Intimidation from the government continues even as the threat from rebels is over. Is it just a habit of the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo administration?

A senior official, who didn’t want to be identified, revealed the other day that the government is planning to include the ABS-CBN Broadcasting network in its investigation of the second mutiny of Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim and their followers at the Peninsula Manila Hotel. That was after ABS-CBN said it might file charges of serious illegal detention against the police for arresting 13 of their television crewmembers and detaining them for several hours at Camp Bagong Diwa.

“You sue us, we’ll sue you,” is the message. Philippine National Police (PNP) Director General Avelino Razon was more forthright. “If you sue us, we’ll also sue you,” he said when the newspapers reported that some of those who were arrested were thinking of filing charges against the policemen who arrested them. And yet he said the journalists did not “violate any law.”

The senior official was more evasive. Although he refused to say directly that the network was being investigated, he said that the decision of the whole ABS-CBN news crew to stay in spite of police orders to leave the hotel had “raised questions.” “Every one of the ABS-CBN team was left behind and every one else left,” he said. “Why did they not comply with the government’s request?”

His spin is that the news desk may have ordered them to stay put. “The question is, were they there for journalism, or were they there conspiring or willingly obstructing justice?” he said. He is implying that ABS-CBN is in cahoots with the Magdalo rebels.

It is understandable why the official refused to be identified. His assumption is totally false. It is not true that “every one else left” and only the ABS-CBN crew stayed behind. There were only 13 ABS-CBN crewmembers, but they arrested dozens of journalists, including two Inquirer reporters. And those who were glued to their television sets clearly saw the others, many of whom were recognizable as belonging to other news organizations.

I am afraid the government does not understand the motivation of journalists. Nobody would have willingly left the Pen with such a momentous event about to take place. Photographers and TV cameramen have to be on the spot to get the news, unlike print reporters who can gather the news from witnesses and other sources. They have to capture the action; otherwise they would fail in their jobs. No, you could not have pulled out any dedicated lensman at that time. If even one of them got a photograph or footage of the action that followed after the others left, those others would hang their heads in shame the next day, get hell from their editors, probably miss a journalism award much later and regret it for the rest of their lives.

No journalist wants to be scooped. And those who leave will most likely be scooped. There is always one enterprising journalist who manages to get what the others don’t. Those journalists on the scene would not have left even if their news desks told them to. So it is not true that their desks told them to stay put.

In the first place, no editor will knowingly put at risk any staff member. No, sirs, it was the spirit of competition that made those journalists stick to their guns, not orders from their bosses. Journalists are proud of their work. To fail or to get scooped is a badge of shame and there’s no end to the ribbing that they get from their colleagues.

And why did the police want the journalists to get out? Were they planning to do something they did not want the journalists to witness, record and broadcast to the nation and the world? Were they, perchance, planning a bloodbath? Did they perhaps think that with Trillanes, Lim et al. dead, the threat to the Arroyo administration would be gone?

No, sir, it won’t. It would have aroused other soldiers to anger and the desire to get rid of the tyranny of the Arroyo administration would increase and more and bigger mutinies would follow again and again until one of them succeeds. So they should thank the journalists for being there and prevented a bloodbath.

The unnamed official said the journalists “obstructed justice” and “put the lives of the policemen at risk.” How? As ABS-CBN news and current affairs chief Maria Ressa said, the ABS-CBN crew “never stopped them from taking action.” She said they were only doing their job, like PNP Director Geary Barias. “That was a news event and our job is to show you what happens,” she said.

I think part of the education and training of policemen and soldiers -- especially officers -- is psychology and public relations. You don’t get the cooperation of members of media by intimidating them. You don’t establish good relations with them by threatening them. And you don’t scare them by harassing them. It only makes them angrier. You don’t scare journalists by filing libel charges against them. It only prompts them to dig more dirt about you. That’s elementary psychology. Good public relations achieve better results. Ask the PR practitioners.

And yet they’re threatening journalists despite the parting admonition of the President “not to unnecessarily rile the media [and] … just explain what really happened.”

But instead of explaining, her subordinates are threatening, and unnecessarily irritating (that’s a synonym for “rile,” in case they don’t know what “rile” means) journalists.

Follow the President’s advice. It’s good advice.

More Inquirer columns

Previous columns:
Trillanes revolts are warnings to gov’t – 12/03/07
Maysilo land case clarified – 11/29/07
Biofuel bill will free us from OPEC -- Zubiri – 11/22/07
Napocor explains ‘overpriced’ coal purchases – 11/20/07
What is the ‘fair market value’ of land? – 11/19/07
Manotoks fighting two land battles – 11/15/07
MRT 7 may end Metro traffic problems – 11/14/07
Court stops tax abuse by Bataan gov’t – 11/12/07
Of liars, thieves and ingrates – 11/09/07
Manansala portrait also missing from NPC – 11/07/07