Speaking of Media

Shooting the messenger—again
“The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) is appalled by the Commission on Elections’ (Comelec)  threat to file electoral sabotage charges against at least two media personalities. The NUJP views Comelec’s threat as an assault on press freedom and freedom of expression.
“We find it ridiculous and outrageous for Election Commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer to seek to ‘cleanse the (journalism) profession’ and to equate what he claims are the media personalities’ alleged offense—’spreading false news, false comment that diminish the credibility of Comelec’—to electoral sabotage, a non-bailable offense punishable with life imprisonment.
“We will not dispute Ferrer’s perception that the media personalities, who remain unnamed, are out to deliberately ruin the Comelec’s reputation. That is for Ferrer to prove.
“It appears to us that Ferrer’s threat, coupled with the fact that he leaves the alleged culprits conveniently unnamed while hinting they are ranking media practitioners with his reference to ‘air-conditioned rooms,’ is a misbegotten and limp attempt to sow fear among opinion makers and media executives.
“More than this, however, Ferrer’s inane outburst betrays once more government’s penchant for shooting the messenger instead of addressing the message. This is the same mindset that is behind the official inaction that has worsened the culture of impunity in this country and emboldened those within and without government who would seek to cow the Philippine media into silence to continue their assaults, physical and otherwise, on journalists.”
– National Union of Journalists of the Philippines

Forgive and forget?
“While I have forgiven them, (it) looks like they have not forgiven me. Those who filed the (class action) suit against me (did so) because they said it’s a social experiment. But some of them I did not even sue but they sued me. My message to them is: Like me, they should forgive and forget. They should move forward already and stop this nonsense already.”
– Presidential spouse Jose Miguel Arroyo, on the non-withdrawal of the class action suit filed by journalists and media organizations against him, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Aug. 12

Dangerous thoughts
“It’s the soldier—not the reporter —who has given us the freedom of the press. It’s the soldier—not the poet—who has given us the freedom of speech. It’s the soldier who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is eventually draped by the flag.”
– Message in a poster by Marines  during the wake of 13 soldiers killed on Aug. 18 in Basilan, Inquirer, Aug. 23

“It is simply not true—no, it is completely insulting—to say that it is the soldier and not the reporter who gives us freedom of the press. The insult is all the more unkind in light of the scores of reporters who have been murdered who are not being given the kind of burial the soldiers are. I said it before: There’s no more horrendous irony than that our soldiers are heaped honors when they are killed in defense of their country but not our journalists when they are murdered in defense of their truth. It is the duty of soldiers to die for their country, it is the duty of journalists only to live for it. Why is no war of attrition being vowed against those who gun down journalists on their way home when one is blithely summoned each time soldiers are ambushed in the field?
“We do not owe our freedom of the press to the soldier, or heaven forbid to government. If we have freedom of the press, it is in spite of, and not because of, the soldier and government. Yes, in spite of the soldier, too, who for the most part obeys only (Armed Forces chief Hermogenes) Esperon’s bidding and would just as soon padlock any media outlet at his word as salute the flag. If the journalists themselves had not fought the attempt to clamp down on the media after Proclamation 1017 last year, even the soldiers would not have been free to put up their sign today.
“At the very most, freedom of expression like all freedoms is not just freedom from something that shackles, it is freedom for something that uplifts. Freedom of expression is not just the freedom to say anything, including the most idiotic things, it is the freedom to put into words, and therefore give birth to, a nation’s deepest longings, a nation’s greatest dreams. Soldiers do not do that, poets do.
“Last I looked, the pen was still mightier than the sword, not the other way around.”
– Conrado de Quiros, Inquirer, Aug. 28

Comments are closed.