Congressional hearings are held “in aid of legislation,” and the leading members of the Senate committee on public information and mass media, and the committee on public services, made it clear last Tuesday that they did not call the heads of the news sections of TV networks ABS-CBN, GMA7, and TV5 just to pass the time.
Sen. Joker Arroyo, who used to defend journalists from government harassment during the martial law period, warned that the Senate could pass a law to regulate the networks’ coverage of hostage-taking and similar crises if they did not restrain themselves.
The operative word was “restraint.” Despite the lame excuses and the evasions worthy of contortionists, the truth is that television news displayed the exact opposite of it — i.e., the frenzy of predators — when covering the hostage-taking crisis at Manila’s Rizal Park last August 23.
With reckless disregard for the lives of the hostages, most of the TV and radio reporters onsite violated not only some of the conditions of their stations’ franchises as well as the existing guidelines of the Kapisanan ng Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP — the broadcasters’ association), but also and more appallingly, the most basic rules of common human decency.
One network provided the hostage-takersuch information as the positions of the police snipers and the deployment of the police assault teams. RMN radio interviewed the hostage-taker, in the process enabling him to plead his case to a wider public and gain public sympathy, and ended up mediating between him and the police. All the networks and their affiliate radio stations also broadcast the arrest of the hostage-taker’s brother, and thus contributed to his being provoked into shooting the hostages.
They earlier claimed that the frenzy of their coverage did not contribute to the bloody outcome of the August 23 crisis. But the networks aren’t saying that now. Instead they’ve taken refuge in the argument that they had no choice because the police had not set the limits of media coverage. As for RMN, it is unrepentant and insists that it was “just doing [our] job.” Apparently, doing the human thing as the ethics of journalism demands — preventing further harm, and not risking the lives of people other than themselves — is beyond them, if the race for the ratings and advertising revenues are involved. By abandoning their supposed preference for self-regulation, on the other hand, that excuse also invites government regulation.
But does it really need the government and the police to tell presumably adult, mature individuals that the hostage-taker could have been listening to radio and/or watching television and therefore likely to react to what he’s hearing and seeing? Does it need a set of guidelines in black and white for broadcasters (one of the loudest of whom admitted he’s untrained even for his own job) to realize that they shouldn’t be negotiating with a hostage-taker because they’re not trained for it?
Not that the guidelines for ethical and professional coverage during hostage-taking and similar crises don’t exist. They do, and they’ve been in place for decades. The injunction against covering events live, providing information on police movements, airing interviews with the relatives of hostage-takers, as well as the warning that the media should assume that the hostage-taker has access to TV and radio broadcasts have all been in place for years. So have the internal rules of such models of competent and ethical coverage as the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).
(Maria Ressa of ABS-CBN earlier took exception to observing those guidelines by reason of “cultural differences” — but later told the Senate committees last Tuesday that “journalism ethics are universal.” Practically the same guidelines are also in the KBP Broadcast Code, which, among others, warns against airing reports on police and troop movements as well as media’s negotiating with hostage-takers.)
Visibly angry, and themselves hardly restrained, Arroyo, Juan Ponce Enrile, and other senators showed little of the fear of the media Arroyo claimed was inhibiting Congress from quickly passing a law to prevent a repetition of the irresponsibility the leading TV networks exhibited last August 23.
But the House of Representatives may yet beat the Senate to it. Without the benefit of any public hearing, Rep. Gabriel Luis Quisumbing has introduced a bill declaring it unlawful “for any media person to report or present publicly the positions, movements and actions…by the members of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) during crisis situations.” The penalty for violations is either imprisonment from six months to six years, a fine of P20,000, or both.
We can all be certain that if this bill reaches the committee and floor levels, the honorable congressmen of the 15th Congress will add to it, as well as suggest amendments to make it even more repressive.
But isn’t this what the networks have really been asking for, their half-hearted expressions of preference for self-regulation as well as their demand that the police tell them where, when, and what to cover constituting an invitation for government intervention and the imposition of that oxymoron, legislated ethics?
Their seeming confusion proceeds from a presumption no one has so far mentioned: it is that they do what they do, and did what they did last August 23, in furtherance, not of the truth they always claim to be for, but of their commercial interests. Those interests dictate a race for scoops and exclusives, or, at least, not to be the only station not to cover an incident, especially one as inherently sensational as a hostage-taking. It makes perverse sense: if government sets the rules, complete with penalties for violators, then everyone should follow, with no one having an edge over the others.
And that is why, ladies and gentlemen of the supposedly free media community of the Philippines, as the demands of both government and the public for media regulation grow louder and louder, the TV networks are silently but surely supporting them — if not in speech, certainly in such deeds as the way they covered the hostage-taking crisis of August 23rd. They’re asking for it, and in the process undermining the freedom of ALL the media including print, whose coverage of the same event was, lest we forget, incomparably more responsible and restrained.
The issues surrounding the actions of media on August 23, 2010 really are very clear. So five weeks, tops (maybe 9 weeks as worst case) is all that is needed for the brightest and most informed and level-headed — those elected to the lower house and upper house of Congress — to write the necessary laws.
“Truth and consequence”…i love this title. Some people can’t handle the truth. Both the govt and the media dropped the ball. The gov’t admitted to their mistakes and apologized for it. The media opted to wash their hands instead. At least gma network took corrective measures by issuing new guidelines.
[…] Read more on Stuart Santiago […]
Last week I asked (in Ellen’s blog):
Did Teresita (Ang-See) ask Alberto (Lubang) if the door of the bus can be opened freely even if there’s a dead body at the stairs? I understand she’s pinning on police negligence on intelligence about the now-revealed secret lever to open the bus door from the outside.
I think we can see the answer by looking at this picture from the HuffPost:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/23/manila-hostages-rolando-m_n_690848.html
I’m wary of our forensics report. How do our experts compare with their counterparts from Hong Kong’s Forensic Science Division?
Innocent until proven guilty. Undersecretary Puno is competent and professional until proven otherwise, especially if his boss Persidente Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III does not want to pursue the fact that he/Noynoy was receiving boladas and lies from his own people. Ang bait talaga ni Noynoy sa mga kaibigan niya!!!
For lawmakers, interested lawyers, and research assistants:
[The First Amendment bars Congress from making any law abridging freedom of speech or of the press. These rights generally involve the dissemination of information, not the collection of it. Nevertheless, the Supreme Court said in Branzburg v. Hayes (1972) that the right to free press “could be eviscerated” if there were no corollary right to gather news. The news media serve as surrogates for the public, reporting information that individuals would want to know if they could witness it themselves.
Where a proceeding or an area is off-limits to the general public, the news media have no clearly established right to gain access to it. Although the Supreme Court said in Branzburg that newsgathering is protected by the First Amendment, it also cautioned that journalists “have no constitutional right of access to the scenes of crime or disaster when the general public is excluded.”]
From http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/press/topic.aspx?topic=journalist_access
In today’s modern world, newsgathering by gaining access through mobile phone can always be done. Interviewing a perpetrator (e.g., a hostage taker) can be made unlawful inasmuch as the general public is already barred from getting information because of the ongoing criminal act.
Of course, it’s a different story if the perpetrator requested for an interview with a particular journalist and authorities acceded to the request. Just like what happened with Susan Enriquez (though the reporter revealed that it was not really an interview and that it was not aired live).
Recommended reading:
“The Terrorist Is A Star!: Regulating Media Coverage of Publicity-Seeking Crimes”
http://law.indiana.edu/fclj/pubs/v60/no3/8-Ghetti.pdf
The Aug23 (read: Uhg! 23) Incident really captured the ineptness, incompetence, or clumsiness (or plain stupidity?) of our government in their failure to secure everyone and to save precious human lives in times of crisis.
But there is another powerful sector of society that shares the responsibility in bringing about global shame to us Filipinos. This is media…specifically, the Broadcast Media.
Michelle Ward Ghetti laid down the two general areas of conflict that particularly caused media coverage during publicity-seeking crimes to become the hotbed of controversy.
1. On media dissemination of information…
[Media can serve as the “intelligence arm” of the criminal in many ways. Today, in most hostage situations, the criminal has a television or radio device within near proximity. By broadcasting police strategies, activities, plans, or the presence of hidden persons or escaping hostages, the media endangers the lives of the hostages, law enforcement personnel, and innocent citizens. They also assist the criminals in determining escape routes and repelling police assaults.]
2. On media interference with law enforcement…
[Direct media contact with the criminal:
a. can tie up telephone access,
b. incite the criminal by use of inflammatory questions or phrases,
c. goad the criminal into action to prove himself in the spotlight, and
d. can have the effect of isolating a trained professional negotiator from the mediating process by increasing the role of the untrained media person]
(From http://law.indiana.edu/fclj/pubs/v60/no3/8-Ghetti.pdf )
It appears the TV broadcasters and the RMN people had not learned from past lessons and so were guilty in complicating things and possibly helped Rolando Mendoza to pull the trigger of his M16.
However, it also appears that the most the media will get is probably censure (or a “slap on the wrist”) or Grave Offense sanction for the two meddling radio broadcasters [unless there really is “a law against interference to police actions” – contrary to Nene’s (Pimentel) trumpeting words that no ethical code or law was violated by the two clowns Rogas and Tulfo, backed-up by the stout ringmaster Maderazo!].
Sadly, the all-too-powerful media that even our senators are in fear of could probably be “scot-free” again to go on their merry-way of being a “watchdog” of government…all for the sake of public service…and, of course, NOT for the ratings as some insinuated!
Anyway, Ghetti also explained in her paper the Media’s Reasoning why they continue to cover (with eagerness and zest! I believe) publicity-seeking crimes such as the Aug23 Incident.
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dinggageloniadotblogspotdotcom has this:
[The scuttlebutt:
1. At least two political figures “will be recommended for prosecution or suspension.
2. Up to eight police officers will also be leveled with severe sanctions.
3. Two news media personalities and their media entities will be publicly reprimanded while further investigation may be sought with regard (to) possible infractions of the terms of their broadcasting franchises.]
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Sec. de Lima said “high enough” when asked who were accountable. How we FERVENTLY wish it’s gonna be truly high enough…both in government and in media…
@baycas
question… while its a no-brainer that interviewing the hostage taker is always wrong, was it wrong to interview the brother? to see whats happening with him, as it was happening?
First, before I’ll be misinterpreted…Susan Enriquez was requested by Rolando Mendoza. She was cleared by Rodolfo Magtibay. Susan and Rolando had a talk over the phone, not actually an interview. This was only known when Susan appeared at the IIRC hearing as this talk was not aired live.
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question… while its a no-brainer that interviewing the hostage taker is always wrong, was it wrong to interview the brother? to see whats happening with him, as it was happening?
Might as well recount what happened during the “last two minutes” from the point of view of the very confused (to kill or not to kill; do this or else) and angry gunman as he talked with a radio broadcaster…
1. Rolando is 2x angry (from Ombudsman’s unacceptable offer and negotiator’s lie)
2. Negotiation bogs down. (Sudden shift from a true negotiator to focus on a mediaman’s role…)
3. With Michael still on the mobile phone, interview resumes. (Actually, “harassment” from Michael starts – “Ano na po gagawin n’yo ngayon?” Repeatedly!!!)
4. He sees snipers (from GMA-7 live TV broadcast) – as early on mentioned by the gunman and confirmed by Alberto, the driver
5. Rolando feels threatened. More reason to kill as he feels his real “sad” story is shutout by, in Rolando’s words, a “news blackout” (The “lies” on him perpetuated by authorities and broadcast by TV.) and his primary demand not yet granted
6. Michael assuages Rolando’s fear, rage, confusion, and feeling of resignation to kill by saying the police and the whole nation are listening to the radio broadcast (hoping that “lies” on Rolando may somehow be erased and perhaps others may believe his real “sad” story)
7. Trusting Michael, Rolando orders Michael a pullout of the snipers as well as the SWAT team (when he sees the SWAT team lingering about in the vicinity) – more threat to his life
8. Rolando needs a new negotiator he can trust. Michael offers Erwin (This never happened.)
9. Rolando sees “manhandling” of Gregorio. Now, there’s even a threat to family
10. Rolando orders to immediately stop the “arrest”
11. As instant orders to Michael are given which, of course, aren’t heeded, Rolando feels no one is listening to him
12. Too bad, for the maddened Rolando panics, already makes up his mind, and starts the killing spree
I numbered it to twelve (12) for the “12 accountables” as Sec. de Lima had said…
@GabbyD,
Going to your question…no, it was not wrong to interview the brother. The arrest made matters worse as Rolando became 3x angry when he saw the “manhandling” of Gregorio.
The demands/orders/commands to Michael were all negotiable to Rolando…DO THESE OR ELSE!
Unfortunately, he was not speaking with a TRUE negotiator at the time when Rolando bargained to STOP the arrest OR ELSE…
Only through the meddlesome, untrained Michael, the INSTANT REPLACEMENT negotiator who “promised everything” but delivered NOTHING. Too bad Rolando trusted Michael. Too bad Michael let Rolando down.
Looking back, the cameras are already “rolling” when Gregorio made a scene. Live TV broadcast it and the rest is history…
If, for instance, the live TV broadcast was immediately cut off, I believe the same thing will still happen for two things might ensue: (a) Rolando will just switch channel, or (b) Rolando will badger Michael to let him know what happened to his brother and again ask Michael to bring back the live TV feed to which Michael can’t instantly deliver…how complicated it was!!!
Bang, bang…“Michael, I already shot the two here in front.” But there’s no more turning back…bang, bang, bang, bang…
@baycas
thanks. i agree with alot of what you said.
i wouldnt mind a case to be filed against mr. rogas, rmn.
Hintay pa hanggang pagbalik ni President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino before Pilipinas senators and congressman can read the “deLima Report”.
Sabi ni Noynoy, kailangang amuin si Donald Tsai at marami pang opisyales sa Beijing at Hongkong.
i think Noynoy is deathly worried about the reaction of those who are hanged by the Delima Report– most especially Dirty Harry.
Did Dirty Harry went to Emerald really because of hunger? Or did he stage a walkout?
Did Dirty Harry go… (correction).
This part, going to Emerald because he’s hungry even as a warning shot has already been fired, is rather very very curious. So out of character if we knew Lim enough…
This is in continuation of the story (“Ang Buod”) I posted at Ellen’s a week after the Aug23 Incident…
ANG KARUGTONG
Ilang karagdagan sa buod…na may iwang katanungan
1. Umaasa nang husto si Rolando Mendoza sa hatid na “magandang balita” mula kay Isko Moreno, ang sugo
2. Nadiskarel ang negosasyon gawa ng di-katanggap-tanggap na alok na solusyon ng Ombudsman at sa nadiskubreng pagsisinungaling ni Orlando Yebra
3. Lubhang ikinagalit ni Rolando ito na siyang nagbunsod sa pagpapaalis o pagpapalayas niya sa mga negosyador. Sa katunayan nagpaputok pa siya ng isang bala (kita ito sa video)
4. Ayon kay Orlando may iniwan siyang panibagong alok — ang alok daw na pagbibigyan na ang kahilingang maibalik na sa serbisyo si Rolando
5. Subali’t ni minsan ay hindi nasambit ni Rolando kay Michael Rogas ang ganitong bagong alok ng negosyador. Sa katunayan, humiling na siya ng bagong negosyador na mapagkakatiwalaan
6. Nagpatuloy ang paputol-putol na pag-uusap ni Rolando at ng mga taga-RMN
7. Bumalik sa command post si Orlando at nag-ulat sa nadiskarel na negosasyon
8. Nagmiting ang mga pinuno kasama si Orlando
9. Sa panayam kay Isko Moreno, sa kaniyang panlulumo sa masamang balita ni Orlando ‘di niya namalayan na nag-alisan na pala ang mga pinuno matapos ang miting. Nguni’t nasabi ni Isko na nagpupulasan na ang mga pulis o “militar” at mga rescue personnel
10. Wala pang putukan pero nang paalis siya mula sa command post ay may nasaksihan na siyang aktibidades na nangyayari
11. Samantala, bago pa ang putukan, may naiulat na rin si Rolando kay Michael na nagtatakbuhang miyembro ng SWAT sa paligid
12. Hiniling niyang paalisin ang mga ito
Dalawa lang ang maaaring aksiyon ng mga awtoridad sa ganitong krisis: (a) Makipagnegosasyon, o (b) Lumusob, isalba ang hostages, at igupo ang salarin. Sa karagdangang salaysay sa itaas, makikita nating nabigo sa negosasyon si Orlando.
Mahirap na ngayong paniwalaan si Orlando dahil nagsisinungaling siya. Hindi niya masabi nang tuwiran kung nabasa na ba niya ang sulat ng Ombudsman bago niya ipabasa kay Rolando o hindi niya muna ito binasa.
Sa kaniyang kasanayan sa negosasyon, maliwanag na hindi ginampanan ni Orlando ang kaniyang tungkulin. Binasa man niya o hindi ang sulat ng Ombudsman bago niya i-deliber kay Rolando ay parehong lubhang kamalian. Kung nabasa na niya, dapat ay ‘di na niya ibinigay kay Rolando sapagka’t sadyang ikagagalit lang ito ng huli. Kung hindi naman niya binasa, ay isa siyang tangang negosyador.
Hindi rin siya tapat sa bayan nang sabihin niyang may bagong alok siya kay Rolando. Ipinalalabas niya na may pag-asa pa rin sa negosasyon. Subali’t wala namang nasabing ganito si Rolando. Sa katunayan galit na si Rolando kay Orlando.
Sa ganitong kalagayan, naibaling ni Rolando ang kaniyang tiwala sa ibang tao liban sa isang magaling na negosyador. Isa sanang negosyador na tapat. Isang taong maaasahan. Isang mahusay magsagawa ng isang dayalogo mula sa humihiling at sa nagpapatupad ng hiling. Isang taong magpapahupa sana ng tensiyon sa magkabilang panig. Bigo si Orlando Yebra sa mga ganitong aspeto.
Ang tanong, ano ang naiulat niya sa mga pinuno at ano ang pasya ng mga ito? Sinungaling si Orlando. Ano ang sinabi niya kina Lim at Magtibay?
Hindi kaya ang pasya ng mga pinuno ay lusubin na ang bus sa mga oras bago pa mamaril si Rolando ng mga hostages?
Patunay rito ang mga aktibidades na nasaksihan ni Isko at mismo ng hostage taker na si Rolando!