NOVEMBER-DECEMBER

NOVEMBER-DECEMBER
2011 2011

WHATSiNSIDE
Boy Abunda and the
Entertainmentization
of News

The November Visit

of Hillary Clinton

Another
Opportunity
Missed

A Waiting
Game in Year
Two of the
Ampatuan
Massacre trial

PRESS CALLS
FOR MORE VIOLENCE
IN MINDANAO

MEDIA
WARMONGERING

n By Kathryn Roja G. Raymundo

HE COVERAGE of the armed confrontation between government troops and

members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Basilan, Zamboanga Sibugay, and Lanao del Norte
reversed the gains of the Philippine press in reporting Mindanao.
Previous PJR Reports monitors noted improvements in media reporting and commentary
about Mindanao and its people.
But the October coverage of the
conflict there and the peace process highlighted such past shortcomings as limited, if not lack,
of contextualization, sensationalism, and body-count reporting.
Well-informed analyses and commentary on what was happening
were few and far between.
PJR Reports monitored the
daily broadsheets the Manila
Bulletin, the Philippine Daily Inquirer, and The Philippine Star,
news programs ABS-CBN 2s TV
Patrol and Bandila; GMA-7s
24 Oras and Saksi; and TV5s

Photos by LITO OCAMPO

Aksyon, and selected websites.

The monitor covered the period Oct. 18the date of the AlBarka, Basilan encounter which
killed 19 soldiers and six MILF
members and injured more than
10 peopleto Oct. 31.
As more information on the
nine-hour encounter emerged,

media coverage on Mindanao increased in frequency and prominence. But media attention eventually waned and shifted to the
death of Libyan strongman Col.
Moammar Gadhafi, the Nov. 1
holiday preparations, and the
Ramgen Revilla murder case.
Turn to page 8

 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2011

editors NOTE

PUBLISHED BY THE CENTER FOR MEDIA

FREEDOM AND RESPONSIBILITY
Melinda Quintos de Jesus
Publisher
Luis V. Teodoro
Editor

The best and the worst

OME FILIPINO journalists can rank among the best in the

world. Since the end of the martial law period the best investigative reports have not only looked into those issues
that were a legacy of the culture of secrecy and those that had
arisen in the difficult years that followed the EDSA uprising; they
also did so in observance of the universally-accepted standards of
research, data verification, multi-sourcing, and craftsmanship. A
number of analyses, editorials and other opinion pieces have also
been crucial to public understanding of those issues.
But some could also be ranked among the worst in the planet.
Their investigative and interviewing capacities, including their
ability to ask questionsskills required of every journalistare
minimal and even non-existent. Worst of all, their understanding
and even basic awareness of the ethics and professional standards
of journalism are similarly challenged.
The reasons for this unevenness have long been known. They
range from the great differences in the training and background
of journalists, compounded by the absence of standardized professional qualifications in the hiring of journalists, to the near
absolute freedom of anyone to publish a newspaper and to hire
anyone they want without, in many cases, the slightest consideration as to their background and training.
The consequence of the uneven state of journalists development is a journalism that is itself uneven in quality and ethical
compliance. For the public, it has often meant being provided information thats biased, incomplete and worst of all, inaccurate.
Some have seized upon the worst practices of Philippine journalism to justify the external regulation of the press. They suggest
the imposition by government regulatory agencies, perhaps by
the Professional Regulatory Commission, of standard education-

PRESSED FREEDOM

al requirements; of some form of examination similar to those required of such professionals as accountants, nurses, doctors, and
lawyers; and licensing in the manner of such countries as Malaysia and Singapore. Short of these measures, a Right of Reply law,
an accreditation system by a government agency, and the banning
of reporters from the sites of conflicts and emergencies have been
proposed.
Besides being unconstitutional, none of these can guarantee
that skills levels will rise and ethical journalism will be the rule
rather than the exception. What the Constitution does allow, and
what is likely to work, although admittedly only in the long run, is
still self-regulation, which, to address the uneven development of
Filipino journalists, can take the form of centralizing the continuing education of journalists that for years has been offered in various forms by media advocacy groups, journalists organizations,
and even academic institutions.
A center for the purpose of updating journalists skills, and
acquainting those without training with the ethical demands and
standards of the profession, could be patterned after the University of the Philippines Law Center, which undertakes both legal
research as well as continuing lawyer education. Such a center
could be established in one of the countrys state universities, and
could help make the difference between a journalism characterized by vast differences in the quality of both its practitioners and
its products, and a journalism whose outputs will be, on the average, capable of providing information thats at the very least accurate and reliable.

Manix Abrera

Hector Bryant L. Macale

Managing Editor
Melanie Y. Pinlac
Kathryn Roja G. Raymundo
John Reiner M. Antiquerra
Fernando R. Cabigao Jr.
Reporters
Arnel Rival
Art Director
Lito Ocampo
Photographer
Carol M. Paragele
Editorial Secretary
Jose Abueva
Joaquin Bernas, SJ
Melinda Quintos de Jesus
Fulgencio Factoran
Maribel Ongpin
Tina Monzon Palma
Paulynn Paredes Sicam
Luis V. Teodoro
Vergel O. Santos
Board of Advisers

Luis V. Teodoro

PJR Reports
(Philippine Journalism Review Reports)
is published by the Center for Media
Freedom and Responsibility. All mail
should be addressed to:
PJR Reports
Center for Media Freedom
and Responsibility
2/F Ateneo Professional Schools,
130 H.V. dela Costa St.
Salcedo Village
Makati City 1227
Phones:
(632) 840-0889/(632) 840-0903
(632) 894-1314/(632) 894-1326
E-mail: staff@cmfr-phil.org
Website: http://www.cmfr-phil.org

The publication of this issue is supported by a grant from the Open Society Institute.

PJR Reports welcomes feedback and

contributions on press and media
issues.

 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2011

speaking
of MEDIA

frontPAGE
Much of the Philippine
press was asking for
more blood in Mindanao

Making sense of reality

Neutrality is a myth in journalism because a journalist needs to make sense of

reality. And doing so requires analysis of
the data. Without analysis, a journalist can
never fulfill his or her duty to provide relevant information toward the shaping of
public opinion, which is what journalism is
all about.

in this
ISSUE

Filipino journalism professor Danilo Arao

on the issue ofactivist-journalists, (http://
www.interaksyon.com/article/18396/formany-asean-journalists-activism-goeswith-the-job) Nov. 29

Activist-journalists

NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2011

Media Warmongering

Press Calls for More Violence in Mindanao

KATHRYN ROJA G. RAYMUNDO

Covering High Profile Crimes

Focus on the Sensational

FERNANDO R. CABIGAO JR.

Boy Abunda and the Entertainmentization

of News
JOHN REINER M. ANTIQUERRA

Media at Work

Beating the War Drums in Mindanao

ED LINGAO

The November Visit of Hillary Clinton

Another Opportunity Missed

BRYANT L. MACALE

A Waiting Game in Year Two of the

Ampatuan Massacre Trial
MELANIE Y. PINLAC

Covering Conflict: Journalists for Peace

RYAN ROSAURO

1
5
6
7
10
12
16

REGULAR SECTIONS

Editors Note ................................................................ 2

Speaking of Media........................................................... 3
Monitor
................................................................ 4
Crisis
................................................................ 14
Chronicle
................................................................ 15
Obit
................................................................ 15

For most journalists, the constant

goal is to tell or write the story. For activists, knowing a story or an issue is just the
beginning.
Unlike most journalists who are beholden to their companies, activist-journalists, especially those working for alternative media groups, have more freedom
and responsibility.
They get to report relevant issues, taking the perspective of the marginalized
sectors. They do not have to worry about
conflicts of interest. In this sense, they have
more freedom. At the same time, they always have the responsibility of telling the
bigger truths by going into the questions
why and how.
Filipino activist-journalist Ronalyn Olea of
the independent online publication Bulatlat,
on the difference between journalists with
an activist background and other journalists (http://www.interaksyon.com/article/18396/for-many-asean-journalists-activism-goes-with-the-job) Nov. 29

Media influence

There is a presumption gaining currency among corporate types that bureaucrats

who frustrate you by sitting on your proposals for an unreasonable period of time
without any feedback, or withholding from
you something reasonable like an approval
they have obliquely promised many conversations ago, need to be nudged into submission or at least made to acquire a sense of
urgency by means of public pressure.
And the best way to accomplish this
not-so-gentle persuasion, often no different from a threat, is to vent dissatisfaction
in media to perhaps panic the recalcitrant
bureaucrat into seeing reason and frantically setting an appointment, ready with a
pen to green-light the pending request.
This bullying theory, if one goes by anecdotal evidence on the effects of headlineinducing fulminations (investors will flee
this country and treat it as a leper colony),
seems to accomplish the opposite effect,
that of bureaucrats digging in their heels
and being unavailable for commentwe
are still studying the matter and we will

not be stampeded into a hasty decision.

Bureaucratic inaction is easily overtaken by
the waning attention of a public distracted
by yet another story or a typhoon. Thus, if
media pressure is applied, it is remembered
only fleetingly for its shock value but eventually ineffective in achieving the desired
results.
Outrage in media and the desire for a favorable action do not even speak a common
language or live in the same continent. Is
talking through media more effective than
seeing the person concerned and affecting
the posture of abject humility?
Thus have media by default become the
proxy influence wielder. Their penchant
for the shrill and sensational accusation
ensures their ineffectiveness in influencing
policy or policy-makers. In a puritanical
atmosphere of governance, few wield any
influence or are listened to...and media are
easily at the bottom of that list.
Columnist Antonio R. Samson on the role
of media in corporate frustrations and
bullying of public officials, Business World,
October 28-29

Encouraging young journalists

We journalists do not only report the

facts. Our work, taken collectively and seen
from the spectrum of passing time gives an
account of our people. We do not only deliver the news. We keep the Filipino race in
the global fabric of human existence.
This gives us reason to consciously
strive to raise the standards of our profession and to ensure the steady stream of responsible Filipino journalists in the years
ahead. We need to buttress our capacity to
transfer what we know to the next generation and the next. And we can best do this
by guaranteeing the constant infusion of
young blood in our ranks, and in our profession as a whole.
Young Journalism, posted in Tempo online, October 28 (http://www.tempo.com.
ph/2011/young-journalism/)

Duty of the press

As the people yearn for truth, the professional duty of the press is to ferret out
the truth even if it will hurt those in power.
When our national and local government
officials start to take actions inimical to the
public, the press should inform us. When
public officials start to mind their own personal interests over that of their constituencies, the press should stand in between
by exposing government abuses, graft and
corruption, and then direct the public discourse for social upheavals and genuine
political reforms.
Surigao del Norte 2nd District
Representative Guillermo Jun Romarate,
Jr. during the 43rd anniversary and
induction of officers of the Surigao Press and
Radio Club, Oct. 22

 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2011

Media at work

Beating the
war drums
in Mindanao
It is easier to report war
rather than conflict

LITO OCAMPO

n By Ed Lingao

N NOV. 2, 2011, The Manila Times, the countrys oldest newspaper, came out with a banner story that outscooped everybody else.
Mindanao War Inevitable, the headline
screamed in big black type across the entire
width of the newspaper.
It was a startling, if not alarming, piece of prophetic journalism,
especially since a careful reading
of the article that followed the
headline did not even quote anyone as saying that the dogs of war
were certain to be let loose on
those intransigent and extremely
uncooperative Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels in AlBarka, Basilan. In fact, the nearest
anyone in the article said anything
that appeared to remotely support
the headline was statement from
a Palace functionary that government soldiers will do their job if
MILF rebels refuse to surrender
Dan Asnawi, one of the subleaders
of the MILF troops in Al-Barka.
Asnawi is reportedly the subject
of an arrest warrant for his alleged
participation in the beheadings of
several Marine troopers in an encounter in Al-Barka in 2007.
We have made it clear from
the very beginning, from the onset
that we are pursuing not the MILF
but lawless elements, the Times
quoted Palace deputy spokesperson Abigail Valte as saying in a
radio interview. Either they cooperate or they stand aside and let
our law enforcers do their jobs.
Whether this quote translates
into the inevitability of conflict in Mindanao remains to be
seenalthough an entire month
later, a full-scale war has still

not broken out in Mindanao. Either Times editors had read too
much into the statements of their
sources, or government officials
have also become extremely intransigent, uncooperative, and
unresponsive to the war drums
being beaten by the Philippine
media.
For several weeks after the
failed October 18 Army mission
into Al-Barka, many in the Philippine media were certainly busy
beating the drums of war, or at
least cheerleading those calling for
Muslim blood. At that moment,
Philippine media again showed
their Achilles heelsthe reporters, opinion writers and broadcast
talking heads whose opinions are
firmer than their facts, and whose
prejudices are stronger than their
belief in the concepts of fairness
and accuracy.
A major national newspaper
insistently and consistently used
the words massacre and slaughter to describe the fighting that
left 19 soldiers dead. This, despite
the fact that there was still no evidence to show that a slaughter
or a massacre had taken place,
instead of a firefight between two
opposing, equally armed sides.
The same newspaper, in a
paragraph that claimed to explain
the background of the peace talks
between the MILF and the Phil-

ippine government, said the rebels were asking for a sovereign

state. And yet the MILF has consistently taken pains to stress that
it was asking for a sub-state that
was still under the Philippine government. Unfortunately, the use
by the newspaper of the phrase
sovereign state plays into the
line of peace talks opponents who
insist that the MILF is asking for
an independent state. For the record, the first time MILF leaders
announced that they were dropping their bid for an independent
Bangsamoro homeland was in
1997.
One national television network ran the headline: Pangulong (Benigno) Aquino III,
nagmamatigas pa rin laban sa
all-out war. Hinimok ba ng station na magdeklara ng gyera si
Aquino, asked one Mindanaobased journalist. At one point,
angry residents in Marawi City
burned photos of the networks
news anchors allegedly because of
the loaded language being used in
the newscasts.
The delicate issue of the P5
-million grant by the Philippine
government to the Bangsamoro
Leadership and Management Institute (BLMI) as part of its commitment to the MILF peace talks
was by far the easiest angle to
spin because it involved two elements generally considered very
sexy by media: money and guns.
The announcement that Aquinos
government had given P5 million to an organization associated
with the MILF was just too tempting for everyone with an opinion
column or a radio show to resist :

What if the money had been used

to buy the bullets to kill those
soldiers? In one radio show, the
commentators wondered aloud if
the money given to the BMLI had
been deducted from the budget of
the Philippine National Police or
the Armed Forces of the Philippines. PNoy, Galante sa MILF!
screamed the headline of one popular television program.
Now, the ultimate irony: this
was the one time we can be thankful that not everyone believes the
media. While social networking
sites were deluged by calls for
an all-out war against the MILF,
there were many who thought
that there was something wrong
with the way media were framing
the story.
Beyond irresponsible journalism, (it) borders on criminal
incitement, remarked lawyer
Zainudin Malang, executive director of the Mindanao Human
Rights Action Center (MinHRAC)
in a Facebook post.
It is called yellow journalism, added Rommel Banlaoi, executive director of the Philippine
Institute for Peace, Violence, and
Terrorism Research (PIPVTR).
Sensationalist headlines to sell
newspapers. Remember (that) the
American-Spanish war of 1898
started as a war in media.
To their credit (or discredit,
depending on your point of view),
many of those guilty of playing up
to the war mongers may not necessarily have been doing it for the
benefit of the ratings. They were
not necessarily saying anything
sensational; in fact they were
merely saying something that

probably sounded all-too popular.

After all, gut instinct demands an
eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,
and an all-out war for the so-called
traitorous actions that resulted in
the loss of 19 young lives.
The truth is it is easier to report about war than to report
about conflict. Yes, there is a difference between the two kinds
of reportage, as any decent and
responsible reporter would or
should tell you.
War coverage is the simplified coverage of violence, where
the reporter is relegated to the
role of the scorekeeper who lists
the number of dead and wounded
while keeping his hair in place
for that all-too-necessary pieceon-cam. Conflict reporting has to
do with understanding why two
sides fight, and what it takes to
make them talk and find common
ground. For those who still wonder about this difference, here is
an easy test: ask a reporter who
covers war/conflict if he or she
has read any of the peace agreements, or can discuss thoroughly
the talking points or the points
of contention, or the culture and
history of the area. One type of
reporter thrives on the results
of misunderstandings; the other
reporter works, quite simply, for
more understanding. It is all too
easy to fall into the first category.
So many of our colleagues are
irresponsibly fanning the flames
of war and hatred without even
stopping for a minute and looking
at the situation, said one senior
journalist who asked not to be
named. I would really like to tell
these people to be the first to jump
into this type of war or volunteer
their own fathers, uncles, sons,
brothers to fight.
It is incredibly difficult to be a
conflict reporter, because it goes
against many of the common,
baser urges of human nature. To
the public, war and guns and gear
will always be sexy, as so many
millions of dollars in Hollywood
profits and so many Rambo sequels would prove to you.
Unfortunately, many of those
who claim the right to shape the
minds of viewers and listeners
have only the vaguest clue as
to the issues facing both parties on the negotiating table, or
the realities of those who really
put their boots on the ground.
If more reporters and editors
could experience the terror of a
firefight, or shiver in the dark in
no-mans-land while waiting for
the sunrise, or see the casualties
of war close-up, then perhaps
more journalists would understand and appreciate the differences that distinguish wars and
conflicts from Hollywood posturing and video games. n

 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2011

PRESS CALLS FOR MORE VIOLENCE...

Screengrab from TV Patrol

Some words
and phrases
can carry strong
emotional
connotations
and their use
is actually a
way of passing
and inviting
judgement

From page 1
Sensationalizing violence

An outbreak of hostilities is by
itself sensational. It involves blood
and gore and casualties, but also
a range of story angles and ideas.
Body-count or war-reporting
can contribute to further conflict.
Consequently, the telling of that
part of the story should be done
with caution, with the account being more precise, and, of course,
accurate.
But media emotions ran high
in the coverage of the governmentMILF clash. The newspapers monitored led off with screaming headlines: MILF goes on a rampage
(Star, Oct. 24) and No Mercy: 6 soldiers killed in cold blood (Bulletin,
Oct. 20), among other examples. The
news programs aired extensive footage on the families of the soldiers,
who were distraught with grief and
howling before the cameras, in a too
obvious attempt to attract viewer
sympathy for the soldiers killed and
their familiesand antipathy for the
MILF and Muslims.

GMA-7 even aired an interview

with the very young children of one
of the soldiers (Mga naulila ng
mga napatay na sundalo, naghihintay na sa kanilang mahal sa
buhay [Families of the soldiers in
action wait for their loved ones],
Saksi, Oct. 20).
During probably the most vulnerable time for the bereaved,
ABS-CBN broadcaster Noli de Castro asked one of their reporters in
the field Ron Gagalac: Paano ang
naging reaksyon ng mga kamaganak, for the first time, na makita
nila ang bangkay ng kanilang
mga mahal sa buhay (How did
the families react when they saw
their dead loved ones for the first
time)? To which Gagalac replied:
Natural na napakalungkot noong
mood. Secluded sila sa isang
kwarto at ni wala ni isa sa kanila
ang gustong magpa-interview dahil nandoon pa rin yung sakit na
kanilang nararamdaman (Naturally, the mood was mournful.
The families were in a secluded
room and no one wanted to grant
an interview because of their deep
sorrow for their loss). (TV Patrol,
Oct. 21)

Loaded language

Screengrab from Aksyon

Conflicts are highly charged issues

and language news and commentary
use can provoke positive or negative
reactions. Some words and phrases
carry strong emotional connotations
and their use is actually a way of passing and inviting judgment.
For example, instead of using encounter, confrontation, fighting,
clash, or kill some news organizations used massacre, ambush,
slaughter, or murder to describe
what happened between government
forces and the MILF.
The incidents, which hap-

pened in the three provinces,

are still under investigation.
Although some reports, in the
media and by concerned groups,
did say that the deaths may have
been the result of poor communications between armed groups,
rather than a massacre.
Some news reports and opinion
pieces described the soldiers as victims and/or heroes while MILF
members were habitually tagged as
Muslim rebels, Muslim separatists, bandits, and/or criminal/
lawless elements.

Missing perspective

The most significant sources

were still the agencies of the Philippine government (GPH): the
Armed Forces of the Philippines,
the Office of the President (Office of the Presidential Adviser on
the Peace Process or OPAPP), the
GPH and MILF peace panels, and
members of Congress. Although
the skirmishes took place in their
areas of responsibility, the officials of the local government units
where the clashes took place were
far less cited in the reports.
A number of news reports published and aired the sentiments of
families and friends of the soldiers.
Even though the MILF suffered casualties, the press barely mentioned

 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2011
ing to body counts and divorces
violence from its causes. It makes
it easier for the press, as well as
the public, to favor retaliation
because the effects of violence
are very visible and conflict highlights the differences and distrust
among players.
Several personalities called for
an all-out war against the MILF,
forcing the Aquino administration
to respond with an all-out justice
policy. The press joined the fray:
TV Patrol polls on Oct. 20 and 21:
Dapat na bang suspendihin
ng gobyerno ang peace talks
at magdeklara ng all-out war
laban sa MILF (Should the
government suspend peace
talks and declare an all-out war
against the MILF)?
A: Oo (Yes, 97 percent)
B. Hindi (No, 3 percent)
Sa kabila ng panibagong mga
pag-atake ng MILF sa mga
sundalo sa Zamboanga, sangayon ba kayo sa desisyon ng
Pang. Aquino na huwag lusubin ang kampo ng MILF sa
Al-Barka (Despite the recent
MILF attacks against soldiers
in Zamboanga, do you agree
with the decision of President
Aquino not to attack the MILF
camp in Al-Barka)?
A: Oo (Yes, 11 percent)
B. Hindi (No, 89 percent)
Photos by LITO OCAMPO

their stories. One ABS-CBN report

did touch on the matter: Habang
binababa ang bangkay ng mga
sundalo, biglang naghuramentado ang isang babaeng bitbit ang
isang itak, asawa siya ng isa sa
walong mga rebelde na napatay
din sa engkwentro. Nagwala rin
ang kanyang anak (While the soldiers were being brought down, a
woman carrying a bolo knife ran
amok. She was the wife of one of
the eight rebels killed in the encounter. Her child was also enraged). (Bandila, Oct. 19)
The number of people displaced
by the recent clashes was estimated
at 20,000. News and commentary
paid attention to the statistics
(death toll, budget, etc.) but left out
an entire perspectivethe reality of
living in a state of fear or hate and
its effect on daily life, thus making
the story incomplete.
Members of civil society groups
and experts did try to provide information on and analyses of the
situation in Mindanao. Some public forums and online sites did
present their views, but the mainstream media gave them little airtime or space.

Part of a larger reality

Media
coverage
becomes
problematic when it limits report-

Inquirer columnist Ramon

Tulfo resorted to name calling while
disagreeing with the governments
position: Compared to Erap,
President Noy is babakla-baklaa
weaklingsince hes trying to pacify
people who respect authority only
when it wields a gun. (What kind
of mentality does P-Noy have?, On
Target, Oct. 27, p. A22)
Without providing background
and context, the press cannot contribute to the publics understanding of complex issues and its appreciation of the consequences of
such government actions as abandoning peace talks or attacking
MILF camps.
Neither the news reports
nor the opinion pieces helped
the public to better understand
the controversy surrounding
the P5-million fund for the
Bangsamoro Leadership and
Management Institute (BLMI).
Instead, the coverage added to
the confusion by speculating
why the government gave the
amount to the MILF and how
the group plans to use it.
TV Patrol in its Oct. 27 poll
thus asked its viewers:
Sang-ayon ba kayo sa pagbibigay ng pangulo ng pera ng
bayan sa MILF (Do you agree
with the Presidents granting of
public funds to the MILF)?

CONFLICT AND PEACE REPORTING:

A FEW REMINDERS

Understand conflict conceptually and in its actuality. It is necessary to know the background or roots of conflict in our society.

Identify and understand the peace process and, if any, the terms/
framework of negotiations. Explore and take seriously peace proposals and initiatives wherever they come from, not just those
from our side.

Investigate the field. Gather factual information from the field. The
story should be based on facts that you yourself validate.

Do not arbitrarily assign blame for violence. What are the causes
of the violence? Have people tried other avenues and been frustrated or blocked?

Clean your text of stereotypes. Check out your copy for terms that
demonize or dehumanize any proponents. Avoid the imprecise use
of emotionally-laden words unless you are certain they apply to
the event you are reporting.

Do not categorize the parties into us and them or into self

and the other, which divides the contenders into good (us) and
evil (them). Do not focus on only one partys suffering, fears, and
grievances.

Contextualize conflict in the reality of the place, and its effect on

daily lifewhat stays the same, coping mechanisms during crisis.

Know who the participants are. Get the views of all those involved
and affected by violence and war. The military perspective should
not be the only perspective in the press.

Provide options for peace, conflict management and resolution.

Open up channels of communication. Reports empower the public
in the endeavor to resolve conflict and bring antagonists to truce
that opens up meaningful levels of peace-building.

Source: The CMFR Ethics Manual: A Values Approach to News Media Ethics
(Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, 2007 ) and Peace Journalism
Training Manual (Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, 2008)

A: Oo (Yes, 10 percent)
B. Hindi (No, 90 percent)
TV5s Lourd de Veyra commented that there was nothing wrong
with the BLMI grantwhile the
network flashed images of AK-47
assault rifles and bombs. (Aksyon,
Oct. 27)

Continuing process

Few of the news organizations

really bothered to explain the history of the armed conflict in Mindanao, which started in the late
1960s, and how the peace process
has evolved.
But some blogs and online sites
did make up for the shortcomings
of the old media by providing more
background and comprehensive
reports. The emotional response to
the death of soldiers is understandable. But contextualized coverage
would have tempered the calls to
cancel the peace process and the
anger stoked by inaccurate reports and fed by residual prejudice
against Muslims in general. The
following articles explained and
verified the initial accounts of what
happened on the field by providing
a clearer picture of what led to the

Basilan encounter and subsequent

skirmishes:
The Al-Barka Basilan Incident
by Dana Batnag (http://danabatnag.
wordpress.com/2011/10/25/the-albarka-basilan-incident/, Oct. 25)
Why the fiasco in Basilan by
Maria A. Ressa (https://www.facebook.com/notes/moveph/why-thefiasco-in-basilan/169213449836965,
Oct.26)
Twin Evils by Inday Espina Varona (https://www.facebook.com/note.
php?note_id=10150434846993245,
Oct. 26).
Glenda Gloria took the coverage to another direction, providing
significant inputs to the story as
she comments on the President's resolve to continue with the peace process. (Your war, our fatal assumptions, https://www.facebook.com/
notes/moveph/your-war-our-fatalassumptions/167678779990432,
Oct. 22)
MindaNews also continued to
provide quality and relevant reports
on events in Mindanao, its people,
and on issues other than the conflict there. (http://www.mindanews.
com/) It also has a section which
compiles all the posts on the peace
process. n

 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2011

16

Covering
conflict
journalists
for peace
The focus on battles and
casualties has the tendency to
tag people as heroes and villains
n By Ryan Rosauro

HE MEDIA were at it again, drumbeating war.

Biased, sensational and contextually inaccurate reporting of the bloody encounter in
Al-Barka, Basilan between Philippine Army
troops and Moro rebels last Oct. 18, and succeeding incidents, stoked the flames of what many journalistsespecially those who fancy themselves as macho
war reportersexcitedly awaited: more firefights between
government troops and Moro rebels.
Veteran journalist Ed Lingao described the reportage on
the events in Basilan, and subsequently in Zamboanga Sibugay, as
a case of media going into war.
It was the perfect time for it.
Peace negotiations between the
government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)
were then at a major impasse
over the political settlement
needed to end over four decades
of Moro rebellion.
All the media had to do to foment further conflict was to play
on anti-Muslim prejudice, sensationalize the violence, and make
it appear that government troops
were fighting a brutal foe whose
capacity for atrocities knew no
limits.

Fomenting war

How the Philippine media behaved last October was not new;
it was reflective of a lingering pattern of war-slanted, sensationalized reportage about the Mindanao conflict.
The first major battle between
government and the MILF occurred in March 2000, culminat-

ing in the fall of Camp Abubakar Assidique four

months later. The
media played a
significant
role
in
provoking that
battle.
I was
just
six
months
into my job
as a local reporter during
the bombing
of M/V Our
Lady of Mediatrix ferry in Feb. 25,
2000 in Ozamiz City that
killed 39 people.
Three weeks after, while probers were still validating initial
findings on who were responsible for the bombing and
what were their likely motives,
Philippine Army troops were
already being deployed in
the hinterlands of Kauswagan, Lanao del Norte
supposedly to serve legal
summonses on the suspects.

This excuse for massive troop

deployments near MILF strongholds was passed off as truth by
the media, so that by the time the
Ozamiz City Prosecutors Office
belied claims that it had issued
any summons, the fighting was
already underway.

An adventureand some
questions

I must admit that as a young

journalist, the prospect of covering a war excited me.
During the occupation of
Kauswagan town in March 2000,
I hitched a ride on an ownertype jeep of a government intelligence operative in order to get
near the frontlines, armed with a
notebook, a pen, and a point-andshoot camera.
About a kilometer away from
what the intelligence operative
said was the standoff line between
the rebels and government soldiers, we ran into a stream of evacuees fleeing their coastal village
where MILF forces had massed in
preparation for a calculated exit
amid a Philippine Army effort to
flush them out of the town center.
The wary and frightened look
of the evacuees, especially the
children, struck me hard. Right
there, I remembered that I have
college classmates from Kauswagan. I felt uneasy thinking that
while I was there for an adventure,
they could be frantically trying to
escape, caught in a life-and-death
situation which was not of their
choosing.
I

asked myself why, instead of

merely covering events, the media, given its vast influence, could
not prevent similar situations
from happening by deepening
their coverage?
Grappling with that question
led me to more questions: What
should be my role, or more exactly,
my chosen professions role in war
and conflict situations? And is it
not contrary to objectivity if journalists were also peace advocates ?

Changing the mindset

Today, my approach to covering conflict stories has been

shaped by the efforts of veteran
journalists to evolve a new mindset when reporting about Mindanao, where a movement has developed among journalists to practice a journalism that promotes
peace, which does not stereotype
the island as a war zone, and instead reports the other realities
apart from the Moro and communist insurgencies like Mindanaos
vast potentials for tourism.
The peace journalism movement in Mindanao seeks to correct the narrow focus on violence
arising from and related to the
conflict, the body-bag reporting
fixated on the number of combatants killed and battlefield exploits
and actions.
The focus on battles and casualties has the tendency to tag
people as heroes and villains, and
leads to public demands for similar reports that ignore the need to
provide information that will enable the public to understand the
roots of conflict and therefore to
find the solutions to it. This
type of reportage makes
violence, and nothing
else, the staple of
media reports.
The violence
focus
limits
reportage
to
events. There
is no story if
there is no violent incident.
But conflict is
a
phenomenon
that develops from a
series of incidents,
and is shaped
within a specific
context. This is best uncovered by
process-oriented reportage.
Since 2000, reporting on the
conflict in Mindanao has
been helped by efforts to have
journalists better un-

derstand the history of Mindanao,

thus correcting many misconceptions that color journalistic judgment, like the question of whether
Moros are Filipinos.
In a focused-group discussion
among 30 mid-level journalists
throughout the country that I was
privileged to facilitate in 2009, at
least 20 asserted that it was wrong
for the Moros not to consider
themselves Filipinos because
they are subjects of the Philippine state. Those journalists had
already prejudged and dismissed
the validity of the Moros aspiration for self-determination on the
basis of their distinct identity.
Better reporting of the conflict
is the result of the journalists familiarity with and understanding
of the workings of conflict management mechanisms established
by government and the MILF to
lessen armed clashes among their
respective ground troops. These
include ceasefire coordination
and joint law enforcement which
was the issue in the Oct. 18 AlBarka encounter.

The challenge to peace

journalism

When the peace journalism

movement gained momentum in
2000, no civil society groups were
pushing for peaceful options to
resolve the Moro question, unlike
today, when, apart from the
Armed Forces of the Philippines
and the MILF, there are more
sources of information.
The war-slanted reportage of
the Al-Barka and related incidents
revealed that peace journalism
still has a long way to go in
Mindanao.
Because the movement was
glued together by the collective
longing of preventing another war
in our own backyard, it is not incidental that Mindanao journalists
are very sensitive to and critical
of any war-drumbeating in the
media.
This is not to say that Mindanao journalists are blameless, or
that all non-Mindanao journalists
are into war-mongering.
Whether based in or outside
Mindanao, journalists must be
responsibie enough not to further
inflame conflict situations. The tenets of professional journalism do
not compel us to become peace advocates. However, its core value of
serving the human good demands
that we inform our viewers, listeners and readers that violence
should be the last of their options
when dealing with conflict. n
Philippine Daily Inquirer correspondent Ryan Rosauro has
been covering conflict areas in Southern Philippines since 1999