ first ever Emmy nomination.  In 2005, our year end offering was AKO ANG SIMULA – focusing on people who changed their world for the better.  Last year, ABS-CBN’s Foundation gathered artists together in a music video, BAGONG SIMULA.  But our most successful project was in the 2007 elections, when we turned our CITIZEN PATROL to a campaign that won top international awards – BOTO MO, I-PATROL MO.  We took the immense power of traditional media – print, tv, radio, cable – and combined it with new media – the Internet and mobile phone technology – to create the first instance globally where a news organization called on citizen journalists to come together to patrol their votes and push for clean elections.

The idea for Boto Mo, I-Patrol Mo was simple: get the people to care and to take action.  It’s people power with new technology!  If you see something wrong or something good, tell us about it.  If you see someone trying to buy the votes, snap a picture on your cellphone and send it to us.  If you see a town mayor using public vehicles for his campaign, shoot video with your cellphone and send it to us.  If you see violence, tell us about it, and after a verification process, we will put it to air.  Two months into the 4-month campaign, we received reports from the provinces that Boto Mo, I-Patrol Mo helped level the playing field where incumbents were running after we ran a story with the cellphone picture of city resources used for campaigns.  So cellphones became effective weapons!

The sheer volume of messages we received – about 500 a day leading up to elections and 1 a minute on election day – showed us not only the public’s distrust for our institutions and the electoral process, but also more importantly, it highlighted their hunger for change and their own individual battles for integrity.  Their fears – because it’s dangerous to fight the powers that be – were balanced by their own clamor to make things work.  And when we gave them venues to do something about it, they did.  After elections, the campaign became BAYAN MO, I-PATROL MO.  The responses we received give me tremendous hope.

Today, I work in the same historic buildings I entered as a balikbayan in 1986 – excited with the promise of people power.  Once the government station under Ferdinand Marcos – a symbol of its repressive rule, it transformed overnight into the people’s voice –  People’s Television 4.  A year later, the buildings were returned to the Lopez family, the original owners, one of whom was jailed when the buildings were taken over by the government under martial law.  I was here during the coup attempts of the late 80’s and during Proclamation 1017 in 2006, when the government stationed an armored personnel carrier outside our gates.

Working here reminds me of the cycles of history, the excesses and failures of power, and the role media plays in nation-building.  It is also a symbol to me of the failure of Philippine-style democracy, the unfulfilled promises, our mangled institutions and our collective – trampled but indefatigable – craving for something better.  As head of news for ABS-CBN, I see the daily search for meaning and hope when I read through the scripts of our newscasts.

Reality today gives little cause for optimism: our political system is largely bereft of real meaning because our politicians have changed alliances so often, they seem to have lost track of what they stand for.  When symbols lose their meanings and when government after government fails to deliver, we become cynical and apathetic.  But we can’t stop here!

One year before the 2010 elections, stand up and say ENOUGH.

It’s time to stop complaining, and time to start doing.
It’s time to stop blaming everyone else, and time to accept responsibility for building our future.
It’s time to stop accepting the world as it is – corrupt, inefficient, unfair and unjust – and start visualizing the world as it can – and should – be.

BOTO MO, I-PATROL MO 2010 is about YOU.  Join us and major partners Globe, Bayan, STI, the Philippine Star, Comelec as well as other commercial, trade and academic institutions one year before the critical May 10, 2010 elections as we launch BOTO MO, I-PATROL MO: AKO ANG SIMULA nationwide – in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.  Register to vote and join the movement in Boto Mo, I-Patrol Mo sites in Manila, Pampanga, Cebu and Davao.  Join all our news programs across all our different platforms in radio, TV, cable, Internet and on your cellphones!  Let’s envision a better world.  Join the first presidential debate on ANC with Senators Panfilo Lacson, Francis Escudero, Mar Roxas, Richard Gordon, Pampanga Gov. Ed Panlilio and Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro.  Watch the Artists’ Revolution concert in partnership with YouthVote Philippines and ABS-CBN at the Music Museum: “365 Days to Change … Todo Na ‘To.”

Don ‘t let this chance for change pass you by.  Use your power to vote wisely. We have one year to create the world we want.  If you’ve had enough but don’t want to be defeated, stand up and say AKO ANG SIMULA.

Citizens’ watchdog or sensationalists? Striking the balance

Thank you so much for inviting me to speak to you today. You asked me to talk about finding the balance between transparency and responsible journalism. First, as a journalist, I am an advocate of greater transparency. There are instances when we hold back information – like if we know an arrest is about to happen, we won’t broadcast that because it may tip off those involved. In reporting on terrorist organizations, you learn to keep information confidential in the interests of national security. But you make that editorial judgment based on your independent assessment of the big picture. In financial reporting, you learn never to put two words together unless it’s already happening. It’s in every editorial manual. You here should appreciate those two words – bank run. We are very careful in how we use that term. Later on, I’ll tell you why.

Let me answer the question you posed in the conference title: is there cause for alarm? NO. No cause for alarm. There is, however, a need for disclosure – transparency. Why? More information leads to less panic. It leads to more informed decision-making – to people feeling like they’re in control. And in the end, that’s what this whole economic crisis is about anyway, right?  It is about confidence. So information is power that generates confidence.

As shareholder values plunged and trillions of dollars vanished, our world changed dramatically. Is it perception or reality? Well, it’s a little of both. Because the reality is that the perception of instability often creates that reality – particularly in times of crisis. So does that mean we should avoid reporting on unstable situations? Well, that goes against the grain of what makes news news – of what makes it interesting. Think about it. When do you want to watch the news? When you’re not sure what’s going on … or in other words, when situations change or become unstable. So we can’t avoid reporting it!

I did a quick check of reactions to financial reporting in other parts of the world. Interestingly enough, in the Untied States and Great Britain, there is as much written about how the media failed BEFORE the crisis – not by causing panic, but by not blowing the whistle early enough. Will Hutton, the CEO of the Work Foundation and a former journalist, said that journalists were as much to blame as the bankers because they indulged what he called the madness – what an
economist called “irrational exuberance” of these boom years that created the bubble that burst.

Journalist Daniel Schechter published a searing indictment of the modern banking system one week before the collapse of Lehman Brothers. The title of his book is PLUNDER: investigating our Economic Calamity and the Subprime Scandal. Journalists, he said, failed because they protected their vested interests. They were too close to the institutions they were supposed to be examining. Shechter pointed out there was little or no examination of the new breed of financial products like the CDOs and no warnings about the predatory lending practices which led to the subprime crisis.

Journalists are supposed to be the fourth estate, a watchdog for citizens. Many argued journalists failed to alert the public, to hold the financial and banking sectors accountable before this year.

Let’s fast forward to after the subprime crisis sparked an economic meltdown. In September 2007, the BBC broke a huge story: troubled bank Northern Rock was set to get an emergency loan from Britain’s central bank. That caused a bank run the next day, the first run on a bank in Britain in around 150 years.

A year later, that same journalist, Robert Peston, reported that Lloyd’s bank was in talks to buy its rival, and shares in its rival soared!

For these exclusives, Peston – along with other journalists – was called to Parliament to answer questions on their role in the financial crisis and whether journalists should face restrictions during periods like this. Members of Parliament called the BBC “dangerously overdramatic.”

Peston was asked if he was responsible for the run on the Northern Rock. He said, “I have obviously given a lot of thought to this, and the answer is ‘no.’” He said what led to the collapse of Northern Run was not the retail run but what he called the wholesale run – when institutions refused to fund the bank. I think that’s the way most journalists would answer. We tell you the problem, and often, we’re used to being the punching bag if the news isn’t welcome.

Let me give you other examples.

From Britain let’s go to Latvia, where Dmitrijs Smirnov, an economics and university teacher, was detained by police for two days at the end of last year. What did he do? He told a newspaper that the national currency was ripe for a devaluation and he advised people to exchange their lats.

In South Korea, a hugely popular blogger faces up to five years in prison on charges of spreading false information. Prosecutors say that led to a sharp fall in the value of the won.

Let’s go to the United States, where a survey by Opinion Research Corporation found that 77% of he 1,000 adults surveyed said they blamed the media for making the economic crisis worse.

Whether it’s the Asian financial crisis or the subprime crisis which led to the global economic crisis, the core problem is a crisis of confidence. And when people feel insecure, they tend to become emotional and that colors perception.

As a journalist, in the different countries I’ve worked in, I have seen first-hand how perception becomes reality, how moods and feelings – not facts – have shaped the world we live in. And how those moods and feelings can be very fickle and often turn on the messengers – the journalists who are bringing them the news.

I want to give you a concrete example that to me is ground zero of the Asian financial crisis. In many ways, the same excesses happened then.  So let’s go back more than a decade so I can give you a perfect example of how feelings and perceptions can change reality.

I reported on the fall of the Thai baht in 1997. When that happened, I was reporting on an annual ASEAN summit, and ministers there pooh-poohed its effects. Indonesia, in particular, along with the IMF and the World Bank, kept trying to reassure investors – pointing out that there would be little contagion in the region – especially not with Indonesia – because its fundamentals are good. That was echoed by the World Bank and the IMF. Famous last words.

Still, in the next few months, investors’ confidence began eroding, and the tipping point was the unveiling of the second IMF package in Jakarta. The rupiah had weakened, but it was holding. Everyone was waiting to see what was in this pkg. The head of the IMF, Michel Camdessus himself, was going to announce it. I was at the press conference, one of many journalists who had an open line to their head offices because as soon as anything was announced, we would go live.

But it wasn’t easy to make a quick call because there was no easy announcement. Instead, aides started going around the room, handing out a 35 page document that outlined the entire package. In the world of instantaneous 24 hour news, there’s just no time for reading and thinking.

I started skimming the brief during the press conference. But before I could even get half-way through, Atlanta started screaming in my ifb – it’s the earpiece where you hear the anchor, producer and director. They started telling me to go live because this financial wire service – which you all know and respect – but which I won’t name – crossed with one line. That line had three words: “IMF PACKAGE DISAPPOINTING.”

Shall we go with it – they asked repeatedly. I immediately said NO. No way. Let me finish

going through the package. Atlanta told me no, you don’t have time. You’re live in five minutes. I ran outside to do the live shot but before that, I told the producer I would give highlights from the top of the package – the parts I’d read but that I would not make a judgment.

But before I was done, my cellphones – and my producer’s cellphone began ringing wth calls from Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan … is it true, the bankers asked. Is the package disappointing?

Before the press conference ended, the rupiah dropped 30%. I was doing my best to contain CNN – to hold our network to the facts and not to rush to judgment. From what I had read, I felt the package was comprehensive. It had tried to identify and stem potential problems. I filed a CNN wires and talked to the supervising producer to make sure we weren’t contributing to the fall of the rupiah. We were sticking to the facts.

But that one line from a business wire was enough to topple the precarious balance Indonesia was trying to find. Within weeks, the rupiah went from 2,400 to the dollar to 17,000 to the dollar. It triggered an economic meltdown and began the contagion in Asia.

I was furious, incensed – so I went back to find this reporter who pushed that one line out prematurely. He’s a 27 year old American with a chip on his shoulder, a kind of arrogance that comes from not knowing how little you know. He was relatively new to Indonesia. I asked him how he could say the IMF package was disappointing when he couldn’t have read the whole package by the time he filed the wire. I know! He said he only looked at ONE section – that on corporate debt. I looked through it with him. Under that heading, it said – DETAILS TO BE ANNOUNCED.

That was his basis for saying “IMF pkg disappointing.” And the world reacted. Millions of Indonesians lost their jobs. Nearly 90% of Indonesia’s companies became technically bankrupt. And the fall of the Thai baht turned into the Asian financial crisis.

I tell you that so you understand how important one reporter and one news organization can be in how events unfold. Once the dominoes start to tumble, it’s hard to stop it from going down the line – like hot money pulling out when investors panic.

Let me fast-forward to today in the Philippines. First, we’re in a relatively good position – meaning that no one seems to dispute that there will be growth this year. In fact, for the first time ever, mature economies will contract and the only growth globally will happen in developing nations like ours. The government says GDP will hit 4%, the IMF says about 2.8%. The worst case scenario still predicts growth.

ABS-CBN is the only TV newsgroup that has its own business desk and dedicated business reporters. We started doing economic stories when the first of the subprime stories broke in the US.  We are pushing transparency and accountability – the initial story is which banks have exposure to CDOs and subprime? We found the ones which did and got statements from them. We broke the stories on the pre-need industry and its precarious position. When layoffs began to happen, we reported them. We also reported when job openings happened because we knew
our viewers would want that crucial information. We tried to balance the bad with the good to create an accurate picture of reality. We continue to push to get accurate data and numbers – not partial reporting but numbers that give a sense of the whole – not manipulated by vested interests.

It is – so far – not a difficult balancing act, but as times get worse in the United States – and our exports are affected and more OFWs lose their jobs, it may get harder. We try to keep focus: when people’s livelihoods and savings are at stake, we raise the bar and take more steps to ensure the quality and accuracy of the information.
It’s a daily battle to reflect reality rather than let perceptions and mood recreate reality. That remains our constant challenge.

In the end, our job is to take your jargon, your NPLs, your balance of payments, the words we’ve thrown around today and make our viewers understand why these numbers should mean something to them – show them how it affects their lives. In the end, we simplify and tell the story of greed and vested interests – the core of the subprime crisis – of corruption and the cover-ups – the core of Bernie Madoff’s pyramid scheme. That is why we will continue to ask you questions because we are the citizen’s watchdog.

At the same time, we are not your enemy. The system of checks and balances is an amazing thing. You need us to do your jobs well, and we need you to give us the information to do that. Because only then can we give the public the information it craves so our people can remain confident that their money is safe, that our financial system is sound. Remember, our economic problems stem from a crisis of confidence. Information is power which allows you to feel like you’re in control of your decisions. If you feel in control, you are necessarily confident.

(Speech during Bank Marketing Association of the Philippines forum, “The Crisis in Perspective – Is there Really Cause for Alarm?”)