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Clash over “crash”

CHEERS TO the Philippine Daily Inquirer for raising a media concern when the U.S. financial crisis hit the front pages: should journalists call it a crash or not?

Published on the front page last Oct. 13, an Associated Press report discussed the hesitation by some news organizations—as well as investors—to use the word “crash” to describe what happened (“Media split on use of the word ‘crash’”). It explained the common definition of an economic “crash” (“commonly defined as a 20-percent decline in a single day or several days”) and how the press was divided on the issue. “One reason news organizations and investors hesitate to use the word: They are afraid of causing panic,” the report said.

Pump price info

CHEERS TO Malaya for drawing attention to the function and growing significance of small and independent oil players in the market. The report said these oil players showed marked increase in market share over the years—they can now influence market forces and bring down pump prices (“When smallness is an edge in pricing”, Oct. 13, p. B9).

The report explained that competition especially in a deregulated environment is crucial on pump prices movement. The report also enumerated the concerns of the new players, among which they consider product superiority and innovation very important. It also mentioned the role of the independent players in introducing biofuels and the distribution of liquefied petroleum gas.

Independent judges

CHEERS TO Manila Standard Today for looking into the independence of the Philippine judiciary. In her column “Out of the Box”, lawyer Rita Linda V. Jimeno concluded that while the judiciary has performed its mandate institutionally, judges face problems in maintaining their independence.

The first of Jimeno’s two-part column, “Is the judiciary truly independent?”, explained the mandate of the judiciary, and why the Supreme Court has the “extraordinary power and duty to nullify acts of any branch or instrumentality of the government which were committed in grave abuse of discretion amounting to a lack, or excess, of jurisdiction” under the 1987 Constitution (Oct 20).

The second part of the column discussed judicial corruption and why some judges lacked independence. The meager budget for the judiciary, the appointment system for judges, and the killing of judges were cited as among the reasons behind the problems in the judiciary. Jimeno recommended the creation of a permanent task force to protect judges akin to the U.S. Marshalls, and a bigger budget for the judiciary (Oct 27).

Jimeno was twice president of the Philippine Bar Association (1984-1985 and 2004-2005).

One-source story

JEERS TO the Manila Bulletin for printing a one-source story.

In an Oct. 27 report, “Only 84 accidents involving concrete barriers—MMDA (Metro Manila Development Authority)”, Bulletin reported that only a fraction of total road accidents in Metro Manila involved MMDA road installations like concrete barriers and U-turn slots. The report, by disproving criticism against MMDA, relied on MMDA data alone. The article did cite data from the Metro Manila Accidents Reporting Analysis System (MMRAS), but without saying that MMRAS is a division of MMDA. The report could have been more reliable if data from other organizations monitoring road accidents were cited. PJR Reports has noted in the past how the Bulletin makes its police reports more informative by reporting patterns in a series of incidents and by providing infographics which help readers easily understand the report. But the Bulletin tends to forget a basic journalistic imperative—citing more than one source.

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