Media to Beat the Odds
Even after the lifting
of Presidential Proclamation 1017, the issue of media repression continues
to hit the headlines. However, while old-time journalists say that threats
to a free press are dangerously real today, they believe that the media
has gathered enough strength to be able to beat the odds.
BY DABET CASTAÑEDA
Bulatlat
Vergel O. Santos, reporter of the Philippines Herald and The Chronicle
when martial law was declared |
The threat to a free press is
dangerously real today as it was when Ferdinand Marcos imposed martial
rule Sept. 21, 1972, old-time journalist Vergel Santos said in an
interview with Bulatlat. A consultant of the daily business paper
Business World and Executive Director of the Center for Media Freedom and
Responsibility (CMFR), Santos was a junior reporter for the Philippines
Herald and The Chronicle in the late 1960s until Martial Law was declared.
During a Senate hearing investigating
Presidential Proclamation 1017 (PP1017) last March 9, Maria Ressa, Head of
ABS-CBN for News and Current Affairs, testified how Malacanang tried to
gag their live coverage of the standoff at the Marine headquarters in Fort
Bonifacio in the afternoon of February 26. Ressa said that a top
Malacañang Palace official called up their station in the middle of the
coverage to ask them to stop the broadcast.
|
The Marine standoff came two days
after Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Generoso Senga told the media that
military rebels planned to march and announce their collective withdrawal
of support from Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo last Feb. 24. The plan was
supposed to coincide with the commemoration of the 20th
anniversary of the historic People Power uprising that toppled the Marcos
dictatorship in 1986. Thousands were expected to rally calling for the
ouster of President Arroyo during that day. It was also the day when
President Arroyo placed the country under a state of national emergency
through PP1017.
No to prior restraint
The “chilling effect” of the
proclamation on media still holds true even after the lifting of PP 1017,
Ressa said in her testimony. But instead of being cowed, media groups,
journalists and even rival networks united against threats to press
freedom.
In a petition filed March 8 before the
Court of Appeals (CA), 36 print and broadcast journalists and nine media
groups led by the Philippine Press Institute (PPI), the National Union of
Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) and the ABS-CBN News and Current
Affairs division, asked the court to prohibit executive-branch officials
from censoring the media.
In a statement, the PPI, a national
organization of newspaper publishers, said, “It is the first time since
martial law that a broad range of media organizations and journalists have
banded together to file a petition in court, questioning government
efforts to restrain media reporting and intimidate journalists.”
The petition cited National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) Memorandum
Circular No. 1-3-2006, as an attempt to stop, ban or censor the
publication or airing of speeches that the government deems as seditious
or tends to incite to sedition. The memorandum, the petition stated, is
consistent with the pronouncements of Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita,
Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Arturo Lomibao and Department of
Justice (DoJ) Secretary Raul Gonzales.
In the petition, media groups asserted
that, "only a court, with its accompanying due process safeguards, may
impose content-based prior restraints."
In his testimony at the same Senate
hearing, Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG) lawyer Manuel Jose Diokno
said, "The NTC does not have any lawful power, authority or jurisdiction
to prohibit these things, much less judge what is subversive (when the
crime of subversion has long been repealed), what merely ‘tends’ to
propose or incite to sedition or rebellion (whatever that means to the NTC),
and what constitutes ‘rebellious/terrorist’ propaganda, comments and the
like (whatever that means to the NTC)."
Diokno and another FLAG lawyer
Theodore Te serve as lead counsels for the petitioners.
Senator Joker Arroyo agreed stating
that the NTC has no power to control the content of any news program of
any media outlet. Its only power, the senator said, relates to technical
matters such as allocation of frequencies and collecting fees due to the
government. “Beyond that, it has no power whatsoever,” he said.
Senate President Franklin Drilon said
that if the NTC entices the PNP and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP)
to exert this power, it will have a chilling effect not only on the media
but also on the citizenry.
NTC Commissioner Ronald Olivar Solis
said they welcomed the petition. “The court should be the one to resolve
this issue,” he said.
Media and repression
The big difference with members of the
media before martial law and media today is that the former were caught
flat-footed as they were initially in “denial” that martial law would ever
be proclaimed. Media people today, Santos said, are decisive in fighting
even the slightest threat to the media profession.
He related that there were already
clear indications that martial law would be declared then and that many of
his colleagues knew that Marcos was cooking up the ingredients for it as
early as 1969. But still they refused to believe that it would be
proclaimed at all. “Hindi pa kasi nangyayari sa Pilipinas ang martial law
nuon kaya walang mapagkukumparahan. Hindi kami handa sa mga pangyayari,”
(A declaration of martial law never happened in the Philippines before so
there was no point of comparison. We were caught unprepared.) he said.
He remembers losing his job when
Marcos issued Presidential Decree 1081 (PD 1081) that placed the entire
nation under martial rule. All television and radio stations, newspapers
and publications were closed. The only newspaper that continued printing
was the Daily Express owned by Cocoy Romualdez, Marcos’ brother-in-law,
while the only television station that continued operations was
government- owned PTV-4.
“Walang lugar para sa media na
babatikos sa gobyerno. Yung mga kilalang peryodista na kritikal sa
gobyerno, kung hindi hinuli at kinulong ay namundok,” (There was no space
for media, which was critical of the government. Known journalists who
were critical of government were either jailed or went to the hills.) he
said.
Santos said that the attitude of media
today is different. In the face of threats to press freedom, the reaction
of media is to fight repression before things get out of hand.
“Ngayon, hindi na papayag ang media na
tatakutin sila,” (Today, media people are not cowed.) he said. “They have
learned from the lessons of the past and they don’t want that to happen
again.”
The distinction between Marcos and
Macapagal-Arroyo, he also said, is that while Marcos had long prepared for
a dictatorship before he declared it, Arroyo was unprepared but was just
desperate to retain her post. But, Santos added, Arroyo is not even
confident that she can hang on to power. Since last year, the president
has been faced with calls for her resignation or ouster for allegedly
rigging the 2004 elections.
 |
Key factor
Bobbie Malay, also a journalist before
Martial Law, has the same view.
A former reporter of The Manila Times
and Taliba (Vanguard), Malay said that the determining factor,
which shaped the media’s decisiveness in fighting repression, is the
development of the democratic movement that struggled against a tyrant
(referring to Marcos) and similarly oppressive post-dictator
administrations.
Bobbie Malay,
former reporter of The Manila Times and
Taliba |
“Ang susi sa pakikipaglaban ng mga
mamamahayag ay ang kamulatan ng mamamayan, organisado man o hindi, na
mulat sa kanilang mga karapatan at handa itong ipaglaban,” (The key to the
struggle of journalists is the awareness of a people, whether organized or
not, who are cognizant of their rights and are ready to fight for it.) she
said. Bulatlat
BACK TO
TOP ■
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION ■
COMMENT
© 2006 Bulatlat
■
Alipato Publications
Permission is granted to reprint or redistribute this article, provided
its author/s and Bulatlat are properly credited and notified.
