NUJP twits Palace: Clear communication not a joke in governance

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines is aghast over a Palace suggestion, as reported by the Philippine Daily Inquirer in a tweet, that “media should undergo a briefing from Davao-based media to be able tell if the Pres. is making fun of an issue or if he’s serious.”

The NUJP was reacting to the suggestion of Communications Secretary Martin Andanar, after President Rodrigo Duterte said his remark that God had asked him to stop cursing or he would bring the plane down on way home from a three-day official trip in Japan was just a joke.

The NUJP called Andanar’s suggestion “egregious” and a “gross insult” not only to journalists but to the President himself.

“What Malacañang is basically saying is that the President is so incapable of coherence that he requires divination by an exclusive clique that enjoys a level of kinship anathema to a profession that demands a modicum of distance from its subjects,” NUJP said in a statement.

NUJP maintained that it is the duty of government leaders to “speak clearly that the governed may understand, unequivocally, the messages and edicts they wish to impart. “

“To suggest that the responsibility for discerning the intent of a message that is garbled to begin with belongs to the audience is pure disdain for that audience. We reiterate here what we have previously been stressing-the burden of clarity of official pronouncements is with the President and his alter egos,” it added.

Citing Duterte’s advice in the campaign trail, Andanar reminded journalists to learn how to know discern when he is joking and when he is serious by consulting Davao-based media. “We hope those tips can be of help,” Andanar said.

But Davao journalists were among those who reported the President’s supposed conversation with God on cursing. JE/rga