A Good Week for CBC News

At a time when the news is compelling, I find myself drawn back to CBC TV News and for good reasons. The world's major economic powers are meeting in Toronto and only the CBC seems able to report on this event with all of the necessary context.

Far from just showing men (and one woman) in suits, walking blissfully for a photo op, some real news was broken, and on the flagship newscast, The National. That's where an extraordinary bit of journalism occurred this past week.

In an interview with the head of the Canadian intelligence service (CSIS), Richard Fadden dropped a bombshell: he claimed some unnamed municipal officials and cabinet ministers from two unnamed provinces, are being influenced by foreign governments.

Fadden then hinted China was one of the countries wielding influence. He also said some municipal officials in B.C. are among those being influenced by foreign governments.

There were two interviews on CBC TV - one in a report by Brian Stewart - a long time senior correspondent and the other in a one-on-one interview with Peter Mansbridge - the host of The National.

This story had enormous impact especially coming as it did just prior to the arrival of China's Hun JinTao in Toronto.

Some media critics carped that the CBC sat on this story too long and held it until the eve of the G20 summit for maximum effect. Others believe that the Conservative government allowed Fadden to make these allegations and the CBC swallowed the bait. Some Chinese-Canadian politicians accused CSIS - and the CBC of engaging in McCarthyism.

That's absurd. In my opinion it showed great enterprise journalism and CBC TV should be applauded for this. Now the more important follow up story needs to be done: who are these politicians and does Fadden's allegations have any truth?

Local CBC TV News was also very strong this week doing excellent stories on the politics and the protests. After a rocky re-launch of both the National and the local supper hour shows some months ago, I find that CBC TV News - both nationally and locally are back doing what it does best - smart news programming that is editorially driven and content rich.

The local TV news is especially good with strong reporting and a view of Toronto that is more accurate and more diverse than ever. The original model was Moses Znaimer's City Pulse, but in effect, CBC TV News in Toronto has now outdone itself and put City Pulse on a back burner.

The other bright spot for CBC this week was on the radio. Protesters took to the streets in downtown Toronto today. A few hundred so-called anarchists broke away from a peaceful labor and environment rally. Police cars were burned, stores front damaged and looting occurred. As I write this, police and protesters are clashing around the provincial legislature buildings.

CBC Radio has provided excellent coverage throughout the afternoon and into the evening, especially hosted by Robert Fisher who brought an interesting combination of context, calm and concern to his reporting. CBC Radio's morning show host, Matt Galloway provided live reports from both sides of the police lines while riding around Toronto on his bicycle. I haven't heard radio this good for a while.

Both Radio and TV News show that despite the machinations of consultants to "sex up the news," the bench strength of the news departments is still undeniably powerful.

Kudos to CBC News. 

Guinea: Between Fear and Democracy

Conakry, Guinea: As the West African nation of Guinea approaches its first free election in its history on Sunday June 27th, the mood in the capital of Conakry is tense, but optimistic.

While journalistic organizations and a newly created National Independent Electoral Commission are working hard to help Guineans prepare for the vote, elements of the feared “red berets” – a presidential guard, race through the streets on machinegun mounted vehicles. The tension between aspiration and intimidation is there on a constant basis.

A long tradition of military regimes since the end of French colonialism in 1958, often with the collusion of western powers has left the population nervous, despite repeated promises by junta leaders to create democratic and civilian governments.

This time may be different, largely because the Obama administration has made a commitment to African democracy that, in both style and substance, promises to support a peaceful transition away from past practices and previous US administrations’ neglect.

The US and the French embassies in Conakry are actively engaged with development groups to assist in ensuring free and fair elections. The European Union is also sending election monitors as is the United Nations and the Carter Center International.

(Despite strong contacts between Guineans and Québec  -many studied in Montreal and Québec City - there is no apparent Canadian diplomatic presence in Conakry at this crucial time).

Guineans are already flooding the lines to call-in radio programs about their hopes for a post-election society. But they are also deeply wary of promises especially after the bloody events of September 28, 2009.

That day, a pro-democracy rally in Conakry was held against then junta chief Captain Moussa Dadis Camara. The presidential guard – known as the “Red Berets” opened fire on the crowd killing more than 150. The guard then went on a rampage of mass rapes in the streets that shocked and traumatized a country already brutalized by an extensive history of political violence.

For several weeks after those events, bodies continued to wash up on the shores around the capital. The number of women raped is unknown and because of a strong cultural reflex in this overwhelmingly Muslim country, may never be accurately tallied. But one doctor told the magazine “Jeune Afrique” that he estimated the number to be in the hundreds.

Reactions in other African capitals and in the international community was swift: The United States restricted travel of junta members, the African Union imposed US-supported sanctions including freezing of junta members’ bank accounts and France halted economic co-operation with the regime.

These small pressures had the desired effect: a month after the September massacre, Camara was overthrown by his own presidential guard and wounded in a gun attack. He was med-evacuated to Morocco for treatment and is now convalescing in neighboring Burkina Faso. Rumors persist (often spread by the caretaker prime minister, veteran politician Jean-Marie Doré) that Camara will attempt to undo any election result and try to return to Conakry, thus adding to the atmosphere of tension and uncertainty.

Camara may be sidelined, but his “Red Berets” remain a sinister presence around Conakry. At the same time, community groups, local and international non-governmental organizations and journalists are working feverishly to create the right conditions for elections that are open and transparent.

One critical element is how the results of the vote will be communicated to the public. In the past, the logistics of gathering votes from far-flung rural communities made it impossible to know the results in a timely manner.

This time, the National Independent Electoral Commission headed by the respected Guinean journalist Thierno Sadou Bayo has been holding daily news conferences at the US and French sponsored “Maison de la Presse” in Conakry. At every opportunity, Mr. Bayo patiently explains how the ballot with 42 presidential candidates will work in a country with a literacy rate of less than 20% for men and half of that for women.

The Commission has also come up with some unique strategies to get out the vote: in a country without a newspaper culture, radio is king. Mr. Bayo has convinced the dozens of privately run FM stations to air a single election night program in which results – no matter how small – will be read out every half hour by Mr. Bayo himself.

Cell phones are another media platform that is being exploited especially among younger Guineans: they are being encouraged to be “citizen whistleblowers” and send text messages on their phones to Commission HQ if they see examples of election fraud.

Even “Miss Guinea” – a well-known local beauty queen has been brought on board to make radio and television public service announcements on behalf of the Commission. (For the record, Miss Guinea says she does not support any of the candidates for president).

But the strongest and most unpredictable element in this election may be the Obama administration itself. His symbolic appeal to Africans cannot be overstated. Guineans believe that under this president, their democratic hopes will not be crushed again and they are convinced, that this time, they will not be disappointed.

Green Shoots of Journalism in Harsh Places

I'm just back from two weeks of journalism and election training in Niger and Guinea. In both place, young journalists showed me just how much can be done under conditions of incredible adversity. It gives a western journalist pause to think how much the craft means to those who practice it, often at the risk of their lives.

Niger and Guinea share some similarities and some important differences. I'll talk about Guinea in another posting, but first to Niamey, Niger.

Niger is a landlocked country that is in the midst of a multi-year drought. The capital Niamey was a sleepy French colonial town of 2000 people in 1930. It now has almost two million people, many of whom are recent arrivals, driven to the city by the famine and by a Tuareg rebellion in the north of the country that the government has been trying to suppress for years, to little effect.

Economically, Niger has vast amounts of uranium (remember the allegations by the Bush administration of yellow cake being sold to Saddam?) and is rich in other minerals. There is a large Chinese presence in the capital as Beijing aggressively courts and operates natural resources throughout Africa.

There is also a branch of Al-Qaeda operating in the north and recently, Canadian diplomat Robert Fowler was kidnapped and held for ransom for four months in that region.

There has been a re-emergence of slavery and efforts to eradicate it have been less than effective. The literacy rate is about 13% for males and half that for females. It is an overwhelmingly Muslim country and polygamy abounds. On the United Nations scale of social and economic development, of 182 countries, Niger ranks dead last. Communications infrastructures are poor, power outages frequent and internet access limited. On one day when I was there, Niamey was blanketed by a "harmattan" - a sandstorm that turned the sky and everything below it a dark blood red. At the same time, the temperature hit 47C (about 117F).

Politically, Niger seems to be moving toward a restoration of democracy and press freedoms. On February 18th, President Mamadou Tandja was overthrown in a quick coup; the army entered his residence at 3 pm. Tandja was jailed and everyone went home for dinner by 6 pm. A civilian prime minister, Mahamdou Danda is now head of an interim government with elections promised for later this year.

One of the first things that Danda has done was to release dozens of jailed journalists and to decriminalize journalism. In effect, journalistic "offenses" are now handled in civil suits.

In Niger,  radio is the defining medium - not surprising in a society that can't afford the luxury of television or the literacy demands of print. Radio is ubiquitous and I was a frequent interview on a number of radio stations in Niamey and in Dosso, a provincial capital southeast of Niamey.

At the invitation of the US embassy, I met with a number of journalists and journalism organizations - whose eagerness to use journalism as an agency of civic society was profoundly moving. Young journalists, especially women see journalism as the vehicle of their own growth. It was hard not to be impressed by their fearlessness and their candor. In one session we talked about their own personal safety. I worry that the removal of journalism as an offense in the Nigerien criminal code may make them unduly bold.

The Association des Journalistes Nigeriens passed a resolution at the meeting I attended which called on the interim government to create ombudsmen for all media. It was a powerful and deeply moving expression of their faith in themselves and in their profession. The challenge for ONO and for other media agencies is to continue to be there for our colleagues in Niamey.

Journalism Training Where It's Needed

I'm off for two weeks to do some training in a couple of countries on the verge of
transitioning from military dictatorships.
I'll try to blog while I'm there. If not,
to be resumed in late June.

Should the Media Ignore Anonymous Comments?

CBC Radio One's "The Sunday Edition with Michael Enright" recorded a panel discussion this afternoon on the value of anonymity on news websites. The program will air this Sunday.

As one of the participants along with Margaret Sullivan, editor-in-chief of the Buffalo News and Esther Enkin, Executive Editor, CBC News, we mostly agreed that there are dangers in letting comments appear in an unmediated form.

We also agreed that the Internet has changed the dynamic between media and the public forever and the challenge is for news organizations to try to get ahead of the public in order to meet them where they are. At the same time, the uber-democratic nature of the web means that the traditional role of journalistic gatekeeping is virtually gone.

Enright quoted David Remnick from the New Yorker as saying that his role is to put out the best product possible without regard to what the reader may want. This is fine if you are the editor of the New Yorker, but for we lesser mortals, attention to the audience must be paid.

While Esther, Margaret and Michael expressed concerns about the rise in rudeness, vulgarity and slander in the comments, I think that if media organizations insist on sanitizing the web, we also run the risk of dissuading citizens to contribute to journalism in general and whistleblowing, in particular. Some rudeness (up to incitement to violence) may be the price to pay for a deeper knowledge and better journalism in the long run, that the audience can provide and that too often, journalists cannot.

Esther affirmed that at CBC at least, the comments are sifted to see if there are future story possibilities. Other media organizations with fewer resources are likely to milk the comments section of their websites to convey the illusion of welcoming participation with the audience. Still others will use the comments to determine future editorial direction. In effect, a contracting out of the assignment process. Welcome to the "digital windsock" indeed.

As news organizations strip out their editorial capacity, the risk of overlooking and ignoring the frequent smarts of the public and their urgent willingness to participate in journalism continues to grow. But if that continues, the increased alienation of the public from the media that claims to serve the audience as citizens, will only grow larger.