THE NATIONAL Union of Journalists in the Philippines (NUJP) condemns
in the strongest terms President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's outburst
against GMA-7 reporter Tina Panganiban-Perez following the latter's
interview with Sen. Gregorio Honasan.
Mrs. Arroyo's beef apparently stems from her interpretation of the
interview as abetting rebellion. The President brushed off Panganiban-Perez's
explanation, of the interview having taken place after the lifting
of the state of rebellion, insisting her "assets" claimed it had taken
place while the presidential edict was in place. According to reporters,
the Chief Executive's display of pique started with a complaint about
media not interviewing a military commander who reportedly had something
to add to the Palace's full-court media press against the opposition
senator.
The President's apologists, including former journalist Rigoberto
Tiglao, have tried to control the damage. However, Tiglao, Press Secretary
Milton Alingod and his predecessor, Hernani Braganza, have only succeeded
in further highlighting this administration's dangerous stance on
the issue of press freedom.
Braganza and deputy spokesperson Ricardo Saludo, for example, issued
admonitions against doing interviews with people suspected of aiding
rebels, in this case the Magdalo mutineers. In lashing out against
Panganiban-Perez, the President also implied that reporters had snubbed
Southern Luzon Army commander Alfonso Dagudag, who was around on the
day of the dressing down, but had been too eager to interview Honasan.
Tiglao and colleagues insist media has nothing to fear, that journalists
only crop up in intelligence reports due to surveillance on the parties
being interviewed. They miss the point.
Whether or not Panganiban-Perez's interview occurred after or during
the state of rebellion is not the issue. The Chief Executive of a
purportedly democratic republic had no business lambasting a journalist
who was doing her job.
Journalists are duty bound to print/air views of all parties in a
controversy. One does not build a strong republic by imposing prior
restraint on media. The only thing that censorship advances is tyranny.
If media is to play its part in building a strong republic or democracy,
it is through critical reportage and showing a real picture of the
many disparate and conflicting interests in society.
Journalists have nothing to fear? The slew of killings and attacks
over the past two years, the sudden hike in libel cases, including
one filed against Tribune publisher-editor Ninez Cacho-Olivarez by
Mrs. Arroyo's personal lawyer, the tendency of provincial fiscals
to take short cuts in helping those who seek to "punish" journalists
via the libel route. There are plenty of reasons to fear a growing
clampdown on press freedom, and the presidential mindset only underscores
the danger of passing an anti-terrorism measure that can only give
legal basis for a crackdown on independent journalism.
While fear will always hover due to these conditions, the NUJP calls
on allFilipino journalists to transcend this and oppose and defy all
efforts to curtail press freedom in this country. It is only by banding
together that journalists can fight the scourge of tyranny.
It is time to remind the President and all other key actors in political
strife: You do not have a monopoly on patriotism. Members of NUJP
and all Filipino journalists also have a stake in democracy. It is
in defense of democracy that media must stubbornly remain independent.
