By GIAN GERONIMO and GAIL ORDUÑA
WITH the resumption of the peace talks with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, journalists should be able to “look at conflict in a different light” and aid the public into understanding the roots of one of the longest-running secession wars in Asia.
Speaking at the International Committee of the Red Cross’ (ICRC) first Red Cross Award for Humanitarian Reporting at the Richmonde Hotel in Pasig City on May 7, Red Batario of the International News Safety Institute (INSI) added the audience should “understand conflict rather than just knowing that there is conflict.”
For University of the Philippines political science professor Miriam Coronel-Ferrer, the media today have improved considerably in their reportage on conflict situations. She added that it has broadened compared to the usual basic facts and figures.
Ferrer has observed that media are not aiming for the usual stories on encounters and violence.
There are stories, for instance, on the development efforts in Kauswagan, Lanao del Norte. The town has been a war zone of the MILF and the Armed Forces of the Philippines since 2000 because of perennial land conflict.
Another example are stories on the lack of consultations between the Philippine Government (GPH) and MILF on the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domains.
New ways of framing a story are also improvements in media reporting, said Ferrer, who is also part of the government peace panel in the negotiations with MILF.
Despite these improvements, however, Ferrer said the old problems when it comes to conflict reporting remain, such as lack of contextualization, poor data gathering and fact-checking, falling for propaganda, and lack of transparency in their methods.
She said the continuing coverage of the Ustadz Ameril Umbra Kato’s case will be a challenge for many. MILF expelled Kato last April for organizing a new armed group called the “Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters,” which puts risks in the peace talks between GPH and MILF. Ferrer said the analysis and delivery of the story will be crucial.
Froilan Gallardo of MindaNews agreed that there are lapses in coverage such as insufficient data gathering and failure to get as many sides as possible.
Meanwhile, war correspondent Jason Gutierrez of the Agence France Presse said there are other ways of telling a story. For him, it is crucial to go where the action is, and sharing the stories of the people.
“Reporting about the war helps us (all) to understand the concept of humanity,” he said.
He added this is one of the benefits of being an embedded journalist – a reporter in the company of military units during times of war – although he conceded that that embedded journalists do not get to report objectively due to the nature of the work. Embedded journalists in Iraq, for example, depend on military resources for protection and accessing war-ravaged areas through military vehicles.
(The authors are students of the University of the Philippines doing their summer internship at VERA Files.)