Arroyo cites media role, but hits gossipy headlines
By Michael Lim Ubac
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 05:58:00 08/29/2008
MANILA, Philippines—Long critical of the way the press has been reporting on her administration, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has taken a dig at her tormentors in the media.
Speaking on Wednesday at the 100th anniversary celebration of the Philippines Free Press magazine, Ms Arroyo said journalists were “critical to maintaining our strong democracy.”
But she also had sharp words for some media practitioners.
Quoting Makati Rep. Teodoro Locsin Jr., son of the late Free Press publisher and editor, Ms Arroyo said the press “can reveal, can conceal.”
“In the words of (the late, crusading US publisher) Joseph Pulitzer: ‘A cynical, mercenary, demagogic press will produce in time a people as base as itself.’”
“These are words of great precautionary value to those who seek shelter under the freedoms advanced by ... Pulitzer and Locsin, but disdain the concurrent responsibilities on their part to be disinterested and public spirited.”
“Freedom in the hands of (those) who want the freedom without the responsibility degenerates into a callous license to aspire to little more than gossipy headlines and inflated circulation numbers, no matter what cost must be paid in the debasement of public discourse.”
Free Press extolled
Ms Arroyo extolled the Free Press, telling the Locsin family and the Free Press staff members: “No one can do justice to such a venerable institution as the Philippines Free Press in quantifying its one century of contribution to national life.”
The first issue of the Free Press came out on Aug. 29, 1908, with Scottish Robert McCulloch Dick as founder. When the latter died, Locsin Sr. took over in 1960 as publisher and editor.
The dictator Ferdinand Marcos shut the magazine down in 1972 following his declaration of martial law. The magazine resumed publication before the February 1986 snap election that led to a popular revolution that brought down Marcos.
Tribute to Locsin Sr.
Ms Arroyo said the struggles of the nation were “interwoven” with the work of the Free Press people.
“As we celebrate the centennial of Philippines Free Press, we cannot do it without paying tribute to the man who did the most in shaping the Philippines Free Press into a magazine that has become so irresistible as a fountain of truth and knowledge—Teodoro Locsin Sr.,” she said.
Ms Arroyo paid homage to the late Locsin as “a tireless worker, a brilliant writer, but beyond that he was a social advocate.”
“He was in the newsroom, but he was beyond the newsroom,” she said.
Media killings
Ms Arroyo also devoted part of her speech to deploring killings of media people.
“We are focused on bringing perpetrators to justice, working with Congress to pass new laws to protect victims and jail criminals, and exhort the nation to leave behind its terrible legacy of political violence and clan vendettas,” she said.
The government has been making progress in stopping the killings of journalists, she said.
She said she had established a task force, under Administrative Order No. 211, to especially pursue the cases involving the murders of journalists.
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