AsiaLIFE

With the power of the pen comes great responsibility. But in Southeast Asia, the notion of reporting ethics is often lacking. Ellie Dyer learns about a new programme to help improve the press. Photo by James Grant.

In a region where a generous bribe can kill a good story, a new training course is being launched in a bid to raise journalistic standards.

Kickbacks are a standard practice within many Southeast Asian news organisations in which reporters are working in environments where corruption is endemic. In Cambodia, reporters are regularly offered bribes in exchange for coverage and wads of cash are slipped into press releases.

While reputable news outlets—including the Cambodian English language press—loathe such bribes and the bias they bring, for many young reporters a lack of training means that they are not aware of best practice.

A new training scheme, supported with funding from the Japan-based non-profit Sasakawa Peace Foundation, hopes to address the issue. The Media Education and Development Initiative for the ASEAN Region programme aims to train both junior and experienced reporters in ethics, news reporting, story structure and new media skills.

A total of 24 journalists hailing from Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Myanmar will pass through three six-week courses, taught by AsiaLIFE publisher Mark Jackson. The first course kicked off at the end of July.

“I think one of the problems in the region is that journalists aren't really trained properly. The course is about good journalistic practices versus bad practices,” says Jackson.

For the professional journalists who are earmarked to take the first course, it is anticipated that exposure to different cultures coupled with access to new technology—the foundation has invested in several Bubos, a device which can record high-quality video and sound from a mobile phone—will provide an opportunity for development.

Phnom Penh Post Khmer editor-in-chief, Kimsong Kay, certainly hopes so. Two Post reporters are set to participate in the first wave, along with reporters from the Myanmar Times and Vientiane Times in Laos.

“Many journalists, when they start, think they have a special power, like the police, and extort money,” says Kimsong. “You can’t blame them because they have never entered school or training. They don’t know real journalism and don’t have ethics.”

But Kimsong is ultimately optimistic. “I believe if everyone had the chance of training, through schemes like the Sasakawa Peace Foundation, it would be very good,” he adds.

Forming a sense of ethical pride, learning the 4Ws and H of news reporting—what, where, who, why and how—and training on how to pose questions to government officials can, in Kimsong’s eyes, only benefit the generations of journalists to come.

“It is very important for the younger generation to get good training,” he says.

Given the lack of free media in the region—a 2011 survey carried out by Washington-based watchdog Freedom House ranked Cambodia as 141st out of 196 countries worldwide in terms of press freedom, whereas Vietnam came 177th, Laos 184th and Myanmar languished at 191st—Jackson believes that contact with reporters from other countries could also be inspiring.

“It’s a cultural exchange and can make people see how people act in harsher environments and encourage people to continue journalism,” he said.

An introduction to a different media environment is an experience that one journalist signed up to take the first course, 26-year-old Meas Roth, has already benefited from.

The Phnom Penh Post features writer has trained in France in addition to completing a three-year journalism course at the Department of Media and Communications at the Royal University of Phnom Penh. Meas hopes that completing the course will help him to pass on his knowledge to a generation of younger reporters coming up through the ranks.

“The company said that after the course you could become a teacher, and share what you have learnt to up-and-coming reporters. Just knowing how to write a story is not enough; it is better to understand ethics,” he says.

On trips to the Kingdom’s provinces, Meas has met many residents who were scared of journalists after a bad experience with a reporter. Enabling such ordinary citizens to understand the role of a reporter in society is also an important aspect of improving Cambodia’s media, he explains.

“I try to explain what I do,” says Meas. “It is not possible for me to take bribes.”