Not finally… Subjective views on matters journalistic
A call to arms
Originally published in the British Journalism Review
Philippines Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa had a clear eye even during the darkest days of the Duterte regime. Ressa’s news site Rappler was hanging for its very survival and she was personally facing multiple legal charges that could have put her in jail for life. In that dark space-time, with a real-life existential threat breathing heavily at their necks, Ressa and her team adopted another duty to their already unforgivingly long list – recording the abuses and excesses of Duterte’s regime for a future that would eventually come, a posterity when the totalitarian fever eased its grip and reason had a fighting chance to prevail.
When Ressa told me about this sense of expanded duties, in a 2020 Zoom call during the Covid pandemic, Duterte’s brutal war on drugs, amplified by the almost equally brutal (and ceaseless) propaganda campaign, propelled his approval numbers into a stratospheric territory. There was something profound in Ressa’s steely resolve – fortified by what to me later crystallised as a battle much greater than any of our little fights – a battle for our own system of values. The battle for the right to know what is right and what is wrong, and the freedom to express it.
There was no way Rappler’s coverage would be adopted by the courts, not while Duterte was in power, and even less chance of sparking a reaction by the prosecuting authorities. In a country that was entirely controlled by a ruthless totalitarian with no regard for rules or norms of democracy, there was zero chance of Rappler’s work effecting a quick and visible change to the Philippines’ reality of daily illegal murders commissioned, or sanctioned, by the government.
In the 21st century, we have grown to accept impatience as a virtue in this hourly global news ripple – and yet, here was a financially pressured team of constantly threatened, mostly female, journalists who possessed the clarity of vision and strength of mission that maybe one day will bear fruit and prove its usefulness in the real world.
Duterte is now in The Hague, awaiting trial, and Rappler’s work will very likely be an important part of the damning evidentiary material. Rappler’s example, and the foundational civilisational values that Ressa embodies, must not be forgotten – especially as we are debating the media’s role in the coming years.
The many times mentioned “autocrat playbook”, to which Duterte was a lifelong subscriber, is a set of real-life instructions on how to undermine democracies and install populist governments. And it’s being “improved” and modernised with every new edition – witness the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 (in collaboration with hundreds of other conservative think-tanks).
In this new world (and not only in the US), laws are being broken with alacrity. The west, in Trump’s first 100 days, learned how fragile the entire edifice of the modern liberal democratic order is. We, the media, must improve and modernise our own playbook too. In this current, chaotic swirl of Big Tech hostility, our own business and financial unsteadiness, and the shifting political and societal hostilities that, for too many of us, have morphed into existential threats, it could sound mad to consider broadening our journalistic duties further, adding another burden to our already stretched cohort. The times are indeed tough, but they demand we do more.
Under this muzzle-velocity ambush, we cannot relativise our ideals and morals. We cannot allow ourselves to be blinded by the sheer volume of visual noise either, because it is sometimes created exactly for the purpose of blinding us.
Quite the opposite: we must be more clear-eyed and cool-headed. Every editorial decision we make should also have a “how will this help in the future” component. Every research, every evidentiary material, every iota of data/information that one day might serve the purpose of painting a full picture must be collected and preserved. The more, the better.
But we also need to make sure that autocrats’ helpers understand that their own role will never be forgotten. That human rights violation is against the most fundamental laws of humanity. That a truth-free society ends in dystopia. That a senator’s daydreaming of Trump becoming pope is unbecoming of a normal human being.
That the sheer mad spectacle of Trump cabinet meetings is not what the sane and morally uncompromised people do – showering Trump with more and more ludicrous fantasy. (Exhibit One: Pam Bondi stating that Trump saved 254million lives in the first 100 days of his presidency.)
That the world is not consenting to their rule of hatred and multi-faceted violence. They must be constantly reminded that none of it is right, and it cannot be made right by any force. They must be repeatedly assured that none of their misdeeds will be forgotten.
From their side, media owners should prioritise long-term viability over short-term profits. They cannot be guided only by their narrow interest, especially when disposing of media assets. At the time of writing this, the CBS controlling shareholder, Shari Redstone is about to make a deal with the Trump administration and, in the process, ruin the reputation of the news team built by Ed Morrow and Walter Cronkite. WaPo’s Jeff Bezos, LA Times’ Patrick Soon Shiong, ABC’s Disney masters… they cannot be allowed to do long-term damage to the entire news media without their own reputation being affected long term. Allowing the process of filtering back into respectability for such politicians, businessfolk and other public figures would be another act of violence upon our already emotionally damaged civilisation.
The country closest to my heart, South Africa, almost buckled under Apartheid repression. In his remarkable memoir, Memory Against Forgetting, Rusty Bernstein wrote about the darkest days when he was held in solitary confinement before the 60s Rivonia Trial with Nelson Mandela:
“The silence of the cell is less disturbing than the deliberate silence of the human beings who come and go. I know that it is part of the process, designed to break my morale, but that doesn’t make it any easier. I calculate that I am speaking less than twenty words a day, and begin to wonder whether my vocal cords will dry up and wither if this goes on … I have never been very talkative, but now I begin to hunger after talk more strongly than for either food or drink.”
Those were the dark days and Apartheid’s brutalist concrete edifice was seemingly impenetrable. And still it collapsed, under the weight of its injustice. As we said already, Duterte is in The Hague and Maria Ressa is a global icon. History is never kind to autocrats and bullies, thugs and their enthusiastic helpers. The pendulum always swings back. Humanity one day might very well forgive… still, it cannot forget.
When the time finally comes and the global autocratic fever is broken, we the media had better be ready to make our own case against dictatorship and war. The only way we can do it is by being armed by facts and data collected in real time. Until such time arrives, we must keep reminding everyone: it is our job to be our society’s Memory Against Forgetting. It is time we truly embraced this crucial role.
