Welcome back to Slow News Days, a now-and-then newsletter on journalism and journalism-adjacent topics in the Philippines.
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Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri has nothing to do with it, but six journalism organizations in Southeast Asia agreed this week to collaborate on campaigns and on tallying attacks and threats against journalists and press freedom.
In a rant last month, Zubiri said the press in the Philippines should stop complaining since it is better off than counterparts in, among other places, China, Malaysia and Vietnam.
READ: Center for Independent Journalism Malaysian Media Landscape Brief 2021
As it turns out, that is not necessarily true (and certainly not helpful). The press is threatened throughout the region — with differences in degree but many similarities as well — and so:
“Strengthened collaboration and shared experiences are critical for the region at a time when the media face numerous challenges from the State and non State actors,” said CIJ’s executive director Wathshlah G. Naidu. (CamboJA release)
Signing the agreement was the easy part, learning to integrate activities like documenting incidents attacks after years of doing it independently is the more difficult task ahead.
We spent several hours discussing whom we would agree to consider journalists in the first place and reached a tentative compromise.
With the proposed inclusion of bloggers and citizen journalists in the definition met with reactions colored by experiences that differed by country, it was a necessary, if drawn out, discussion.
There will be more birthing pains, but another avenue for solidarity and mutual support is always a good thing in a region where increasingly authoritarian governments seem to be taking notes from each other.
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The girls are fighting
Meanwhile, at home and in things that are the direct opposite of regional solidarity, simmering resentment between Philstar.com and The Philippine Star’s editorial teams came to a head in an ill-advised and misinformed column by the newspaper’s undisputed editor-in-chief, who claims my boss has been “pretending that she has my job title.”
Our online editor-in-chief’s response:
Suggestions out there that I scammed my way to this or any program are a serious claim against the processes and competencies of hosts, institutions or organizers, not against the real work our team and the local anti-disinfo community have done.
As is common for those working in online news for legacy media companies, we have always been treated as second-class citizens — one print editor even openly calls our reporters “the enemy” — and would never pretend to rise above our status.
Aside from that being unethical, we have also spent years building up our own brand and would not betray those years of work by pretending to be part of something that we have been made to feel we are not.
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Elsewhere on the internet:
In Indonesia, more laws, less free speech: “The bill sets out new or strengthened controls on a wide array of actions, from spreading fake news and Marxist-Leninist ideology to insulting the president.”
Neiman predicts journalists will think of themselves as workers: “For years, too many journalists have seen themselves as somehow distinct from workers. But even a public service is still a service, and even the most high-minded reporters still have to pay the rent — something that has become increasingly clear as industry conditions worsen.”
GenZs going offline!: “Now 17, the Edward R. Murrow High School senior is the founding member of the Luddite Club—a group of teenagers who feel technology is consuming too much of their lives.”