Journalism in the Philippines is in a Downward Spiral

by Yzelle Rose Pada

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Important Note: This article was written during my first year as a journalism student. It was a final paper passed in the course Journalism Principles and Practices, taught by one of the pillars in the field of journalism in the country, Professor Danilo Arao.

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Press Freedom is said to be in a downward spiral for the countless times media people and journalists were publicly and persistently criticized for serving unbiased and relevant information. In contrast, the Philippine government officials claimed that press freedom is “very much alive” and widely practiced, but what happens after that freedom is a different narrative. There has been a plethora of problems afflicting the Philippine media over the years – criminal charges, security threats, to the killings of critical truth-tellers as the highest form of censorship.

While in the pursuit of shaping public opinion, the media workers have to constantly deal with a long span of repression – a prevailing tyranny and the notorious culture of impunity. According to the published article of Freedom House titled “Media Freedom: A Downward Spiral”,

“media freedom has been deteriorating around the world over the past decade” and there are “new forms of repression”.

In today’s setting, particularly in the Philippines where there is a fragile populist president Rodrigo Duterte who cannot digest criticisms, democratic powers ceased to support media independence, resulting in media peril. Among the efforts of the government to silence the critical media is to remove the credibility and turn the public against the journalists by spreading disinformation and misinformation through the utilization of social media websites which is by far, the most effective strategy after the intimidations and financial pressures with the purpose to serve the interest of the government rather than the public.

In the struggle for media freedom, Duterte made it clear what it is to be his object of wrath by denying the franchise of the country’s leading media company, ABS-CBN; filing multiple charges against the multi-award-winning journalist Maria Ressa and her news site Rappler, and the same story with the leading daily Philippine Daily Inquirer. The administration, however, did not limit itself to harassing and intimidating the dominant media, it has also gone after the alternative media by labeling the journalists as enemies of the state or infamously known as “red-tagging”.

Journalism education during this highly oppressive fascistic leadership is enormously needed. The practices and principles of journalism lay an exhaustive design to ethically and fearlessly

“ensure informed, critical and empowered citizenry”

as written by Danilo Arao in the published presentation titled “Notes on tyranny and press”. With the adherence to journalism’s ethical standards supplied by the principles and practices, future and current journalists will be able to fight against the rejection of democratic rights which is the ethical obligation of a truth-teller, and to accomplish its mission by providing relevant information to help shape the public opinion for which it essentially functions.

The media will be unceasingly under attack from those who are seated in the position because it is the fourth estate, and its fundamental role is to check and balance which clearly emphasizes that the government and the media workers will never see themselves as allies, but the press freedom shouldn’t be a casualty for it is the cornerstone of democracy – allowing the production of journalistic outputs from the issues without any restraints from the government is a given right.

Consistent with the concepts and theories in practices and principles of journalism, it is possible to create a more determined generation of journalists who have a great urgency to end impunity and fight against the tyranny which will then eliminate numerous problems plaguing the Philippine media to strengthen democracy.