No place for apathy
No human rights victim deserves his or her fate. This is perhaps a basic tenet of human rights reporting that many journalists observe with admirable skill and passion. The mainstream media also often reports military spins about victims being rebels, or journalists being paid hacks for that matter, in such a way that seems to justify HRVs. But what gives me fulfillment in human rights reporting is humanizing the victims, giving readers a glimpse of their lives and struggles before they turned into another statistic. For me, this kind of stories go the furthest in answering those two oft-neglected questions in journalism: “why?” and “so what?”
There is also fulfillment in stories that expose the perpetrators of HRVs or the government’s inability to catch them. Don’t get me wrong. It’s not that I revel in the latter. It’s just that there is so much hypocrisy both in the past and present administration with regards to human rights, with their lip service and task forces. I believe that government forces simply cannot investigate themselves (as a human rights lawyer once told me, “It’s antithetical!”). What is needed is strong political will to punish the perpetrators, end bloody counter-insurgency campaigns and warlordism, and instead solve problems at their roots.
During the early days of Pinoy Weekly, when we were conducting consultations with martial law-era journalists on how to run a progressive newspaper and cover people’s issues most effectively, one advised us to sensationalize human rights stories to get the masses’ attention. The suggestion went, make headlines that read something like, “Aktibista, kinuryente ang bayag!” Thankfully, we never heeded the well-intentioned but nonetheless silly advice.
I’ve learned through experience that the masses can appreciate stories that are produced to serve their interests without resorting to sensationalism and slush. Especially in human rights reporting, where there is an inclination to produce mere shockers or tearjerkers, it is highly important to transform the audience’s tears into rage, its shock into action, information to understanding.
Without a deep understanding of the social and political conflicts that lead to HRVs, the shock will wear off. Cases will eventually be deemed as isolated and dismissed, such as that of Gregan Cardeño who died mysteriously in the hands of American troops in a military camp in Marawi City. There will only be confusion over opposing viewpoints given equal play and credence by the mainstream media, such as the incredible claim of the current Commission on Human Rights on Melissa Roxas and the Department of Justice on Leonardo Co. Finally, there will be apathy. And apathy, we need not be told, breeds impunity.
There have already been 48 cases of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, torture, and other HRVs under the Aquino administration. I still believe as I believed then that it is our duty to let people know and care. But before we can do that, we ourselves must know, we ourselves must care.
Ilang-IlangQuijano is executive director of PinoyMedia Center, a non-profit organization for grassroots media development. She has been writing for Pinoy Weekly since 2002.
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