Journalism Review Archives | Page 71 of 159

The challenge of Taal Volcano

TAAL VOLCANO’s eruption on Sunday, January 12, tested the capacity of the media to cover a completely different kind of disaster. Many of those who were called out to the field were too young to have experienced Mt. Pinatubo’s blast in 1991. It also put to test the gains...

A piece of PR: Supposed approval by indigenous people of Kaliwa Dam

IN THE age of social media, news readers often find themselves just scanning newspapers and seldom going beyond the headlines. A misleading headline fixes the falsehood in the public mind. Another bad habit and ethical failure in the news business is the use of the press release as the...

Media’s missed cues: How Robredo’s report on drug war was above politics

VICE PRESIDENT Leni Robredo’s report of her findings about the government’s controversial anti-illegal drug campaign was carefully written to focus on substantive observations. She employed a style devoid of rhetorical flourish. The report itself is free of any innuendo suggesting that any official had done wrong. In noting the...

US-Iran tension: Is there a policy to address the crisis?

AHEAD OF his Senate impeachment trial, US President Donald Trump ordered an airstrike that killed Iranian general Qassem Soleimani on January 3. The Pentagon said in a statement that Soleimani was planning to attack American diplomats and service members in the Middle East, and that the assassination was meant...

Crony Capitalism Reprised? Looking into the ABS-CBN Issue and Uy

The president’s verbal attacks against ABS-CBN had not triggered the kind of coverage of a major threat to press freedom in the Philippines (See link: “A lack of media attention: Duterte’s threat against ABS-CBN”). But his recent statements suggest that the closure of this giant media enterprise also reflects...

CMFR cheers TV 5 Explainer, the exception to passive coverage of yet another OFW death in in Kuwait

THE DEATH of Jeanalyn Villavende in Kuwait in December 2019 prompted the media to recall previous cases of abuse and deaths of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) in that country. Alleged to have been caused by her employer, Villavende’s death was reported with reference to the agreement between the Philippines...

Sticking to Duterte’s script, media misses the real failure in the water problem

PRESIDENT RODRIGO Duterte has been relentless in attacking Manila Water and Maynilad, the two concessionaire companies for water service in the metropolitan area since the 1990s. In December 2019, he began threatening them over supposedly onerous provisions in the concession agreements. An issue involving a public utility demands more...

Tracking the budget: Media should provide a more comprehensive view

THE 2020 BUDGET has been passed. Alleged last-minute pork insertions amounting to at least PHP 83-billion did not stop the two houses of Congress from ratifying the budget bill on December 11. Much like its approval in the Senate and the Lower House, the bicameral decision seemed rushed, without...

A closer look: Cases on the Marcoses’ ill-gotten wealth

LAST OCTOBER 31, the Philippine Daily Inquirer editorial discussed the “prosecutorial bungling” that led to the Sandiganbayan’s dismissal of three ill-gotten wealth cases filed against the Marcoses and their cronies after EDSA. Evidence presented by the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), the body tasked to recover ill-gotten wealth,...

Reporting the latest Cha-Cha try: More of the usual

CHARTER CHANGE, it seems, is not quite dead yet. Behind closed doors, the House of Representatives committee on constitutional amendments passed a resolution on Wednesday, December 11, arguing for some changes in the 1987 Constitution. Among these are extending term limits for local government officials, congressmen and senators; lifting...