Echoes From
BY JOHNNY DAYANG

Let media police its own ranks

Heaping the blame on media is a lame excuse for the PNP’s disastrous handling of last Monday’s hostage crisis at Manila’s historic Quirino Grandstand.
Understandably, media was just doing its job and if its coverage exceeded the bounds of decency depending on how one looks at it, it was a logical offshoot of PNP’s chaotic negotiations with the hostage taker which ended in a tragic loss of lives. Crowd control was also sorely lacking on the part of the police.
The journalists – both foreign and local – were jostling for positions, particularly those reporting for radio and TV stations which were dishing out blow-by-blow accounts of the hostage drama.
Now comes the proposals of some congressmen which, in essence, would curtail press coverage of crisis situations when lives are at stake.
They suggest a news blackout on operational details and other measures be imposed during negotiations.
Obviously, these stemmed from observations that the hostage taker became belligerent after watching a TV set aboard the tourist bus how the police manhandled his brother. This was the turning point of that bloody incident.
But the workings of media are so complex that no amount of legislation can check them.
Enterprising journalists have a thousand ways to get the news and run rigs around law enforcement authorities. Moreover, the Constitution says that no law shall be passed that abridges press freedom. And what about President P-noy Aquino’s government policy of transparency?
Short of enacting new laws that transgress the spirit and intent of the Constitution, there is a compelling need to explore other possibilities such as a code of conduct or protocol that working journalists have to adhere to.
Perhaps, we should allow first the media organizations to police their own ranks based on the concept of self-regulation before lawmakers take hasty decisions.
A dialogue with concerned press entities such as the National Press Club and the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility is in order. This should determine the parameters of media coverage during crisis situations.
Like any law-abiding citizen, journalists are aware that press freedom is not absolute and that its exercise also entails huge responsibility to society.
Given the hard and painful lessons of that bloody carnage last Monday, it’s now glaring that the imperatives of public welfare can’t be simply glossed over in the name of press freedom.