In defense of free expression and press freedom

Students of Mass Communication are convinced that the press, indeed, is considered the fourth estate. Who does not know the cliche which says that "the press is the watchdog of the society?"

All right.

But where is that media freedom these days?

Proclamation no. 1017 (declaration of STATE OF NATIONAL EMERGENCY) is curtailing the freedom of expression in this supposedly democratic country. The raid of an opposition paper, the Daily Tribune, and the tight watch of the military on media agencies are indications of suppression of press freedom.

Let me quote an open letter sent to Pres. GMA by Ann Cooper, executive director of the US-based committee to protect Journalists:

Democracy in the Philippines has been threatened in the years

since the 1986 revolution, but no administration has used the

restrictive means your government has taken. It's deeply

disturbing to see political unrest threaten the precious and

deeply held concepts of press freedom and democracy.*

This proclamation reminds me of former president Joseph Estrada who was then very "hot" on the media. I never knew GMA could be worse than Erap in terms of how they treat the media. Haven't they realized that assault on press freedom could just make our political and even economic situation worse?

What are we, teachers of Mass communication, supposed to teach the students now? That freedom of the press isn't absolute because the President of the Republic can, at any time desired, jeopardize media freedom in order to advance her own political agenda?

*Associated Press (Feb. 28, 2006). Press watchdog calls RP emergency threat to democracy. Available: www.inq7.net.

Comments

Management Lessons from GUNG HO

'I must recognize that man achieves the highest degree of efficiency when he plays. If someone says he works out of loyalty to the company, he is a damned liar.' ----Soichiro Honda Founder-millionaire Honda Motor Co., Ltd. When a company fails, who should take the blame? When the workers complain, who should do some reflections, the management or the workers themselves? Hunt Stevenson, in the movie GUNG HO (means to WORK TOGETHER) , needed to do some reflections before it was too late. His failure to do some actions would result in closure of Assan Motors, thereby leaving hundreds of American laborers unemployed. According to Robert Heller, the author of the article EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT: TAKING RESPONSIBILITY, "How the boss behaves has a profound effect on how other managers perform - and thus on the performance of the entire outfit. That's a self-evident truth, acknowledged by most people. But few bosses acknowledge the corollary: that inferior performance is partl...

Levels Earned, Lessons Learned in SHAIYA

The holy week was not really holy for me. This was time of the year when I played hard. Really played hard, as in trying to make the toon level every time I logged in . And to help my toon level up, even my husband and my daughter would play with her. This year, my toon is DanieGanda. Danie, for the record, is my daughter's nick name. But I thought of adding the word "Ganda," which is a tagalog term for Beauty. DanieGanda is a human priest in the normal mode. As the rule in Shaiya, a player won't be able to create a character in the hard mode [here, toons are stronger] without first reaching level 40 in the normal mode, which is a level lower than HM. When DanieGanda started, she was power leveled by king-kruller, whom DanieGanda met while my daughter was playing the toon. King_kruller was als o Danie's first friend in Shaiya. At the moment, he's already level 58, UM. The experience was good for Danie was able to meet players from different walks o...

My SHAIYA battle for a week

A duo with -kamikaze- MMORPG. Online games. Virtual world. SHAIYA. The past holy week signaled the beginning and end of my battle in the virtual world. I started playing an MMORPG for a week -- trying to level up my character named SexySteffi in an online game known to players as SHAIYA . It wasn't as sophisticated as Wow but most things are basically the same. The best parts would be killing monsters to level up and killing darkies to get higher ranks. Another good thing about online games like SHAIYA is the opportunity to talk to people or gamers from different parts of the world. I've met gamers from Columbia, Chile, Texas, Australia, Canada, etc. Gamers really come from different walks of life. Some are young, some old, some married, some single, some just fooling around, some serious about leveling up. As a priest, SexySteffi is in demand in the game :-) Some players would always invite her to a party so that they could conquer the monsters without getting killed a...

My Socially Constructed Reality

Search This Blog