"Our most successful project was in the 2007 elections, when we turned our CITIZEN PATROL to a campaign that won top international awards - BOTO MO, I-PATROL MO. We took the immense power of traditional media – print, tv, radio, cable - and combined it with new media – the Internet and mobile phone technology – to create the first instance globally where a news organization called on citizen journalists to come together to patrol their votes and push for clean elections.
The idea for Boto Mo, I-Patrol Mo was simple: get the people to care and to take action. It’s people power with new technology! If you see something wrong or something good, tell us about it. If you see someone trying to buy the votes, snap a picture on your cellphone and send it to us. If you see a town mayor using public vehicles for his campaign, shoot video with your cellphone and send it to us. If you see violence, tell us about it, and after a verification process, we will put it to air. Two months into the 4-month campaign, we received reports from the provinces that Boto Mo, I-Patrol Mo helped level the playing field where incumbents were running after we ran a story with the cellphone picture of city resources used for campaigns. So cellphones became effective weapons!
The sheer volume of messages we received – about 500 a day leading up to elections and 1 a minute on election day – showed us not only the public’s distrust for our institutions and the electoral process, but also more importantly, it highlighted their hunger for change and their own individual battles for integrity.
culled from write-up by Maria A. Ressa, Head, ABS-CBN News & Current Affairs; Managing Director, ANC 05/10/2009 4:26 PM
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