Watchdog journalism in Asia

THIS is the most exciting time to be a journalist in Asia, says Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) founder and former executive director Sheila Coronel in a keynote address at the East-West Center Media Conference held in Bangkok, Thailand early this week.

For one, Coronel says, the press has never been as powerful and pervasive, where even the most controlled societies like China and Burma have not been impermeable to the information revolution. Seventy of the 100 bestselling dailies in 2006 were, after all, published in Asia, as the newspaper circulation growth in China, Japan, and India continues to defy worldwide trends.

In her talk, “Between the Tiger and Crocodile: Creating Spaces for Watchdog Journalism in the New Asia,” Coronel offers a positive outlook for the region’s evolving media landscape even at a time where the press is caught between “the tiger and the crocodile,” or in this case, between the predatory forces of the market and the state. (Click here for the slide presentation.)

For Coronel, who now heads the Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism of the Columbia University in New York, there are four directions for enlarging the watchdogging space in Asia. First is to share that space with citizens, as professional gatekeepers increasingly lose control of the information flow with the rise of citizen journalism. Second is to develop new and more compelling ways of telling a story by training journalists to be adept at technologies in producing multimedia content. Third is support for small, nonprofit media that do groundbreaking work often missing in the mainstream press. Fourth is to strengthen public service and grassroots media to bridge the digital divide in countries where there is limited internet use.

She also offers that watchdogging must include an element of fun, creating pieces that may not take the usual form of protest but are equally powerful, just like the political videos flooding Youtube (remember the Google Earth take on the secret home of Burma’s Than Shwe?) or the Pinoy’s satirical ‘Hello, Garci’ ringtones.

Listen to this latest PCIJ podcast.

Length: 00:31:42
File size: 28.9 MB