Contribution
Press freedom and societal responsibility
This article relates to the apparently widespread conviction among those who work in the news media here in the Philippines that they should be free to put in print or on air anything they consider as news.
I have regularly watched CNN TV News channel for many years just about starting from its inception, as well as the ABC Evening News on US TV Network since about 1976. I do not recall seeing on either entity anyone openly and actively planning or instigating the overthrow of the government of the US.
Probably the reason for this is that this act is against American Law. But also that Americans being super patriotic would want to put such seditionists into a mental asylum, not to mention hang them from a tree in places like Mississippi, South Carolina, and Arkansas. In any case the U.S. Government itself would be in no danger whatsoever because it is too firmly established for any individual or group to bring down.
In Canada, my home we would simply treat such folks as committing serious crimes against the state. They would be arrested and charged, and if convicted given life imprisonment. In many countries that I can think of they would be executed by the state.
In the Philippines, when the News Media particularly on television gives seemingly non-stop access to these kinds of individuals so that they can have a platform from which to agitate sections of the population in order to carry out their self serving acts, presumably they [the plotters] are breaking the laws of the Philippines.
If that is the case then the media itself is aiding and abetting the crime and surely even they are not above the law. When this is done under the pretence of "Freedom Of The Press" this is irresponsible, unpatriotic, arrogant and unprofessional.
Presently in the national press I am seeing such terms as "Overkill", "Dictatorship", "Witch Hunt" and such particularly with reference to the recent Proclamation 1017 and the arrests and prosecutions that followed. As one might expect in the context of the politics of the Philippines, these are all directed at the present Government.
OK, but let's be serious. Putting aside this predictable and pre-programmed partisan hot air, IS IT NOT THE SWORN DUTY OF THE PRESIDENT... ANY PRESIDENT... TO USE THE FULL FORCE OF THE LAW TO PROTECT THE STATE FROM THOSE ATTEMPTING TO DESTROY IT?
In Canada, U.K., France, India, Sweden, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, and Spain, just to mention a few, anyone involved in this type of activity would be required to answer for their crimes to the society in which they live. Why should it be any different in the Philippines?
My own personal observation is that if the standards were in this country that the citizens respected and generally obeyed the law [which they do not], then no one would be slinging arrows at this or any other government for enforcing the laws of the land.
(Reactions to: extasy464@excite.com)