Global Journalist

Debits, credits at IMF/World Bank

By Toby McIntosh Posted Jan 1 2005

Home / Recent Stories / Debits, credits at IMF/World Bank

A tall African journalist in a long, ivory-colored gown waited patiently outside the International Monetary Fund headquarters in Washington, D.C., eyes peeled for Nigerian delegates. His chance for an interview could come in the short moment when they exit the IMF building and cross the street to the World Bank building. The delegates, he complained softly, are “so secretive.”

Nearby, a few wire service reporters paced, cell phones, tape recorders and notebooks in hand. Alan Greenspan, the top U.S. central banker, strode by. They did not give chase. “He hates to be approached,” said one reporter. “He never says anything anyway,” replied another.

As IMF/World Bank annual fall meetings go, this one was fairly quiet. Whether to forgive more of the poorest countries’ debt was the biggest topic of the October meeting at which the governors of the two institutions set broad directions; most other decisions had been made during the year. Few protestors were evident, and an eerie quiet hung inside a closely-guarded security perimeter of closed streets, fences and concrete barriers.

For two days, more than 3,000 delegates from 184 countries would confer. “The blue ones are the big prizes,” explained one reporter, referring to the color-coded credential for the governors.

Yellow badges designated journalists, 606 of them. Dominant were reporters from wire services and the major newspapers in developed countries – three-fourths of them came from the G-8 nations. Representing the media in Africa – only about a dozen journalists. From Latin America and Asia – about 30 each. No more than several dozen reporters managed to attend from the least-developed countries, those most dependent on the decisions. “The World Bank and the IMF practically make policy in the Third World,” said Kewsi Pratt Jr., managing editor of The Insight in Ghana.

Throughout the year back in Ghana, the bank and the fund “dominate the local media,” so Pratt prefers to focus his usual coverage on “what the victims of the policies say.” Liberalized agriculture policies have devastated Ghanian farmers, privatization of water resources has been damaging, the promised “redeployment” of workers really means they are fired and the process of creating a poverty reduction strategy has been “a fraud,” according to Pratt. For him and other developing-world journalists, following the bank and the fund is a year-round activity and not an easy task. Governments prefer to keep sensitive matters with the financial institutions under wraps, and the bank and fund officials may honor this arrangement.

At the annual meetings, getting the news depends largely on press conferences and hard-to-get interviews. All decision-making sessions of the two institutions are closed. Moreover, access to delegates is limited, although national journalists may get invited to briefings of their countries’ own ministers. The press can physically visit the main World Bank building only with an escort and if they have an appointment. Otherwise, reporters are restricted to a temporary press room. Oddly, “visitors” with green credentials – representatives of non-governmental groups and private banks – can roam more widely and get better access to the delegates.

“There are a whole lot of African delegates that I would like to talk to, but I can’t talk to them,” commented Richards Nsoro, assistant editor of The African Economy, of Nigeria.

Nancy Diaz Cabañas, reporting for the Mexican publication El Economista, commented, “The Mexican delegation is very closed.” Still, she was pleased with the stories she had filed, partly because Mexico was getting mentioned frequently. Journalists interviewed generally praised the staff of the World Bank and IMF, judging the bank as more forthcoming. Both institutions’ PR machinery is well-funded and sophisticated. Sometimes this makes access to actual policy-making officials difficult, although some reporters noted that the annual meetings provide a window for access to higher-level officials. A large directory of the delegates was printed but not provided to the press.

Reporters said they get access to enough documents, with some exceptions. For example, while other reporters busily wrote up regional economic assessments, Diaz lamented that the director representing Mexico was the only one who had decided not to release his report.

Marwan Nemr, a reporter for the Arab business magazine Al-Iktissad Wal-Aamal, arranged several interviews with IMF officials for the diverse 23-country region he follows, but “the hard part is to get the numbers of the Arab delegates.” Nemr was following the debt reduction for Iraq and the impact of rising oil prices on regional economic reform. He regularly relies on IMF economic data but noted that the harder part is getting interpretive opinions. He also values that the bank draws attention to sensitive issues. One good story for him recently was based on bank information showing that Iran’s short-term water needs would be very costly.

At the annual meeting, about a dozen press briefings were held, including regional briefings, summary sessions about key meetings and a wrap-up press conference. About 100 journalists would attend the major briefings. A press briefing on Africa drew a much smaller crowd. Almost no reporters attended a briefing by bank officials on new policies on the environment and a disclosure by the bank’s private sector lending arm, the International Finance Corporation. These proposals are so controversial among non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that most boycotted a consultation meeting, a protest that garnered virtually no media attention.

For reporters from the wire services and the larger outlets, these policy debates appear too dense for reader interest and hold little appeal. Journalists from the developing world look first to country-specific stories. The executive directors of the institutions, who will vote on the changes, usually demur from making pre-decisional comments. Besides, these sometimes-esoteric policy debates, even though their impact will be sweeping, take place over many months or even years and the results emerge behind the scenes in Washington, D.C. Only occasionally do such broad stories grab significant media attention, such as the recent debate over whether the bank should lend to extractive industries and under what conditions. On the fringes of the meeting, NGOs sought to draw attention to their often-critical viewpoints but with limited success. A small room provided by the IMF was tucked down a hall past the elevators. “No one knows we are here,” said an NGO person, surprised to see a reporter. Press releases lay on a table which reporters passed by only when departing. “In the past it has been easier to wander around the press room,” recalled Mary Durran, a researcher for Development and Peace, a Canadian NGO.

An IMF official said access was restricted partly because reporters complained about NGOs wandering about. “Besides, it’s our party,” he added. One reporter noted, however, “I’d like to find a journalist who objected.” When an NGO person passed out press releases after a press conference, an IMF official admonished him, saying, “You know what we said about leafletting.” NGO press releases rarely get much attention. Durran observed, “The financial journalists generally are covering only financial stories.”

Indeed, the financial press dominated the room that provided workspace for about 250 journalists. Reuters and Bloomberg both sent almost 30 reporters. They intently pounded out headlines on anything that may affect markets. One wire service reporter produced 19 “snaps” from a press conference by a European Union central banker. A Dow Jones reporter listened to the Africa briefing for subtle news that could push up the value of junk bonds. On the street outside the IMF building, on the job since 7 a.m., Gertrude Chavez, a reporter for Reuters, hunted for a Tawainese official who might indicate whether Tawain will invest less in dollars and more in euros. In the meantime, she had talked with ministers from Mongolia and the Congo, interviews that would not make the wire.

Some of the reporters are among the several dozen regulars at the bimonthly IMF press briefings, now webcast. Lesley Wroughton, whose stories for Reuters will run worldwide, is keenly aware of the wide impact of the institutions and her stories: “The Kenyan shilling will move … if the IMF is delaying a review or delaying a mission, so these things are very important, and I am very aware of that.” As the Washington-based Reuters correspondent covering the IMF and the World Bank, she has found that the news often surfaces first “on the ground.” By the time the World Bank officially announced new lending for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Reuters reporters there had written the story three weeks earlier, with the correct loan figure. “It’s a hard nut to crack,” commented Wroughton, “but if you know exactly who to go to, you can get the information.”

Tatiana Bautzer reports from Washington for Valor Economico in Brazil. “The most interesting stories are not related to the annual meeting,” she said, but concern Brazil specifically. One recent good story for her came when IMF officials criticized changes in Brazil’s accounting system. Access to information was “a little tough at the beginning,” Bautzer said, and there was “an extraordinary amount of secrecy.” IFI officials “are good at not telling you things,” and “there are a lot of things that are not released.” But the task of coming up with news has been eased as she found other sources. As she put it, “The best people are the people that nobody knows.”