Mediawatch meets two editors honoured for ‘journalism of courage and impact’ in Asia - one in a place where democracy’s been restored after authoritarian suppression, another in a historic hub of media freedom now under the shadow of authoritarianism.
Tom Grundy of Hong Kong Free Press and Philippine Star Ana Marie Pamintuan with awards for courage and impact in journalism in Asia. Photo: East West Center
On Reporters Without Borders’ map of World Press Freedom in 2024, New Zealand is coloured yellow for ‘satisfactory situation’.
Good news.
But New Zealand has historically also been in the top 10 of its Press Freedom Index. We only just made the top 20 in this year’s one.
Even so, New Zealand is the highest-placed nation in the Asia-Pacific region.
All the way down at number 133 is the Philippines, coloured orange on the map for ‘difficult situation.’
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That made for some interesting conversations about press freedom at the recent East-West Center international media conference in the Philippines The Future of Facts (attended by several New Zealand journalists, including Mediawatch, with the assistance of the Asia New Zealand Foundation Te Whītau Tūhono).
Philippines Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo told the gathering press freedom there is constitutionally guaranteed.
“You may also rest assured that we in the Philippine government are your partners in this endeavour,” he said to warm applause.
Being cellar-dwellers in the Press Freedom Index can't be laid at the door of the current government led by the President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, aka Bongbong.
When his father Ferdinand Sr was in charge half a century ago, the press was persecuted under martial law. National TV network ABS CBN was closed down in the 1970s. The so-called ‘mosquito press’ emerged to defy the restrictions.
But even after Marcos Sr was ousted in 1986, Philippine news media have been targeted.
At least 199 media workers have been killed in the Philippines since the restoration of democracy, according to Reporters Without Borders.
Hear Mediawatch report on these issues in this week's show here
The world's worst single media atrocity happened in Ampatuan in the southern Philippines, when 32 journalists were among 58 people killed in 2009.
Media freedom in the Philippines took another dive after 2016 under the regime of President Rodrigo ‘the Punisher’ Duterte. Among the targets was the popular online news site Rappler, known for bold and blunt reporting of controversial issues like President Duterte’s deadly ‘war on drugs’.
Earlier this month, a court finally struck down a 2018 government order that sought to shut down Rappler.
Rappler’s founder Maria Ressa was also prosecuted, but in 2018 she told me she was not the only one.
Rappler's Maria Ressa explaining 'patriotic trolling' in the Philippines. Photo: East West Centre
“Duterte first attacked the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the largest newspaper in the Philippines, because they had ‘the kill list’ which kept track of every death that was happening. President Duterte threatened not to renew the three top media groups’ licence to operate. It is a methodical approach to cripple news groups,” she told Mediawatch in 2018,
In 2019 Ressa’s former TV network ABS CBN was shut down again. Ressa went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021 and both Rappler and ABS CBN TV both outlasted Rodrigo Duterte's presidency.
In mid-2022 he was replaced by Ferdinand Marcos Jr, the son of the president ousted 36 years earlier. (His running mate was Rodrigo Duterte's daughter Sara. Philippines politics is pretty dynastic.)
But it's still a complicated situation for the media there.
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When the editor of the Philippine Star newspaper, Ana Marie Pamintuan, picked up an award for courage and impact in journalism in Manila last month, she was facing a libel lawsuit for the 35th time at the paper that she joined as a teenager nearly 40 years ago.
As is often the case, it was filed a long way away from Manila to bump up the cost and the inconvenience.
“It was filed by a politician. One of our columnists wrote about... an allegation of corruption linking the politician and his wife, a famous actress in the Philippines. He filed it in his home turf so you have to take a plane and then drive through winding mountain roads,” Pamintuan told Mediawatch, while putting on her makeup for her live daily appearance on Channel One TV News.
“We see it as a form of harassment... and it's been going on for so many years.”
“Not all presidents are like Rodrigo Duterte and the media is free, but there are a lot of constraints to the exercise of our profession,” Pamintuan told Mediawatch.
“Government has a lot of tools to go after media organisations that they deem to be overly critical. Whoever is in power can use their friends in business to go after media through advertising boycotts.”
“Look on the bright side, at least I just got sued. I didn't get murdered,” Pamintuan told Mediawatch with tongue in cheek.
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The Star has its printing plant right next door, and publishes four other papers there too.
“I was awarded 'journalist of the year' last year. I said: ‘Thank you for picking a print journalist, because everyone keeps telling me I am now a dinosaur.'
“I think journalism as we know it, and journalists, will never die. The platform will change and evolve. We have a digital version. We are online. We are partnered with TV and radio. Even AI - we are exploring it.”
“I was awarded for courage and impact. But you know what they say about courage? It's not the absence of fear. It's forging ahead even when what you really want to do is to run for your life. That's all I can say,” she told Mediawatch.
Hong Kong - from media hub to branch office
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Also given the same ‘courage and impact’ honour in Manila was Tom Grundy, Editor-in-Chief of Hong Kong Free Press. It’s a nonprofit online news outlet he founded in the wake of the Umbrella Movement democracy protests ten years ago.
Before Hong Kong became part of China in 1999 it was a major hub for the international press, but now it’s all the way down at number 135 in RWB’s world press freedom rankings.
Last Monday HKFP reported the local Journalists Association’s annual survey had recorded the lowest result for press freedom result since first conducted in 2013.The same day a Chinese journalist working for international news agency Bloomberg was refused a visa to work in their Hong Kong bureau. She had been arrested by Chinese authorities in July 2021 on suspicion of crimes endangering national security.
“I think it helps being in English and being impartial, transparent and very careful. Our team of nine have chosen to stick around. We've collectively, you know, going forward together, one day at a time,” he told Mediawatch.
“If you're a public figure and more critically minded, you're not going to want to want to talk to the press, but even establishment minded or pro government, pro-Beijing, people are not going to take risks talking to what they consider to be unfriend unfriendly press, and they will stay in their safe spaces as not to say anything wrong.
“It is still better to be in that out, but things can change in a day a week, a month or a year. But I would say that there is no local hard news story we've been unable to report. We have to think harder about getting the government response, about the framing, about the headlines."
Tom Grundy says the national security laws were also making journalism a lottery for HKFP.
“Those are all being considered in a case against Stand News, a digital news outlet not so different to our own, albeit more ‘democracy-leaning’. They're about to see a verdict soon and you're really seeing normal news reporting - in my opinion - being put on trial.
“We keep the security law at the back of our mind, obviously, and we keep the journalistic tradition and our code of ethics and at the front of our mind. And if you were to swap them around, you can end up self-censoring and going nuts.
“Every time you publish, you're not really sure whether you may have done something that could contravene the law. We go to workshops and speak to legal experts, and sometimes email the government for clarity as to what is allowed and what's not [under the security laws].
"I would be told, ‘You must obey the law. No one is above the law. You must agree to the relevant rules and regulations.' And lawyers would say there's no test cases.”
Paying the bills
“I'm glad to say the willingness of Hong Kongers to pay for news is among the highest in the world. We are sustained by almost a thousand monthly donors who donate an average of 200 Hong Kong dollars (NZ$40) That's practically all of our income," Grundy said.
HKPF practices what Grundy calls “militant transparency”.
“We put all of our audits, incomings and outgoings online... as the most transparent news outlet in Asia. I want to showcase [to] the public, the government and the donors what we're about, what we do and where our money is coming from. You can see pie charts going back to our very founding and what we do to simply pay journalists and keep the operation running.
“It is important for a donation-based, independent outlet with no shareholders. Press freedom-wise it's better to have a large number of readers giving smaller amounts. I'm not really accountable to any one tycoon or donor or anything like that.”
Mediawatch attended The Future of Facts - an international media conference in the Philippines run by the East-West Center - with the assistance of the Asia New Zealand Foundation Te Whītau Tūhono.
