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