EDITORIAL

Gagging the press not solution to government problems

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines vehemently opposes the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board's move to gag Philippine broadcast media by imposing prior restraint on all public affairs programs, news documentaries, socio-political editorials and similar programs.

MTRCB Chair Ma. Consolizada P. Laguardia ordered all television stations last May 17 to submit materials of the mentioned programs for review and approval prior to telecast.

Laguardia's memo to television stations cited Section 3 of Presidential Decree 1986 as justification for her clampdown on press freedom. The said section deals with the powers of the MTRCB.

The NUJP believes Laguardia's draconian measure has nothing to do with safeguarding the morals of Filipinos. The NUJP believes the MTRCB move is part of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's move to sanitize the image of her administration at a time when it is under fire for corruption, human rights violations and rampant criminality, including record number of attacks against journalists, judges, lawyers and activists. The administration has already gotten the services of public relations experts and harnessed the powers of major corporations – all advertisers that already wield great clout in media – to turn around its image crisis.

It is contemptible that a government claiming to be a champion of democracy rationalizes this grave assault on press freedom by citing powers imposed by the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos. While broadcast television in the country has serious flaws, it has shown enough self-correcting abilities. Networks have complied with sanctions imposed by the MTRCB – fines and suspension of hosts -- when their programs go out of bounds. The market has also lately emerged as a balancing force, with advertisers, for one, pulling out of programs that have been deluged by complaints.

The NUJP urges journalists and management of television networks to stand up for press freedom and challenge this outright attempt at censorship.

This administration speaks with a forked tongue where press freedom and democratic rights are concerned. The President calls media an ally of democracy and offers funds to assuage anger at the continuing assaults on Filipino journalists. Yet her top aides have also consistently tried to narrow the democratic space by thinking up all kinds of schemes to gag the press and the Filipino people.

Marcos, a dictator, gave the MTRCB powers to crack down not only on pornography, or attempts to incite subversion and rebellion; the tyrant grave the agency broad powers to censor broadcast that "tend to undermine the faith and confidence of the people in their government and/or the duly constituted authorities." Laguardia's order is a betrayal of the Filipino people's right to know serious issues that beset the country. It would not just gag the press; it would stifle legitimate dissent and productive political discourse in our nation.

The MTRCB move takes up where the Armed Forces of the Philippines left off, following media protest, of its proposal to criminalize interviews with alleged terrorists – a word that this administration has loosely used to include legitimate and unarmed opposition forces. That mindset has also led to a rash of extra-judicial killings of human rights workers and members of militant groups in the last year.

The Macapagal-Arroyo administration seems to think media is the root of its problems, which it dismisses as a matter of perception. The government is wrong. Media is not the enemy. Journalists are not the ones financing and operating illegal gambling and illegal drug syndicates. Journalists are the not the ones dipping into the state coffers. Gagging media will not solve this government's problem. Good governance will.

Two weeks ago, President Arroyo bewailed the "culture of violence" that had the country in its grip. Her government has done media a violent turn; there are many ways of killing press freedom. This administration, in its zeal to protect its interests, has shown it has no compunctions about choking off our democratic space.