Jose Antonio Belo, editor-in-chief of Tempo Semanal, profiles the state of investigative journalism, whistleblower protection and the work of anti-corruption agencies in Timor-Leste.
COMMENTARY: When I established Tempo Semanal in mid-2006, my aim was to conduct investigative reporting to inform the public about how power works, but especially how it works in the execution of government policy through the use of public funds – which is the property of citizens and not government ministers or civil servants.
Tempo Semanal’s stories try to shed light on the actors and issues involved – not to merely recycle government press releases. The recycling of government press releases all to often dominates the media in Timor-Leste and we try to go several steps further.
Tempo Semanal began investigative reporting on the misuse of government funds,use of vehicles and phones within the Timor Sea office. The result was we received death threats through phones calls, sms messages and even our office was visited by a member of PNTL who is related to the people we wrote the story about. I was forced to call the PM's office and was advised to evacuate my staff from the office.
Tempo Semanal’s work really began in earnest in 2008. This is because the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste started taking income from its petroleum resources in the Timor Sea in late 2005, but due to the crisis of 2006/7 the government was unable to access or use those funds in any significant manner.
However, with the election of the AMP government in 2007, the oil money began to flow and as a result along came with it a wave of misuse, maladministration, corruption and outright theft of the citizen’s money. This is the challenge that has spurred Tempo Semanal and its allies into action.
Who are Tempo Semanal’s allies? It’s the citizens that are its allies. But most importantly it’s the citizens that rely on Tempo Semanal to help them blow the whistle on the abuse of public funds in Timor-Leste.
Tempo Semanal is NOT the whistleblower, we are simply a conduit for all those persons that have access to information and documents that prove there to be abuse of the citizens’ money. These people are the whistleblowers; they are the ones that (with Tempo Semanal’s help) seek to blow the whistle on abuse of power. It is these people who have no faith in internal whistleblowing systems and who are too scared to go public with what they know.
Confidential sources
Tempo Semanal will never expose the identities of these citizen’s who are acting as whistleblowers. Tempo Semanal takes the matter of confidential sources very seriously.
But we can tell you who they are now without revealing their identity. They are senior members of government, the opposition, Members of Parliament, senior and junior civil servants from the across all ministries and uniformed services. They are chefe de sucos, veterans of the clandestine resistance, form cadres of the pro-autonomy movement, former FALINTIL even. They are men, women, the elderly and the youth.
They are all citizens of Timor-Leste and they are all concerned that we are growing into a weak and ethically corrupt community. However, they fear social exclusion, loss of employment, loss of opportunities, and even violence if they go public with the information that they know.
It is here where Tempo Semanal comes in. We help give a voice to those who have no voice, or who have not yet found the strength to give voice to their concern and anger about how the system is failing them and the wider citizenry.
Major stories
Since 2008 we have broken some major stories.
1. In 2008 we reported on alleged corruption by the Minister for Justice. Tempo Semanal's famous edition number 108 revealed the exchange of sms messages between the minister and some contractors over projects within her portfolio. As a result of our stories, we were threatened with imprisonment via criminal defamation. I was investigated by the international prosecutor attached to the East Timor Prosecutor General's office. I was lucky because of pressure from journalists and activists, the article of criminalize defamation was dropped and I was freed. Eventually our claims were investigated by the Ombudsman’s office and the Anti-Corruption Commission. The investigation led to the prosecution of the Minister for Justice who was sentenced to five years in prison. I might add that she is there right now – but for how long is a good question.
2. In 2008 until 2010, we informed our readers about what is now known as RICEGATE - allegations of collusion, corruption and nepotism in the ministries of Tourism, Commerce and Industry in connection with the award of rice importation contracts from Vietnam.
3. In reported allegations of corruption in the case of US$8 million spent on building a temporary port for the East Timorese Navy in Hera. This remains a focus for us, and it ought to for the nation as a whole, and especially the Anti-Corruption Commission.
The question is WHEN East Timor Anti-Corruption Commission could move in to investigate the case which occurred in 2010.
4. In 2008, we conducted investigations into money that had gone missing from within the East Timorese Police during Operation Halibur.
5. In 2012 and 2013 we reported on the case of the husband of the Finance Minister – that he was the sole supplier of hospital beds to Ministry of Health. After the stories out on November last year Ministry of Finance cut its subscription with Tempo Semanal and the staff were subject to threats and intimidation.
6. In the last six years we also reported allegations of collusion, corruption and nepotism in the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Public Works, Transportation and Telecommunication, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry Defense and Security as well other related government institutions.
120 investigations
We have done on average 1 major and 1 minor investigative story a month for the last five years. That is more than 120 investigative news stories – covering hundreds of millions of dollars, across dozens of ministries.
There have been many more of course, but this is just a sample. All of these stories have relied on whistleblowers to provide information and documentation to Tempo Semanal. They have done so at some risk to themselves but they have used Tempo Semanal because of trust.
They trust Tempo Semanal to never disclose its sources. And thus we are the preferred outlet in Timor-Leste for whistleblowers to go to. As a result, we’ve faced some pretty tough repercussions.
I’ve already explained to you the repercussions we faced when we reported on alleged corruption by the Minister for Justice in 2008. But the intimidation hasn’t ended there. We continue to receive threats. We receive other kinds of threats, too.
Most recently in 2013 in regard to uncovered the Hospital bed stories Tempo Semanal was attacked publicly by the Minister of Finance and the Prime Minister even though we provided ample evidence in our reporting. After Tempo Semanal published a series of stories in February this year, Tempo Semanal journalist has been monitored by the authorities. People have tried to intimidate me by following me home and sitting outside my house for nights on end.
Perhaps the authorities were trying to find out who helped Tempo Semanal to publish the story – who was behind Tempo Semanal? Who give government documents to Tempo Semanal. They even said that Tempo Semanal received money from foreigner interests in order to bring down the government. We have received death threats via SMS. We’ve also been punished financially.
Some government departments refused to subscribe to the newspaper. Other departments have reduced or eliminated altogether their advertising with us. Even though we lowered our price, they refused to advertise with us.
Newspaper endangered
I can tell you now, and this is no joke. We at Tempo Semanal are considering closing the newspaper because we receive little or no support from those that claim to stand against corruption.
The government chokes us like a chicken's neck, the national and international business community here are too scared to advertise with us because they get all their contracts from the government, and the donor community to scared to support us because they are afraid by doing so they will undermine their cosy relationship with Government.
It’s a VERY difficult situation for us, and has been so ever since the now famous RICEGATE story in 2008.
A major concern for us at Tempo Semanal is that there is a power imbalance between potential corruptors and the Anti-Corruption Commission. Certainly we believe the Anti-Corruption Commission should be empowered and enabled to carry out its mandate even better.
But what I would like to suggest very strongly is that we need whistleblower protection legislation in Timor-Leste. This will enable people to be whistleblowers and provide information to the media, their supervisers, the national Parliament and the Anti-Corruption Commission without fear for their reputations, jobs, or personal security.
We must have laws that provide protection for people to make disclosures in the public interest. We need to encourage a pro-disclosure culture in Timor-Leste as well as institutions and systems whereby people feel that they can and should report wrong-doing. We must find ways to support and protect people who blow the whistle on corruption. They must not be allowed to feel powerless and alone – afraid of speaking out.
We need laws that will provide immunity from criminal, civil and administrative liability to a person who makes a public interest disclosure. We need laws that make it an offence to take reprisal action against any person as a result of making a public interest disclosure.
Whistleblower laws
I’m not talking about a free-for-all whereby any kind of information can be released. We must always respect the privacy of our citizens – their medical records, their political beliefs, their personal relationships, and so on. Indeed, individual privacy is a defining feature of a free society.
Instead, I am talking about specific types of conduct and information that people should feel confident that they can speak about publicly – because to do so is in the public interest. I am referring to corrupt conduct by anyone – a public official or a private citizen – that involves the misuse of public money; danger to public health; danger to public safety; danger to the environment; intimidation of whistleblowers; intimidation of journalists; intimidation of public officials.
Journalists like me depend on our sources for some of our stories. And our sources in turn need to know that we will protect them.
We therefore need laws that allow us to do so. We need, for example, indemnity against civil and criminal proceedings. We also need to have in this country an absolute privilege against Defamation when it comes to whistleblowing or whistleblowing stories.
In whatever we do – whether its laws to support press freedom, laws to support and encourage whistleblowers or whatever other laws – we must write these laws such that even if we had a much more authoritarian government in the future, the public would still be protected by the laws.
We must not limit press freedoms or free speech by members of the public just because we have a popularly elected government today. We must keep in mind that we lost one-third of our population during a genocidal occupation, and we must always pass laws that preserve liberty and empower citizens and civil society.
I will end this presentation with one thought for you. How many of the 200,000 Timorese that died for the freedom we currently enjoy would be whistleblowers today if they had knowledge of wrong doing? I think many would.
However, I also think many would be shocked to see that many of the people who are abusing public funds are veterans of the resistance. One of the reason people are afraid to speak out is that many of those doing wrong are veterans.
Those that are dead did not die for this. I can tell you once again, that Tempo Semanal is very likely going to have to close soon unless support and/or advertising does not come, but no matter what Tempo Semanal stands with the dead on this issue, do you?
Note: This article was prepared for a presentation in an international antI-corruption conference held by KAK jointly with the ADB in Dili on July 24, 2013. But because of a change in schedule, Belo was unable to present the paper in person. The paper was distributed to delegations from 28 countries and other participants.
Pacific Media Centre
