Reporter barred from covering city council meeting

CMFR/Philippines – A reporter in Lipa City in the province of Batangas was barred from covering a city council meeting on 13 January 2014. His stories on the city government’s finances and its handling of illegal vendors might have irked city government officials, the reporter said.

Lipa City in Luzon Island is some 90 kilometers south of Manila.

Radio and newspaper reporter Marlon Luistro e-mailed CMFR on Monday afternoon, saying a security guard in the city hall’s lobby prevented him from going to the session hall earlier that day.

“The guard said media are not allowed in the mean time. I asked why. Orders from upstairs, he said; from engineer Lopez,” Luistro said.

Engineer Roldan Lopez is the city engineer and head of the city’s Public Order and Safety Office.

Luistro said the executive might be singling him out for a story he wrote on the city council’s approving a P300-million loan (about USD6.7-million) for a parking building, and another story on the council’s asking the mayor to stop allegedly illegal vendors from clogging up traffic on a busy avenue in the city.

Lopez, however, told CMFR via SMS on 16 January 2013 that he did not mind Luistro’s stories, but that he was just following orders from City Administrator Leo Latido.

“The media cannot cover the council without permission from Attorney Latido. That’s the policy,” Lopez said.

But another reporter said there was no such policy. Mimi Padua of dwAL 95.9 FM told CMFR she was able to cover the city council meeting last Monday.

She said the topics of Luistro’s stories were not discussed in Monday’s city council meeting. But she was surprised that Luistro was not allowed to cover the meeting.

“I’ve been covering the city council since last year. I never needed a permit. (Requiring a permit) is wrong. You can’t prevent media from covering the sessions (meetings) because those are public (events),” Padua said.

Luistro also said he had never been barred from the sessions since he started covering the city council in 2004, until that Monday.

Padua agreed that Luistro might have been singled out because of his reports.

CMFR has tried calling Latido’s office to ask about the supposed policy barring the media from council meetings. But a request for an interview had not been granted as of press time.