Travelling with the Freedom Forum

Information Outlook, June, 1997 by Barbara Semonche

Thanks to The Freedom Forum's John Schidlovsky and Janet Cheung, wherever I set up my little PowerPoint and Netscape road show, all the computers, display equipment, and Internet connections worked, the audience was packed, and translation between Cantonese and English was provided when necessary. Many of the attendees had connections to the Internet and all had an interest in making better use of the technology in their newsrooms or for freelance opportunities.

Between classes, I was able to get in several shopping adventures (including the Jade Market), ferry rides through a harbor filled with container ships and sampans, sightseeing on Victoria Peak, and a visit to The Washington Post's bureau. I also took advantage of the opportunity to sample some of the most delicious cuisine in the world. The noisy, crowded, and bustling street scene reminded me most of my own home town, New York City.

Best of all was the opportunity to learn about Hong Kong from many of the 200 or so people I met through the program. In each conversation, when the topic of the imminent handover was inevitably raised, Hong Kong residents expressed a positive spin. But among the local news folks and foreign press, a sense of wariness emerged. Coverage of news about the mainland and criticism of the new government's changes is already "self-censored" and the future of a free and open local press is in doubt.

An alternate vision of the Hong Kong success story is seen on Sunday afternoons in the Philippines when the downtown streets are thronged with Filipina domestic workers enjoying their day off together. My flight to Manila was filled with workers returning for Christmas to the families left behind and to the uncertainty of continued employment in Hong Kong after the Chinese government takes over.

Manila is also a vital and crowded metropolis (the traffic is insane!), but it's less developed technologically. The phones don't always work. Fortunately, they worked fine during all the classes held at the Philippine Press Institute, where The Freedom Forum has opened one of the few news libraries on the island nation. Joselyn Pattaguan is the accomplished special librarian who manages the library, maintains its print and digital collections, and trains press institute members and journalism students in the use of online resources there.

Ermin Garcia, the Philippine Press Institute's director, arranged for me to provide an Internet training workshop for journalists nominated by Institute member newspapers around the country. All the attendees were currently or imminently slated to be the Web specialists on their staffs. All were struggling with their need to become experts in the online world. Typically, the participating news librarians were most familiar with using the Internet and other online tools for research, the graphic artists were most comfortable with the elements of Web page design, and the more youthful participants were the most positive about the Web's potential as a news medium.