Media

By Natasha Fernandes Before sending out under-covers and getting in touch with whistle blowers, an investigative reporter must smell the potential wrongdoings first, says Nancy Carvajal, reporter at The Philippine Daily Inquirer.  "With the correct mindset and skills, anyone here can be an investigative journalist, as long as you have the perseverance, interest, curiosity, and the will to follow through the things you know are wrong," she said.  Ms Carvajal is one of six SOPA-winning journalists speaking at Hong Kong Baptist University this week. Having studied in Economics in college, she took her first step as a newsroom assistant, which gave her the chance to learn and observe.  She said "the nose for news" makes a great investigative reporter. During her career, she often picked up story leads ignored by others. After reading a news story about the rescue of a kidnapped victim, who knew about his employers' illegal activities, she had a gut feeling that things were going wrong. She noticed that public money were mentioned in the police report and decided to look into it. That investigation finally led to the exposure of a corruption case involving more than 100 legislators.   "When it comes to public money, it is of immediate public interest," she said.  Besides curiosity, Ms Carvajal said the skills of "verifying and validating" are essential to make sure the stories will not be challenged. During her investigative reporting, she always made sure she had enough sources and witnesses for crosschecking. "As long as it's the truth, you do not let the story go away." (Edited by Christy Leung and Viola Zhou.  Copy-edited by Joey Hung.)

  By Viola Zhou and Christy Leung   Cartoon graphics of Taiwan's income distribution and animations showing why small businesses cannot survive, accompanied by music and voice-over, these are what a financial magazine provides for the public after angry students occupied the parliament for more than 20 days. Instead of acting as a platform for arguments only, mainstream media should provide the public with explanations and solutions as the society calms down from social movements, said Chen Yi-shan, deputy editor at Taiwan's CommonWealth magazine. Speaking to a group of journalism students at Hong Kong Baptist University, Ms Chen looked back at what is called the Sunflower Movement and addressed how professional media should play their informing and explanatory role. "At that time, lots of different interpretations of CSSTA were floating," Ms Chen said, referring to the controversial Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement that triggered the movement. "Some were given with a political agenda, but we could not talk about that during the movement." Ms Chen said news coverage tended to become fragmented as a result. Different opinions with no common ground were presented in a blind way. The movement ended with the agreement shelved, and with questions on Taiwan's future. Ms Chen tried to help her readers find the answers by looking from an economic perspective. "We are journalists, not recorders," she said. Getting at least three sources seems to be a golden rule for beginners, but Ms Chen said providing statistics and background analysis for readers is essential when it comes to complicated issues like the CSSTA. Ms Chen said to link with the new generation is another challenge for the traditional media. Similar to what happened in Hong Kong, citizen and student-run media blossomed during the movement in Taiwan. "The first piece of news was made by students of …

By Juliana Wu, Aaron Au and Sharon Shi Political cartoons help people to find the right way of expressing their opinions, said Harry Harrison, editorial cartoonist at the South China Morning Post. By "exaggerating" figures and news events and turning them into fun pictures, Mr Harrison has been illustrating Hong Kong's political and social issues since 1994. His recent works on Occupy Central have drawn great attention. One of them shows a tiny cartoon version of Joshua Wong Chi-fung poking at a giant panda with his umbrella, with the words saying "one country two systems in action." But Mr Harrison said as a cartoonist, he does not make people think in the way he does. "In most cases, people who come to my cartoons have a stance," he said. "It's just they don't catch a suitable word to say it and my cartoon gives them the sense of ‘that it is'." Mr Harrison is one of six SOPA Award-winning journalists speaking at a forum at Hong Kong Baptist University this week. Born to a military family, Mr Harrison has lived in Libya, Singapore, and the United Kingdom. He said the experience of moving around nurtured his sense of humour. Mr Harrison said some of his cartoons had drawn criticisms, and some others were deemed "inappropriate to publish" by editors at SCMP. "Not everybody can be happy," he said. "Having argument is a good thing. That means people are paying attention." (Edited by Viola Zhou. Copy-edited by Joey Hung.)