Speaking of Media
A bold experiment
“University of the Philippines law professor Harry Herminio Roque now presents us with a bold and novel experiment. In behalf of almost all of the defendants in the Mike Arroyo libel suits as well as other journalists filing suit in behalf of Filipino media professionals, he invokes the Civil Code provisions put in place to protect our civil rights and to stop the ‘abuse of rights.’ The Code would hold liable even the ‘private individual who directly or indirectly obstructs, defeats … or in any manner impedes’ the freedom of speech and the ‘freedom to write for the press or to maintain a periodical publication.’ It has remained untested over the decades and it’s about time that these clauses are carried out.”
– Raul Pangalangan, Philippine Daily Inquirer, on the class action suit filed by journalists and press freedom groups against President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s husband, Jose Miguel Arroyo, Nov. 24
PRs in our midst
“Now, a lot of columnists do PR work. This is mainly because of the nature of their medium: they opinionate and their columns are not usually subjected to the same rigorous standards (fact-checking, balance, fairness, “objectivity,” etc.) that news reports have to go through. In this country, about the only qualification for one to become an opinion columnist is the ability to regurgitate views and, in many instances, crap. (Readable crap, but crap just the same.)
Which explains why PR agents and those who have vested interests and agenda to pursue almost always go to columnists firsts (though I have to say here, as we who spoke Visayan would say, puwera sa maayo). You think corruption among reporters is bad? Corruption among columnists is even worse!
In fact, it is so bad that, in many instances, the PR guys themselves have become columnists. And there are columnists who sit on the board of profitable government corporations. Compared to the hao-siaos who knock on the hotel doors of politicians to ask for fare money, that is a pretty neat racket, don’t you think?
And I’m not just talking about some two-bit, fly-by-night tabloids here. You can find these people in the largest papers.
So what was a business columnist (or, more accurately, a business gossip columnist) like Vic Agustin doing at a political event like a presscon by House leaders? Is he doing PR work for some interest groups? I don’t know that for a fact, although I am convinced that, given the juicy stuff he puts in his rather enjoyable column, people feed him all sorts of information all the time and, in that sense, use him. But he certainly was in good company at the press conference—in the company of columnists who have been pretty vociferous in pushing for Cha-cha and who use their space in their newspapers for that purpose. Vociferous enough for you to wonder why they’re doing it.
Two of them, Carmen Navarro-Pedrosa… and Belinda Olivares-Cunanan, berated Constantino for disrupting the conference.
I would have wanted them to stand up as well to berate Jose de Venecia for disrupting the nation. But that’s asking for too much because Cunanan, for one, seems to like De Venecia very much. Like you, I can only wonder why.”
Caloy Conde, http://www.pinoypress.net, Dec. 12
A silver cloud
“The Code of Ethics may sound harmless enough. Accuracy always comes first; better late than wrong. For it to be conceived and written over at ABS-CBN is not a silver lining; it is a silver cloud. Do not get involved in the incident. For those who argue for the ratings game, take heed, for the lasting greatness of a company, its founders and its inheritors, notably Gabby Lopez, lies in the trust reposed by the public and the total credibility that it possesses. Talk to all sources and cite them. That is the new code over at ABS-CBN, my favorite television station.”
– Geronimo L. Sy, The Manila Times, on ABS-CBN’s Standards and Ethics Manual, Nov. 23
New medium in ‘old’ media
“Philippine media has not been ignoring the potential of blogging. Manila Standard hired two bloggers to become regular columnists in the paper. A number of journalists maintain their own blogs. News reporters are now quoting statements and developing news stories from blog articles. News organizations have set up blog sites which led to more interaction with the readers.
“But Philippine media has also not been aggressively endorsing the use of blogs to improve media content. A TV station bans its reporters from having personal blogs. Some media practitioners look down on bloggers and refuse to recognize the journalistic output of the latter. News teams have yet to refer to blogs on a daily basis. Gathering of news still requires the sending of press releases through fax or e-mail or the texting of reporters/photographers.”
– Mong Palatino, Dec. 18
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