By NYU Staff

Sheila Coronel: The Pen is Mightier After All

The year was 1989. Sheila S. Coronel and a few other journalists set up perhaps the only non-profit organization in Asia today – the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ). Disenchanted with the mainstream press, they wanted to go beyond headlines and do journalism that would have an impact. And impact they did. From bringing down a president, to exposing corruption in the highest levels of the judiciary, from documenting human rights abuses to taking on local gang lords across Philippines, for 20 years the center has raised the bar for investigative reporting in the continent.

(Read Full Interview with Sheila S. Coronel.)

Recognizing her contribution to democracy in Philippines, Coronel won the Magsaysay award in 2003 for journalism, literature, and the creative communication arts, and was recognized for contributing to democracy in Philippines. Far away from her home country, she is now professor of professional practice at the Stabile Center for investigative journalism at Columbia University.

Changing her course from becoming a lawyer like her father, Coronel decided to become a journalist when her country was in the throes of change. (She was never a lawyer, but aspiring to be one.) In her words “when it became compelling to be a journalist.” She began her journalism career in 1982, when she joined Philippine Panorama and subsequently worked with Manila Times. She was also a stringer for The New York Times and The Guardian (London). Being journalist in Asia has worked to her advantage. Coronel says, “I think I am much more used to obstacles and difficulties. You are not used to getting information since the right to information is so underdeveloped in that region.” There is a lot of more one can do if public records are made available to journalists more easily, she says but this is a major obstacle in Asia. Some of the challenges of investigative reporting in Asia include are access to information, safety of journalists and openness of newspaper owners to do investigative stories that hold governments responsible, she says.

But these factors should hardly constrain journalism according to her. The situation is not so much how much pressure the government puts, but whether there is a community of journalists who are willing to take the risks. It is not that only media structures define what emerges. There is an element of voluntarism, she feels. “I call it the hot house effect. Orchids don’t bloom all the time, but there are conditions where orchids bloom. And I think those conditions exist in China,” she says.

Changes in media technology and changes in society cause people to question the existing order of things. Investigative energies are not consistent through time, there are moments in history where you see peaks of investigative energies and they fall again, she says. That happened in Philippines, after the fall of the Marcos – a revolution that Coronel covered in the 1980s, she recalls. “Eventually these things become institutionalized,” she says.

One of her most stories was an expose on the undocumented wealth of former Philippines President Joseph Estrada eventually led to his dramatic ouster. An actor with a mass appeal, Estrada began cracking down on the press in the late 90s. After a spate of corruption stories that began circulating, the center decided to unearth information about Estrada’s assets by combing through his statements, land records, and incorporation papers of companies associated with the president.

After mentoring the center for nearly two decades, Coronel has valuable advice for the growing tribe of media entrepreneurs. Defining the audience and building on it is crucial. It is important to have a relationship, explaining to them the techniques you use and your motivation. “Your work is defined by the interaction with your audience. It should be relevant to the audience,” she says.  “Your stories should create a buzz, stories that hit at the center of power and wealth in a country,” she says. Precisely what her stories achieved.