tuesday,
17 november 2005
sampaloc, manila
And now, the newsmakers have taken the headline.
Sick and tired of her consistent bad image and poor projection, Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has resorted to lambasting the media for its espousal to bad boy image. Speaking before seasoned journalists and media practitioners, she lectured them on how to be fair and square in carrying out the five W’s and H of reporting.
The president’s bitter criticism to media is explicable, especially now that her political survival is on highly dangerous ground. Indeed, in her speech, she exhorted the media not to be used as “pawns in political games and destabilization schemes,” but to be messengers of “positive news” about “a nation on the verge of economic takeoff.” She even encouraged it to hook up with her administration in molding the “destiny of this republic for the good of the greater number.”
The speech is an obvious intrusion to the independence of media. It is reminiscent of the way the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos handled the press – state propagandists. She wants every story to be warped to prop up good image to her constituents, a desperate attempt to cling to power. She coerces the media to close its eyes in pursuit of justice, to keep its mouth shut in accounting the reality. She is muddling up the truth with myth.
A muzzled press is tantamount to a muzzled public. To deny the press of the fact is to deprive the people of their right to be informed. There can be no press freedom if journalists exist in conditions of fear, threat and violence – conditions that are real and rampant in the country, being perpetrated by those who have the monopoly of gold, goons and guns. Neither can there be genuine democracy in a country whose citizens exist in the same conditions.
To further seduce the media, Arroyo bragged about her accomplishment in providing an environment decent in validating the calling of journalists – a twist of fact indeed for it is during her presidency that the Philippines was singled out as the most murderous and most dangerous place for media people. She appears to be completely oblivious of the statistics and fashion of killings of journalists, totally ignorant of the fact that cases have been unresolved, that the murderers are all scot-free.
The president’s intimidation of media, along with her calibrated preemptive response and militarization policies, only bears out that the Arroyo government is now taking up the Marcosian way of holding on to power. It is state terrorism at its best, in the most appalling manner, cowing the people to stand up for their beliefs and conviction and transforming them into mere blind followers. It is the creation of kingdom – or queendom – out of lies, apathy, deceit, dishonesty and injustice. It is reign of terror.
As Arroyo fritters away no time in making it to the headline, the people, having grown tired of her indifference, incapability and ineffectiveness, have her in the obituary of their hearts and minds. With this another lapse of judgment, her political career is writing 30. #
17 november 2005
sampaloc, manila
And now, the newsmakers have taken the headline.
Sick and tired of her consistent bad image and poor projection, Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has resorted to lambasting the media for its espousal to bad boy image. Speaking before seasoned journalists and media practitioners, she lectured them on how to be fair and square in carrying out the five W’s and H of reporting.
The president’s bitter criticism to media is explicable, especially now that her political survival is on highly dangerous ground. Indeed, in her speech, she exhorted the media not to be used as “pawns in political games and destabilization schemes,” but to be messengers of “positive news” about “a nation on the verge of economic takeoff.” She even encouraged it to hook up with her administration in molding the “destiny of this republic for the good of the greater number.”
The speech is an obvious intrusion to the independence of media. It is reminiscent of the way the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos handled the press – state propagandists. She wants every story to be warped to prop up good image to her constituents, a desperate attempt to cling to power. She coerces the media to close its eyes in pursuit of justice, to keep its mouth shut in accounting the reality. She is muddling up the truth with myth.
A muzzled press is tantamount to a muzzled public. To deny the press of the fact is to deprive the people of their right to be informed. There can be no press freedom if journalists exist in conditions of fear, threat and violence – conditions that are real and rampant in the country, being perpetrated by those who have the monopoly of gold, goons and guns. Neither can there be genuine democracy in a country whose citizens exist in the same conditions.
To further seduce the media, Arroyo bragged about her accomplishment in providing an environment decent in validating the calling of journalists – a twist of fact indeed for it is during her presidency that the Philippines was singled out as the most murderous and most dangerous place for media people. She appears to be completely oblivious of the statistics and fashion of killings of journalists, totally ignorant of the fact that cases have been unresolved, that the murderers are all scot-free.
The president’s intimidation of media, along with her calibrated preemptive response and militarization policies, only bears out that the Arroyo government is now taking up the Marcosian way of holding on to power. It is state terrorism at its best, in the most appalling manner, cowing the people to stand up for their beliefs and conviction and transforming them into mere blind followers. It is the creation of kingdom – or queendom – out of lies, apathy, deceit, dishonesty and injustice. It is reign of terror.
As Arroyo fritters away no time in making it to the headline, the people, having grown tired of her indifference, incapability and ineffectiveness, have her in the obituary of their hearts and minds. With this another lapse of judgment, her political career is writing 30. #
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