Lessons from The Frontlines
On Building Credible Media
Lessons from The Frontlines
By Eugenia Duran Apostol
2006 Magsaysay Awardee for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts
In the 1880s, during Plaridel’s time, the Filipino was suffering from being subject to our Spanish colonizers. Today, after having gone through American and Japanese colonizers, we are free. But suffering just the same. From what? From our own injustice towards one another.
After the Japanese left in 1945 and the United States gave us back our freedom, we enjoyed freedom of action and freedom of the press for some 20 years. But an Ilocano lawyer who became congressman, senator, and then president, thought we needed to become a New Society and thus declared martial law to achieve it.
In 1972 Ferdinand Marcos proclaimed himself president for life and closed all newspaper offices and radio and television stations. In general, during the martial law years, the Filipino remained quite docile. But there was one ex-newspaperman who became a senator whom Marcos identified as his most vocal critic. This was Benigno Aquino Jr., who was kept in prison until he suffered a heart attack, leaving Marcos no choice but to allow him to travel to the US for medical treatment.
Seven years later, after he had fully recovered his health, Aquino learned that Marcos had become ill with lupus and so decided to return to the Philippines. Almost immediate-ly upon arrival at the airport, Aquino was shot and killed.
Outrage
The Filipinos were outraged and more than two million of them joined his funeral proces-sion. But the Marcos media hardly took note of the event. That was when I decided to do a 16-page special issue on Ninoy Aquino’s funeral, using the resources of a woman’s magazine called Mr. & Ms. which I was then editing.
The response to the funeral issue was unbelievable. The agents kept coming back for more, and so we had to print 500 thousand copies. After that, I had to ask Letty Jimenez-Magsanoc to help me edit a weekly Mr. & Ms. Special Edition just to feed the hunger of the readers for more about Ninoy and a growing anger towards martial law and Ferdinand Marcos. Every week we felt called upon to record the various demonstra-tions of civilians against Marcos, and when no reprisal came (except for an invitation to an interrogation at Fort Bonifacio in January 1983), we went on for three years, up to and beyond EDSA I.
After a hundred issues, we grew bolder and brought out the Agrava Commission Report in book form. At this time also, the need for a daily newspaper began rolling in my mind.
…I went into the publication of a weekly called The Philippine Weekly Inquirer, which would bravely monitor the Sandigan-bayan trial of the so-called Aquino 26, from February to November 1985. I had planned to close the paper and disband the weekly Inquirer after the trial. But Marcos called a snap election to try to prove to the world that the Filipinos still loved him.
Here was a chance to extend the life of the Inquirer, at the same time help anti-Marcos forces win that election.
The break-up
The new group bought the name Philippine Inquirer from Mr. & Mrs. and later paid P900,000 for it. The group also borrowed a million pesos worth of cash, paper and equipment from Mr. & Mrs. and paid it back (with interest) in two months.
In three months the Philippine Daily Inquirer had not only helped to oust Marcos, it was also making money! And in several coup attempts inspired by Juan Ponce Enrile, the Inquirer stood by duly elected Cory and Doy. Johnny Enrile must have felt betrayed because in 1989 he (through Nora Bitong, his accountant) filed a suit against Apostol, Magsanoc, and Doris Nuyda for “breach of fiduciary duty, mismanagement, etc.” For five years we went up and down the elevators of the Securities and Exchange Com-mission to attend hearing after hearing. In August 1993, the lower court ruled in our favor and lifted the injunction of our Inquirer shares.
I decided to sell my shares immediately so that Enrile would not be able to touch them in the future. My lawyer, Enrique Belo, was not in favor of my selling, knowing we had a good chance of winning the case. But I was not willing to take a chance with the unpredictable judiciary.
If Enrile or any other politician for that matter were to end up owning even a single share in Inquirer, I would never forgive myself.
Commitment to excellence
It is relevant to add here that the Inquirer, to its credit, has a manual of editorial policies which states that it is committed to excellence. The manual spells out in details the mission, vision, and values of the paper, as well as how to ensure the accuracy of a story, fairness, objectivity, attribution, how to handle letters to the editor, the editorial cartoon, use of press releases, gifts in kind and travel invitations, canons of taste in stories and photographs.
All employees of the Inquirer are made to sign the Journalist’s Code of Ethics upon being hired. The Inquirer is the only newspaper in the country that has an ombudsman or reader’s advocate to ensure observance of this Code and of the provisions of the manual.
Let me share with you some valuable information which I found recently in the book Elements of Journalism by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel. Its subtitle is “What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should Expect.” This book, by the way, should be required reading in all journalism schools today. It is perfect for us all.
For three years, according to this book, a committee of concerned journalists studied how excellence in journalism could be attained. They finally came up with nine basic elements:
1. Journalism’s first obliga-tion is to the truth.
2. Its first loyalty is to citi-zens.
3. Its essence is a discipline of verification.
4. Its practitioners must main-tain an independence from those they cover.
5. It must serve as an inde-pendent monitor of power.
6. It must provide a forum for public criticism and compro-mise.
7. It must strive to make the significant interesting and relevant.
8. It must keep the news comprehensive and proportional.
9. Its practitioners must be allowed to exercise their personal conscience.
Media’s job
To be beholden to any news source is tragedy for a reporter.
To be beholden to any advertiser is tragedy for a newspaper.
To act like puppy dogs to public relations officers makes the editorial staff lose confidence in the editorial desk.
The main job of the news-paper is to be a watchdog, not to be anybody’s puppy dog or tuta.
But I cannot leave you without paying homage to our best literary writer and journalist, Nick Joaquin, whom we lost last April 2005.
Nick said that “journalism is responsible writing. The re-porter is duty bound to commu-nicate and to communicate as sensibly as possible. He must not play games with the reading public. Communication is serious business.” n
(This article was excerpted from Mrs. Apostol’s lecture before students of the University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication on Aug. 30, 2006.)
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