Remonde cited PAPI for ‘building bridges”
BY BOY RYAN B. ZABAL

KALIBO, Aklan – Presidential Management Staff (PMS) Director General Cerge M. Remonde thanked the Publishers Association of the Philippines Inc (PAPI) for helping the national government “build the bridges vital to the engineering of consent.”

Remonde, in a message, said Presidential Proclamation 1187 is an unequivocal recognition by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and the national government of the potent and unifying role of the community press in building bridges of understanding with the people.

“Much has been accomplished, yet, more needs to be done, PAPI can help government do more. Let us set aside the moving boundaries between responsible reporting and libel,” Remonde said.

The proclamation declaring the month of December of every year the Community Press Month has enshrined the PAPI annual congress among the hallowed traditions of press freedom, he added.

“By dint of hard work and dedication, PAPI president Juan P. Dayang and his team have given continuity to the annual event that every community journalist looks forward to with the midyear session of publishers and editors,” Remonde said.

He also urged the need “to bring down the walls of division and discord to create windows of opportunity and further growth, adding, PAPI, with Dayang for his exemplary leadership of the community press, is not just a player but a leader in the changing media horizon.”

With connectivity in the web and the advent of the blogs, Remonde said, the community paper in the fastness of Mindanao can be viewed and read in the worldwide web by anyone, anywhere in the world, who has access to computer.

“When our national broadband network is finally up, reach and connectivity is increased dramatically, the cost will go down and the volume of data and information could grow exponentially,” he said.

Remonde pointed out the dramatic leaps in Information Technology obliterated the geographic delineations of community, national, regional and international media.

PRESS FREEDOM

On press freedom, Remonde said, “it is the cornerstone of a democratic society and through the vigorous exercise of this freedom; the people are empowered to check any excess of those in power and to exact from them a timely response to their needs and aspirations.”

“Judging by the headlines that we see daily, in both the broadsheets and the tabloids, including television and radio coverage of the news, press freedom and the freedom of expression is not wasted on us,” Remonde added.

He said the emerging competition from non-traditional media, under constant pressure from the 24-hour news channel and real time news coverage by radio and television, mainstream media is stampeded into conflict journalism.

“Bad news makes good headlines and cute sound bites. Good news is hard sell. In all these, the boundaries of libel are strained to their limits,” he concluded.