Echoes FromBY JOHNNY DAYANG
Media and the new presidency
The advent of the incoming administration of President-elect Benigno Simeon Aquino III gives all sectors of Philippine society an opportunity to redefine their stand relative to the new national leadership and forge strategic partnership with it to help move our country forward.
For the Philippine media, in particular, there is not much to define or redefine, since as the so-called “fourth state” in a democratic setting, the media has its well defined role to play.
The foremost commitment is to vindicate the truth, serve best the public weal, support the government in its reform and development initiatives but fiscalize the same and its officialdom when circumstances demand.
Admittedly, the Philippine Media prides itself as one of the world’s freest, to the point that it often goes beyond the limits of tolerable license. In a sense, it has a proud tradition to protect. At the height of the Marcos dictatorship, creative Filipino journalists developed the “mosquito press” which stung the totalitarian regime at every chance until the entire media fraternity ganged up on the Marcoses.
Fiscalization is an inherent media mandate, its exercise, however, demands utmost responsibility among journalists so that they become assets, not burdens to any dispensation.
For when media people unreasonably provoke interminable confrontations with government, and endlessly project a negative image of the country in the world community, they do not actually serve well the public good.
The Philippine community media, in particular, must redefine and assert their stand on crucial national issues and not just echo the shouts of their peculiar needs so the national leadership can address them.
In sum, like in all previous national governance, the media under the new Aquino presidency has a vital and strategic role to play to help the new administration succeed in its avowed reform goals, particularly the extermination of graft and corruption in government.
Specifically, media can serve not just as watchdog and fiscalizer, but more importantly as a strategic and proactive partner in national development. It has as much the duty to expose venalties in governance at the same time that it has the responsibility to rally the public behind construction and beneficial government initiatives.
The advent of the incoming administration of President-elect Benigno Simeon Aquino III gives all sectors of Philippine society an opportunity to redefine their stand relative to the new national leadership and forge strategic partnership with it to help move our country forward.
For the Philippine media, in particular, there is not much to define or redefine, since as the so-called “fourth state” in a democratic setting, the media has its well defined role to play.
The foremost commitment is to vindicate the truth, serve best the public weal, support the government in its reform and development initiatives but fiscalize the same and its officialdom when circumstances demand.
Admittedly, the Philippine Media prides itself as one of the world’s freest, to the point that it often goes beyond the limits of tolerable license. In a sense, it has a proud tradition to protect. At the height of the Marcos dictatorship, creative Filipino journalists developed the “mosquito press” which stung the totalitarian regime at every chance until the entire media fraternity ganged up on the Marcoses.
Fiscalization is an inherent media mandate, its exercise, however, demands utmost responsibility among journalists so that they become assets, not burdens to any dispensation.
For when media people unreasonably provoke interminable confrontations with government, and endlessly project a negative image of the country in the world community, they do not actually serve well the public good.
The Philippine community media, in particular, must redefine and assert their stand on crucial national issues and not just echo the shouts of their peculiar needs so the national leadership can address them.
In sum, like in all previous national governance, the media under the new Aquino presidency has a vital and strategic role to play to help the new administration succeed in its avowed reform goals, particularly the extermination of graft and corruption in government.
Specifically, media can serve not just as watchdog and fiscalizer, but more importantly as a strategic and proactive partner in national development. It has as much the duty to expose venalties in governance at the same time that it has the responsibility to rally the public behind construction and beneficial government initiatives.
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