‘Media need not be timid if it sticks to good journalism’

Tina Monzon Palma PHOTO BY REM ZAMORA

Be transparent, thorough and provocative.

These are journalism’s best weapons against lies, veteran journalist Tina Monzon-Palma said in her acceptance speech during the University of the Philippines (UP) Gawad Plaridel on Wednesday on the UP Diliman campus.

A journalist for over 40 years, Palma received the award from the UP College of Mass Communication during the annual ceremony that recognizes Filipino media practitioners from different platforms.

Named after Marcelo H. del Pilar, also known as Plaridel, recipients must have performed with the “highest level of professional integrity in the interest of public service.”

In her lecture, she described today’s times as “on steroids” from the proliferation of fake news to the “dark hours” and the present “wasteland of hate and intolerance.”

Palma also stressed that technology had dramatically changed how people got their information.

“Fake news and the proponents of the campaign line ‘media is bias’ eroded trust in media,” Palma said.

“How do we remain relevant in an age when truth itself seems to be under assault? There is only one answer, my friends, especially the younger generation,” she added. “The media cannot be timid. Media need not be timid if it sticks to good journalism.”

Palma also alluded to the late Inquirer editor in chief, Letty Jimenez-Magsanoc, in her speech, as she recalled the dark days under the martial law regime of dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

“[Magsanoc] carried the strongest flame and she was a friend—unwavering, clear-headed,” she said.

To the millennials, Palma also had a special message.

“We have no right to shame, scare or spread hatred,” she said. “[But] we have the right to be weird, different and to make mistakes… to investigate, question and speak.”

An award given annually since 2004, Palma was its 13th recipient. The first awardee was Philippine Daily Inquirer founding chair and publisher Eugenia Duran-Apostol.

Other recipients include actresses Nora Aunor and Vilma Santos, journalist and author Pete Lacaba, and scriptwriter Ricky Lee.