Making power uncomfortable: Investigative journalism in Asia

“Throughout this time, we’ve been told that Asians value consensus over exposure. They’re wrong: Speaking truth to power is an Asian value,” says top investigative journalist Sheila Coronel. In a speech at the first Asian Investigative Journalism Conference, Coronel – one of the founders of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism – says muckraking and investigative journalism has always been a part of the Asian tradition, playing big roles in bringing about democracy and uncovering inequality and wrongdoing. “[Our] task is to show exactly where the wrongdoing lies and why it needs to be corrected. Ours is a role imbued with symbolic significance.”

Read Coronel’s speech on Rappler.