Journalism Review Archives | Page 88 of 159

Media on Trillanes’ Amnesty: Quick Resistance in Aid of Democratic Values

CHEERS! THE media has responded quickly to President Duterte’s most recent attempt to silence a critic, exposing the voiding of the grant of amnesty to Senator Antonio Trillanes IV as a blatant political maneuver without legal basis. The fiasco has done exactly the opposite of its objective, gaining...

Media Detects Possible Corruption in “Build” Program

THE DUTERTE regime’s “Build, Build, Build” program is supposed to improve and add to the country’s aging and inadequate infrastructure, but some projects are still unfinished and past their target dates of completion. Cheers to the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) for its September 5 and 6 reports on...

Media Reports the KB Reunion in UP, Stokes Memories of its Role in Martial Law

Screengrab from Inquirer. OLD FRIENDS gather together because of shared connections in the past. So what’s so bad about the reunion of the alumnae of the Kabataang Barangay (KB) in the UP Bahay ng Alumni? It struck a painful chord in the memories of those who stood against Martial...

PH Withdrawal from ICC: Other Issues Distract Media from Oral Arguments

WITH SO many other issues in the news, the media has not kept track of the case filed in the Supreme Court (SC), which relates to the killing of thousands of Filipinos caused by the government’s campaign against illegal drugs, a central policy of the Duterte administration. Responding to...

Sultan Kudarat Blasts: In-depth Reports Needed

AN IMPROVISED explosive device (IED) went off in a night market in Isulan, Sultan Kudarat on Tuesday, August 28, killing three persons and injuring more than 30 others. The police and military blamed the blasts on the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), but Abu Misry Mama, the group’s spokesperson,...

Who’s Accountable? Media on the Food Shortage Crisis

CONTINUOUS RAINS along with typhoons have affected Philippine agricultural and aqua-cultural harvests this year, resulting in lower supplies and higher prices for such basic commodities as rice and fish. To address the problem, the Department of Agriculture (DA) imported these Filipino staples. But the DA’s 330,000 bags of...

Ampatuan Wedding Furlough: Just Another Social Event?

SHAME ON media organizations that seem to have forgotten the wholesale murder of their own brothers and sisters in the journalism profession and failed to report how a politician accused of a massacre have obtained a special privilege. Much of the media reported the furlough from detention of...

Rappler Explains Nuances of Crime Statistics

LAST AUGUST 14, President Rodrigo Duterte said he did not want to “suggest a Constitutional succession” should he resign the presidency. He said Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo cannot “improve on anything” in case she succeeds him, claiming that Naga City, the hometown and bailiwick of the vice president...

Forty-one Days as Chief Justice: A New Norm

THE FALLOUT from the Supreme Court’s (SC) ouster of former Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno last June is continuing. On Saturday, August 25, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra announced President Rodrigo Duterte choice of De Castro as the next Chief Justice. It was not a reward for her involvement...

Amidst Attempts at Revising History: Remembering Ninoy Aquino’s Martyrdom

“THE FILIPINO is worth dying for.” Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr.’s words still resonate in the hearts and minds of the Filipino people more than three decades after his death. Returning to the Philippines on August 21, 1983 from a three-year exile in the United States, Aquino was...