The accreditation of bloggers that Marcos Junior’s choice for Press Secretary (she will also head the Presidential Communication Operations Office or PCOO) is planning is not new. It was also considered by her predecessor, but abandoned because of problems over which bloggers would join the Malacañang Press Corps in covering the President.
The future of public communication rests on giving relevant media literacy. Audiences should be taught the valuable lesson of asserting and fighting for a media that we all deserve. This means fighting attempts by government to control the media, as well as demanding responsible gatekeeping by the owners of social media platforms.
“What they did made me like a criminal. They took my mugshot, my fingerprint…I could not just let it be,” — Margarita Valle
Painting a conspiracy among the media groups and lawyers — all perceived as enemies by Duterte — might be used to justify further draconian measures and blatant attacks.
His attacks on the press are “repulsive,” and “he should be the figure of suspicion, not the press,” when it comes to “fake news.” A president who “constantly deflects and distorts and distracts — who must find someone else to blame — is charting a very dangerous path.” Although he mentioned Rodrigo Duterte later in…
By RAYMUND B. VILLANUEVA Kodao Productions Media organizations slammed a death threat against a radio broadcaster in Davao City Monday, saying it is part of the ongoing crackdown against alleged critics of the Rodrigo Duterte government. The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), People’s Alternative Media Network (AlterMidya) and the Philippine chapter of…
Fear more than envy drives much of the media and the middle class’ insult-laden rants and self-righteous outrage over the occupation of idle National Housing Authority (NHA) housing projects in Bulacan by the urban poor group Kadamay (Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap — literally, gathering of mutually supportive poor). Even the news reports in the corporate…
The Duterte administration could succeed where others have failed in ending the longest-running guerilla war in Asia. But it has launched another war whose outcome is likely to be even more uncertain unless the problem it wants to address is also recognized as a consequence of the social and economic infirmities of a country in…
“This case once again proves that the culture of impunity persists.”
By LUIS V. TEODORO Vantage Point | BusinessWorld If only a few Filipinos seem surprised over claims that two people in media — calling them journalists doesn’t quite seem right — received payoffs from the diversion of congressional allocations from the pork barrel or Priority Development Assistance Fund, it’s because anecdotal evidence, experience, and similar…
By RONALYN V. OLEA
Last week, activists of the 1970s up to the present commemorated the 40th year of the declaration of Martial Law not only to recall those dark years but also to remind the people of the dangers of a dictatorship or its repressive instruments being revived. One of the legacies of Martial law was treating the press as a dangerous enemy that needs to be suppressed.
Martial law’s legacy of stifling the press persists
Above-ground alternative press: Open defiance to the Marcos dictatorship
Underground press during martial law: Piercing the veil of darkness imposed by the dictatorship