EPISODE 204
Airdate: June 5, 2003
Overview
TV and Web Credits
Press
>>Transcript
OVERVIEW
Philippines: ISLANDS UNDER SIEGE
A reporter's journey to meet Muslim rebels
Early this year, amidst military preparations for a war
in Iraq, the United States announced it was sending 3,000 soldiers
to Mindanao, the southernmost region of the Philippines. FRONTLINE/World
correspondent Orlando de Guzman, a Filipino reporter from the
north, journeyed to Mindanao, where Muslim rebels are fighting
a guerrilla war against the Philippine government -- a war in
which the United States may soon be embroiled. read
more
Israel/Palestinian territories, IN THE LINE OF FIRE
When journalists become targets
FRONTLINE/World reviews the dilemmas and dangers
reporters have faced covering the violence in the West Bank
and Gaza over the past several years. Canadian TV producer Patricia
Naylor interviews Palestinian cameramen and other journalists
who say they have been shot by Israeli soldiers. [This story
was originally broadcast in March of 2003, with an encore broadcast
on many PBS stations June 5, 2003]. read
more
Bhutan, THE LAST PLACE
Television arrives in a Buddhist kingdom
FRONTLINE/World explores
the impact of television on a remote Buddhist kingdom in the
Himalayas. After centuries of self-imposed isolation, Bhutan
legalized TV in 1999 -- the last country in the world to do
so. Follow Rinzy Dorji, the local "cable guy," as he hooks up
"an electronic invasion." read
more
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TV AND WEB CREDITS
ISLANDS UNDER SIEGE
REPORTER: Orlando de Guzman; PRODUCER: Margarita Dragon; EDITOR:
Ben Gold; CAMERA: Egay Navarro; SOUND: Peter Marquez; MUSIC:
Joey Ayala; ADDITIONAL MATERIAL: Keith Bacongco; SENIOR PRODUCER:
Martin Smith; Co-production of FRONTLINE/World and Rain Media
IN THE LINE OF FIRE
Reporter/Producer: PATRICIA NAYLOR; Co-Producer: RODNEY PALMER;
Camera: TOM GATT, GARO NALBANDIAN, AMER JABARI, KHALIL MARI;
Sound: HOPSI NALBANDIAN; Editors: STEVE AUDETTE, MICHAEL H.
AMUNDSON; Additional Materials: ABCNEWS VIDEOSOURCE, APTN, BBC,
NBC, ITN, REUTERS, TF-1
THE LAST PLACE
Producer/Reporter: ALEXIS BLOOM; Co-Producer/Reporter: TSHEWANG
DENDUP; Camera: ALEXIS BLOOM, TSHEWANG DENDUP, CLARENCE TING;
Editors: ROBIN CHIN, GARY WEIMBERG; Special Thanks: UC
Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism
FOR FRONTLINE/WORLD 204
Coordinating Producer for KQED: RACHEL RANEY; Associate Producer:
SHERAZ SADIQ; Business Manager: SUZANNE ROMAINE; Web Producer:
ANGELA MORGENSTERN; Web Editors: DOUG FOSTER, SARA MILES; Web
Site Design: SUSAN HARRIS; Additional Web Production: EMILY
COVEN; Promotion: ERIN MARTIN KANE, CHRIS KELLY; Community Engagement:
BRENT QUAN HALL, ELLEN SCHNEIDER, ACTIVE VOICE; Interns: DAN
KRAUSS, BRENT MCDONALD; Legal: ERIC BRASS, DAVID MOYCE; Satellite
Photos: SPACE IMAGING; Theme Music: SUPREME BEINGS OF LEISURE;
Sound Mix: JIM SULLIVAN; Post Production Supervisor: CHRIS FOURNELLE;
Post Production Assistant: CHETIN CHABUK; Online Editor: MICHAEL
H. AMUNDSON; Series Design: JOHN MACGIBBON; FRONTLINE Coordinating
Producer: ROBIN PARMELEE; FRONTLINE Production Manager: TIM
MANGINI; FRONTLINE Series Manager: JIM BRACCIALE; KQED VP, TV
Station Manager: DEANNE HAMILTON; Executive in charge for KQED:
SUE ELLEN MCCANN; Executive in charge for WGBH/FRONTLINE: SHARON
TILLER; Series Editor: STEPHEN TALBOT; Executive Producer: DAVID
FANNING
WEB SITE (Philippines, Israel/Palestinian territories, Bhutan)
Producer: ANGELA MORGENSTERN; Design and Production: FLUENT
STUDIOS - Susan Harris, Joyce Yu; Additional Web Production:
EMILY COVEN; Associate Producers: JESSIE DEETER, SHERAZ SADIQ;
Writing and Research: DAVE GILSON, VICTORIA MAULEON; Additional
Research: DAN KRAUSS; Copy Editors: LINDA RAHM-CRITES, JOAN
SAUNDERS; Web Editors: DOUG FOSTER, SARA MILES, WEN STEPHENSON;
Series Editor: STEPHEN TALBOT; Video Encoding: BUYSTREAMING,
ZAPS; Special Thanks: SAM BAILEY, JOEL CAMPAGNA, KQED INTERACTIVE,
ROBIN PARMALEE, PBS INTERACTIVE, RACHEL RANEY, WEN STEPHENSON,
COLLEEN WILSON
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PRESS REACTION
"Frontline/World" on PBS takes a look at global change on
the local level. Sometimes a first-world force is arriving in
a remote place, and at others something worrisome is heading
our way. Tonight one segment explains how a new scourge, television,
is disturbing the peace in the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan,
and another examines how violence between Muslims and Christians
in Philippine villages might mean bloodshed on a larger scale.
The stakes in the South Pacific are higher, and the show presses
the case with a meandering heart-of-darkness travelogue to the
jungle headquarters of a guerrilla group fighting for an Islamic
state, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. ...
But the odyssey through the island of Mindanao disappoints
during bumpy fits and starts. In a white minivan, a guide puts
a napkin with "Media" scribbled on it under a wiper blade, a
pitiful heads-up to rebels in besieged hamlets. Villagers wave
the wagon in errant directions. The threat of crossfire is imminent,
and the crew makes viewers feel its fear. ...
The report mixes earnestness and breathlessness, offering
viewers a handle on an emerging conflict, as if they were heading
into Vietnam with the first American advisers. It does a passable
job of avoiding "good guy" and "bad guy" designations, but recent
reporting has set a higher standard for documenting wars and
divining the motives of sources.
"Frontline/World" gives such conflicts more time than other
networks might, and it is a journalistic service to investigate
a crisis well before the largest media companies decide that
it's top-of-the-broadcast news.
But tonight's encore trip to Bhutan, where a one-man cable
television distributor is doing gang-buster business, is perhaps
the best "Frontline/World" has to offer. It's a meditation on
how television, with its commercial core, trains brains to go
in new, usually violent directions.
This Himalayan culture has shed its insulation, and children
and adults are suddenly transfixed by all the happenings that
they never could have imagined. The camera captures a grandmother
coaxing her charges away from tail-yanking animals on the Cartoon
Network, and the boys later pounce on one another, inspired
by professional wrestlers. Even a soft-spoken monk admits that
the violence on television is habit-forming. "I noticed that
last week when I was with my brother and watching television,"
he says. "And sometimes I forget my prayers."
---The New York Times
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