PRESS freedom is being jeopardized as Filipino journalists are constantly subjected to threats and intimidations – mostly involving politics. As former Chief Justice Reynato Puno said, “Like water seeking its course, press freedom, no matter how suppressed, rises to give life to democracy,” the media holds a pivotal role in a country’s stance about freedom. Sadly, as we observe headlines in the news, the media is veering towards the negative coverage side, reporting more often than not the unpleasant events in the government. Now an alarming issue lingers as politicians are being accused with journalists’ deaths.
On Monday morning, Bayan Muna provincial coordinator and re-elected councilor Fernando Baldomero was shot and killed in cold blood while taking his 12-year-old son to school in Iloilo City. He may not be a journalist, but he was the first militant to be slain under Pres. Aquino’s new administration and ironically, he was also Aquino’s partymate and the town coordinator for the Liberal Party in Lezo, Aklan.
In 2009, International New Safety Institute named the Philippines as the deadliest place for journalists for accounting 37 out of 132 journalists and support staff around the world that were killed or died while working. The country has been dwelling at the bottom 20 of the annual Worldwide Press Freedom Index by the Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
Since Former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s regime in 2001, there have been almost a hundred reported journalist killings. The list includes at least 30 media men who died in a massacre of 57 people in Mindanao last November.
This complicated rapport exercised by the media and the government is a hurdle that must be jumped through already. If the government and the media continue to be at each other’s throats, erosion of public trust in both departments will be the impending result. In the long run this might cripple this country that is influenced by democracy and survives on public participation.
The three great departments of the Philippine Government are the Executive (President), Legislative (Congress), and Judiciary (Supreme Court and all other courts). Today, media is being regarded as the fourth estate primarily because of its vast influence on the public. Media has a great responsibility of fulfilling its duty as a watchdog in the government by delivering factual news to its audience.
With the public being “media guzzlers” there is no doubt that media can now shape the face of Philippine politics. On the other hand the government uses a lot of measure to have power over the affairs of the media to avoid being ridiculed by the media practitioners.
Mass media and Philippine politics should play a complementary relationship, a relationship that is more symbiotic and less parasitic. Both are important institutions in preserving freedom and democracy. It should not be the media versus politics, it should be media working with politics. (AJPress)
( www.asianjurnal.com )
( Published July 7, 2010 in Asian Journal Los Angeles p. A6 )
