Speaking of Media
Press freedom and Mike Arroyo
“Our suit is meant to defend press freedom and democracy. Mr. Arroyo’s motion to dismiss is focused on technicalities and based on a wrong interpretation of the rules.”
– Journalists defending their class suit against presidential spouse Jose Miguel Arroyo, Freedom Watch, Jan. 11
“Even symbolically, I have never been so close to P12 million.”
– Incoming BusinessWorld editorial board chair Vergel Santos, The Manila Times, Dec. 29
“I have been a journalist, having gone full circle in both print and broadcast (radio and television) for over half a century, and I believe that libel suits for crusading members of the press is part of the territory. My motto is that ‘if I can dish it out, I should be able to take it.’ And if I commit a mistake, I should be ready to admit it. Actually, I have apologized four times out of the 27 times I have been sued for libel.
“It’s for this reason why I have been more circumspect since then with facts and events. This should also be true for my colleagues in media who have the wrong notion that press freedom is a license to transgress the rights of others. Just for the record, perhaps I’m the only journalist alive who has been cited for contempt twice by the Supreme Court. I once exposed an attempt of the high court to hide a promulgation of a decision that dismissed the rebellion with murder case against then Senator Juan Ponce Enrile, with the ruling that there was no such case. In another occasion, I refused to name my source when I exposed that a member of the court and his entire family went to Hong Kong—all expenses paid for by a suspected drug and crime lord in Binondo.
“Sure, there’s need for media vigilance and dissent. After all, that’s what democracy is all about. The point is that when a person—public or private—chooses to seek redress in law by filing libel suits against newsmen, media should see it as proof of the rule of law and due process. Instead of acting like crybabies invoking press freedom, claiming harassment and bullying.”
– Emil P. Jurado, Manila Standard Today, Jan. 2
Some progress
“We do not condone a culture of violence. We have resolved some cases involving journalist killings at the investigation level and prosecutions are underway.”
– Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye, reacting to a Reporters Without Borders report that 2006 was a bad year for press freedom in the Philippines, February 2007
Media’s job
“I don’t think the (Department of Justice) has the obligation to alert media about every resolution it produces. It’s up to the media to sniff it out…There are so many reporters covering the DOJ. They have to look for the news.”
– Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez in an interview over dzEC radio, on media’s failure to find the story on the dismissal of a perjury case against former elections commissioner Virgilio Garcillano, Philippine Chronicle, Dec. 26.
Business, not politics
“The Associated Broadcasting Company wishes to set the record straight regarding some news reports which attempted to link the cancellation of some of the station’s public affairs programs to the alleged involvement of ABC-5 owner Antonio O. Cojuangco to last year’s alleged destabilization plot.
“The cancellation of certain shows is merely part of management’s overall business strategy to discontinue programs that are not achieving their ratings targets, a matter that should remain internal to the company.
– ABC-5 statement, reacting to a TV Patrol World report saying that the station was pressured to cancel some of its public affairs shows, some which were critical of the Arroyo administration, Jan. 19
Tempest in a cocktail
“We strongly object to the unauthorized use of our registered newspaper column trademark ‘Cocktales’ and the cocktail glasses graphic, which… may confuse readers and lead them to believe that you own the trademark…. We urge you to stop using the trademark and graphic for Mr. Agustin’s column.”
– Philippine Daily Inquirer publisher Isagani Yambot’s letter to Manila Standard Today publisher Teodoro Locsin Jr., following the transfer of columnist Victor Agustin from the Inquirer to the Standard Today, Jan. 16
“This issue is best left for the courts to decide.”
– Agustin, in his response to Yambot’s letter to Locsin, Standard Today, Jan. 16
Will to survive
“Newspapers, like books, will survive. They do not have the sound bite of TV, the immediacy of radio or the whiz of the Internet but they offer solid news, news stories with nuance and context, and news analyses that make sense of events. They make readers pause, reflect and consider.”
– Times editorial, Dec. 26
Comments are closed.