How lucky we Filipinos are: In our country, we enjoy democracy and press freedom. Not in Malaysia. The media covering the Sabah crisis are not given free access to information and neither are they free to cover fully what is happening.
Malaysia has warned Philippine media organizations that they could face charges for feeding the public with false reports on the offensive operations against Sultan Jamalul Kiram III’s forces now in Sabah.
Like the proverbial mala yerba, proposals to clamp mandatory “right of reply” (RoR) rules on media keep cropping up. The latest “bum weed” is Commission on Elections Resolution No. 9615: “Candidates aggrieved by press reports can demand to have their side published in the same prominence or in the same time slot as the first statement,” says this implementing rule for the “Fair Elections Practices Act.”
The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines welcomes the Supreme Court’s issuance of a temporary restraining order on the implementation of Republic Act 10175 or the Cybercrime Prevention Act.
I’ve always wanted to be a journalist, that’s why I took up Mass Communications. I am now in my fourth year.
“Brainless children boast of their ancestors,” an Asian proverb says. Sen. Vicente Sotto III basked in his grandfather’s achievements, notably the “Sotto Press Freedom Law.”
I write to raise my concern about the news article titled “Oh no, another case of plagiarism” (Inquirer, 8/21/12), extensively quoting from a blog that raised plagiarism charges against me.
Television newsreaders who also have TV or radio programs that offer commentary are a “no-no” in other countries because news organizations make sure that straight news and opinion are kept separate. News programs in any country remain on the air on the strength of their anchors’ objectivity and credibility.
“Media Accountability and Public Engagement” is the theme 76 newspapers will discuss at the Philippine Press Institute’s annual meeting on Monday. Harsh facts underpin the antiseptic captions.
The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines mourns the loss of one of the pillars of our media community, Philippine Daily Inquirer publisher Isagani Yambot.
Is any story worth risking a life for? Journalists grapple with that question whenever they find themselves in a place or situation where their duty to the integrity of their reportage also means putting their lives on the line. To seek the truth and report about it sometimes mean butting heads with those who’d find such truth-telling injurious to their own interests—not least, say, the well-armed government of a country desperate to hide from the world the oppression and violence it imposes on its unarmed citizenry.
In the runup to the 26th anniversary of People Power this month, the contrast couldn’t be starker.
