(“Mussalman [Muslim] Taking His Bride Home,” according to www.lib.lsu.edu a Company School painting on mica, North India (?); c. 1850; From www.lib.lsu.edu)
Since there is a news blackout on the government military operation in Basilan, the footage that you’ve been seeing on television after the announcement of the news blackout are actually video of soldiers on target- practise-shooting, which you can glean/ deduce because the resident- civilians standing in the background while the soldiers are on their belly poised aiming at the grass are, standing with their arms akimbo relaxed and watching the soldiers with curiosity/ indifference/ amusement. There was no firefight while those footage were being taken. They were photo- ops/ press releases.
I thought I’d reprint this old interview, circa 2001 of Mindanews head CAROLYN ARGUILLAS by Carlos Conde for the Philippine Journalism Review September 2001 issue (Carolyn Arguillas and entire Mindanao bureau of the Inquirer resigned from the Inquirer around that time because she and the entire bureau felt that the Manila editors were, as I understand it, unduly fixated on body count, bombings, military assaults, such that many of their stories on the other aspects of life in Mindanao were not being published, thus presenting a distorted view of the island; as I understand it; such that, even when the Catholic Mass Media Award body handed her and the Mindanao bureau awards (for their reporting in the Inquirer) they did not attend the ceremonies. She then established Mindanews.
Question (Caloy Conde for PJR) : What effect do you see Mindanews would have on the future coverage of Mindanao?
CAROLYN ARGUILLAS: quote “ That readers would understand that there is more to Mindanao than the Abu Sayyaf. That there are so many things about Mindanao that are not given attention because national papers and networks (even some correspondents) earn much from all the bad-news stuff here. That’s really tragic. We have to veer away from that mode.
Quote “In last year’s wars versus the MILF and the Abu Sayyaf, for instance, I remember telling a Manila-based journalist who was bragging about their being “war correspondents” that for them, the war was simply a scoop, a story. For us, it was neither. And that long after they shall have returned to the comforts of their air-conditioned offices, they would leave all of us Mindanao-based reporters to clean up their mess.
Quote “You see, there were so many wars within the shooting wars last year. There was the network was of the two giant TV networks, their reporters trying to scoop each other, trying to get the most telegenic war footage
(Islamic Art from www.britishmuseum.co.uk)
even if some of these were “drawing” (posed or contrived scenes). The military took advantage of the network war. I distinctly remember having experienced an exchange of boom and bang along the Narciso Ramos Highway (that connects Maguindanao- Lanao provinces), only to realize after a few seconds that it was all for show. I remember in the midst of gunfire, I told a TV reporter, “Let’s go! They’re not gonna stop unless we leave.” And I was right. The military staged an acoustic (war) and boom-bang show because media was there, because there was a TV camera there, there were reporters and photojournalists there. We left. The TV crew stayed behind. And true enough, that night, I was to learn that the TV crew had some mortars fired because mortar firing looked good on TV. Did these journalists care at all? The network war had each of them chasing after scoops, rushing to the military field stations but no one seemed to care to stop to talk to the evacuees, the peace advocates. Only a few bothered t listen to the stories of the majority who were caught in the crossfire. XXX” (excerpted) closed-quote.
