Interview about Raporto in Heroldo

Roberto Perez-Franco, a little over a year ago you launched the online news agency Raporto.info, feeling that Esperantio lacked a news site devoted to general news, where anyone could read but also report directly to the world what matters to them. How do you assess the development of RI from a journalistic point of view (that is, informative rather than communicative)?

I will begin by saying that I am not a journalist. I am an engineer, so my opinions about the journalistic quality of RI should not be taken very seriously. More than two years ago I began preparing a radio program called Panama Raporto, which was mainly a window onto Panama, its culture and current affairs, for Esperantists in other countries. After a year of that work, I felt that I also wanted to learn more about current affairs in other countries, but not necessarily as reported by international news services; I wanted it from the Esperantists themselves, who stand at the place where the news happens.

That is how the idea of creating RI was born. With the help of a friend, who gave me the server space, I bought the domain Raporto.info and began building a neutral, open, free-spirited reporting site where Esperantists from every country could post news and at the same time comment on the other reports. Like almost everything in Esperantio, RI began with great goals. After sixteen months, if one measures the project's results against the original goals, one has to admit that the venture failed.

And yet it did not fail. The readers' reaction was very favorable. More than 24 thousand unique visits per month show that the Esperanto community does want to read news reported by fellow Esperantists. Where RI did not succeed was in attracting reporters. We have more and more readers every month. Reporters, fewer and fewer. A few dozen people created reporter accounts, but only three or four use them often. To keep the site active, I myself had to post international news, which (mind you) was not the aim of the project, and I posted many reports about Panama, which does fit the 'inner idea' of the site, but was about a single country.

In general, the journalistic level of the reports on RI was not high, except for a few reporters who really are journalists. But despite the quality, we enjoyed an advantage, for instance when an Esperantist reported on an important matter directly from his own country. An Esperantist from Nepal, for example, often reported on the political conflicts in his country. That Esperantist's experience is the best example that an idea like RI is necessary and useful. What is lacking, as always, is more volunteers to report. So the history of RI is perhaps similar to the history of the language itself, and of other projects in Esperantio.

If I understand correctly, you cherished the same illusion as Monato: that Esperantists from all over the world could send firsthand information about their own country. Do you nevertheless include in that also the virtual country 'Esperantio'? And what does it look like, according to Raporto.info?

Although I do not know the history of Monato, apparently yes, that was precisely my aim. I believed that once the site was ready, many Esperantists would want to send information about news from their own country. What happened was that thousands of Esperantists went to the site to read the reports of others: which is good, but only dozens wanted to report, and few did so often.

Before I speak about Esperantio, I must say right away that I am no longer a 'green' one. I once was, and for a long time I tried to recruit Esperantists, but then I stopped for lack of fruit. Even my wife, who already understands a little Esperanto and is the kindest person I have ever known, wanted for a long time to learn the language, but never had enough interest to acquire it fully. So when I speak about Esperantio, please do not think of me as a fanatic. My interest in the language soon moved from working for Esperanto to the most fruitful work with Esperanto. Panama Raporto and RI are, I would say, the fruits, which truly are not big but are something. Now only the practical use of the language interests me.

But I do believe that there is something that can be called Esperantio. I have never attended the World Congress or any other big Esperanto gathering, so my experience of Esperanto comes from my friendship with some people and above all from the work on RI and Panama Raporto. I would say that Esperantio exists, quite clearly not as a virtual nation, but as a real circle of friends spread across the world. Esperantio, from my point of view, is as varied as the world itself: not all its members are green, but almost all are friends. Through my work for RI I was in a privileged position to experience what that friendship is like. Here is what I felt: among Esperantists you can always find ears ready to hear about you, about your country, about your dreams and needs, about the oppression by your government, about what makes you content or unhappy. There lies the value of Esperanto: automatically, you feel yourself a friend of thousands of people, and they of you. That is Esperantio from my perspective.

Recently you gave up Raporto.Info, because of excessive personal commitments, and donated it to an editor of El Popola Ĉinio. You surely know about the disregard for human rights in that country, and about the online spying on intellectuals through Yahoo. Do you think being an Esperantist is enough reason to neglect those risks?

Indeed, I have just begun a doctorate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Boston, and the study is very intense. Once before, in the past, I went through a time of excessive commitments, and I noticed that when I had no time to check the site and post new reports, RI's activity dropped significantly. So now, seeing that a new period of intense work is coming that will keep me from tending the site, I decided to find a new head for the news service. I opened a competition, and the best candidate was a Chinese journalist who works in the editorial office of EPĈ.

Of course, I am well aware of the problem of disrespect for human rights in China and the lack of freedom to access the Internet in China. Something similar happens in Cuba and in many other countries. So I thought a lot about it. And here is my conclusion: Raporto.info is not a one-off idea, but a way of seeing the possibility of using the Internet and Esperanto together with blog technology to create media. If RI does not work well in the hands of the new editor, one can always start another service again. That is the advantage of Esperanto and the Internet: they belong to no one.

Also, the editor's power is not unlimited: he must post reports when the site lacks them, and he must delete reports that are clearly lies or spam, or that are otherwise entirely unsuitable in form as news reports. No more. Suppose that in the future our dear new editor at RI cannot do his job well. Then he will be asked to give the domain back to us, or to create a new site. I feel great friendship for the EPĈ editorial office, and I will gladly give the new editor the chance to show us all that he is fit for the post.

Given the various online news agencies and web newspapers existing today (such as Ĝangalo, Raporto.Info, HeKo, etc.), how do you foresee the development of these services in Esperantio?

I think it is useful to understand the present state of Esperanto, of the Internet and of news services. Esperanto is now perhaps more active than ever, thanks to the Internet, and although not many now believe in the 'final victory', hope still remains for a juster future through linguistic democracy. The Internet, famously described as 'functioning chaos', is also livelier today than ever, and the trend is toward richer and more dynamic steps, in which readers are at the same time reporters. Look at CNN, one of the most important news services in the world: not long ago it introduced the so-called iReport, which is a way for CNN viewers to send in their reports, photos and videos to be shown on CNN. So Raporto.info is on a good path.

When one thinks of those favorable factors, and also considers what I have already said (that readers abound), it seems that the future of direct news reporting on the Internet by means of Esperanto is bright and promising.

There is no lack, as always, of pedants who attack other people's new projects when those projects seem to threaten their own. I myself received attacks when I started RI, both over the idea and over my, I confess, poor command of the green language. But the overwhelming response was favorable to the open idea of direct reporting.

The biggest barrier remains the small number of Esperantists in the world. In that respect, Esperanto is almost a minority ethnic language, like the language of a small indigenous group, but spread across the world. That smallness means there will not be enough advertising in Esperanto news services.

Well, that does not matter in the case of RI, because by my idea RI would also be a 'functioning chaos' with almost no expense, and from the beginning I refused even to consider the idea of accepting advertising on the site (which was indeed offered to me several times). But other news services, like Ĝangalo, have a different reality. They do have expenses and need subscriptions and advertising.

I thank the Ĝangalo team very much for their continuing work in favor of the everyday use of Esperanto. But I am very concerned that during the last eight days [20-28 Sep 06] only three news reports appeared in Ĝangalo 1. In the same period, fourteen reports appeared on Raporto.info (none written by me). So perhaps the way of RI will be more successful, since we have almost no expenses and are not a centralized site.

For the well-being of Esperanto, I wish good luck to all the news sites in Esperanto. And I believe the future will be bright. Because Esperanto and the Internet are a very good pair, which may perhaps help to tear down the barriers against free expression in countries with dictatorial and oppressive governments, which are, after all, most of those in the world.