Keidy teaches the villagers how to handle a camera, film still: insight share, CC-by-nc-nd 2.0

Fernando M. doesn’t actually look like a revolutionary. Slender as a boy he crouches on the floor, the microphone has fallen into his lap. Only his weather-beaten face betrays the 40, maybe 50 years. Barren is the soil beneath him, light and desolate the forest, but Fernando’s face shows a different landscape: laughter lines and a glimmer of hope. He doesn’t even seem to notice the camera in the young woman’s hand.

No journalist in the world could have filmed Fernando the way Keidy T. did it. Together with other indigenous activists the 23-year-old documented the situation of the Igorot people in the mountains of the Northern Philippine island Luzon. Fernando distrusts the Philippine mainstream media; upon him they ignore the situation of the indigenous people and widely cover the corrupt government for fear of persecution. Unlike Keidy and her team: While they shoot the documentary “Es-Esel Ja Eparas” (“Voices of Experience”) during a workshop of the British video laboratory InsightShare, they have the villagers on their side: Aren’t they also indigenous people, don’t they speak Filipino and ask the right questions? At the end of each shooting day, the whole village gathers in a festive mood on the market place to watch the shots. Right there Fernando negotiates how he will be seen in the film – and how not.

Fernando M. in an interview with young indigenous people, film still: insight share, CC-by-nc-nd 2.0

Where monkeys and boars were still roaming the rain forest when Fernando was young, nowadays prairie grasses and rotten fruit knuckles under storm and heat. The fight against the destruction of the natural environment affilliate the old with the young Igorot: Where Fernando and his men blocked the access routes to the gold mine in the nineties, their children are facing a more abstract enemy: the global climate change can only be met with global media work.

Media projects such as InsightShare or the network of bloggers Rising Voices believe in the best of all possible worlds: a world in which the disenfranchised rise their voices, the marginalised step into the center and the indigenous record their traditional cosmovision with the latest technology. If a media workshop enables a group to fight for its rights in the long run, citizen journalism reaches its ultimate destination: in the hands of the weakest.

Approx. location of the village G. in the Philippine Cordillera, Screenshot: Google Maps, CC-by-nc-nd 2.0

“Digital pollution” or “fifth pillar of democracy”?
Citizen journalism. Many professional journalists consider this very term as an oxymoron, if not as an attack on their professional honour. Some mock those “digital polluters”, those “Sunday drivers on the information superhighway”, others fear the apparent competition – but still many journalist use their writings. Citizen journalism is a grab bag; one could argue about the quality of the entries in the Heise forums, the ideological struggles of Indymedia or about how relevant most of the 115 million worldwide blogs really are. Identifying the really independent, reliable, wide-ranging and relevant information in the middle of the World Wide Web’s unpaid, unedited and possibly unresearched sign salad is like looking for a needle in a haystack, but it is worth it.

Most citizen journalists don’t try to compete with the established media, but to create a civilian counter public: They consider themselves as fifth pillar of the state, holding up democracy and human rights, when everything else is in ruins. When Rezwan, a student from Bangladesh started his blog The Third World View in 2003, he had no idea how important it would become one day. With his messages on a nostalgic papyrus ground he was part of the online-avantgarde in Bangladesh. Only when in 2004 the Unicode standard for the Bengali script was established and the first blogger platforms were founded in 2005, the sport of the nerds became a mainstream activity of the young educated elite. Today, about 50,000 Bengalis are blogging, but many from the diaspora. Not without reason.

Rezwan blogs about repression in Bangladesh (2007), screenshot, CC-by-nc-nd 2.0

The magic moment for Rezwan’s blog was a sad day for his country: On January 11th, 2007, the government of Bangladesh imposed a state of emergency, after people started protesting violently against electional fraud. Nearly 100,000 people got arrested. Rezwan blogger-friend narrowly escaped: Exile in Sweden was Tasneem Khalil’s only refuge. Rezwan’s blog was swept by hate-filled comments, but he was outside the line of fire, in Berlin. His Third World View became a so-called “bridge blog”; Rezwan combed through the Bengali media several times a day and explained the most explosive news to an English-speaking public. He was far away from home, but yet right in the centre of the events.

Anonymous activist
In his offline world, Rezwan had to become an accountant, but online he may be an activist. In his home country not a single politician would listen to him, but in the internet he has 200-300 readers every day. He just reported that the Bengali government blocked Facebook after Mohammed cartoons haunted across the network. He carefully quotes other bloggers, behind whose statements he discreetly hides his own criticism. Since the riots of 2007 Rezwan has become carful: He wants to reveal neither his last name nor his age; during the skype interview he turns off his webcam. A thumbnail-size picture of him circulating in the web shows a handsome young man, one among thousands. “Only as long as I remain anonymous, I am free to write what I want,” Rezwan says. “I would really like to be a professional journalist, but in that case I’d have to give my name and bury my activism.”

“The world speaks to you, do you listen?”
In 2007, the operators of the most important global portal for citizen journalism noticed the Bengali blogger: Global Voices published excerpts of his features from the police state – a big honor in the internet community. Tripod-founder Ethan Chairman and former CNN bureau director Rebecca MacKinnon founded the network in December 2004 to provide a podium for the most interesting perspectives of citizen journalism around the world. The motto: “The world speaks to you, do you listen?” One million visitors a month answer this question with “yes”. More than 300 volunteers around the world watch the blogosphere in 150 countries and translate the selected text into 15 languages. In addition, the portal encourages new bloggers through workshops, link the international blogging community by organising conferences and provide legal assistance.

A parcel on the sixth continent
The Internet is large, and its settlement will hardly ever end. On the “sixth continent” even the landless and disenfranchised have the chance to stake their plot. No wonder that nowhere such an enthusiasm for the new media can be felt as in the so-called developing and emerging countries. On their way into the online world, so-far marginalized groups simply leave out less efficient development steps of the Western world: they “leap-frog”. In no time Rezwan and Keidy have become experts and opinion leaders; however, until today, they earn no Rupiah and no Taka with their work.

When Global Voices founded the daughter network Rising Voices in 2007, Rezwan joint in as a volunteer editor right from the beginning. Rising Voices has an approach, which is quite similar to the British video NGO InsightShare: Both aim at taking citizen journalism to a grass roots level, from an urban elite into the rural areas, from the young and trendy to children and old people. While InsideShare has built eight video-hubs in ghettos and indigenous villages, Rising Voices commissioned 25 local NGOs and well-known blogger with teaching blogging to a local group.

Bloggers build bridges
The results can be seen until today: There are doctors and nurses of a Romanian hospice writing about the last days of their patients; activists in Yemen blog for women rights; Liberian bloggers build bridges between those in exile and those who stayed at home. The success rate of the project is relatively high; at least ten to 20 percent of the participants are still blogging three years after the seminars, Rezwan says.

Keidy T. in a skype interview with the author (Screenshot)

Meanwhile, the young Filipina Keidy T. became the director of the video hub in the Philippines. The demand is big; soon the 23-year-old will herself train video trainers – even on the Southern island of Mindanao, where Muslim rebels and the central government are fighting against each other. She has already received anonymious threats for her commitment; she and her colleagues feel observed. But giving up? Keidy smiles enigmatically. It’s the smile of Fernando M., it seems to say: Our people have been through worse.

It seems long since she has travelled to the Climate Conference in Copenhagen with her very first film from the village of G. Like many NGOs they didn’t get an official accreditation for the conference; instead they received standing ovations for their presentation on the civilian counter-conference. For a moment the world listened to a small woman from the Southern hemisphere who had never left her country before: “We indigenous people have contributed least to climate change, yet we suffer the most.” At the other end of the earth a village holds its breath.

_____

Useful Links  (all checked on Sept. 21st, 2011)
Online-Portal „Global Voices“: Facts about citizen journalism

Sourcewatch: List of Citizen Journalism Websites

Website of the NGO InsightShare: What is Participatory Video? (video, 3:14 min.)

Website of the NGO InsightShare: Es-Esel Ja Eparas/ Voices of Experience, (video, 17:29 min.)

Website of the NGO InsightShare: presentation of 9 further video hubs

Online-Portal „Rising Voices“: Active Rising Voices Projects

Online-Portal „Global Voices“: Current selected articles

Online-Portal „Global Voices“: threast to civil journalism worldwide (map)

Blog by Rezwan: The Third World View

Online-Portal „Global Voices“: Manifesto

Blog of Ushahidi: African Crisis Information Portal working via crowdsourcing

This article first appeared in an online magazine project of the EJS School of Journalism in Berlin (Evangelische Journalistenschule) led by Matthias Spielkamp and Peter Berger. It was shortlisted for the Minority Voices Young Journalism Award in June 2011. E-Mail the author at christina.felschen(a)gmx.de or visit www.chessocampo.blogspot.com.

After a 30-hours-journey from Ciudad Juárez to the Global Media Forum in Bonn, Judith Torrea was tired, but still full of energy. (Screenshot from author's video)

Judith, you have been reporting on Ciudad Juárez for 15 years now and even moved there in 2009 – what draw you towards one of the most dangerous cities in the world?
I am a journalist and our duty is to tell the stories that have to be told. If we don’t do that, we become accomplices of war, massacres or genocides like those involved in the so-called „War on Drugs“ led by the Mexican president Felipe Calderón. Once I stepped into this topic I couldn’t just ignore it and go back to Washington as if nothing had happened.

Stepping into it, how did that happen?
Even if I was born in Northern Spain, my heart is purely Mexican, it’s Juárezian. I always wanted to live in Mexico, but finally it all happened by pure coincidence. Fifteen years ago I crossed the Mexican border for the first time and the first city I came across was Ciudad Juárez. At that time the first women were disappearing, and there was nobody else who was reporting on it.

Most bloggers are citizen journalists and activists – when you started blogging, you have already been a highly experienced and awarded journalist. What made you leave your prestigious job as a White House correspondent and become a blogger in Mexico?
Originally, I wanted to work there as a freelance journalist. But then I discovered that in full economic crisis, nobody wanted to buy my stories. But I didn’t want to give up: I published them on a blog instead – not to nourish me, but to lift my spirits. I even renounced on advertisements or collaborations with traditional media, because I want to be as independent as possible. However, I would never have thought that it might become so popular and even receive the prestigious BOB Awards. Just consider how technically simple it looks. Perhaps I won’t earn much money with this blog, but it makes me happy. In times like those Juárez is going through, it is essential that people rise their voices, that they talk or write about what they are experiencing. I also teach citizen journalists in Juárez – my “pupils” are common people, but they tell some stories better than me.

You have been the first Spanish reporter to witness and report about death penalty executions in the US – another dark topic. Are you fascinated by the proximity of death?
In no way! I am a very happy person who loves life. But Juárez is my mission. Nobody asks to be born in a certain place at a certain time. If I don’t tell the story of Juárez, the winners of this „War on Drugs“ will tell it. What keeps me here is my passion and my love for this city. I am fascinated by the mothers of the murdered girls who succeed in transforming adversities into strength. Ciudad Juárez taught me to live.

What was your impression of Juárez when you entered the city for the first time? Was it love at first sight?
The city is neither fascinating nor beautiful. But when you cross the bridge across the US-Mexican border into Juárez, you immediately feel the energy of this town. It’s a women’s city: While many men are unemployed, women have for decades worked in the export oriented assembly plants, the maquilas. Their strong position causes jealousy in the city’s macho culture.

“Hours go by. The fear. She doesn't come back. Days go by. Years.” – Many mothers are still waiting for their daughters to come back, years after their disappearance. Judith Torrea blogs about forbidden activism, ghost towns and the power of memory (Screenshot of Torrea's blog)

Since 1993 hundreds or thousands of young women have been murdered in Juárez; many locals even speak of 5.000 cases. You said that the first media reports came extremely late – how does the Mexican press react?
Absurdly the first newspaper that reported on it was the New York Times. The Mexican press even claimed that the people of Juárez invented these stories, following the discourse of president Felipe Calderón. Mexican media is mainly concentrated in two outlets tightly related to the government. Today mainstream media can’t ignore the feminicidios any longer, but instead of analyzing the reasons for it, they show gruesome pictures of the victims and indirectly blame them for provoking these violent acts by dressing up or going out.

The city lacks international attention: You are the only foreign journalist living in Juárez – and when you wanted to sell your first freelance stories on Juárez in 2009, the editorial offices weren’t interested. Where does this ignorance come from?
Mexico is not Afghanistan. Many foreign editors don’t consider it an important topic. Furthermore it is a dangerous job; many journalists come with bodyguards and don’t want to sleep in the city, because they don’t want to risk anything. When I was back in New York reading the news about the so-called „War on Drugs“ in Ciudad Juárez, I realized that my perspective differed from that of most journalists: Unlike them, I distrust Calderón when he states that the victims have been related to drug dealing.

Once you accused the Mexican president Felipe Calderón on TV of supporting the Sinaloa Cartel, the most powerful drug cartel in Juárez. Are you not frightened?
The only fear I have is not doing what I have to do. I am a journalist that will never betray herself, that is not corrupt. Neither the Sinaloa Cartel nor Calderón can stop me. As Juárezians, we all share the same danger.

Have you ever been threatened?
The government tries to put me under constant pressure. But I won’t go into details.

What will the future bring for Juárez?
Peace will come soon; the death toll is already dropping. But it won’t be a peace for the love of peace – Calderon’s „War on Drugs“ simply costs too much money. And it will be a false peace: This “War” has left tremendous social problems, hundreds of orphans, empty houses, lots of unemployed and many, many traumatized people.

What will you do when this „War“ is over?
Hard to say – I hardly ever think about the future.

Interview conducted in Spanish and translated into English

Judith Torrea’s blog: www.juarezenlasombra.blogspot.com
Her book: Torrea, Judith: Juárez en la sombra: crónica de una ciudad que se resiste a morir. Aguilar, 2011.

• Ciudad Juárez is a city of 1,5 million inhabitants in Northern Mexico directly bordering the US city El Paso. Due to its location, the city is a major point of entry and transportation into the United States – for migrants and goods as well as for drugs. Juárez attracted several drug cartels by its low-wage work force, the proximity of the lucrative U.S. market and its social disorganization. In the 90ies it became the epicentre of Mexico’s “War on Drugs”; with between 6 and 27 homicides each day it is considered “the most violent zone in the world outside of declared war zones.”

• Judith Torrea is a 37-year-old journalist from Pamplona/ Spain. After working for several US media she decided to dedicate her work to the fight against drug trafficking and the Mexican „War on Drugs“. She was awarded with the Spanish journalist award Premio Ortega y Gasset as well as with Deutsche Welle’s international weblog awards, the BOBs, for her blog “Ciudad Juárez, en la sombre del narcotráfico” (Ciudad Juárez in the shadow of drug trafficking). Based on her blog and long lasting experience she recently published her book “Juárez en la sombra” (Juárez in the shadow).

This interview first appeared in Orange Magazine of the European Youth Press in June 2011 as part of its coverage of the Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum. E-Mail the author at christina.felschen(a)gmx.de or visit www.chessocampo.blogspot.com.

”How could you criticize our Dear Leader?“

It was this sentence, spoken in a small restaurant in a Chinese town bordering North Korea, that changed Tae Keung Ha’s life. The young man had just run into a group of teenage refugees begging at a marketplace and had spontaneously invited them to eat a meat stew. But although they were very hungry, they could only sip the soup. “We have never had meat in our lives,“ they said. “We cannot digest it.“

When Ha started criticizing Kim Jong-il for depriving them and their fellow citizens of basic human needs, the teenagers put down their spoons, indignantly: “How could you…?”

Globalization, with its virtues and vices, has conquered nearly all parts of the world, allowing worldwide friendships as well as global drug and weapon trade. But a handful of countries still try to seal off their citizens from these tendencies. Undoubtedly the most shielded among those carceral states is the hereditary dictatorship of North Korea.

But things are changing, even in the self-proclaimed “Juche” (self-reliant) State—and South Korean activists like the 43-year-old Ha play an important part in that. Upon his unforgettable encounter with the young North Koreans, Ha founded the Open Radio for North Korea in 2005, broadcasting from Seoul to North Korea. His programming is diverse, ranging from world news to South Korean soap operas and greetings from South Koreans to their family members in the North.

How do people in North Korea live? One thing is for sure: Not like this Pyongyang mural suggests! (Photo: Christopher Schoenbohm/Wandering the world)

A dangerous job

After six years, Tae Keung Ha now has 20 full-time staff journalists working with him in Seoul as well as six correspondents in North Korea, all situated less than ten kilometres from the Chinese borders. That location is no coincidence: They use Chinese mobile phones for transmitting their reports to Ha’s Open Radio, but these phones only work close to the border. Being a correspondent at Open Radio is a dangerous job: If they are caught, they will almost certainly be sent to one of the North Korean prison camps where approximately 200,000 people are kept. Chances for survival according to Amnesty International are estimated at 60 per cent.

Even Tae Keung Ha is not entirely safe: He believes that the North Korean government could easily send its secret service to let him disappear. “But I don’t think they will harm me,“ he says. ‘They would be associated with terrorism as a consequence, which would provoke international intervention. Kim Jong-il is aware of that. Unlike their inferiors, the regime is well-informed about world politics.”

Tae Keung Ha smiles confidently, like a person who has seen enough in his life to no longer be afraid. Ha has already been imprisoned for two years in his early twenties, while fighting against the former South Korean despot Chun Doo-hwan. “I cannot shut up—I think I was born an activist!“

But given the dreadful sentences, who dares to listen to his radio? When talking about his audience, Ha looks into the void, recalling numbers and abstracts: “According to our surveys, about one-fourth of the 24 million inhabitants have access to radio receivers, and four percent have already listened to foreign programs.“

Ha clings to these however uncertain facts about the most impenetrable country on earth. In dealing with North Korea, most people rely on speculations, and questioning one’s own methodology has become essential: Are refugees sufficiently balanced sources? And how can NGO workers and journalists differ between true life and Potemkin villages? Even Ha, who has devoted his life to his neighbours behind the heavily militarized border, has never been to North Korea. Kim Jong-il would never let him in.

Where is North Korea going to? This traffic police guard will hardly know it. (Photo: adaptorplug/flickr.com)

North Koreans fall for flirts and Brad Pitt – a different perspective

The situation is completely different for Karen Janz, a rural development consultant and one of the few foreigners who can claim to know North Korea: From 2005 to 2010, she led the office of the German aid organisation Welthungerhilfe in Pyongyang. “Certainly, the leaders always knew where I was and what I was doing,” she says. “With only around 50 foreigners in the country, it’s easy.“

But once Janz and her organisation enjoyed the authorities’ confidence, she was allowed to travel to the countryside on her own. And much of what she tells contradicts everything we believe to know about the country. “North Korean people are extremely well-educated, they have a great sense of humour and like to flirt,“ Janz shares. “And they are better informed than we think, even without access to the Internet.“ In a sauna in Pyongyang, Janz met a 15 year-old girl asking her: “Do you prefer Keanu Reeves or Brad Pitt?”

In fact, North Koreans seem to know a lot more about the world than we can grasp about their country. Security measures for foreign journalists are rigid, whereas information technology no longer presents an insurmountable border for North Koreans as Tae Keung Ha’s Open Radio shows. Unlike most of the ten other radios broadcasting into North Korea, many of which are run by the Seoul government, private or religious groups, Ha’s radio is totally independent and free of ideology. “Personally, I would wish the Koreas to be reconciled one day, like Germany after the Cold War,“ he admits. “But this must be entirely up to the North Koreans. When their country becomes free, they will have to take their own political decisions—probably for the first time in their lives.“

But when will this first time be? When Ha was reporting on the Arab revolutions in spring, his hopes were flying high. A correspondent told him that a similar uprising might also happen in North Korea; not right away, but possibly after the death of 70-year-old Kim Jong-il.

In the meantime, hundreds of families hope to be reunited before their death. Recently a man in his sixties came into Ha’s editorial office to produce a one-hour radio show all by himself. He dedicated it to his father in the North whom he hadn’t seen for decades, hoping that the old man was still alive to draw hope from his greetings.

• The Koreas: North Korea is a single-party-state with an elaborate cult of personality around the Kim family. Korea was devided in 1945, after having been occupied by the Japanese since 1910. Border conflicts led to the Korean War from 1950 to 1953. The relative peace has since regularly been interrupted by assassination attempts on South Korean leaders and border skirmishes, most recently in 2010 when the Pyongyang regime attacked the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong.

• Closed Societies: Not all societies that remain closed against the outdoors violate human rights. Societies isolate themselves for different reasons, to different extents and not necessarily enforce this upon their people: Carceral States like North Korea, Burma or Cuba obviously have few in common with voluntary forms of isolation practiced by Gated Communities or uncontacted tribes in the Amazonian.

This article first appeared in Orange Magazine of the European Youth Press in June 2011 as part of its coverage of the Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum. E-Mail the author at christina.felschen(a)gmx.de or visit www.chessocampo.blogspot.com.

BPK, the German term for Federal Press Conference, is a platform created by parliamentary correspondents in 1949 to enable them to access information from politicians.

With its headquarters in Berlin and a branch office in the former German capital, Bonn, the BPK is financed through member contributions. Membership is open to those who report full-time for the German media. Currently it has over 900 parliamentary correspondents registered as members.

However, the BPK does not always seem to live up to the expectations, as the invited politicians and their spokespeople often give superficial responses to questions posed by journalists.

Carmen Vela, a radio correspondent from Spanish Cadena SER working in Berlin, says the responses are often too shallow and thus making her work more difficult.

“We wish the spokespeople would give us more detailed information than they normally give us,” she said in an interview.

Nikolai Fichtner, a member of the BPK chairing committee, during a meeting with the participants of this year’s IIJ Summer Academy admitted that politicians often give superficial answers during the press conferences.

He explained that they often feel “ambushed” by some of the questions and that this accounts for the superficial responses. “There isn’t much we can do because the politicians do not know beforehand what questions to expect.”

Mr Fichtner, who reports for the Financial Times Deutschland newspaper, said that journalists often interact on a personal basis with politicians immediately after the press conference as a means of getting additional information.

Both Ms Vela and Mr Fichtner admit the BPK is an important place to interact with politicians. “It is very difficult for journalists like me to access information in the corridors of government,” Ms Vela pointed out.

The Bundespressekonferenz is unique in that it organises the briefings and invites the politicians to take part – unlike many other countries were governments are in charge of press conferences.

The briefings are routinely held on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, with at least a government spokesman and the spokespeople of the ministries as guests and expected to answer questions about the political process.

Mr Fichtner said that ministers come to the press conferences when important topics are on the agenda. He added that Chancellor Angela Merkel visits the BPK once or twice a year, although his committee would like her to come more often.

For gas exploration in Bangladesh, the government recently signed a deal with US company ConocoPhillips on condition that the company will own 80 per cent of the gas produced. A campaign group protested against the deal which sparked a huge debate in the media.

Although the government sticks to its decision regarding the contract, the media debate may have the potential to push the government to be more democratic in the decision-making process in the future.

Free and unbiased media organisations accommodate diverging views, promote democracy through free debates and help governments take more comprehensive decisions relating to their countries’ interests. While writing on transparency in government and its economic benefits, Joseph Stiglitz, also a winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics, supprted Mr. Sen’s view of a free press helping economic development.

Corruption hampers growth

The absence of media freedom is likely to make a government lack in transparency and accountability. For example, corruption is a major impediment to economic development and equal growth.

For example, the 15-year military rule that started in Bangladesh in 1975 is perceived to be a period of widespread corruption.Media organisations were controlled during this time.

As a controlled press cannot depict a true and comprehensive picture of society, people remain unaware of many of the government’s plans and projects, resulting in a lack of accountability of the ruling elite to the people. But an accountable government is a prerequisite for economic development.

Advanced economies such as the USA, Germany and Japan have a long tradition of press freedom and media organisations that have pushed governments to be accountable.

However, there are also examples like China and Malaysia – countries which achieved rapid economic growth although the media in those countries are or were highly regulated. China, which continues to control its media, recently became the second largest economy of the world. But large inequality of income is now a big challenge for China, so economic development is limited.

Media as watchdog

With press freedom guaranteed by the constitution, many media in Bangladesh have become a place for independent and inclusive debates on government policies.

Most of the television channels, radio and news papers along with civil society groups are highly critical of the government’s economic policies and performance. Bangladesh is now achieving over 6 per cent GDP growth. While the country reached this target, the media have been playing the role of watchdog and path-finder.

I believe that without the vibrant and booming media landscape in Bangladesh, the recent growth of the country’s economy and the achievements described above would not have been possible.

When he started WikiLeaks in 2006, Julian Assange believed in the power of original, unedited material. He assumed such documents would achieve that “readers and historians alike can see evidence of the truth,” as stated on the  website. Back then the site only published original material and short summaries.

After three years of sharing a lot of valuable material on the website and not getting much attention from either the mainstream media and the public, Mr. Assange changed his strategy.

In spring 2010, a 2007 video from Baghdad – in which an US Apache helicopter fired on and killed civilians – marked the first turning point: Julian Assange presented it at a press conference.

“WikiLeaks adopted a more journalistic approach — editing and annotating,” David Carr, media columnist with the New York Times, wrote in December 2010. The disclosure of the video gained much more attention from the press.

A new player

Starting in July 2010, WikiLeaks began its partnership with some established news outlets by providing them with a massive amount of classified US government documents related to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

WikiLeaks shared the material with several well-known publications, including the British Guardian, the New York Times, German magazine Der Spiegel, El Pais (Spain) and Le Monde (France). They later also published the classified diplomatic cables of the correspondence between the US State Department and US embassies all over the world.

Julian Assange was heavily criticised within WikiLeaks for turning away from its core philosophy, said Marcel Rosenbach of Der Spiegel. Mr. Rosenbach was involved in the co-operation between the magazine and WikiLeaks and has written the book “WikiLeaks – Enemy of the State”.

“It was not so much WikiLeaks that had a great impact on traditional journalism. It was more the traditional media that changed WikiLeaks over the course of 2010,” Mr. Rosenbach told young journalists from Asia and Africa at this year’s IIJ Summer Academy in Hamburg.

However, he added that the journalism world also has changed due to “the new player in the field.”

According to Mr. Rosenbach, there was an agreement between the five publications for simultaneous publication of the internationally relevant documents, but each newspaper chose topics that connected to their specific audience. It has been the first time ever some giant competitors in the global media industry worked closely together to analyse and publish such important stories, Mr. Rosenbach said.

“This kind of cooperation alone was quite fascinating, and it’s something new that hasn’t been there before,” Mr. Rosenbach said.

He added that after the WikiLeaks reports, the papers have also cooperated in some other cases.

Mr. Rosenbach pointed out that WikiLeaks has inspired many newsrooms across the world to think about establishing their own safe digital platforms where whistleblowers can safely post material.

“Any news outlet has to think about the way to communicate with sources and how to keep sources secured in the digital environment,” he added.

He also said that in some countries, which have strict media laws, traditional journalists may send their reports to WikiLeaks as a publishing platform because it is “international and uncensorable.”

A Freedom of Information Act can provide a legal guarantee for such access to government information, provided this information does not invade anybody’s privacy, reveal trade secrets or compromise a nation’s security.

According to Manfred Redelfs, Professor at the University of Hamburg and head of the Research and Investigation Unit at Greenpeace  Germany, a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) stipulates that as many government records as possible are released if citizens apply to get access to them.

Freedom of Information Acts in countries such as the United Kingdom have made it possible to expose, for example, information about the misuse of allowances and expenses of Members of Parliament. Such cases have highlighted how transparency can both strengthen or weaken the credibility of officials.

Mr Redelfs was also involved in lobbying for a FOIA which was finally passed in Germany in 2005.

Such a law can have huge benefits both for the political system and the media. It helps journalists uncover exclusive information while investigating stories and allows citizens and NGOs to unearth information relevant to them.

The right to know

It is also likely to strengthen the accountability of government officials and to reduce incidences of corruption. Besides, the transparency it provides can also create an effective way of improving communication between the state and the public as this will help in building up citizen participation in national affairs.

“The public has the right to know how public money is spent, and information is a prerequisite for effective citizen participation,” Mr Redelfs said at this year’s IIJ Summer Academy in Hamburg.

When journalists are able to access different information, this aids credibility in reporting. This means journalists are able to provide conclusive evidence to issues covered as well as statistics to support their reporting.

Unfortunately only a few countries have a FOIA or one that works effectively.

Zimbabwe is a country with repressive laws working against the idea of freedom to information and the freedom of expression.

The country currently has the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), passed in 2002 to oversee how the print and electronic media operate in the country.

This act, along with the Public Order and Security Act (POSA), has been used to criminalise journalists rather than enabling access to government information. They are inhibiting transparency rather than promoting it.

Further amendments to these acts will only be taking place once the new constitution-making process in the country is complete. At the moment it is difficult to conclude when this will be.

Illusion of freedom

The Zimbabwe Media Commission set up in 2009 officially seeks to promote freedom of speech, and to provide access to information to the public – by the licensing of newspaper publications. Through this commission journalists and media houses are meant to be accredited, but generally media houses are monitored through this commission.

This therefore creates an illusion that the media environment is stable. However, there are cases when journalists and editors have been arrested for publishing information about government officials and accused of defamation of character.

In such an environment the idea of freedom to information appears to be far-fetched, particularly because only one national broadcaster currently exists. The public has no choice but to make decisions based on the unilateral information provided in broadcasting.

In the mean time, the licensing of independent daily newspapers in Zimbabwe has provided the public with different points of views to consider. But there is no guarantee that these papers will run forever.

A Freedom of Information Act is something to consider to enhance professionalism in journalism. However in Zimbabwe, this may not happen for a long time.

It has been exactly five years Thursday, since Gambian journalist Mr Chief Ebrima Manneh went missing and separated from his family where he was a breadwinner. Chief Manneh, who disappeared since July 7, 2006, was allegedly whisked away from his office, the pro-government Daily Observer newspaper in Bakau, by State Security Agents.
Since then, his fellow journalists and family members have been in a ceaseless quest to trace his whereabouts, but so far, their efforts have proven futile.
In one of the most drastic of efforts to clear the doubts over his whereabouts, the sub-region’s leading media watchdog, the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) sued the Government of The Gambia at the ECOWAS Court of Justice in Abuja, Nigeria.

More on http://thenorthbankeveningstandard.blogspot.com/2011/07/kidnaped.html

Citizens can now access data and participate in constitutional implementation process as well as hold the government accountable, President Kibaki said.

The government has released several large datasets, including the national census and statistics on government spending at national and county level to enhance transparency in governance and access to information.

The data presented in user-friendly format is now available online via an open data portal (www.opendata.go.ke).

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Currently much of the public data is in hard copy and other static formats that make their use close to impossible.

Worse still, to access such data one has to seek clearance from authorities in relevant ministries or purchase it from the Government printer after going through a bureaucratic clearance process.

In an interview with Nation, Dr Ndemo said the website will be one of the first and largest government data portals in sub-Saharan Africa.

“With the open data portal, such obstacles will be a thing of the past. Information is power and we are aiming to empower citizens by enhancing their access to usable data that was not accessible easily to the public,” said Ministry of Information Permanent Secretary, Dr Bitange Ndemo.

“For the first time, Kenyans will have information about their community at their fingertips allowing them to make informed decisions at a personal level—currently most decisions people make are not scientific since they are not based on data yet data is available but inaccessible,” he added.

The PS said the portal is part of an initiative of pushing local content to the Internet and to offer over 70,000 Kenyans who graduate from Kenyan colleges annually to manipulate the data for beneficial use.

“By creating a knowledge society, you create a knowledge economy…we do not want to lag behind as we watch other countries releasing data to their people for profitable use…we have not even scratched the surface in terms of data, we are working on data centres, which was our last piece of infrastructure development,” he said.

The information on the portal is from published government data available from the ministries of Finance, Planning, Local Government, Health, Education and the Kenya National Bureaus of Statistics.

According to Dr Ndemo, much of this information is also available at the World Bank and the United Nations thus it beats logic why it has not been openly availed to citizens.

Dr Ndemo said globally, governments are adopting the concept of open data to reap benefits of a more informed citizenry.

This, he said, would deter public servants and politicians from vices such as fraud that thrive in situations where secrecy and monopoly of information abounds.

Dr Ndemo said data users will be able to create maps and other visualizations and directly download underlying data for their own uses.

“Data is not information until it is converted to make sense to users…that is what we have done at the portal,” Dr Nemo said.

This has never happened before and it welcomes an era of openness where the citizen will be empowered to put leaders to account in the use and distribution of public resources.

For instance it will now be near impossible to misuse public funds since all records pertaining spending shall be available online for citizens to scrutinise and ascertain if ‘what is on the paper tallies with what is on the ground’.

For decades, it has been the practice of some unscrupulous government officials to misuse public funds and misinform that the money has been spent to implement ‘non-existent’ projects.

Through the Kenya ICT Board, the Ministry will make a Call for Proposals for ideas on how to use government data.

The Call for Proposals is open from July 8 – August 8; the best proposals will receive $50,000 each (for companies) and $10,000 (for teams and individuals). At least 30 grants will be awarded in 2011.

The portal is managed by the Kenya ICT Board in partnership with the World Bank and Socrata, a US-based developer and provider of Open Data Services, that enable federal, state, and local governments to improve the reach, usability and social utility of their public information assets.

Local input

Private web and content developers also played part in setting up the portal.

Media Council of Kenya Chairman Levi Obonyo said the government’s move portends well for Kenya in general but will particularly boost the work of the media industry.

“It means that journalists will be able to access a lot of information that they need for their work easily unlike previously. Since media plays the watchdog role this is very facilitative in that function and I think most journalists will or should welcome this launch,” said Mr Obonyo.

Mr Obonyo said the new constitution provides for expanded freedom to information access but much needs to be done to ensure the Freedom of Information Bill (FOI), which is in the pipeline, becomes law.

“With the new constitution there is obviously a greater opening and emerging forthrightness in providing information. But this culture is not yet entrenched,” said Mr Obonyo.

Mr Obonyo said certain sectors of the civil service are yet to fully embrace the spirit of openness.

“…We should not look only at the civil service. Withholding information takes place both in the public and private sector and both sectors need as much openness as this is is good for the society,” he said.

FOI bill

However, Dr Ndemo said the FOI bill is currently at the cabinet level before it goes to Parliament for debate.

According to Michael Murungi, an ICT legal expert, the new constitution obliges government and Parliament to ensure free flow of information and the FOI will outline the processes to be followed to achieve the objective.

“Democracy dies behind closed doors. This historic event marks the end of a siri kali (top secret) era constructed on a colonial relic that founded, facilitated and perpetuated a hitherto information access caste society,” argues Alex Gakuru, Kenya ICT Consumers Association chairman.

Mr Gakuru says top echelons in the government thrived on concealing information secretly for personal gains making the public lose faith in political leaders and public institutions.

“The power class had sanitised corruption as ‘standard operating procedure’ ridiculed and punished honest officials who acted in public interest … one may be excused for reading this government openness ceremony as a major step in reclaiming our long lost national
values direction with far reaching social transformation implications,” said Mr Gakuru.

Echoing Mr Obonyo’s sentiments, Mr Gakuru said journalists’ agenda-setting stories will be based on solid official data and information translating to improved media professionalism and reduced speculative reporting due to insufficient information.

“Public Servants will henceforth live in glass houses, everything they do will be seen, everything they say will be heard and every expenditure scrutinised,” said Mr Gakuru.

World Bank Communications Officer, Mr Peter Warutere, said data availability to the public is key for development and building a knowledge economy.

“It is important that you provide the right data and it must be in the right format. This is the starting step of a long journey to creating a knowledge based economy,” said Mr Warutere.