Before I go to bed this morning (weird, I know) I wanted to share this piece I did on Cambodia’s sand-dredging industry (player at the bottom).  It was a bit difficult to get into the swing of things because I haven’t done a real report in so long. It was even more difficult considering most of this was recorded and edited between 2 and 7 a.m. yesterday morning.

During my fellowship last year, my editors used to hand me all types of press releases from really reputable and well-meaning NGOs and watchdogs (Freedom House, Amnesty International, etc.) about the issues du jour. They’d then say, call the press contact from the group and do a piece… NOW. Or something to that effect.

There are a few problem with doing pieces solely based on press releases. One being that journalists often lift language from them, the other being that the resulting report doesn’t have much balance because time constraints and laziness cause journalists to base their analysis on a two-page summary of someone else’s findings.

I found that when I tried to contact the opposing side, I often wouldn’t get through or the person/organization would dismiss the press release as a politically-motivated attack.  I ended up with a few too many reports where the only sound bites came from the person who wrote the press release. It’s not like these press releases don’t have some merit, but if the piece lacks any other perspective, it’s usually utterly boring and useless for your audience. That’s why Sirius XM doesn’t have a channel dedicated to press releases read aloud.

All this to say, when my colleague pitched this story for me to do, I told her I didn’t want to do it if I couldn’t get someone in Cambodia to respond. She wholeheartedly agreed. The good thing about having 44 language services at VOA is that most of our native reporters are actually pretty familiar with top-level officials in their respective countries.  So the Khmer service had the cell numbers of the senators implicated in the Global Witness report. Pretty weird, but also pretty great because they were able to call and get their reaction. Their reaction was pretty much what you would expect, but that little bit of back-and-forth really reincarnates a press release into something worth listening to. At least in my opinion.

So yeah, the premise: Environmental watchdog Global Witness says Singapore is expanding its coastlines using irresponsibly dredged sand from Cambodia. The group says Cambodia’s sand export industry is environmentally harmful and fueling corruption. In my report, you find out what representatives from those countries have to say.

I will say, the one benefit of these types of NGO investigations (and press releases on them) is that news orgs sure aren’t doing them, and without groups like Global Witness, a lot of us, myself included, would have no idea what the hell sand dredging even is or why it poses a problem.  But now we know. And we are smarter for it.

[powerpress]