The state of Philippine media 25 years after EDSA

Twenty-five years after EDSA 1, what is the state of Philippine media? This is the question posed by the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, in a roundtable discussion on Thursday jointly held with the University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication in celebrating the college’s 46th Foundation Week from March 1 to 4. Guest speakers were four seasoned journalists: Business World chairman Vergel Santos, former dean of the University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication Luis Teodoro, managing editor Melo Acuna of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines’ media office, and NUJP vice chairman Nonoy Espina. Addressing an audience of students, mostly taking up Journalism, the speakers shared their insights and analysis on the state of the country's media profession and industry since the 1986 EDSA People Power uprising. "It is definitely more difficult to practice the profession today than any other time in the past," began Santos, who said things were not as complex in the past. "Noong araw mahihiwalay mo yung [In the past, you could separate] economics from politics, politics from sociology, and sociology from the other disciplines. Now we presume to know better. Hindi ka pwedeng pumasok sa media na walang [You can’t join media without a] certain level of understanding of these things," said Santos. Teodoro said that two levels must be considered when looking at media. "What we have to do is judge the product of the media, what they are inflicting on us, the news reports, commentaries, on the basis of the standards they claim they're supposed to be guided by," he said. Apart from looking at what media produces, Teodoro said we must also ask what the overall situation is like. "The product you get is, to a very great extent, the consequence of the situation the individual media practitioners is in, which in turn is determined by the society in which they move," said Teodoro. The professor shared his general observations, beginning with the persistence of old habits. "In the past 25 years we've had a number of crises, we've had a number of conflicts but much of our media does not know how to cover conflict. In fact they don't even know how to cover a simple thing like suicide," he said. Teodoro said that media has failed in many respects, despite the awakening after 1986, with the general lesson that we needed to have better media in terms of greater responsibility, greater adherence to ethical and professional standards, as well as greater accuracy. "Failure to meet these standards is evident in the August 23 hostage taking, and that was an orgy of irresponsibility, and then you have the reporting and commentary on the suicide of General Reyes. In both instances you see the same habit, a failure to produce significant issues, a failure to provide background, a failure to live up to the demands of the ethics of the media themselves," he said. Regarding the situation in which media has to function, Teodoro said that impunity continues, there is no Freedom of Information Act, nor is there an industry-wide union, which means there is no wage or benefit standardization. Teodoro also said that local television programming is dumbing down an already dumb and numb audience. "One of the more distressing developments is TV5’s putting ‘Willing Willie’ in the time slot usually reserved for news. Foreign shows dominate cables, enhancing a single dominant view of the world because there is a global media monopoly over practically all the entertainment," he said. "We don't know exactly what's going to happen, but if I am to make a fearless forecast I think there is more of the same as far as media is concerned," said Teodoro, noting that 25 years after EDSA the government media are still functioning as public relations agencies of whatever administration is in power. Acuna highlighted the importance in distinguishing the journalist and the business. "They have different interests. It can dictate what kind of news you can or cannot cover," he said. “Dati pa-simple lang papatayin yung storya mo, magagalit ka, ikaw lang ang nakakaalam. Ngayon harapan sasabihin sa iyo, huwag natin galawin ito, kasi magagalit si ano," he added. (Before, your story would be killed quietly. You’d get furious, but only you will know. Nowadays they will frontally tell you, ‘Let’s not touch this, because so-and-so would get mad at us.’) "The future is still in independent online. Yun nga lang walang magiinvest. Depend na ito, sariling sikap sariling kayod [The problem is that there are no investors in this field. That depends, some will plod on and survive on their own], the future is really independent. But I think that is good," said Espina. “Hanggang ang may-ari ng media ay may ibang interest, hindi magiging malaya ang media [So long as media owners have their own interest to protect, media cannot be free]. I don't think there will ever be a free press unless we break that chain," he added. Despite the bleak forecasts posed by the speakers, the students were undeterred. "What concrete steps can we take to demand for more proactive informative and objective media formats and content?" asked one Journalism student. "Ang challenge sa inyo, you think of something na kakagatin ng tao na kakagatin rin ng advertisers [This is the challenge to you: think of something that people will gobble up, but which advertisers will also support]. At the same time, tell the truth," advised Acuna. "One very important virtue of journalism is discernment. The idea is detachment. Hindi ka involved. Pero kailangan yung [You are not involved. But what we need is] detachment [with] discernment. Objectivity is a myth," said Santos. "We seem to forget [that] one duty of journalism is to help raise the level of sociopolitical consciousness of the nation by simply doing proper journalism," he said.—JV, GMA News