Search beyond ‘military claims’ in Marawi body counts, journalists urged

Despite restrictions imposed by authorities to journalists working in conflict zones, war journalists urged media practitioners to dig deeper beyond ‘military claims’ on reported body counts in Marawi.

“[Restrictions on media] for “safety” reasons make perfect sense but we can’t just stop there,” ABS-CBN reporter Chiara Zambrano said in her talk during a journalism seminar at Ateneo de Manila last Sept. 13.

“We’re not saying the military is lying, I’m just saying I don’t know for sure if [it’s] true. And it’s our job to only report what we’re sure is true. It’s not our job to keep it from the people. At [ang] serbisyo naming [ay] sa audience, hindi sa military,” she added.

Zambrano said the control of information brought by martial law in Mindanao is a “difficulty” and the government should understand the role of the media in conflict zones.

“We don’t go there because it’s cool, we don’t go there because it’s fun and exciting, we need to be there because you guys need to know what’s going on there. And the Maranaos need us to know what their needs are, what their problems are,” Zambrano said.

Despite the importance of the body counts, Zambrano said finding solution for the crisis should be prioritized by going back to the root of the problem.

“We can’t just keep focusing on how many air strikes happened today, how many soldiers were killed today, how many civilian bodies were found.” she said. “They’re horrific, they’re important; but if we’re going to find out what the solution is, if there even is a realistic solution, we have to go back to the root of the problem, we have to go back to day 1, [or the] main characters of the story.”

Zambrano has been following the story of the Maute group since the first black Islamic State flag was raised in one of the biggest mosques in Marawi in 2014.

'Hardest to cover'

Al Jazeera reporter Jamela Alindogan said conflict in Marawi is one of the “hardest to cover” and reporters cannot “independently verify” the body count if they “cannnot go to the frontline” due to restrictions and lack of access.

“Unfortunately, with the lack of access, we can only take [the military’s] word for it. Not that we believe it, but we will say it that they report it at such,” she said.

Alindogan also explained that the government is falling “victim [to its] own decisions” by not allowing media access in Marawi while the Islamic State has “sophisticated” videos and “embedded photographers and videographers.”

“[W]hat do we get? What do civilians get? Airstrikes, airstrikes, airstrikes,” she said.

“If the military won’t allow us access and you’re faced with an enemy that is very sophisticated in terms of social media and communication, then they lose the propaganda war,” she added.

Alindogan said some of the authorities resort to believing information from bloggers because they do not know the role of the media.

“What this crisis revealed is that there are lot of good commanders who understand the role of media, but it also showed so many government officials actually do not understand our roles,” she said.

Journalists for the people affected

Jes Aznar, a New York Times photojournalist, said the people who are affected by the war are the most important subjects in reporting about the Marawi siege.

“[W]henever there’s war, automatically, there are people like these [or] those who are more affected. [Sila] yung mas importante—yung mga taong affected. Kaya lang naman tayo actually nandiyan [at] ang media [na] nagrereport – it is because of them,” he said.

Aznar discussed Mindanao as a “microcosm” of the Philippines by explaining that the issues in Mindanao are the same problems the whole country is facing.

“Mindanao is part of the Philippines, so kung ano man ‘yung kinakaharap nila, problema [rin] [ng] buong Pilipinas. The challenge is how to [report] the present conflict without sensationalizing it, or giving the correct context of what really is happening in Mindanao,” he said.

The seminar titled Covering Marawi: Stories from the War Zone was held at the Ateneo de Manila University. L.N. Agot and A.S. Go