MANILA, Philippines – Meeting the best investigative reporters in Asia. That’s what veteran journalist Sheila Coronel is looking forward to when she returns to the country this month to attend “Uncovering Asia: The First Asian Investigative Journalism Conference.”
“I see this as a celebration of how far Asian journalists have come,” said the former executive director of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) and now academic dean at the prestigious Columbia Journalism School in the US.
Sheila Coronel. Photo from Columbia Journalism School website.
“Twenty-five years ago, the phrase ‘investigative reporting’ was hardly known in most of Asia and a conference such as this would have attracted at most two dozen people,” she told INQUIRER.net via e-mail.
Coronel said “Uncovering Asia,” which will be held in Manila on November 22 to 24, would attract more than 200 media practitioners, including “some of the best investigative reporters in Asia, journalists who are doing amazing digging, despite the dangers and the constraints, and whose work has made an impact in their societies.”
“The question people will be discussing in the conference is no longer whether investigative reporting is possible in Asia, but what are the latest tools and techniques that are available to watchdog journalists,” she said.
During the conference, reporters will be taught how to track down “dirty money,” dig hidden information online and present big data through interactive maps. Important topics like security, threats, legal protection and funding will be tackled.
IJ in the Philippines
Coronel, who has written over a dozen books on corruption and politics, said investigative reporting remains “alive and well” in the Philippines.
“Despite media excesses, Filipinos continue to believe that the role of a free press is to hold power to account, so there continues to be strong public support for journalistic exposure,” she said.
However, she pointed out that Filipino journalists and citizens remain “handicapped” because of the absence of a freedom of information (FOI) law. Laws on FOI are being implemented in over 100 countries, but in the Philippines, various versions of the proposed bill remain stalled in Congress.
Coronel said data journalism, which utilizes big data and digital tools to turn complex information into a compelling story, should also soon be taught in journalism schools in the Philippines.
“Governments around the world are producing tremendous amounts of data. The Philippines is no exception. All journalists need to have the capacity to deal with increasingly large amounts of data,” she said.
Coronel will give the keynote address on the second day of the “Uncovering Asia” conference on November 23.
Also included in the roster of speakers are Umar Cheema, investigative reporter for The News and founder of Center for Investigative Reporting Pakistan; Reg Chua, executive editor for data and innovation at Thomson Reuters; Govindraj Ethiraj, founder of IndiaSpend; Malou Mangahas, PCIJ executive editor; Paul Myers, Internet research specialist of BBC; Yoichiro Tateiwa, investigative reporter for Japanese television network NHK; and Yong Jin Kim, editor-in-chief of the Korea Center for Investigative Journalism.
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