We will not surrender our freedomsToday, Independence Day, we renew our pledge to serve the people, to continue speaking truth to power, and to guard and defend freedom of the press and of expression from all threats.Read More Covering the PandemicRead more Covering the CoViD-19 Pandemic PJR Reports October-December 2012 The year 2012 was particularly problematic for the Philippine press, primarily because of the continuing harassment and killing of journalists. But Presidential and Congressional initiatives as well as default also contributed to making the year a difficult one for the news media. Covering the Sin Tax Bill: Mostly focused on Policy Issues PROMINENTLY IN the news in October and November this year was the “sin” tax bill (now known as Republic Act No. 10351 or An Act Restructuring the Excise Tax on Alcohol and Tobacco). The extent of reporting depended on the medium. Newspaper coverage was comprehensive, the reports appearing in... All about Hagedorn JEERS TO The Philippine Star for a “personality” piece on Puerto Princesa City Mayor Edward Hagedorn, who is running for senator in the May 2013 elections. Measuring poverty CHEERS TO GMA News for explaining how the government measures poverty incidence through food and nutrition requirements. Social change and the crisis of information INFORMATION IS what the Reproductive Health (RH) and Freedom of Information (FOI) bills are all about. The first would provide women with information on their own bodies—which for too many Filipinos apparently remains terra incognita even into their adulthood—and couples with the information they need that would enable them... 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... Violence in Abra CHEERS TO Vera Files for a report on Abra's culture of violence, which intensifies during elections. Labor laws JEERS TO Malaya Business Insight for a one-sided and incomplete October 25, 2012 banner story on Philippine employment laws. 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 the... An underhanded law 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... « Previous1…150151152153154…203Next »
