Let’s take the bull by the horns

We’ve said it before and we say it again: There can be no denying that corruption is as serious a problem within the media as it is within government and—let’s face it—within society in general. Media, after all, do not exist in a vacuum.

Without passing judgment on anyone, the Inquirer’s report on media personalities who allegedly benefited from the pork barrel scam, based on accounting records purportedly drawn up by whistleblower Benhur Luy, comes as no surprise. But all the allegations remain as such, and those who raised these claims are duty-bound to prove them, just as those so accused have every right to prove their innocence. Having said that, just as media should have no sacred cows, neither should the Fourth Estate be spared the scrutiny and criticism.

But it should not end there, whether these allegations are later proven true or false.

It is time Philippine media—and we speak not only of those who work in the news but everyone in the industry, including, yes, management and owners—recognized the problem and saved ourselves and our people from ourselves.

It is bad enough that this plague within our ranks has time and again been used not only to justify but even to trivialize the ultimate censorship—murder—that has claimed the lives of at least 161 of our colleagues since 1986, as President Aquino did when he attempted to explain his administration’s inaction on media killings. It is bad enough when our audience, the people we purport to serve and who depend on us for the information they need to make decisions about their personal and collective lives, feel no outrage when one of us is murdered.

What we must fear is the day when the people finally and irrevocably decide that what the Inquirer reports is, indeed, what we are, when they judge us as having lost all credibility, unworthy of their trust, useful only to while their idle hours with brainless entertainment, a day, alas, that appears to be creeping ever closer, no thanks to the quest for profit over service.

But we are also confident that there remain more than enough among us who, despite extreme difficulties and dangers, hold fast to the tenets of the profession.

We call on all those who believe so to come together.

We need to take a long, hard look on where we are now—not just the problems of ethics and professionalism besetting us but, just as important, the economic and other interests that inform everything from how the industry is structured, the living and working conditions of its workers and, yes, the form in which the “truth” eventually reaches our audience—and where we should go from here.

There is no other way.

—RUPERT FRANCIS D. MANGILIT,

secretary general,

National Union of Journalists

of the Philippines,

coordinator, NUJP Media Safety Office,

[email protected]