Dangerous places fro Journalists in 2011

I often hear about the Philippines as a "dangerous" place for journalists. Largely, this label isn't true because it lacks context. Often times I think Miami is more dangerous.

Here are the three main reasons why activist/journalists die in the Philippines:

1.) If you are a communist and label yourself a journalist and support a rebellion in anyway shape or form, you will probably be targeted.

2) If you go to Al Queda/Islamist areas that's currently under assault by Philippines/US forces, there's a high likelihood you will be kidnapped, killed, or both.

3) If a politician is running for office and he is known to be a thug, it would not be wise to call him names on the radio. High likelihood you will be killed.

-Don

In a way, everywhere is a dangerous place for journalists if they are trying to expose shady activities of those with power or authority. Now if someone has an agenda and call themselves a journalist they are in effecting putting themselves in danger and more seriously, genuine journalists in danger.

Earlier today I was also thinking that maybe a story has an ideal medium to convey it: some stories are best told in text, others only with photographers, others both etc. Another aspect is that certain stories that involve say corruption or abuse of power, maybe are best told using more scientific analysis such as data mining, statistical analysis etc.

The bottom line is that photo journalism is the most dangerous activity in journalism: we just have to be there!

best

Lawrence

Yeah -- I covered a Catholic festival yesterday in Manila with a known potential terror plot brewing. I felt slightly weird when I started getting close to the main subject of the event (a black statue), knowing something could happen.

Here's a link:

http://www.demotix.com/news/995434/catholics-hold-black-nazarene-procession-despite-terror-plot-manila

Clipboard miscopy on URL, here is the link to that Demotix story I was talking about:

http://www.demotix.com/news/995434/catholics-hold-black-nazarene-procession-despite-terror-plot-manila