Badtrip. Manila Times has paywalled its opinion pages, upon publication, without delay. The first local news website to do so (correct me if i’m wrong). Nakaka-offend, at a time when fake news and disinformation rule, biglang may bayad ang opinions at info ng mga tulad ni B.Kritz at ni S.CuUnjieng na masugid ko pa namang sinusubaybayan. Hindi ba puwedeng i-share freely as usual with the reading public in aid of nation-building?
This reminds me of the time I first encountered a local paywall back in 2007. I was doing online research on Edsa Dos, and Google provided links to the archives of the print magazine Newsbreak of Erap and Gloria times. The magazine was “notable as a watchdog, having published investigative reports on social ills and corruption. Newsbreak’s writers have consistently been nominated for the Jaime V. Ongpin awards since its inception‘.
I was willing to pay for access to the archives and, as instructed, registered at Newsbreak Online Beta. I received a couple of e-mails, machine-generated it would seem. When I asked how much and how to pay, I never got a reply. Currently Newsbreak is the investigative and research arm of Rappler but still no archives of those Erap-Gloria years. Hmm. Maybe it’s behind some academic paywall, as in, for scholars only? What a waste of good historical data and prime examples of journalistic excellence circa 2001-2006.
Thank goodness the PCIJ archive is free for all.