EYE ON ETHICS

The last elections demonstrated how some of the current laws in the Philippines infringe on press freedom.

One such law is Republic Act 9006 or The Fair Election Act. On paper, the law seems a genuine attempt to level the playing field for all candidates during elections. The law mandates the State, “during the election period, (to) supervise or regulate the enjoyment or utilization of all franchises or permits for the operation of media of communication or information to guarantee or ensure equal opportunity for public service, including access to media time and space, and the equitable right to reply, for public information campaigns and fora among candidates and assure free, orderly, honest, peaceful and credible elections.”

The law’s intent seems laudable, but its implementing rules and regulations are violative of press freedom.

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by the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility

COMMISSION on Human Rights Chair Leila de Lima has rightly reminded the media that Andal Ampatuan Jr., no matter how strong the evidence against him may be, still has rights, among them the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty. The clan that spawned him may not have accorded others the same respect, but he and his kin are nevertheless entitled to the rights, among them the right to life and to lives free from fear, they may have denied them.

Media people, some of them members of the National Press Club, waved photographs of the victims of the November 23 Maguindanao massacre in Ampatuan’s face, perhaps in the vain hope of seeing some indication of remorse from the stone faced warlord. But at least one photojournalist managed to hit him with his camera, in the process adding physical assault to the legitimate expression of media outrage.

One would hope that the camera emerged in better condition than Ampatuan, who is said to have suffered a concussion as result. But the media workers’ and journalists’ outrage was understandable. The killing of their colleagues last November 23 was not only the worst in the entire history of the mass media, it was also done with a brutality so exceptional that it defied understanding.

The ethics of journalism however, does support Chairperson de Lima’s reminder. Not only is the presumption of innocence among the principles journalists are expected to honor. They’re also expected to limit their outrage to the words that constitute the sword and shield of media practice, even as the admonition not to cause harm includes not only the imperative of minimizing harm, but a prohibition as well against physically attacking those one does not agree with.

Journalist outrage and energies are better directed towards rigorous examination of the factors that made the massacre inevitable. These factors include the system of political alliances and the institutionalization of electoral fraud that have made the coddling of warlords a continuing problem, in addition to the corruption that has doomed the areas of warlord rule to perpetual and worsening poverty. Providing the information and analysis the public needs to put the November 23 massacre in context so it may use its sovereign power to prevent future ones is a responsibility that rightly belongs to the media. It may cause harm, but only in terms of the exposure that information makes possible, rather than the physical harm that attacking anyone with a camera or any other handy piece of equipment inflicts.

A “right of reply” bill has been approved by the Philippine House of Representatives; a less repressive version is pending in the Philippine Senate. Nearly all Philippine media groups, including the major broadsheets and broadcast networks, are opposed to it.
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No one among those opposed to the Right of Reply bill on principle will argue that shoddy reporting doesn’t exist. There have been too many instances (in some cases involving media practitioners themselves who’re attacked by other practitioners) in which the right of reply, which responsible journalists must honor, is denied those who have been maligned in the media either through bad reporting, malicious comment, or both.

The right of reply is among the ethical principles reporters and other media practitioners, especially editors, should recognize and honor by, first of all, getting the facts right through multiple sourcing. Journalism is a discipline of verification, its very justification being accuracy first of all, which also demands fairness (presenting both or all sides) as well as balance (providing all sides in any question equal space in the case of print and equal time in the case of electronic media). Operationally, news stories try to achieve this by reporting the denial by someone accused of wrongdoing as well as the accusation. Opinion writers also need to at least provide the other side of the argument.

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Mr. Bayuni is chief editor of The Jakarta Post.

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Covering a war or conflict is never easy. Because of lack of access to the front lines, journalists will be the first to admit the lack of objectivity in their coverage, unless they can tell the story from both sides of the trenches.

Lack of objectivity is thus a perennial ethical issue, but is probably the least of the problems of journalists covering conflict. As the war drags on, the media have a tendency to start oversimplifying the conflict, reducing it to a simple black and white issue. And yet neither a war nor a conflict is ever simple, and therefore the solution is likely to be far more complex than what the media would have us believe.

Thanks to Peace Journalism, which emphasizes the ethical imperatives of neutrality and keeping the welfare of those most affected in mind, journalists can do a much better job in covering conflicts, and even help speed up their end and even the search for lasting solutions. Peace Journalism, in contrast to traditional “War Journalism”, requires journalists to undertake conflict analysis, understand the origins of the conflict, and help find ways of ending it. This in furtherance of the need to focus on the welfare of those most affected by the conflict.

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