In Medias Res Archives | Page 15 of 26

Writers and public intellectuals

WE ALL know who, or what, the writer is. He or she is a poet, a playwright, an essayist and/or a novelist. But he or she is also the writer of the editorials and columns, the investigative and explanatory reports that are among the many forms journalism has developed...

Saving ethics*

WHEN I started as a newspaperman, in the mid-1960s, the profession was not so haunted by ethics as it is now, and that’s because rarely, if at all, did any journalist find himself in a situation where his ethics was tested. "Envelopmental journalism," the pun on "developmental journalism" that...

Courtesy of the Brits: An inquiry into the state of the press

Leave it to the Brits to respond to a crisis with gravitas. Perhaps, to a fault, as suggested by Alan Cowell in his column on Page Two of the International Herald Tribune (December 4, 2012) where he writes about the Leveson Inquiry, which looked into the state of the...

The price of (limited) success

EVERY PHILIPPINE President since Marcos has been critical of the press and has demanded that it behave in a manner acceptable to government. Marcos’ main complaint, as it was that of Corazon Aquino, Fidel Ramos, Joseph Estrada, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, and now of Benigno S. Aquino III, was ...

An underhanded law (Updated)

THE PRESIDENT’S remark that proper news practitioners should have no reason to worry if the Right of Reply Law passes is not only patronizing but also inversely misleading. It is precisely the fair-minded and self-respecting, the rightly skeptical and dogged, among the journalists whom the law penalizes—those resistant to...

PNoy’s thing with the media

Yes, one isn’t quite sure yet what word it is to describe this strange weight that seems to bear down on President Benigno S. Aquino III's relationship with the press. Most journalists say that the President really has this thing about the press, adding quickly, he just doesn’t like...

His kind of people

THE PHILIPPINE Daily Inquirer described President Benigno S. Aquino III as "affable" during his speech at the 9th MediaNation "Summit" last Friday, November 23, in contrast to his "combative" stance in at least three events this year when he rebuked the media for their alleged inaccuracy, negativity, and focus...

A tale of two massacres (Updated)

EXACTLY THREE years ago today a convoy was hijacked in a town in Maguindanao province and forced off the road to a pre-dug mass grave about two kilometers away. That stopped a woman from filing for her husband a certificate of candidacy that would challenge the dynastic domination of...

Re-visiting the culture of impunity

Unfortunately, the campaign to end impunity reveals also the lack of understanding about impunity. The discourse latches on the continuing violations, the repetition of all kinds of crime "with impunity"—forgetting that reason for the cycle of criminality is the failure to punish. We engage different groups and associations so they...

The reign of impunity

THE AMPATUAN Massacre of November 23, 2009 claimed the lives of 58 men and women, 32 of whom were journalists and media workers. It was the worst attack on the press in Philippine history, and one of the worst cases of political killings in the country since 1946, when...