vivre d'un journalist

here are some stories about journalist work from some part of the world. many will reveal soon... two thumbs up for their struggle!

Philippine journalists endure in cauldron of fear

MANILA, March 24, 2010 (AFP) - Twenty years of independent reporting on lawlessness and corruption in the Philippines has earned a small band of courageous journalists many enemies. It has also earned the team from the Philippine Center For Investigative Journalism the second Kate Webb award, set up by Agence France-Presse (AFP) to honour the life and career of the legendary correspondent who died in 2007. Powerful interests all too often buy off, intimidate or even kill reporters in an effort to tame the Southeast Asian nation’s free-wheeling media. Amid this relentless pressure, the PCIJ has stood firm. “The first line of defence is to act independently,” said PCIJ executive director Malou Mangahas, one of nine reporters who established the organisation in 1989 with little more than a second-hand typewriter and a battered computer. While it still only has 10 full-time editorial staff, the PCIJ today is firmly entrenched in Philippine society as a fearless watchdog that roams amid a culture of impunity. Its motto is: “We tell it like it is. No matter who. No matter what.” Among its highest-profile scalps is former president Joseph Estrada, who was deposed in 2001 after it was revealed he had spent his three years in power plundering the nation’s coffers. The PCIJ’s investigative reports were crucial in exposing Estrada’s crimes, and were used as evidence in his parliamentary impeachment hearings, and later the plunder and perjury trials in which he was found guilty. Current president Gloria Arroyo has also been a PCIJ target. Last year it produced a series of reports on Arroyo’s apparently unexplained rise in wealth during 17 years of public office, accusing her of taking a “path of token compliance” in relation to legally required assets declarations. In many other countries, such investigative reporting is a matter of course. But the Philippines is the most dangerous country in the world for journalists, based on the number who are killed. More than 130 have been murdered since the fall of dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986, with the majority of the deaths occurring over the past nine years when Arroyo has been in power. The risks reporters in the Philippines face made world headlines in November last year when a warlord family in the south of the country allegedly organised a massacre in which 32 media workers were among 57 people killed. The Ampatuan clan accused of being behind the massacre had for eight years been a close Arroyo ally, ruling the province of Maguindanao as a member of her ruling coalition and allowed to have its own private army. Nearly every journalist in Maguindanao knew not to report unfavourably on the Ampatuans, making the clan a perfect target for the PCIJ. In 2008, the PCIJ’s Jaileen Jimeno travelled to Maguindanao three times over a period of six months to report on life for the province’s impoverished 800,000 citizens under the rule of the fabulously wealthy Ampatuans. Local reporters warned Jimeno not to report negatively on the Ampatuans. Others refused to help her. While in Maguindanao, mysterious hands would knock on her hotel door as a warning that she was being watched. The PCIJ employed long-standing tactics to protect Jimeno, including making only short hit-and-run-style missions from Manila to Maguindanao, informing lawyers about the threats, and always keeping track of her movements. Mangahas, 49, acknowledged the dangers for the PCIJ reporters, but said these were minor compared with those faced by the journalists who lived in the Philippines’ outlying regions and had to face the threats every day. “The things we do they do with greater courage in the provinces and the towns where political conflicts are more acute and politicians are more intolerant of independent coverage,” she said. Against this backdrop, the PCIJ intends to use the 5,000 euros (6,700 dollars) in prize money for winning the Kate Webb award to train Filipino reporters in how to report safely on powerful interests in their home towns. The PCIJ already carries out training sessions alongside its reporting activities, and the new Kate Webb-funded programme will help to extend its mission of developing a culture of independent, strong journalism. kma/jvg/jah Asia-media-award-AFP-Philippines-PCIJ AFP


Egypt frees Israeli journalist arrested at border

Associated Press Writer

JERUSALEM (AP) — An Israeli journalist arrested by Egyptian police last week while sneaking across the border with African migrants returned home Monday, saying he had been beaten in captivity and that some of his materials had been confiscated.
Journalist Yotam Feldman was detained on March 15 as he tried to cross into Israel with a group of migrants from Sudan, Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa that he had been filming a documentary about.
Speaking after his release, Feldman said he was glad to have experienced the dangers that the migrants endure. “Some of the Egyptians said I made a mistake and shouldn’t have done it,” Feldman told Israel’s Army Radio station. “But I think I did my job, this is what journalists do.”
Thousands of migrants, including many refugees from Darfur, make the perilous journey through Africa to reach Israel each year.
Feldman said his group was beaten by Egyptian soldiers when they were discovered and he was hurt in the arm.
“At first when I was with the refugees, I was treated like the refugees; very violent, very badly,” Feldman said. He said he was later taken to Cairo, where the treatment was better.
He said Egyptian authorities confiscated all the filmed material from the documentary, he still has his written notes. He said the lost footage showed the harsh reality of life for African migrants.
He said he doesn’t know what happened to the migrants who were arrested with him.
Feldman, a reporter for the Haaretz daily, was on an assignment for Israel’s Channel 10 TV when he was arrested.
According to U.N. figures, some 60 migrants have been shot along the border. Egypt defends its use of lethal force, saying it is used as a last resort and necessary to fight criminal activity in the politically sensitive area.
Over the past few years, the number of illegal migrants attempting to cross into Israel has spiked. Most come from Sudan and the horn of Africa, and many attempt to secure political asylum once they arrive. The number of African asylum-seekers in Israel is around 20,000.
The rate increased after the U.N. refugee agency in Cairo halted third country resettlement in 2005, citing the improved situation in Sudan.
The refugees pose a unique policy problem for the Jewish state, setting off debate over how Israel can fulfill its international obligation to provide sanctuary for refugees without paving the way for further waves of African migrants. Israel’s government has said that most of the migrants are not fleeing war but are rather looking for work.
Israel has taken steps to crack down on illegal entry, announcing a plan to deport all illegal immigrants within the country by 2013. In January, the government also announced plans to build two walls along the border with Egypt, partly to stem the flow of migrants.


Colombian journalist shot and killed

BOGOTA, March 20 (Reuters) - A gunman killed a Colombian journalist who had received threats and reported on politicians linked to paramilitary death squads, police and the victim’s family said on Saturday.
Clodomiro Castilla, an editor of El Pulso magazine and a reporter for local radio, was shot to death on Friday night as he read a book on the terrace of his home in Monteria city in the north of the Andean country.
Colombia’s decades-long internal war has eased after President Alvaro Uribe sent troops to take back areas under control of rebels and paramilitaries. But journalists are still occasionally targeted by armed groups and cocaine traffickers.
“When the journalist was sitting reading a book on his terrace, he was approached by a gunman, who shot him several times and fled on a motorcycle,” said Colonel Pedro Angelo Franco, a state police commander.
The journalist’s family said he had received death threats but declined a government offer of protection.
Castilla, 49, was killed in Cordoba State where in the 1980s paramilitary squads were formed by landowners, ranchers and drug traffickers to defend themselves against leftist rebels fighting the state.
Several lawmakers and mayors from the region have been jailed for making deals with the outlawed militias to guarantee their election.
Former paramilitary commanders demobilized their fighters after reaching a peace deal with Uribe’s government. But human rights groups say remnants of the paramilitary gangs are still active and running drugs.
Colombia was once considered one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists to work. More than 100 reporters were killed during the 1980s and 1990s by cocaine traffickers, rebels and paramilitaries. (Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta; Writing by Patrick Markey; Editing by Xavier Briand)
REUTERS

media challenge (2)

My newspaper had just finish an expedition at Musi River in Palembang.
Here's an opinion article about how media meet its challenge in this digital age by developing a multiplatform media.

Jelajah Musi, Media Multiplatform dan Imaji Keindonesiaan

Senin, 15 Maret 2010 | 02:54 WIB

Oleh Ignatius Haryanto

Musim panas tahun lalu, dalam sebuah seminar di Kampus Annenberg School of Communication, Universitas California Selatan, Los Angeles, seorang pembicara berkata dengan lantang, ”Yang kita butuhkan adalah jurnalisme. Bukan surat kabar....” more...

media challenge

More and more people getting interested in news not just because what's in the news, but also how's the news is being served.
Here's an article in my newspaper about how media is challenged to be more qualified to meet the need of its reader or audience.

Media Ditantang Semakin Bermutu

Rabu, 17 Maret 2010 | 03:00 WIB

Oleh M Hernowo

Masifnya pemberitaan media massa terhadap penyelidikan kasus Bank Century oleh Panitia Khusus Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat memunculkan fenomena baru di Indonesia. Selain mendorong proses politik yang kian transparan, masifnya pemberitaan itu juga menunjukkan, berita politik dapat amat menarik perhatian masyarakat. more...

journalism vs state

Here's a story I took from Associated Press today.

China orders reporters trained in Marxist theory

BEIJING (AP) — China will toughen requirements for reporters by
launching a new certification system that requires training in
Marxist and communist theories of news, a media official said,
citing problems with the current crop of mainland journalists.
The South China Morning Post reported Thursday that Li Dongdong,
deputy director of the General Administration of Press and
Publication, said some reporters were giving Chinese journalism a
bad name because they hadn’t been properly trained. She didn’t give
any specific examples.
Similar comments by Li were posted on the Web site of the
official Xinhua News Agency. It was not clear how such training
would be administered, but foreign journalists are exempt.
Communist theories of journalism say media should serve the
leadership and not undermine its initiatives — a stark contrast to
the independent government watchdog role many democracies embrace.
Government censors keep a tight grip on news content and
routinely ban reporting on issues deemed too politically sensitive
or destabilizing, and many media outlets in China serve as
mouthpieces for the state.
But recently some have become more freewheeling since newspapers
and broadcasters began relying increasingly on advertising instead
of just Communist Party patronage for their survival. Some have run
afoul of the government for reporting accurately on stories that
officials didn’t want publicized.
There have been also problems with reporters demanding payment
for positive news coverage or to bury a story, and instances of
reporters fabricating news.
“Comrades who are going to be working on journalism’s front
lines must learn theories of socialism with Chinese characteristics
and be taught Marx’s view on news, plus media ethics and Communist
Party discipline on news and propaganda,” Li told Xinhua on Monday.
A senior editor with the Beijing-based Economic Observer said
this week he had been punished for co-authoring an editorial that
urged the government to scrap an unpopular household registration
system, saying it discriminated against the poor.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_CHINA_MEDIA?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

what they say about journalism

I found some interesting quotations from time to time about journalism. Do you feel the same way?

- People everywhere confuse what they read in newspaper with news. (AJ Liebling, 1904-1963)

- Literature is the art of writing something that will be read twice; journalism what will be read once. (Cyril Connoly, 1903-1974, Enemies of Promise (1938))

- Rock journalism is people who can't write interviewing people who can't talk for people who can't read. (Frank Zappa, 1940-1993, quoted in Linda Botts "Loose Talk" (1980))

- A newspaper consist of just the same number of words, whether there be any news in it or not. (Henry Fielding, 1707-1754)

- It's amazing that the amount of news that happens in the world every day always just exactly fits the newspaper. (Jerry Sienfeld, 1954-)

- But what is the difference between literature and journalism? Journalism is unreadable and literature is not read. That is all. (Oscar Wilde, 1854-1900, The Critic as Artist (1891))

- Free press can, of course, be good or bad, but, most certainly without freedom, the press will never be anything but bad. (Albert Camus, 1913-1960)

- Opening up a newspaper is the key to looking classy and smart. Never mind the bronze-plated stuff about the role of the press in a democracy, a newspaper, kiddo, is about style. (Garrison Keillor, Tribune Media Syndicate, 10 Jan 2007)

- Monsieur l'abbe, I detest what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write. (Voltaire, letter to M. le Riche, 6 February 1779, cited in A Book of French Quotation (1963), Norbert Guterman)

- Too strong a media emphasis on death and violence can lead to despair. (Dalai Lama)

- I don't so much mind that newspaper are dying - it's watching them commit suicide that pisses me off (Molly Ivins)

- A petty reason perhaps why novelist more and more try to keep distance from journalist is that novelist are trying to write the truth and journalist are trying to write fiction. (Graham Greene, 1904-1991)

- In the real world, nothing happens at the right place at the right time. It is the job of journalists and historians to correct that. (Mark Twain, 1835-1910)

sources:
http://www.quotationspage.com/subjects/journalism/
http://www.schindler.org/quote.shtml
http://en.proverbia.net/citastema.asp?tematica=679

understanding

What is understanding?
I found some definitions for this easy-to-pronounce-difficult-to-do word that I quote from some sources:
1. mental process of a person who comprehends
2. knowledge of or familiarity with a particular thing; skill in dealing with or handling something
3. a state of cooperative or mutually tolerant relations between people
4. an agreement regulating joint activity or settling differences, often informal or preliminary in character

Let's see the key words here: comprehend, dealing something, tolerant relations, and settling differences.
In many kind of relationship, among people, among countries, among civilization, the state of understanding is badly needed. Why?
Human being is created uniquely that nobody is the same as the others, even twins are not exactly the same.

Imagine if you and your boyfriend or girlfriend don't have understanding. I bet, you will fight every time about what to wear to a party, what to eat for lunch, and how many children you will have in the future. Well, it's such an extreme example. However, those little, day-to-day, thing can lead to an unnecessary conflict.
And what about big and complicated things, like foreign policy, trade deal, international cooperation, even peace process?

There have been a huge amount of ways built to make a better understanding among all those differences that potentially lead to conflict, or war at the worst. Interfaith dialogue, UN Alliance of Civilization, Search for Common Ground, and so on and so forth, you name it.
I attended one of the forum last month in Alexandria, a workshop for journalists from many countries, entitled Reporting Across Culture.

And yes, communication is best way to start understanding. Talk to other people about their mind, their feeling, their life, and share yours, is a very easy way to understand each other. After a bunch of communication, there will be understanding emerge from somewhere you've never expected before.

The most important thing is this is not the way to homogenized the world. This is absolutely not the way to ease differences, to deny them, or to avoid them. Instead, this is the best way to appreciate differences, to admit that the world consist of different things, and to be happy that we're not afraid of being different.