Lawyer Jimeno: Equal media coverage helps in changing public perception

MANILA, Philippines—Defense lawyer Karen Jimeno said Tuesday that their performance in the impeachment trial might not be able to change the public perception of whether Chief Justice Renato Corona is guilty or not “if the [media] coverage is not equal.”

“The factors that will affect the opinion of the public is not limited to our performance inside the impeachment court,” Jimeno told reporters in an interview.

Pulse Asia released on Tuesday the results of their survey showing that 47 percent of Filipinos believe the Chief Justice is guilty of the charges in the impeachment complaint.

There were 43 percent who said they are undecided and only 5 percent said they believe Corona is not guilty.

“Ideally, we want an objective public that, when presented with the evidence, they will be convinced about their opinion based on the evidence they see from both the prosecution and defense,” Jimeno said.

However, Jimeno said that majority of the public can only follow the trial through the media and “the problem here is if the coverage is not equal, and it is not objective the way they are presented, then regardless of how we perform inside, it might not make any change.”

She said different kinds of people will take the survey differently. There might be some who become convinced by the survey and be swayed to believe that Corona is guilty. There might also be others who see that the result is not conclusive yet and they would wait until the presentation of evidence is over.

“I am hoping there are more people who are objective and thinking that they will have to wait for the end of the presentation of evidence,” Jimeno said.