US Ambassador Carlson cites importance of free press in visit to GMA
United States Ambassador to the Philippines Marykay Carlson highlighted the importance of press freedom when she visited the GMA Network Center on Thursday.
According to Vonne Aquino's report on "24 Oras", Ambassador Carlson thanked GMA for its work to bring accurate information to the public without any bias.
“We are committed as a democratic society in the United States and here in the Philippines to free press. So in that regard I want to say thank you to everyone here for the work that you do to get information to the public that is accurate and that is free of bias," Ambassador Carlson said.
"That’s hard to do, increasingly difficult to do in this world where manipulation of words and manipulation of media is so prevalent,” she added.
The ambassador met with GMA Network Chairman and CEO Attorney Felipe L. Gozon, GMA Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Felipe S. Yalong, GMA Senior Vice President for Entertainment Group Lilybeth Rasonable, First Vice President, Head of GMA Regional TV and Synergy and Acting Head for GMA Integrated News Oliver Victor Amoroso, and Vice President and Head of Corporate Affairs and Communications Angela Javier Cruz.
Attorney Gozon cited the good relationship between the Philippines and GMA Network, and the United States.
“The relationship between the Philippines and the Filipinos and the American government and the Americans have been nothing short of rosy and harmonious. In fact, the evidence of that is we have so many Filipinos in the United States. In our part, we will be ready to help you in disseminating the information to the Filipinos which I think will be very important,” he said.
After their meeting, Ambassador Carlson toured the newsroom of GMA Integrated News and met the employees.
“Thank you for your commitment to upholding the free press, telling the truth, getting the word out, explaining the news, the stories, but also what’s behind. That’s hard work,” she said. —Sherylin Untalan/NB, GMA Integrated News