Sun.Star Cebu <> Monday, September 22, 2008
MEDIA AT A CROSSROADS
POOLED EDITORIAL (BY THE FREEMAN)
MEDIA practitioners the world over never have any illusions that journalism would be a walk in the park. Those lured by tales of glory and grace are soon made wise by a reality quite different from expectations once they try the craft.
To be sure, the practice is exciting. It can even get quite glamorous for some. For a lucky few, it can be lucrative enough to ensure comfort. For an even fewer handful, journalism can be a source of real power and influence.
But for the most part, professional journalism is taxing and demanding. It takes away so much of one’s self, of one’s personal life. To just be able to successfully juggle one and the other is an extremely rare achievement, one that truly gratifies and satisfies.
Beyond these realities, however, journalists in contemporary times in the Philippines are finding themselves confronted with even harsher realities than their colleagues in other countries will probably have to face in their lifetimes.
Journalists in the Philippines are actually under attack by those who feel journalism has become an interference, rather than a solace. To say we are second to Iraq as a dangerous place for journalists is an understatement, considering that that unfortunate country is at war.
But we are not just targets for physical violence. We are now also in the crosshairs of an even more ominous assault taking shape not in the perverted mind of an assassin but in the calculated scheming of honorable representatives of the people in Congress.
The Right to Reply bill now in the process of legislation is even more chilling than the threat of direct physical assault. For while murder is a crime, this one is a subliminal bullet coated with the mantle of legislated legality.
Physical violence may silence individual journalists. But legislated means of assault, such as the Right to Reply bill, will consequently kill the institution of journalism itself if enacted into law, whether or not the intention is really to kill it or not.
Yet, the silencing of journalists, whether by murder or by legal fiat, is but a symptom of an even greater and more serious threat against journalism, one that gnaws at its heart from the inside.
This disease is the growing confusion among media practitioners regarding their own freedoms and the extent to which they apply. Many journalists now actually believe a press card shields them from most, if not all, conventional and legal applications.
It has become increasingly tempting to many of us to assume self-righteous and arbitrary postures even on matters that are beyond our authority and competence. Hence, we are finding ourselves more frequently in the story instead of being outside it and just telling it as it is.
And because many are becoming manipulators of events and instigators of actions instead of being plain chroniclers of the times, we first become judges and then condemners. In this way we become hostile participants of life instead of serving as shepherds of enlightenment.
Humanity is one vast cauldron of differences. Some may take our shifting positions with quiet dignity, others with near-breaking-point patience. But there will always be
those who will not take it sitting down, and those who sugarcoat the poison.
It is no accident that most killings happen in areas where there is lesser scrutiny on the professional conduct of mediamen. And it is no surprise that politicians, whose reputations are magnets for critical media assaults, would lead the legal reprisals against the press.
We are at a crossroads. We can opt to remain sanctimonious. Or we can take a closer look at ourselves. Remember, that when we say nobody is perfect, that also includes all of us. And that the greatest story we can ever tell is ultimately just the truth about our own selves.
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Monday, September 22, 2008
Continue promoting ‘rights of the last so they will be free’
BY ELISABETH P. BAUMGART, Sun.Star Staff Reporter
CEBU’S news workers were urged to continue championing the rights of the poor during the opening of this year’s Cebu Press Freedom Week celebration yesterday.
Fr. Aloysius L. Carta-genas, director of the Seminario Mayor de San Carlos, told the Cebu media that by being the “voice of truth,” they will make the voice of the voiceless heard.
Speak “the truth about the last, the truth about the least and the truth about the lost in our society,” he challenged the press.
The opening of this year’s Press Freedom Week coincided with the 36th anniversary of the declaration of Martial Law.
Fr. Cartagenas said it was no coincidence that Ferdinand Marcos immediately curtailed freedom of expression when he declared Martial Law. In those days, “the truth became un-free and freedom became untruthful.”
People today still struggle to have their voices heard, which makes the work of reporters all the more important, he said. He commended reporters who pursue stories about violations of personal dignity, such as news or feature accounts about people who make a living by scavenging through garbage.
When these reports are aired “on television, I see the truth, the truth of the depth of human misery. But behind the reporter’s face I see a heart: a heart that is not used to misery. On radio, I hear the truth. But when the reporter’s voice wavers, I also hear the truth of what is unheard,” Cartagenas said.
“I see people pushing their pens to shape public opinion. I read a heart that’s in dialogue with others,” said Cartagenas.
Cartagenas lauded the efforts of the Cebu media community. “Behind the skills, I see the sincere efforts and craft of truth-telling,” he said.
While Martial Law ended more than two decades ago, the struggle for the truth continues, he said.
“His (Marcos’) destructive legacy remains until now,” he said.
But with the continued efforts of media workers in the search for truth, there is still hope. “And the truth shall continue to set us free,” he said.
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Monday, September 22, 2008
Editorials: Raising media IQ
BY SUN.STAR CEBU, Editorial
TYPICALLY, Cebuanos run against the grain.
Starting yesterday, the Cebu press—print, radio, television and online—commemorates the 14th Cebu Press Freedom Week, the only one of its kind in the whole country.
Fourteen years ago, the Cebu press chose Sept. 21, the day President Ferdinand Marcos imposed martial law in the country, to celebrate a freedom many perceive as the bedrock of democracy.
Even as the country marks the 36th anniversary of the declaration of martial law, Cebu’s journalists took to the streets in yesterday’s Sunday parade to celebrate press freedom. September is also observed as Broadcasters’ Month by the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas.
But just as these milestones don’t deny or whitewash the past—the state muzzling of the press, media self-censorship, envelopmental journalism, the control of the crony press—Cebu journalists have to rise to the current and future challenges of being vibrant, progressive partners in community development, a unique role that the national broadsheets, though bigger and wider in circulation, have yet to dominate.
Media critics
Led by this year’s convenor, The Freeman, Cebu’s oldest existing daily, the Cebu media will focus this week on many concerns of the industry.
Traditionally, Cebu Press Freedom Week has always involved other sectors of the community—the academe, business, government, religious, nongovernment organizations (NGOs) and civil society—in scrutinizing how the media has carried out its public service duties through news and public affairs coverage.
By keeping itself open to continuing dialogues with news sources, news consumers and future media practitioners, the Cebu media partially meets its social obligation to promote media literacy.
Media literacy or media education seeks to empower citizens to navigate better a media-centric world. The goal goes beyond training citizens to be critical consumers of the messages filtered by media. Civil society can be pro-active advocates of the right to information for all, not just for media gatekeepers but also the public as monitors and participants shaping information.
According to the Media Awareness Network (www.media-awareness.ca), schools, NGOs and media can make citizens aware enough to ask “pertinent questions about what’s there, and noticing what’s not there.”
Media literacy can enhance the “instinct to question what lies behind media productions—the motives, the money, the values and the ownership—and to be aware of how these factors influence content.”
News shapers
But media literacy should extend beyond criticism and include engaging media, advocates the Media Awareness Network.
Efforts to explain the process of producing news can be the media’s counterparting to enable citizens to not just demand greater accountability and social responsibility from the media.
To be constructive as critics and active as stakeholders, citizens can participate in gathering and disseminating news and public service. If they are dissatisfied with the media-filtered information and news agenda, they can contribute information through the channels Cebu media has made available.
Access to such channels also imposes an obligation for aspiring citizen journalists to learn the techniques, standards and ethics of journalism. While undoubtedly, the Internet has opened the limitless potentials of websites and web logs for carrying out citizen journalism, the traditional portals of print, radio and TV still have unrivalled access to the Cebu public.
In immersing themselves in the process of media engagement, citizens can learn along the way the same standards of accuracy, fairness and accountability that society has set up for guiding media responsibility.
Reconciling these two potent forces—the “traditions and structures of a privatized, commercial media culture,” and “new, progressive avenues of citizen speech and discourse”—will make the local media vital in promoting Cebu and press freedom.
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Sun.Star Cebu <> Wednesday, September 24, 2008
‘Etiquette for journalists’ takes spotlight in Press Week forum
BY JUJEMAY G. AWIT, Sun.Star Staff Reporter
A NOSE for news, credibility, passion and aggressiveness are important traits a journalist should possess. But those should be complemented with social graces and a knowledge of protocol, a government executive said yesterday.
Some media practitioners and journalism students were treated to a two-hour forum on social graces and protocol, with Franzina Yulo of the Foreign Service Institute of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).
The forum on Effective Self-Presentation and Communication, held yesterday at the Marcelo B. Fernan Cebu Press Center, formed part of the Cebu Press Freedom Week activities.
“First impressions are formed in the first four minutes,” said Yulo.
“You are always judged by the way you look or project yourself.”
In communication, an important aspect of journalism, Yulo said that the bulk of the message is conveyed through non-verbal means or through action and movements.
It is also important to know the appropriate distance to keep between people having conversations, such as journalists and sources. The “social zone” ranges from four to 12 feet, while public zone goes beyond 12 feet, Yulo explained.
The DFA conducts seminars on social graces and protocol to “breed and encourage confident Filipinos.”
“We face foreigners like we don’t have pride in ourselves. It’s about time we find that identity,” said Yulo.
“We have to learn how to be global players and help cope with the changing world outside…but first, we have to change the inside,” Yulo continued.
Her presentation also covered etiquette in formal dining and in cocktails. In both cases, the event is not about the food and the drinks but about socializing and networking.
“One hand should always be free to shake hands,” said Yulo.
And when the guest of honor puts down his napkin during dinner to indicate that he’s done, the rest should follow, done with dinner or not.
“Even the most senior reporters don’t know that,” said Michelle P. So, Sun.Star Cebu executive editor.
“Journalists should know how to conduct themselves in a formal setting, especially community journalists who don’t often get to cover formal events. It is good to know how to address VIPs and how to behave towards VIPs,” she said, in explaining the forum’s relevance to journalists.
The Freeman entertainment columnist Ryan Borinaga, who also teaches Bisayan journalism at the University of the Visayas, saw the forum as a wonderful opportunity for aspiring journalists.
Borinaga brought his journalism students to the activity.
Students from the Center for International Education and the Cebu Institute of Technology were also present.
Yulo, taking a cue from former first lady Imelda Marcos, also advised her audience to be charming. Just as Marcos explained, charming someone is as challenging as terrorizing someone.
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