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 journalists, he just doesn’t like the media.
In an effort to understand what is going on, could we try to be more specific? The president doesn’t like the press as a group? Meaning, the Malacañang press corps, because that would be the group he would be in touch with on a regular basis. But he hardly sees them, really. PNoy has not held regular press briefings with them, these being generally assigned to his spokesperson, Secretary Edwin Lacierda; or more rarely, one of the two Press secretaries. I had looked forward to more presidential press conferences when I saw how he handled the press soon after he was declared president. The lack of such occasions has been quite disappointing and I must say, a lost opportunity. He is so much better at quick talk, spontaneous and extemporaneous; than at reading prepared speeches.
I think he has had occasion to sit down with press corps, not often, but frequent is not expected. In a relaxed mood, he seemed to have enjoyed himself, responding even to those questions into the privacy he needs and a measure of which he is entitled to have even as president.
Could it be that he just doesn’t like the concept of a press as it exists in this country, a press like those in other democracies that favors the bad news in coverage and seems set to dwell on the dark side, those areas where he has not been able to cause improvements, has not found the answers, has not been able to get the men or women who will implement what he may have already found some kind of solution. This becomes a problem for the president, because this will not change.
But, I think, with few very well known exceptions, this administration has been getting very good press. The good news of the country’s turning the corner on corruption, the good news of investor enthusiasm, the good news of an agreed framework for the peace talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front—that kind of good news is as irrepressible as the bad news. The other kinds of good news, programs in process of implementation, services that are improving but not so smoothly, statistical milestones in health and welfare services—these can’t compete with the bad news! Mr. President, this is simply the way it works, this is the name of the game, the nature of the beast, the cliché about news. It is the bad news that gets attention.
And communicating the good news is the job of his communications team in Malacañang and information officers working with the press in the different ministries of his Cabinet. If they have good news, then they must learn the craft of spreading this good news around. And if the press misses these notes, maybe they are not the only ones to blame.
This part of democratic governance is never easy. Most of those assigned to do government information know only how to do propaganda or resort to paid hacks. These information officers can’t seem to talk about policy in the making, and the difficulties of making one decision against another, the pros and the cons, who gains and who loses—that the press must learn to understand.
When asked why PNoy has not worked to get the freedom of information (FOI) bill passed, a public official said, he is working on the sin tax bill as a priority. That should not stop him from talking about wanting the FOI bill passed. He already endorsed an FOI bill that most media groups have found acceptable. There is no reason why he shouldn’t be able to speak for the Palace version and exert pressure so Congress will pass it.
Instead, the silence on FOI. He may be missing the point, as even those in Congress see FOI as a bill for the media, which is missing the point of access to information as a right of all citizens. The landmark case in the Supreme Court that established access to information favored non-media petitioners. In Thailand, a celebrated case was a mother wanting information about the grades for admission into a state-run school. In fact, historically, journalists did not even care about FOI becoming a law, as so many of them have become well practiced in getting information. Everyone should please remember that FOI is for ordinary citizens and perhaps the NGOs whose access to government information will enlarge their own knowledge about government and how it works, and enable them to be able to act to protect their interests.
What about the president’s silence on the media’s campaign on impunity? What about his silence on human rights?
Is it because the press has led the campaign to end impunity and has also covered extra-judicial killings that he has chosen to be silent, seemingly uncaring about the historic trial of the Ampatuan suspects proceeding through the judicial maze that the defense lawyers have succeeded to create?
While led by press freedom advocates, the campaign to end impunity is for all Filipinos. Punishing the masterminds in any of the media killings, but especially in the Ampatuan trial is a victory for justice that will benefit not the media, but all those who in their daily lives are vulnerable to violent attacks, to reprisal, to senseless acts of murder perpetrated by the rich and powerful—because such criminals are so sure that in this country, they can buy their way out of justice.
The conduct of the courts can be reviewed only by the Supreme Court. But the president has the power and the prerogative to initiate such a review. The state prosecutors of the Department of Justice have to work under the weight of a cumbersome system of rules and regulations that result in delays—delays that can benefit only the well-paid lawyers of defense. His concern for justice must begin with the problems that confront the prosecutors working under his authority.
The President cannot but be concerned. Maybe, he cannot appreciate with clarity the broader needs that seem to be presented only as the needs of the media and the press.
Is all just a fit of pique, the resentment of whatever unfair treatment he feels he has received in the hands of an uncaring and maybe careless press?
This is not to defend the failings of the press. But surely, there is a much larger issue here that he cannot afford to ignore or brush aside because he doesn’t like the press.
Is it a fetish?