In Medias Res Archives | Page 3 of 26

War Over Words: Interpreting Mr. Duterte

By Melinda Quintos de Jesus THE BROUHAHA over President Rodrigo Duterte’s reference to Hitler’s Holocaust is not the first in his relatively brief career as a national politician. Perhaps, we can say that his career stands out for number of times his loose tongue has caused furious controversy. We do...

Jokowi Bests Duterte: A Most Critical Period for Media in Southeast Asia

By Melinda Quintos de Jesus It cannot be helped. Our regional engagement is enhanced by the quality of our leaders. In the past decades, I have met with our counterparts in the field of media development, and our exchange reflects the pride of having elected a good president —...

Duterte’s War on Drugs: Learning from the Failure of Thailand and Colombia

By Melinda de Jesus President Rodrigo Duterte is not the first to take to the path of violence with the goal of ending the plague of drugs. Thailand’s highly controversial and equally popular Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra who rose to power in 2001 also thought he could fight fire...

Here We Go Again

By Vergel O. Santos NOTE: The writer has himself adapted the following piece from a chapter (“A nation in denial”) in his book Chino and his times, a biography of Joaquin P. Roces. THE SPECTER of martial law is looming again. Rodrigo Duterte, a mere month into his presidency, mouthed...

What Now with this FOI-EO?

NOT TO rain on anyone’s parade and, clearly, with no intention to bash initiatives to support freedom of information in government – the media and advocates would be remiss if we did not review the executive order and determine what response it requires of us. So far, it has...

Pre-Election Angst

CMFR HAS monitored election coverage since 1992, publishing reports in 1995, 2001, 2007 and 2010. Deeply troubling issues in 2016 compelled a close monitoring of media coverage. First, Jejomar Binay seemed an unstoppable force in 2015 as he projected his run despite 11 Senate hearings (as of December 2014) on...

Update on Martial Law

MARTIAL LAW is now history. Why then an update, a term journalists usually use for reports that keep up with the latest developments in current events. Perhaps even history calls for assessment and reassessment, as American historian, Glenn May, describes in his book "A Past Updated". Unfortunately, while we...

Free expression under siege

PRESUMABLY SPEAKING for President Benigno Aquino III, Presidential Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma described martial rule — which Ferdinand Marcos imposed throughout the country 43 years ago through Presidential Proclamation 1081 — as “one of the darkest chapters in the country’s history.”

Ending impunity is a state responsibility

"BIZARRE" WAS how an American journalist, who’s in the Philippines to write an article on the killing of journalists, described what he’s finding out

Exempting themselves

LAST WEEK'S flurry of media attention on Tacloban City and some other areas in the Visayas supertyphoon Yolanda (Haiyan) smashed into on November 8, 2013 has once more underlined the persistence in the media of the habit of erratic reporting in the aftermath of even the most significant events...