0

ETHICAL journalism cannot be divorced from competent journalism. The

standards of competence and ethics are not in conflict but support each other. Ethics
promotes all basic human values. The requirement of speed has to be balanced by
the more important need for accuracy, for example: ethical practice means
journalists need to get it right and in time.

This manual is designed for those in practice-journalists who find themselves

confronted by problematic situations during coverage and on the beat. Questionable
practice has become the norm, unquestioned for its commonness. The manual is
intended to help the journalist think out and clarify for himself or herself the
dilemmas posed by situations that involve public safety, national security, privacy
and the rights of children, women and other minority groups.

This manual has another function. It is also to deepen the understanding of

journalism and the press. Armed with that understanding, the public can evaluate
and check the practice of the press, as well as demand press adherence to its
established values. The quality of the press requires as much consumer vigilance as
other professional services for it to develop and mature. The consumer of news
cannot be vigilant without knowing the values, norms and issues of press conduct.

Published by the

CENTER FOR MEDIA

FREEDOM
RESPONSIBILITY

2/F Ateneo Professional Schools-Salcedo

130 H.V. dela Costa St ., Salcedo Village

Makati City, Philippines 1227

894-1314 . 894-1326 . 840-0903

(telefax) 840-0889
[email protected]
www.cmfr-phil.org

1
The CMFR Ethics Manual

A Values Approach to News Media Ethics

Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility

Published with the support of the Royal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Government of
Norway

Copyright @ 2007

By the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility

All rights reserved. No part of this manual may be reproduced in any form or by
electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems,
without permission in writing from the publisher.

ISBN 978-971-93724-1-7

2
Acknowledgements

A grant from the Royal Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Government of

Norway made this publication possible.

Melinda Quintos de Jesus and Luis V. Teodoro wrote and edited, this manual.
Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility staff member Venus L. Elumbre
provided research and other support.

Cover and layout design by Design Plus. Cover photos by Lito Ocampo.

3
 It can profoundly influence entire societies and the lives of millions of
people. Denis McQuail (Mass Communication Theory, 1991) points out that the
media-and by implication, journalismcan "serve to repress as well as to liberate,
to unite as well as fragment society, both to promote and to hold back change."
The media can also "attract and direct public attention," "persuade in matters of
opinion and belief," "influence behavior," "structure definitions of reality," "confer
status and legitimacy" and "inform quickly and extensively."

These are immense powers inherent in journalism's functions of

information and comment. They require the tempering and discipline only ethical
knowledge, understanding and compliance can provide.

To discuss ethics for the news media is to view journalism as a profession.

It is not our purpose here to settle the debate over whether journalism is indeed a
profession. But we need to review some aspects of journalism as conduct and
practice to understand the context in which this manual has been developed and
is being presented, and to validate its first assumption: that journalism ethics
refers to the principles and standards of behavior appropriate to a craft, trade or
profession.

The practice of journalism

Journalism practice does not require the rigorous preparation and study
called for in the practice of professions such as medicine, law and engineering.
Most journalists these days come to the practice with college and university
degrees. But the history of journalism shows that this was not always the case.
Journalism grew from the travel journals, chronicles and commentary written by
ordinary people and passed around in their communities. Even with the
development of the first newspapers, training for the practice consisted mostly of
arranged apprenticeship and mentoring, as in the work guilds for craftsmen.

6
 In many Philippine schools today, journalism education constitutes only a
subset of courses under a larger cluster of subjects in mass communication or the
more general field of communication. This approach has been criticized for its lack of
concentration on special areas, which has become especially relevant with the
growing complexity of issues and subjects journalists must cover.

In the Philippines, among the few exceptions is the University of the

Philippines, where journalism courses are taught as specializations based on a
broad liberal arts foundation, communication theory, ethics and mass media law.
While this approach can contribute to professionalization, it alone cannot achieve
that goal, given the many other factors involved (for example, working conditions
and some kind of common examination as a condition for practice).

There are other aspects of journalism that differentiate it from other

professions. To point these all out is not to belittle or denigrate journalism as an
occupational pursuit, but simply to clarify its inherent character and nature.

The profession

There are characteristics journalism shares with the professions. Journalism

is without doubt as demanding in time and dedication. It is certainly a livelihood, a
job that pays a salary because it produces both product and service. Compensation
levels are comparable with other jobs, such as the civil service and teaching. In the
broadcast fields, the most successful are quite highly paid, commensurate to the
commercial draw of their news programs. And media enterprises have earned
impressive fortunes for their owners and managers.

Journalism is also most like other professions in that it provides a service to

society. It is in this aspect of journalism that the rationale for journalism ethics
applies critically. The establishment of standards or rules of practice is designed
primarily to assure the quality of the service. The need for quality is obvious, as the
press is regarded in democratic states as the "Fourth Estate," an institution related
to governance as it insures a check to those in power through scrutiny of possible
abuse and misuse of the powers of public office as well as corporate conduct. On
another level, a quality news service helps to form citizens-individuals informed
about their obligations and responsibilities, and who can choose their
representatives in government wisely.

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 The concern for quality is as crucial in controlled media systems, in which
through the licensing of practitioners and other regulations, the news media are used
not only as instruments of control, but also of continuing education and learning for
the national community, as well as a service pivotal to national unification and the
formation of national character.

The press in a democratic system cannot be submitted to a licensing system

by government. The participation of government in the selection of those who can
practice journalism would be a means of controlling who can become journalists,
violating the essential character of journalism as autonomous, so that it can provide
an honest check on political power.

It is precisely for this reason that the journalism community in the Philippines
should be engaged in the visible and articulate expression of the principles and
values that govern its conduct and performance.

The ethics scholar Edmund Lambeth uses the term "profession" to refer to
journalism in the subtitle of his book on press ethics, Committed Journalism: An
Ethic forthe Profession. He acknowledges that while journalism is not a profession, it
is "in some respects ... becoming professionalized." This is true in the Philippines,
where journalism-based communities in print and broadcast have formed
associations to protect their common interests as well as to police their own ranks,
and where media advocacy groups have dedicated their energies to encouraging
ethical compliance among journalists and providing continuing education training in
the skills of journalism.

8
 It is not our objective to promote the status of journalism, as a profession
through examinations and licensing, since it would mean submitting to official
prescription and proscription. Government intervention in this and any other form
would violate the spirit and letter of the constitutional protection of freedom of
expression. But examinations and accreditation through a body created by the
journalism community itself should be considered as an option.

As the practice involves different experiences, codes of ethics tend to be

regarded as unrealistic and are more often than not ignored. This manual presents a
framework of ethics, which the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility
(CMFR) hopes will help news organizations formulate their own ethical rules and
regulations.

Ethics and competence

Ethical journalism cannot be divorced from competent journalism. The

standards of competence and ethics are not in conflict but support each other. Ethics
promotes all basic human values. The requirement of speed has to be balanced by
the more important need for accuracy, for example: ethical practice means
journalists need to get it right and in time.

The manual is designed for those in practice-journalists who find themselves

confronted by problematic situations during coverage and on the beat. Questionable
practice has become the norm, unquestioned for its commonness. The manual is
intended to help the journalist think out and clarify for himself or herself the
dilemmas posed by situations that involve public safety, national security, privacy
and the rights of children, women and other minority groups.

9
 The late Raul Locsin, a Ramon Magsaysay Award laureate and founder-
publisher of BusinessDay and later, BusinessWorld, enforced the ethics of
journalism in his news organization as an employer's requirement. He realized that
codes of ethics have no meaning when the staff sees these observed more in the
breach than the observance. He said he simply made it a matter for management to
require adherence to the ethical norms of practice as company rules and
regulations. The failure to observe these were met with company sanctions,
including termination.

This manual has another function. It is also to deepen the understanding of

journalism and the press. Armed with that understanding, the public can evaluate
and check the practice of the press, as well as demand press adherence to its
established values. The quality of the press requires as much consumer vigilance as
other professional services for it to develop and mature. The consumer of news
cannot be vigilant without knowing the values, norms and issues of press conduct.

The news media

In the second half of the 20th century, the growth of broadcast communication
gave increased importance to the dissemination of news. For quite a while, however,
broadcast media did not employ journalists. The primary function of news gathering
was discharged by newspapers. Print was the first and last source of news, with
publications serving up a newspaper in the morning and in the evening or in the
afternoon. The latter was designed primarily for those working in the evening shift,
as they would have to have a paper to read, before starting their "work day."

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Broadcast news program did not produce news on their own, as the technology for
news gathering had not yet been developed. Radio and television news readers
used what the newspapers printed and passed it on to their audiences.

The ethics of news gathering for print has thus had to expand to
accommodate the different requirements for broadcast, first on radio and then on the
more visual medium of television.

For this reason, this manual provides an expanded discussion on the ethical
requirements of the broadcast media.

The foundation of journalism ethics

The manual presents human values as the foundation of all human conduct,
including journalism. This is an approach framed by Lambeth, who looked into the
application of these values in the practice of journalism. These values are universal,
easily understood and appreciated. This approach gives life to values that are often
proclaimed but ignored in real life. It demonstrates the link between principle and
practice, giving reason and meaning to both prescription and prohibition.

A section of this manual examines how the conventions of newsas developed

by commercial media may sometimes get in the way of the ethical mandate. This
section is quite important. It reminds the practitioner that some of these conventions
have evolved as a requirement for selling the news product, rather than for
disseminating news that is truthful and relevant to the society the press serves. This
social role is the core value of journalism.

This manual also discusses special concerns such as conflict of interest,

privacy, entrapment and the use of hidden cameras.

11
 Also included are guidelines in the coverage of special issues and concerns,
among them war and conflict, disaster, terrorism, crime and hostage-taking and
women and children.

The manual draws from other studies and efforts and provides clear sources
for the material presented. The reader is urged to note these sources (websites,
bibliography) which he or she can access for more information and learning.

But it is by no means complete. It serves the need for a quick reference, for a
"crash" or refresher course during the regular "time-outs‖ that the practice requires
for thoughtful review. As few members of the media do actually take such time away
from work, we hope that the different news organizations will use this manual in their
newsrooms, and provide it as a working companion for the journalists they hire.

12
 The Context of Practice: The Media in the Philippines

Before anything else, the journalist needs to locate his or her practice in the
context of the history, state and problems of the media.

Print

Although print is today the least accessed among the media, it is the oldest,
and still the most influential mass medium in the Philippines and thus deserves
extended attention.

When the reformist paper La Solidaridad (Solidarity) began publication, the

press had been in existence for centuries in the Philippines, in the form of
publications containing regular accounts of events in Spain and its Philippine colony,
and later, in the form of the Spanish colonial press.

The Filipino press itself-meaning the press that evolved outside and in
opposition to the colonial press—antedated the Revolution of 1896 by 14 years, and
the founding of the Philippine Republic by 16. Journalist Marcelo H. del Pilar's (nom
de plume, Plaridel) Diariong Tagalog (Tagalog Newspaper), which marked the
beginning of that press, was published in 1882, while La Solidaridad began
publication in February 1889.

The ―Filipino press" should be distinguished from the ―press in the

Philippines‖, which merely denotes a geographical location. La Solidaridad was not
even published in the Philippines, but in Spain, and was written in Spanish. But it
marked, nevertheless, a crucial stage in the making of the Filipino press. What made
La Solidaridad Filipino was its advocacy of Filipino rights, assuming "Filipino" to
mean anyone born in the Philippines, whether "Indio" (native) or Spaniard.

13
 The advocacy of La Solidaridad was probably instrumental in the awakening
of educated Filipinos (the "llustrados") to the need for social and political reform,
together with such other writings as the novels of Jose Rizal. What is also probable
is that Andres Bonifacio read copies of it, though it did not lead him to accept reform
as an alternative to Spanish colonial rule. The revolutionary Katipunan (Gathering)
later published its own paper, Kalayaan (Freedom), though it managed only one
issue before being discovered. Kalayaan too was an advocate, but of revolution and
separation from Spain, not of reform and assimilation as La Solidaridad's advocacy
was.

The tradition of advocacy was thus the single most important characteristic of
the Filipino press as the fortunes of the Revolution waxed and waned. El Heraldo de
La Revolucion (Herald of the Revolution), an official publication of the (Emilio)
Aguinaldo government, continued throughout most of the Filipino-American war, as
did other newspapers which spoke for the Revolution Earlier, after Kalayaan, there
were Pedro Paterno's Republica Filipina (The Philippine Republic), the Jaro, Iloilo
publication La Revolucion (The Revolution) and Antonio Luna's La Independencia
(Independence)

During the American period, there was El Renacimiento (Rebirth) and its
sister Tagalog paper Muling Pagsilang, which ceased publication as a consequence
of a libel suit by then Secretary of the Interior Dean Worcester. This was the famous
"Aves de Rapina" or "Birds of Prey" libel suit. Although El Renacimiento and Muling
Pagsilang ceased publication, with their names being awarded to Worcester, the
same staff continued to write and edit La Vanguardia (Vanguard) and Taliba
(Watcher), both also published by Martin Ocampo, publisher of El Renacimiento.

14
 What is important is that the Filipino press was born in the course of the
momentous events before, during and after the Revolution, and that its tradition was
that of freedom and advocacy, as demanded by the very reason and circumstances
of its birth. But that tradition was to be suppressed during the country's American
captivity through, among others, the libel and sedition laws.

In the place of the La Solidaridad and Kalayaan tradition emerged the

American press tradition, which, its own muckraking and progressive past
notwithstanding, was in the Philippines only a pale copy of the original. The rise of
news agencies, in any case, enshrined objectivity as a supreme loon in the
American press as the press in the Philippines developed under US sovereignty.

Objectivity notwithstanding, the newspapers in the islands did exercise press

freedom though limited, and engaged in limited advocacy, among them for honesty
in public office via exposés of wheeling and dealing in government, but short of
advocating independence and questioning the fundamental bases of US sovereignty
over the Philippines. The nationalist senator Claro M. Recto said in 1950 that during
the American period, there was freedom of the press only in the sense that there
was no prior restraint. But the libel laws were so strict that they constituted
subsequent punishment.

During World War II, it was the reformist and revolutionary tradition, which
had never been fully suppressed, that assumed the responsibility of providing the
people with the information they needed during the Japanese occupation, rallied
their spirits and helped organize resistance.

15
 After the war, the advocacy tradition most identified with the exercise of press
freedom once more receded into the background. The US tradition of "objectivity"
was the mainstream, dominant tradition in the post-World War II period, from 1946 to
the latter years of the Marcos dictatorship. During those four decades it claimed
objectivity and ―press freedom," such as they were, as the fundamental principles of
journalistic practice.

But the mainstream press was free only up to a point. It was free within the
parameters fixed by the political and economic structures. It was not free to question
the wisdom, humaneness or justice of those structures, not only because the same
libel and sedition laws that had kept the reformist and revolutionary tradition in check
during formal US occupation were intact, or only because other laws even more
stringent (for example, the anti-Subversion Law) had been passed, and the
atmosphere so restrictive especially in the 1950s and 1960s that any hint of
deviation from conventional political beliefs was enough to invite a witchhunt. It was
also because its practitioners, except for a very few, did not believe that their
freedom included the right and duty to do so, as did Del Pilar and Graciano Lopez
Jaena in the late 19th century.

In any event, these terms dominated Philippine press practice until the eve of
the martial law period. In the late 1960s, the previously impregnably conservative
ramparts of the Philippine press had partly yielded to the pressure of the times.
Some of its practitioners, a few of them veterans of the campus struggles of the mid-
and late 1960s, others politicized only by events and the rigor of their own
observation and analysis, rediscovered the critical and even revolutionary tradition.
Together with students and professors, nuns, priests and other professionals,
farmers and workers, these practitioners began to question the social and economic
structures that kept the country poor, and the Philippines's relationship with the
United States. On a broad range of issues—land reform, industrialization, the Parity
Rights amendment, the Bell Trade Act, the Military Bases Agreement—these

16
practitioners contributed to the intellectual ferment that characterized the 1960s, in
the process helping politicize their own colleagues as well as their readers.

When Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law in 1972, his logical targets in
the Philippine press were primarily these practitioners. Of course he included among
those for arrest and detention gossip columnists as well as everyone else who had
said an unkind word about him, his family or his government. But there was no
mistaking the fact that, these practitioners having contributed to the democratization
of discourse on the political, economic and social structures as well as the country's
continuing colonization, they were what Marcos feared most in media.

In the years that followed, the critical and revolutionary press tradition once
more assumed its historic role, its practitioners in the underground as well as on the
semi-legal fringes of the martial law period raking imprisonment, torture and even
death to accurately record events and disseminate information about them to their
countrymen as well as to help them interpret those events.

The martial law period once more confirmed that the critical and revolutionary
tradition born during the struggle for Philippine independence was equal to the
demands of extraordinary, dangerous times, as it had proven during the reform and
revolutionary period and the Japanese occupation. By the latter part of the Marcos
period it had gained sufficient strength, via the efforts of many practitioners who, by
braving imprisonment and even death by exercising press freedom to the fullest
extent possible, overwhelmed the pro-regime press. By this time it was being
referred to as the alternative press, and as a new phenomenon in Philippine
journalism.

17
 But the alternative press—the press that has been most consistent in the
exercise of press freedom because it needs that freedom most-has a history of more
than a hundred years behind it, from Del Pilar's Diariong Tagalog to Teodoro
Kalaw's El Renacimiento, to the guerilla press during the Japanese occupation, to
Signs of the Times and We Forum during the martial law period. The true history of
the Philippine press is the history of the alternative press that during the most critical
periods has always risen to the defense of the Filipinos' right to meaningful
information.

Today, the Philippine press must recapture its claim to being Filipino. But it is
torn between the values of that historic tradition of advocacy and those of the US
colonial tradition, with its claims to press freedom and "objectivity.‖ Daily practice as
well as recent experience (the martial law period) has confirmed the need not only
for press freedom as defined during the ascendancy of the American tradition but
also for press freedom to include the right to question the very validity of the social,
economic and political structures that had been so sacrosanct for the greater part of
the last 100 years.

The shared struggle against martial law demonstrated to the press that unjust
political structures cannot claim any protection outside that of the people
themselves. By extension, it has demonstrated the same as well of unjust social and
economic structures. But once more, during periods of normalcy, those lessons-
learned at great cost during the Revolution and the Japanese period, and recalled
during the martial law years—tend to be forgotten in the wave of complacency that
follows any period of crisis.

This explains the confusion now rampant in the Philippine press between its
assumptions that are still based on the nebulous and indefensible principle of
"objectivity" on the one hand, and the stark demonstration of practice, which, at least
for some newspapers, has revealed the imperative of advocacy, in a society still

18
vastly imperfect and afflicted by a multiplicity of economic, social and political
problems.

The history of print media in the Philippines reflects the conceptual significance of
the press as the "Fourth Estate‖ with an assigned role in the republican system of
governance as developed in the US. This original function has been reflected upon
in the study of democracy and the political arrangements to be found in democratic
systems.

Broadcasting

Broadcast media were driven obviously by technology, and the qualities

which made these unique-speed, immediacy and reach Serving various purposes,
radio and television grew, but were soon dominated by the need for public
entertainment and recreation Globally, broadcast news media operating separately
and independently from newspapers are of relatively recent development. But the
impact of radio and later of television and the immense capacity to instantly inform
huge, now global, audiences, have given these news media, in comparison to print,
even greater importance within the "Fourth Estate,"

About 90 percent of Filipinos have access in some way or another to radio

and television, compared to 70 percent for the print media. This makes broadcasting
the most influential of the mass media in the Philippines in, among others, the
political education of an electorate of about 30 million people,

The problems that have bedeviled the political system over the last decade or
so, in the context of the mass media's, particularly broadcasting's, reach have led to
questions about the quality of the information that Philippine broadcasting is
disseminating to the majority of Filipinos who decide elections.

19
 Among those questions is whether Philippine broadcasting has been
providing its vast audience not only the accurate, balanced, fair and relevant reports
it needs in the performance of its duties as sovereign in a democracy. Even more
importantly, it has been asked, have the Philippine mass media, particularly
broadcasting, provided the contextualization citizens urgently need so they may
understand the complexities of, say, the conflict in certain parts of Mindanao so they
may be better guided in making decisions about issues of governance as these
arise, as well as in choosing who they will vote for?

Decision-making during elections is not the only reason why citizens need to
be informed in a democracy. They equally need to be informed on a day-to-day
basis on those matters that affect their communities, their society and ultimately their
families' lives as well as their own. This has a bearing not only on the quality of
governance---itself dependent on the capacity, for example, of the citizenry to
demand accountability of government officials and to expect honest and efficient
government—but also on the capacity of societies to intelligently debate its goals
and the means to get there.

An informed citizenry makes meaningful and intelligent change possible. In

the modern era this task has fallen as much on the mass media as on the schools,
the family, civic and non-governmental organizations and other institutions.

Among other sectors, academic and professional groups, non-governmental

organizations, and even media practitioners themselves have been critical of the
mass media in general and of broadcasting in particular. They blame the media not
only for fostering undesirable values via their entertainment function, but also for
failing to educate the citizenry on their civic and political responsibilities in their news
function. On the matter of elections, the media are often blamed for debasing the
democratic process by inculcating among their readers and viewers the sole
criterion of popularity, as the determining factor in their choice of government
leaders.

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NOTE: Many of potential good leader are deprived of exposure due to lack of
money.

There are other accusations, among them that of glamorizing lawlessness

and criminal groups, and demonizing entire communities, individuals and
organizations; stereotyping women, ethnic and religious minorities; ruining the
reputations of private individuals; invasion of privacy and trial by publicity; and even
capitalizing on the gore and violence of certain crimes to build circulations and boost
ratings.

CMFR, in monitoring the performance of the mass media through its regular
publications, the Philippine Journalism Review (PJR) and PJR Reports, as well as its
studies on selected areas of media coverage (see, for example, Appendix A: ―Using
the Media: The Oakwood Mutiny" and Appendix B: ―Mindanao Coverage Revisited")
has validated some of these complaints.

Because most of these shortcomings are due to media's ethical and

professional lapses, it can be presumed that practitioners can benefit from being
reminded of the core principles of journalism as a profession, and from a detailed
guide on the reporting of crimes, conflict and other areas of coverage that
experience and research show have been especially problematic in the Philippine
setting. This manual has been prepared in that spirit

21
 Journalism Ethics in a Regime of Press Freedom
The need for ethical practice is specific to press freedom regimes, where
there is usually no government regulation. This is true of the Philippine case, where
constitutional protection (explicitly through Article III, Section 4: "No law shall be
passed abridging the freedom of speech, of expression, or of the press, or the right
of the people peaceably to assemble and petition the government for redress of
grievances.") of press freedom has made self-regulation based on a high level of
ethical awareness among practitioners the only permissible and desirable means of
regulation.
However, journalism and media ethics courses as a necessary complement
of training for professional engagement in the mass media are fairly new subjects in
the country's colleges and universities, although they have been the centerpiece of
the CMFR's advocacy for the last 18 years. Some of those schools that have had
ethics as a course requirement in their mass communication and related programs
have tended to approach its teaching as a religious subject focused on Christian
standards of morality and immorality, rather than as a practical guide to decision-
making on the beat and in the newsroom.
Ethics, skills and competence

The dictionary definition sees ethics as deriving from and pertaining to human
conduct in its various aspects and as therefore concerned with issues of right and
wrong. Public concern has focused on professional ethics, such as those governing
the practice of medicine, law and other licensed activities. In recent times, ethics
has been part of public discussions on good government as well as corporate
conduct.

22
 While ethics does involve the making of moral choices, the key to
understanding journalism ethics and to making it serve the eminently practical
purpose of, say, deciding which photos to use or how to report a kidnapping, is to
look at it as a guide to behavior appropriate to the nature and demands of the basic
journalistic task of disseminating information of use to its audiences by contributing
to their capacity to understand what is going on around them. To do these, the
information must be fair as well as balanced, accurate as well as complete.
Whatever impedes this task--compromises, weakens or undermines it—is unethical.

A journalist under the pay of a politician or an interest group undermines his

profession's essential task when he writes a news story to predispose the public
towards his patron by eliminating unfavorable information from his report. A
journalist who checks his facts, talks to all the sides involved in a controversy, takes
care to conceal the identities of the innocent and puts events in context on the other
hand has done his readers or viewers--as well as society in general---a necessary
service.

Ethics should not be seen as a separate requirement from good and

competent journalism. Ethical considerations are embedded in its practice. Ethical
requirements may make the practice more challenging as journalists cannot ignore
the impact and effects of reportage, but they do help assure the relevance, fairness,
accuracy and humaneness of reports.

23
Basic principles

While the most obvious expression of journalism ethics is to be found in

codes of ethics (see, for example, Appendix C: The Philippine Journalist's Code of
Ethics), such codes presume certain principles, which together constitute the
framework from which rules of behavior are derived.
The principles or values underlying good human conduct, as identified by the
American communication and journalism scholar Edmund Lambeth, may also be
said to constitute the core values of journalism as a responsible profession.
Lambeth's approach is a reminder for journalists who tend to see themselves
as governed by a different set of rules from the rest of society. The conflict has
sharpened in cases that involve reporting on war, especially when the journalist's
own country is at war with other countries.

The so-called "objective‖ view requiring journalistic distance from the subject
has in turn resulted in perceptions that by not explicitly supporting their government,
the news media are ―biased" for the enemy. But in the case of the war on Iraq
(involving both the first and second Bush administrations), the patriotic spirit driving
much of US media coverage has been found lacking in objectivity or distance by
both US media scholars themselves and the international community.

24
 Journalism Values
Edmund Lambeth (Committed Journalism, 1992) identifies the following five
principles as basic and fundamental in journalism practice. They constitute the
responsibilities that guide ethical Journalism. But they apply as well in other areas of
human life.
Basic human values

Truth-telling
The fundamental demand of truth-telling is accuracy, which requires the
practitioner to check and recheck information: to develop the habit of accuracy‖
(Lambeth) including the capacity to anticipate possibilities of error, as well as
alertness to questionable or biased information. Its anti-thesis is deliberate
falsehood, to which some journalists have been prone. But journalists who
exaggerate, "dress up" or concoct a long story out of a few facts (a practice known
as "SS" in Philippine journalism), or who angle it for the sake of boosting circulation
or pleasing someone to whom he is indebted, can be as guilty of violating this
principle.

At its most fundamental, truth-telling requires factual accuracy in terms of

getting the basic information—the names, dates, places and the exact event-right by
consulting multiple sources when necessary. This is especially urgent in the case of
events that are part of a long and complex process, the exact nature of which may
be difficult to determine. For example, did the Supreme Court declare that the late
Fernando Poe Jr. was a Filipino when it ruled that he may run for president in 2004?
Or did the Supreme Court rule that there was no proven hindrance to his running? In
this instance, the journalist needed to meticulously examine the Court ruling itself,
and even to consult experts should he have been in doubt.

25
 In addition to factual accuracy, however, is the need for contextual accuracy,
which refers to providing readers or viewers the background information they need
to understand an event. The background provided can range in complexity from a
few sentences informing the reader or viewer what has gone before, to a separate
article or sidebar based on documentary or human sources. Meeting this
responsibility of course requires certain skills an indication of the intimate ties
between skills and ethics—such as interviewing and research, as well as the
capacity to evaluate and interpret the information uncovered.
The extent to which an event in the news needs to be contextualized depends
on the significance of the event and of the issue to which it is connected. A journalist
covering Congress, for example, is duty-bound to explain why a divorce bill has
been passed, or why it has been delayed or even abandoned not only in terms of its
significance, but also to explain to readers and viewers the complexities of the
legislative process and the factors that influence it.
The need for contextualization is a partner of the need for completeness,
which admittedly can never be totally achieved. However, the practitioner must strive
to provide completeness to the extent that it is possible at a given time.
Other issues of relevance to truth-telling are the need for multi-sourcing, or
consulting several sources rather than one. Multi-sourcing is necessary as a matter
of course, but is especially needed when the reporter has grounds to suspect that
one of his sources is biased, or is deliberately misleading the media for his own
benefit.
Proper attribution, which ideally must consist of naming the source, is another
issue critical to truth-telling. Practitioners must abandon the habit of attributing
information to "reliable sources,‖ or even "sources." A source must be named
provided the source allows it. In the event that he or she does not---by requesting
that he or she not be named, or that the information "is not for attribution‖ or that the
information is being given in confidence"---the reporter can describe the source short

26
of identifying him or her, the object being to show the reader that the information is
authentic and authentically sourced.

On television, the usual recourse is to pixelate the image of the source, or to

put the source in shadow and disguise his or her voice when a source refuses to be
named. While protecting a source who does not wish to be named, however, this
does not help authenticate it. A description of the source will help do so: for
example, "Although Fred is not his real name, Fred has been with the Bureau of
Customs for ten years. He has served in various anti-smuggling task forces in that
agency, and has seen at least a dozen instances in which smuggled goods have
been released to their consignees due to pressure from high-ranking government
officials."
Follow up stories fulfill the truth requirement, as these provide Information
about continuing processes reported only as events in the news.
Justice
The operational application of this principle is fairness, its practical expression
that of airing both or every side involved in an issue. Fair treatment requires that the
side of a public official accused of wrongdoing be presented, together with the
accusation itself, usually following information to that effect. Fairness also demands
that "the other side" be presented immediately after the accusation is reported,
instead of at the end of several paragraphs containing a litany of charges. No report
can be fair which relegates only at the end the side of one of the parties involved.

27
For example:

―Senator So-and-So yesterday accused fellow Senator X of funding the failed

July 27, 2003 mutiny, which he said would have made Senator X the chair of a
military junta. Senator X has denied the charge, describing it as ‗malicious and
politically motivated.‘

―Senator X described as ‗a fabrication‘ a document Senator So and-So

presented yesterday to the media during a press conference at Club Filipino.‖

Corollary to fairness is the generally accepted need for balance. Its practical
expression consists of providing all sides involved in a controversy equal space in
the case of print and equal time in the case of broadcast.

Usually called objectivity, neutrality in the sense of avoiding bias either for or
against one side is equally necessary to achieve the principle of justice. This
includes avoidance of words and phrases that imply judgment—prefer the neutral
―said‖ to the judgmental ―emphasized‖ or ―noted‖—as well as reporting the facts in a
straightforward manner without any attempt at interpreting it, as in the following
examples:

Wrong and biased:

―Senator Y finally summoned the courage to stand up to her former patrons

yesterday by describing the government bail-out of Manila Bus Company as ‗a deal
that stinks to high heaven.‖‘

Correct, neutral and more informative:

―Senator Y yesterday said during her weekly press conference that the
government bail-out of the Manila Bus Company was illegal, and described it as ‗a
deal that stinks to high heaven.‖'

28
Freedom

Philippine press freedom enjoys constitutional protection through Article III,

Section 4: ―No law shall be passed abridging the freedom of speech, of expression,
or the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and petition the
government for redress of grievances.‖

The protection was not included in the Charter merely to re-affirm the same
protection in the 1973 Constitution, but is premised on the recognition that freedom
is necessary for the press to adequately and competently perform its functions of
citizen advocate and critic of government.

In the Philippine setting, this program principle requires the journalist‘s

commitment to report his freed to report events and to comment on them to his best
of his abilities and knowledge, in recognition of the role information plays in the
making of an informed citizenry and better governance. The Journalist is thus called
upon to defend and enhance the freedom the Constitution guarantees him as well as
the entire press.

Freedom or journalistic autonomy. However, is not limited to the absence of

government control or regulation. Mostly unremarked is the fact that corruption is the
sense of being bribed by, or being in the payroll of an individual or group that seeks
to benefit from such an arrangement directly compromises this freedom, and
therefore the kind of information that roaches readers or viewers. The need for
freedom as a necessary condition for the discharge of the information function is the
primary argument against corruption.

Conflict of interest involve loss of autonomy and freedom as other values and
interests may play into the selection, placement as well as telling of the story. Family
and friends, relatives and other associates may create a conflict-of-interest issues in
reporting. Pressures from other interests is a factor considered in the rather common
prohibition by responsible news organizations against journalists' becoming

29
members of political parties or even civic and social groups that may at times be
involved in stories in the news.

In addition to defending press freedom explicitly is the journalist's principled

practice, which itself helps protect that freedom. Irresponsible practice invites
government regulation; responsible practice, by being of value to the public, enlists
the citizenry in the defense of press freedom. The necessity for freedom is also
another argument for the media to develop and implement their own means of self-
regulation.

Commitment to freedom also includes commitment to the citizens' free access

to information as a necessary condition for a culture of respect for free expression
and a free press, and for journalists' capacity to access government information.

Freedom is one of the most critical of journalism's values, and the threats to it
can be covert or oven, subtle or brazen, open or concealed. The journalist must thus
be sensitive to anything that can compromise either his own autonomy or that of his
colleagues, whether it be at the workplace or in society as a whole through
repressive laws and practices.

These are admittedly difficult tasks given the prevalent conditions in the
Philippine media. These involve issues of ownership, which among others include
the commercial orientation of the media, which because of the profit motive can
affect the journalist's autonomy. Advertisers, as much as the economic and political
interests of owners, do have an impact on the freedom of individual journalists as
much as corruption, which itself is due—at least at the rank and file level—to the
lack of job security and low wages.

30
Humaneness

The principle of humaneness can be summed up as not doing the innocent

harm, However, there are individuals as well as groups—criminals, corrupt officials,
dishonest businessmen—that do deserve exposure, or damage to their undeserved
reputations. Not doing anyone harm in the sense of physical harm is something else,
and is a principle journalists must assume to be absolute. Public issues must be
resolved through debate no matter how spirited. Physical acts to reinforce one‘s
views, or as substitutes for their expression, have no place in democratic discourse.

Journalistic practice in accordance with the principle of humaneness can be

as simple as not naming a minor in a crime story and as complicated as checking
one‘s information meticulously, and reminding the reader, once the story has been
written, that allegations of wrongdoing remain allegations until proven in court
through documentation or other reliable means. It can mean not intruding into the
grief of the relatives of crime victims despite the desire for scoops, and refusing to
be drawn into condemning persons accused of crimes before they have been
convicted. It can also mean not reporting the conduct of war when reports could
endanger military operations and risk the safety of troops on either side.

Stewardship

The concept if stewardship requires an individual to take care of, and to

preserve that with which he or she has been entrusted.

The principle of stewardship or responsibility accepts that the mass media are
not possession of practitioners, and that they have only been entrusted with them for
the sake of public interest. It implies respect foe the rights of others in the exercise of
one‘s profession as well as discharging one‘s responsibility with the awareness that
irresponsibility—such as when a practitioner makes up a story, lies or uses the
power of the media to libel others or to destroy their reputations—can have harmful
and far-reaching consequences on the rest of society.Responsible journalism

31
involves keeping the public forum or public discourse free from contamination and
corruption, so that these can be turned over to a new generation of citizens and
practitioners.

These five basic and fundamental principles are values which govern all
human conduct. They are applied with judgment as needed in the course of
journalistic practice.

It may be helpful to apply weights to these values. Lambeth asserts that truth-
telling and humaneness are prima facie, or self-evident, obligations. Truth-telling is
at the heart of journalism and is linked to all the other values. To be humane is
another assumed obligation for all human beings. In journalism, this means checking
out the story or the text for the harm this can cause and evaluating whether such
harm can and should be avoided. More strictly applied, the guidance can be set forth
as ―avoiding palpable physical or irreparable psychological harm to a particular
person or persons.‖

The other values in fact flow from the first two. Journalists can protest and say
they cannot worry about all the possible harm that a story can cause. Indeed, the
application of these principles is not set in absolute terms, and journalists need to
gain practice in being able to discern the need from case to case. But the
consideration of these principles will evolve more appropriate responses in every
case.

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Three ethical commands

The principles discussed earlier often overlap in practice. Stewardship compels the
practitioner to be humane and just, even as truth-telling is often the surest way to
being fair.

The US Poynter Institute‘s (www.poynter.org) Bob Steele also lists the same
principles, though as direct instructions condensed into three: ―Seek truth and report
it as fully as possible‖; ―Act independently‖; and ―Minimize harm.‖

The basic agreement between the five principles listed by Lambeth and these
instructions to the practitioner from the Institute is evident.

There are echoes in the specifics.

In seeking the truth, says the Institute, one must develop one‘s knowledge and skills,
be honest, fair and courageous and hold the powerful accountable.

In acting independently, one must see to it that one‘s stewardship is not

compromised by irresponsible practice, that one remains free of associations that
can compromise one‘s autonomy and seeks out competing perspectives.

In minimizing harm, the practitioner is urged to be compassionate, to treat sources,

subjects and colleagues as human beings deserving of respect and to recognize that
while reporting and gathering information may cause harm, this must be balanced by
scrupulously truthful reporting.

33
The Poynter Institute identifies the details of the three mandates as:

1. Seeking truth and reporting it as fully as possible

 Inform yourself continuously so you in turn can inform, engage and educate
the public in a clear and compelling way on significant issues.
 Be honest, fair and courageous in gathering, reporting and interpreting
accurate information.
 Give voice to the voiceless.
 Hold the powerful accountable.

2. Acting independently
 Guard vigorously the essential stewardship role a free press plays in an open
society.
 Seek out and disseminate competing perspectives without being unduly
influenced by those who would use their power or position counter to the
public interest.
 Remain free of associations and activities that may compromise your integrity
or damage your credibility.
 Recognize that good ethical decisions require individual responsibilities
enriched by collaborative efforts.

3. Minimizing harm
 Be compassionate for those affected by your actions.
 Treat sources, subjects and colleagues as human beings deserving of
respect, not merely as means to your journalistic ends.
 Recognize that gathering and reporting information may cause harm or
discomfort, but balance those negatives by choosing alternatives that
maximize your goal of truth telling.

34
 News Values and Ethics
CMFR regards ethics as integral to the competent and meaningful practice of
journalism. Ethics should not make a journalist less of a journalist; but rather, values
do make a journalist a better one. The five basic principles outlined earlier and the
three ethical commands expand the understanding of purposeful and meaningful
journalism as one that submits to the intrinsic discipline of the calling itself.

A report that is done quickly, relying only on selected facts or quotes without
the larger context or perspective, can be misleading. In an age of 24-hour news and
with the proliferation of news media, most reports tend to be incomplete, or to show
only a small part of the truth. The five values force journalists to return to the story so
that other aspects and developments can keep the public better informed.
Journalism becomes more difficult to do but the news product is almost always a
better one as a result.

Unfortunately, some of the conventions of journalism often keep the practice

at a rather shallow level, content with the first sketch of the situation and only the
barest minimum of facts about a certain event.

In observing the following criteria, journalists tend to shortchange the public

with a limited sense of what is going on.

News values

News values are the characteristics of an event that make it newsworthy. News
values are thus the criteria a journalist applies to an event in evaluating its
worthiness for dissemination to the public. They are the standards that guide
reporters and editors in deciding whether a story should be written about something
that has happened or is happening. These values are conventional in that they have
been around for sometime, having been found useful as guides in determining
newsworthiness.

35
 But some of these values, specifically proximity, prominence and even human
interest, have been criticized for (1) limiting reporting to what is close and familiar to
audiences and ignoring events that are physically or psychologically distant despite
their possible significance to people's lives; (2) giving the antics of the famous and
even notorious the precious time and space in the news that could have been better
used reporting events important to large numbers of people; and (3) wasting
newspaper space and broadcast time on trivial events that provoke an emotional
response that too often is limited to the satisfaction of idle curiosity, or on violence
and sex.

About timeliness in the sense of making sure that the event is new, and
significance in the sense of relevance and value to people's lives, there are far less
reservations except in the cases mentioned earlier. But journalists are warned that
using some of the conventional news values in writing about an event could
compromise the public's need for information that matters.

The conventional news values are:

 Timeliness. Refers to the quality of being new, fresh or recent

 Significance. Refers to the event's impact on and relevance to the lives of

large numbers of people

 Proximity. Refers to the physical and/or psychological "nearness" of the

event to the audiences the medium serves

36
  Prominence. Refers to the involvement of famous, notorious, well-known
people such as politicians and decision-makers, businessmen and Church
leaders, as well as such other individuals as actors, rock stars and other
celebrities

 Human interest. Refers to the capacity of the event to arouse an emotional

response. Under this category are such values capable of provoking an
emotional response (pity, fear, awe, curiosity, etc.) as conflict, drama,
suspense, sex and love, animals and children, extremes, etc. These are
sometimes presented as separate news values in themselves, but are
actually human interest values.

While time- and practice-tested, an over-reliance on one or two of these news

values at the cost of everything else can undermine othical and professional
practice.

The principle of timeliness is a news imperative. News is not news that is not
new, fresh or recent. But in observing the daily deadline and the need to come up
with the newest and latest, journalists often sacrifice truth for speed. Because of the
desire to scoop the competition, some journalists may tell the story after consulting
or interviewing only one source and may fail to look into the credibility of that source
for lack of time or opportunity. This practice is the consequence of the often cut-
throat competition among the news media as commercial enterprises. Editors may
decide, despite their best instincts, to publish a single-source story or a story whose
details have not been verified thoroughly because they fear that rival publications or
networks may already have the story.

The focus on human interest can be limiting in that many other stories of
more significance may be edged out of the six o' clock news or the front pages for
the sake of a story that will sell better in terms of ratings and more newspapers sold.

37
Such stories are usually those that involve the bizarre, strange or the unusual.

In selecting the out-of-norm or out-of-ordinary, this kind of news agenda leaves out
stories that have greater relevance.

In focusing on the famous or well-known, news stories tend to report only on

those who already have a frequent and pronounced presence in the media. The
reporter ignores people who may have something important to say and may fail to
report on developments that are important to many people. Philippine journalism
teems with such examples.

On the other hand, the principle of proximity often results in a focus on events
and developments in the immediate environment of the news medium. The "Manila
focus" of most broadsheets in the capital, in which even relatively insignificant
events such as a bus hold-up reach the front page while the efforts of a mayor in
Mindanao to address his town's environmental problems are ignored, is fairly evident
in their daily coverage.

Journalists need to be critical of the conventional news values, and to be

especially careful that they do not fail in the basic duty to provide information on
matters of public interest and relevance, and instead end up filling the news pages
or the airwaves with fluff or news accounts that contains details that have not been
verified. While the news values are based on years of experience and provide
journalists the standards with which to determine the newsworthiness of an event,
journalists must remember that next to accuracy, relevance is at the heart of the
basic responsibility of truth-telling.

The practical guidelines that follow, which apply ethical principles to practice,
are thus offered in furtherance of the journalist's professional duty of providing not
just information, but relevant, accurate, fair, humane and complete information that

38
is at the same timely and of interest to most readers, viewers or listeners.
]

Ethical Values in Practice

Truth-telling

Corroboration

The basic responsibility of truth-telling can be achieved through the

journalist's asking himself or herself the following questions:

• How many sources did I consult? This is critical in assuring accuracy. This is
evident in controversies, in which there are at least two sides, and in many
cases, several. Talking to only one source opens the journalist to reporting
biased and self serving statements as truth, as well as to manipulation by a
source favorable media coverage would benefit. Consulting several sources,
whether these are individuals, groups, corporations, etc., or documents and
other written material should be second nature.

• Is my documentation adequate? Documentation in the sense of citing

sources like a government report, the results of a survey or a book, is critical
in journalism, and not only in such journalistic forms as investigative or
explanatory reporting. It is equally critical in day-to-day reporting. It can be as
simple as citing and clearly identifying a statement (who made it, when was it
made, where and why), or as complex as citing a number of official
documents (Securities and Exchange Commission listings, Statements of
Assets and Liabilities). A story's lesser importance (for example, the expulsion
of a student from a school because of his views vis-à-vis moves in Congress

39
 to amend the Constitution) does not justify carelessness in documentation as
needed.

When writing a complex story like an investigative report, the journalist must
look for, and if possible, exhaust all available. documentary sources. If there are
documentary sources that he cannot access, he must mention that document and
explain why it was not cited.

• Does my own direct observation validate aspects of the story? The journalist
must truthfully answer this question. Does what he know, and what he has
seen, leave him morally and intellectually convinced that what his sources tell
him and what the documents show are likely to be true?

The documents as well as human sources may tend to show that a

government official may be taking kickbacks from a multi million peso government
project, for example. Is there anything the journalist has observed which could
suggest that the official concerned may be the victim of a set-up? When in doubt,
check the facts and their reliability again.

• Was I myself a participant in what I am reporting, as a result of which I can

validate aspects of the story through my own experience? The answer to this
is related to the answer to the previous question. For example, a journalist
doing a story on political killings may be stopped at a military checkpoint. How
did the soldiers treat those they stopped, including the journalist? Did their
attitude and treatment of those stopped at the checkpoint seem to indicate
that they had been instructed to treat those who did not have their residence
certificates with them harshly? Does that experience tend to corroborate the
claim of human rights groups that political killings in a certain locality could be
the military's doing?

40
Confidential sources

The use of confidential sources should be of particular concern for journalists.

Truth-telling requires naming sources, but there may be instances in which the
journalist cannot name or even describe the source without compromising his job or
safety.

Elaborating on how to meet the responsibility of truth-telling beyond assuring

the accuracy of one's facts, Bob Steele and Al Tompkins of The Poynter Institute
suggest that, when the journalist cites confidential sources, he must meet four
criteria, and honestly answer several questions.

The Steele-Tompkins criteria:

 Always attribute by naming the source. The use of confidential sources can
be justified only if the story is of overwhelming public concem.

 Before using an unnamed source, you must be convinced there is no other

way to get the essential information on the

 The unnamed source must have verifiable and first-hand knowledge of the
story. Even if the source cannot be named, the information must be proven
true. If you are unsure the information is true, admit it to the public.

 You should be willing to reveal to the public why the source cannot be named
and what, if any, promises the news organization made in order to get the
information.

Ask yourself these questions:

What does the use of a confidential source mean to the factual accuracy and
contextual authenticity of your story?

41
 Does this source deserve the protection of his or her identity?

What legal obligations do you incur by promising not to reveal this source's
name? If you are sued, are you willing to go to jail to protect this source? If you are
sued, will the source come forward and be named? Is the source's reluctance
justifiable?

How would readers/viewers/listeners evaluate the same infor mation if they

knew the source's name and motivations?

What have you done to help the source understand the risks he or she is
taking by giving you information?

If you promised to protect a source's identity, are you using pro duction
techniques that will insure the protection you promised? What if a lawyer subpoenas
the raw tapes? Would the person be identifiable in the tape outtakes?

But Steele and Tompkins warn that "You should understand your newsroom's
policy on confidentiality before you promise it to sources. You may need the consent
of an editor and/or you may have to, by policy, reveal a source's identity to a
supervisor. Your sources should be told you might have to identify them to others in
your newsroom."
What sources to cite, on the other hand? Steele and Tompkins suggest that
the journalist evaluate his sources by asking himself the following questions:

 How does this source know what he/she knows? Can I check the source's
information through government records or other documents? How can I
confirm this information through further reporting or other sources?

 Are there underlying assumptions that my source depends on which I should

question?

42
  How representative is my source's point of view? Who else knows what my
source knows?

 What is the past reliability and reputation of this source?

 What is the source's motive for providing the information? What does this
source have to gain or lose? Will this information make the source look better,
worse, guilty or innocent?
 What is my relationship with the source?

 Why am I using this source? Did I use this source because I am in a rush and
this source often gives good quotes and sound bites on deadline? How often
do others or I use this source?

 Do I fear losing this source? How does that perception color my judgment?
How am I being manipulated by this source?

 Where can I find an independent person who has the expertise on the subject
of this story and can help me verify/ interpret/challenge the information my
source has given me?

Context reporting

Providing background is an essential part of news reporting. This is a function of the

need not only to provide a story that is as complete as possible. It is also demanded
by the duty to make events understandable to the reader in furtherance of truth-
telling.

To put a story in context, the journalist:

• Provides background and history

• Tells the story as part of a larger reality

43
 Lack of, or limited context, is a common professional failing in Philippine
journalism. The failure to tell the story as part of a larger reality prevents
readers/listeners/viewers from fully understanding the issues involved, or may even
mislead them into a wrongful appreciation of what is happening. It is also an ethical
failing in that the absence of a background or history can lead to hardening existing
prejudices against groups vulnerable to discrimination.

Contextualization requires journalists to be aware of the history of a given

issue when reporting on the latest developments in it. This awareness can be
developed through research: looking up past stories, reading about past
developments in a book or two and/or accessing the Internet.

To operationalize this imperative, the journalist can provide a sidebar-a story

meant to provide related information "on the side." But sometimes a paragraph or
two or a sentence or two in the main story is enough to provide background and
enhance reader/listener/ viewer understanding.

Truth-telling and autonomy

While much attention is usually paid such external sources of threats to

journalistic autonomy as restrictive laws, journalists themselves may compromise
their own autonomy through their own actions. In so doing, the journalist also makes
truth-telling itself problematic.

The various forms of corruption that infest the media, as well as the tendency
of some journalists to accept or take on jobs that conflict with their basic
responsibility of truth-telling, are among the sell-inflicted means through which
journalists, sometimes without their realizing it, compromise their autonomy and
shortchange the public. The focus on the material benefits of being someone else's
mouthpiece, for example, which occurs when the journalist accepts a bribe or works

44
for an individual or groups to protect whose interests he or she has to forego the
responsibility of accurate and fair reporting, conceals a more crucial fact: by doing so
the journalist loses his freedom to report or comment on issues and events as he
sees fit. Instead, he becomes a creature that must do the bidding of his patron, and
who must heed his master's voice. When that happens truth-telling flies out the
window as well.

Corruption

Corruption is among the constraints on the journalist's autonomy in that it

prevents him or her from reporting or commenting on issues according to his
convictions. Corruption in the media, says journalist and journalism professor Chay
Florentino Hofileña, is a relatively new phenomenon. In her book News for Sale: The
Corruption of the Philippine Media (1998), she wrote, The earliest written accounts
go back to the 1950s, when newspapermen were bought off with cash by politicians
and businessmen."

Some journalists claim that corruption began during the martial law period.
But Hofileña points that even before the declaration of martial law in 1972, during the
1960s and early 1970s, payoffs had become systemic and an integral part of the
regular news beats. During the martial law period, the practice of the regime was to
buy the press wholesale and to co-opt it.
By most accounts, corruption has continued in practice. It is not an alien
notion. Even before journalists enter and practice the profession, they are already
aware that such a phenomenon exists and that they are bound to encounter it
sooner or later in their careers. The term "envelopmental journalism" is well-known,
the mere mention of it provokes knowing smiles among practitioners, including those
who refuse bribes.

Media corruption occurs when the journalist accepts or solicits money, gifts or
any other form of material incentive in exchange for favorably reporting on the

45
benefactor, or unfavorable reporting on the benefactor's rival or competitor. The
journalist's function of reporting and commenting fairly is compromised for personal
gain.

One of the most common ethical problems in the Philippine press, corruption
has taken on different forms and more and more creative methods over the years.
While envelopes are handed out during press conferences, money in exchange for
favorable coverage can also be transmitted through automated teller machines
(ATMS), for example. In a practice well known to corrupt practitioners, during
elections a "shepherd" not only distributes money discreetly, but also makes sure
that journalists are provided other perks such as hotel accommodations and
"entertainment."

Corruption goes on at different levels. The hospitality that everyone presumes

is part of custom can be a corrupting element as journalists decide not to include an
otherwise newsworthy story if they find the meal or venue of a press conference not
to their liking. Gifts, free trips, complimentary tickets to sports events and other
material gain and conveniences are also among the enticements journalists are
often seduced with in exchange for favorable coverage and reportage.

News for Sale lists some terms used to refer to various forms of corrupting
the media (pp.15-17). They are presented here with permission, and to help
journalists recognize and avoid them in the course of doing their work
AC-DC - (Attack-Collect-Defend-Collect) A kind of journalism where the
reporter attacks a person in order to collect money from that person's rival or enemy.
The same journalist then defends the person originally attacked, also for a fee.

ATM journalism - Refers to a practice in which reporters receive discreet and

regular payoffs through their ATM accounts. News sources simply deposit cash into
these accounts instead of handing the money over to journalists through envelopes.

46
 Often, the accounts are in the names of relatives rather than of the reporters
themselves. ATM journalism became popular in the 1990s as another version of the
"envelopmental journalism" that became common in the 1970s and 1900s (see
"envelopmental journalism).

Blood money- A payoff to ensure that a story or critical article is killed, or

else slanted in the briber's favor before publication. This is different from smiling
money (see smiling money).

Bukol- From the Tagalog word that means a lump, usually on the head. A
reporter gets a "bukol" or is considered "nabukulan" if he or she fails to get a share
of the largesse being distributed by politicians and other news sources, because the
go-between, usually another journalist, pockets the amount himself.

Bicycle gang - Refers to the contacts of politicians on television news desks

who ensure that video footage of candidates brainstorming in the provinces is
circulated to the different TV networks by a messenger riding a bike.

Didal - Similar to bukol this refers to the practice of media handlers of

pocketing for themselves a part of the money intended for distribution to reporters.
For example, if a party's media bureau chief sets aside a P2.000-allowance for each
of the reporters covering an event, the media staff would distribute only P1,000 to
P1,500 and keep the rest. The reporters in this case consider themselves "nadidal"

Envelopmental journalism - A take on "developmental journalism," a

concept which became popular during the martial law period, when the Marcos
regime appropriated "developmental journalism to discourage media criticism of
government. Journalism is deemed "envelopmental" if it involves a literal envelope of
cash paid to journalists to sway their reporting, but is also used as a generic term to
refer to various forms of corruption.

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 Hao siao- A derogatory term used to refer to pseudo-journalists not employed
by a reputable news organization but who pass themselves off as journalists in order
to cash in on the payoffs and bribes from news sources, particularly during elections.

Inteligensia - Cash given as bribe or protection money to the police, a part of

which goes to journalists covering the police department. Some reporters have
begun using the term to refer to the regular payments that they get from law
enforcers. Obviously a play on "intelligence" as used by police and security forces.

Main event -Refers to the act of distributing cash to journalists. A press

conference or news coverage is not deemed over until the cash is dispensed-this is
considered the "main event."
Orbit - Like planets revolving around the sun, reporters also make the rounds
of offices, particularly the police stations, to get their weekly payola. The term may
also refer to any effort to visit offices for the purpose of soliciting money from news
sources.

Shepherds - Journalists who are either jobless or on leave from their news
organizations and who act as guides to reporters covering a particular candidate or
party. Shepherds take care of the reporters needs including accommodations, food,
plane fare and other transportation expenses, as well as "extras" like nights out and
female companionship.

Smiling money - Cash given to reporters or editors for no particular reason

except to create goodwill between a source and the journalists. It can also be used
to refer to a payoff given after the publication of a positive story, supposedly as a
gesture of the source's appreciation.

Warik-warik - A Cebuano term used to describe unscrupulous people; in the

provinces, these are the counterparts of Manila's hao siao.

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Conflict of interest

Conflicts of interest are journalistic minefields about which practitioners must

be especially wary. Contrary to common perceptions, conflicts of interests do not just
arise when a journalist takes a second job that pays more than journalism, to keep
which he or she subsumes the public interest to his or her own.

Michael McDonald, Director of the University of British Columbia Centre for

Applied Ethics, demonstrates the complexity of this ethical issue.

McDonald defines conflict of interest as:

 A situation in which a person, such as a public official, an employee or a
professional, has a private or personal interest sufficient to appear to
influence the objective exercise of his or her official duties

 When the institution or individual has two or more interests, such that
pursuing both might produce an unjustified effect in the real or perceived
credibility of the institution or individual

Conflicts of interest occur when:

 An individuals private interest differs from and clashes with his or her
professional obligations

 An institution's various interests contradict each other, to the detriment of

detriment interest

 Professional actions or decisions occur that an independent observer might

reasonably question

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  An individual or inetitution's independence, responsibility and credibility are
marred or compromised by financial interests

There are three key elements in conflicts of interest, says McDonald:

1. Private or personal interest. This is often financial in nature, but sometimes

consists of providing a special advantage in favor of family or friends. By
themselves, there is nothing wrong in pursuing private or personal interests.
(The problem occurs when journalistic power is used in its behalf.-CMFR)
2. Official duty. Literally the duty you have because you have an office or must
act in an official capacity. As a professional you take on certain official
responsibilities, that come with obligations to clients, employers or the general
public. These obligations are supposed to override private or personal
interests.
3. Objective professional judgment. Conflicts of interest interfere with one's
professional responsibilities in terms of judgment. Professionals are expected
to be objective and independent so it is also important to avoid apparent and
potential as well as actual conflicts of interests.

• An apparent conflict of interest is one in which a reasonable person would

think that the professional's judgment is likely to be compromised.
• A potential conflict of interest involves a situation that may develop into an
actual conflict of interest.

There are several types of conflict of interest:

Self-dealing. For example, you work for a TV station and are in a position to
decide on suppliers for the station. You use your official position to secure a contract
for a private consulting company you own. Another example is using your position to
get a job for a relative (nepotism).

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 Accepting benefits. Bribery is one example, substantial (non-token) gifts are
another. For example, you accept money in exchange for killing a story. Or you
accept an expensive gift (e.g., a car, a trip abroad, jewelry) as a reward for coverage
or story placements in your publication

Influence peddling Here, the journalist actively solicits benefits in exchange

for using his or her influence to unfairly advance the interests of a particular party.

Using the employer's property for private advantage.

Using confidential information. in covering a technology company, you

come across information that will significantly boost the value of that company's
stocks. You quickly rush out and buy stocks in your wife's or parent's name (also
called insider trading," which is illegal)

Outside employment or moonlighting. An example would be setting up a

PR business on the side that promotes your client in the newspaper or station that
you work for. Or accepting membership in the board of directors of a company and
promoting that company in the media where you work for in a favorable light.
Another case Would be taking on so many outside clients that you do not have the
time and energy to devote to your regular employer. In combination with influence
peddling, it might be that a journalist covering the Department of Environment and
Natural Resources (DENR) sells private consulting services (PR or lobbying or
marketing) to an individual with the assurance that they will secure benefits from the
DENR you use my company, I am sure that you will pass the environmental review"

Post employment A situation in which a person resigns from public or private

employment and goes into business in the same or similar area. For example, a
former staff writer sets up a PR practice and enjoins his former colleagues where he
was employed to accept benefits or peddle influence to his clients.

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 To deal with conflicts of interest, the journalist can opt for:

Full disclosure. Reveal your private interest in the matter to relevant parties.
Often, if we let others know what might be influencing our judgement, they can be
their own guard and not be caught unaware.

Avoidance. Get out of the situation; inhibit yourself from decision-making or

advice-giving if you have private interest. In the case of potential self-dealing, the
conscientious journalist will say that he or she cannot be involved in a situation
where he or she is both bidding on a contract and deciding as an official who will be
awarded the contract.

Justice and humaneness

Being juts often interpreted solely as being fair in the sense of presenting all
the sides of a given issue, while humaneness is regarded solely as keeping the
names of crime victims, women and minors confidential.

These ethical principles, however, are often violated through such common
practices as the use of hidden cameras and other forms of journalistic deception.

Hidden cameras

Deception can consist of:

• Using a false identity
• Using hidden cameras
• Entrapment

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 CMRF holds that journalist should do their work without the use of technology
which has been developed primarily for police work and intelligence-gathering.
Hidden cameras are often used to make the journalist‘s work easier, instead of
painstaking data-gathering through interviews, document search, data analysis, and
observation, the journalist plants a hidden camera to surreptitiously get the
information he needs even at cost of individual privacy or the right against self-
incrimination. The ethical basis for prohibiting the use of hidden cameras can be
found in the legal doctrines that protect the rights of the citizen, including suspects,
from illegal searchers and wiretapping without court permission, as well as the right
to be presumed innocent until proven guilty through a court trial. In addition to being
the recourse of the lazy, the use of hidden cameras also catches people unaware
during their worst moments, and condemns them without the benefit of trial.

The Poynter institute does admit that hidden cameras could conceivably be
used in certain circumstances, but that such use must pass a stringent test. Bob
Steele, director of the institute‘s Ethics Program argues that all the following criteria
must be met to justify the use of hidden cameras.

 When the information obtained is of profound importance, it must be of vital

public interest, such as revealing great ―system failure‖ at the top levels, or it
must prevent profound harm to individuals.

 When all other alternatives for obtaining the same information have been
exhausted.

 When the journalist involved are willing to disclose the nature of the
deception and the reason for it.

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  When the individuals involved and their new organization apply excellence
through outstanding craftsmanship as well as the commitment of time and
funding needed to pursue the story fully.
 When the harm prevented by the information revealed through deception
outweighs any harm caused by the act of deception.
 When the journalists involved have conducted a meaningful, collaborative
and deliberative decision-making process on the ethical and legal issues

For its part, CMFR would also require full consultation with experts before
deciding on the use of hidden cameras.

The following are the ―reasons‖ many journalist cite to justify the use of
deception. They do not justify using a false identity, a hidden camera or any other
dishonest means of getting information.

• Winning a prize

• Beating the competition

• Getting the story with less expense in time and resources

• Doing it because ―others already did or still do it‖

• The subjects of the story are themselves unethical

Privacy

The use of hidden cameras often leads to violations of the right to privacy. But
the right to privacy can be violated through other methods, among them digging into
the past life of an individual who may currently be in news, and even journalists‘
staking out his residence or place of business with listening devices and a long-lens
camera. Media organizations and journalist have been known to justify such
intrusions by citing the public‘s ―need to know.‖ But as Steele points out, the use of

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such methods can be justified only when serving the public good outweighs the right
of individuals to their privacy. It is ―the balancing act journalists regularly face‖

Steele continues:

―Sometimes that question (of when the public good is served by intrusions in to
privacy) is applied to public officials who are accused of wrongdoing that involves
celebrities who seek media attention and bask in the spotlight, only to reject news
coverage when it might tarnish their image. And sometimes the privacy concerns
apply to the average citizens who are suddenly caught in the news by virtue of a
tragedy or their connection to an otherwise newsworthy event.

―The decisions individual journalists and news organizations make on these

matters can have profound consequences. The challenge for journalists is to be
professionally skilled and appropriately aggressive in seeking meaningful information
that serve a legitimate public need to know, while being respectful and
compassionate to those whose personal privacy may be intruded upon‖

Steele advises journalists to ask themselves the following questions so they

can decide if the intrusion is justified or not:

• What is my journalistic purpose in seeking this information? In report?

• Does the public have a justifiable need to know? Or is this matter just one
where some want to know?
• How much protection does this person deserve? Is this person a public
official, public figure or celebrity? Is this person involved in the news event by
choice or chance?
• What is the nature of harm I might cause by intruding on someone‘s
privacy?

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 • Can I cause considerable harm to someone just by asking questions,
observing activity or obtaining information even if I never actually report the
story?
• How can I better understand this person‘s vulnerability and desire for
privacy? Can I make a better decision by talking with this person?

• What alternative approaches can I take in my reporting and my storytelling

to minimize the harm of privacy invasion while still fulfilling my journalistic duty
to inform the public? For instance, can I leave out some ―private‖ matters
while still accurately and fairly reporting the story? Or, can I focus more on a
system failure issue rather than reporting intensely on one individual?

Disasters

Covering disasters, in a country as disaster-prone as the Philippines, has

been problematic for Philippine journalism. The ethical offenses have ranged from
insensitivity in the form of asking stupid questions (for example, ―How do you feel?‖
which is usually asked of the relatives of disaster victims, or of victims themselves),
to focusing on private grief through close-ups of sobbing mothers and/or children. In
addition, truth-telling is often compromised in favour of sensational reporting
consisting of body counts and horrific photographs. CMFR suggests the following
guidelines for the coverage of disasters and catastrophes:

• On-site and field reports for radio and television must build on verified facts.
The facts of geography, location, population, infrastructure, commerce and
industry flesh out the damage with specific detail.

• Estimates of casualties should be corroborated by various sources. If official

counts are available, these should be cited and specifically sourced as to the
time and the basis of the information.

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 • At the time of the crisis, broadcast reporters need to tone down their
delivery, so as not to contribute to public hysteria. Updates and warnings
serve the purpose better when issued in a calm and restrained voice.
 Reporters must support their stories with research. Orientation about the
issues raised by the particular kind of disaster and rescue operation prepares
correspondents to observe the procedures more intelligently without
interfering with the conduct of operations.

 Reporters must beat in mind that rescue operations take precedence over
their story. They cannot interfere with the saving of lives and prevention of
injury. They must respect the primary obligation of rescue workers which is to
save lives.

 Reporters and photojournalists cannot be too sensitive to the plight of victims

and their families and friends. In getting their story or picture, they must
respect the victims‘ desire for, and right to privacy.

 News directors for radio and TV should aim for balance coverage with the use
of straight news, feature and human interest stories. The latter two provide
the necessary color but cannot take the place of hard information

 Unconfirmed reports should be handled with care and caution. Completely

blind reports must be verified for accuracy.

 Crisis coverage must be devoid of posturing, playing the hero and other kinds
of grandstanding on the part of media. Journalists should also guard against
the use of media time or space by those pushing for their individual and
personal interest, among them politicians eager to get in to the media
limelight. Such gimmickry can get on the nerves and add to the burden of
stress of disaster victims, and involve the media in the self-serving efforts of

57
 unscrupulous individuals to take advantage of human suffering to advance
their political and commercial interest.

 Reporters should prepare a line of questioning for spot interviews. Radio

anchors should minimize the chit-chat ordinarily used to project intimacy with
listeners or to fill idle time. The level of triviality can be disturbing and out-of-
synch with the gravity of disaster situations. Hour-on-the-hour formats to
cover developments should use well-informed resource persons who can help
promote understanding of the disaster. Such segments can also enrich
program material by expanding the cast of personalities and voices.

The journalist must exercise care in the reporting of problems during rescue
and aid operations as the people involved are working under great stress and severe
pressure.

Terrorist attacks
Terrorism has been defined as the indiscriminate use of violence to achieve
political ends. The violence is intended to send a message of terrorist invincibility
and power via the media. In their book Terrorism and the Media (1992), David Paletz
and Alex Schmid (eds.) counsel the media to:

 Provide no live coverage of terrorists, which gives them an unedited

propaganda platform.
 Avoid inflammatory catchwords and phrases.
 Report any demands without propaganda and rhetoric.
 Avoid making themselves part of the story.
 Avoid making telephone calls to terrorists.
 Do nothing to further endanger the lives of hostages.

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 Terrorist incidents may include hostage-taking, but hostages can also be
taken by common criminals as well as by political groups. Steel advises journalists
covering hostage-taking and other crises to:

 Always assume that the hostage taker, gunman or terrorist has access to the
reporting. (What is reported via television may compromise the safety of
hostages, on-going negotiations or rescue plans.)

 Avoid describing with words or showing with still photography and video any
information that could divulge the tactics or positions of Special Weapons and
Tactics (SWAT) team‘s members.

 Fight the urge to become a player in any standoff, hostage situation or

terrorist incident, Journalist should become personally involved only as a last
resort and with the explicit approval of top news management and the
consultation of trained hostage negotiators on the scene.
 Be forthright with the viewers, listeners or readers about certain information is
being withheld if security reasons involved.

 Seriously weigh the benefits to the public of what information might be given
out versus what potential harm that information might cause. This is
especially important in live reporting of an on-going situation.

 Strongly resist the temptation to telephone a gunman or hostage-taker.

Journalist generally are not trained in negotiation techniques, and one wrong
question or inappropriate word could jeopardize someone‘s life. Furthermore,
just calling in could tie up phone lines or otherwise complicate communication
efforts of the negotiators.

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 Notify authorities immediately if a hostage taker or terrorist calls the
newsroom. Also, have a plan ready on how to respond.

 Challenge any gut reaction to "go live" from the scene of a hostage-taking
crisis, unless there are strong journalistic reasons for a live, on-the-scene
report. Things can go wrong very quickly in a live report, endangering lives or
damaging negotiations. Furthermore, ask if the value of a live, on-thescene
report is really justifiable compared to the harm that could occur.

 Give no information, factual or speculative, about a hostagetaker's mental

condition, state of mind or reasons for actions while a standoff is in progress.
The value of such information to the audience is limited, and the possibility of
suchcharacterizations exacerbating an already dangerous situation are quite
real.

 Give no analyses or comments on a hostage-taker'sor terrorist's demands. As

bizarre or ridiculous, or even legitimate such demands may be, it is important
that negotiators take all demands seriously.

 Keep news helicopters out of the area where the standoff is happening, as
their noise can create communication problems for negotiators and their
presence could scare a gunman to deadly action.

 Do not report information obtained from police scanners. If law enforcement

personnel and negotiators are compromised in their communications, their
attempts to resolve a crisis are greatly complicated.

 Be very cautious in any reporting on the medical condition of hostages until

after a crisis is concluded. Also, be cautious when interviewing hostages or
released hostages while a crisis continues.

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 Exercise care when interviewing family members or friends of those involved
in standoff situations. Make sure the interview legitimately advances the story
for the public and is not simply conducted for the shock value of the emotions
conveyed or as or as a conduit for the interviewee to transmit messages to
specific individuals.
 Go beyond the basic story of the hostage-taking or standoff to report on the
larger issues behind the story, beit thehow and why of what happened,
reports on the preparation and execution of the SWAT team or the issues
related to the incident.
 In covering a pending raid or law enforcement action, journalists are advised
to be extremely cautious to not compromise the secrecy of official planning
and execution. If staking out a location where a raid will occur or if
accompanying officers, reporters and photographers should demonstrate
great caution in how they act, where they go and what clues they might
inadvertently give that might compromise the execution of the raid. They
should check and double-check planning efforts.

Conflict and peace

o Understand conflict conceptually and in its actuality.
o It is necessary to know the background or roots of conflict in our
society.
o Identify/understand the peace process initiated.by the government.
o Understand, if any, the terms/framework of negotiations.
o Establish the landscape, the terrain of conflict.
o Search out other actors in the field such as innocent victims.

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  Contextualize conflict in the reality of the place, and its effect on daily life.
 Know who the participants are.
Reporting conflict

Keep in mind the following imperatives of journalism practice:

 Be accurate.
 Write the story as completely as possible.
 The story must be fair and balanced.
 Provide context.
 Consult a broad range of sources. Are you talking only to the military or the
armed groups?
 Clean your text of stereotypes.
 Check out your copy for terms that demonize or dehumanize any proponents.
 Investigate the field. Gather factual information from the field.
 The story should be based on facts that you yourself validate.
 Provide background and context to any outbreak in hostility. Avoid
sensationalizing violence.
 The story should provide a context, and must not present the event as an
isolated random incident.
 Write about the dailiness of life-what stay the same, coping mechanisms
during crisis. The military perspective should not be the only perspective in
the press.

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Reporting peace

 Write about peace efforts.

 Write about differences as a fact of national social security.

 Inform the public about the peacemakers and their programs. Provide options
for peace, conflict management and resolution.

 Get the children's stories out in the press.

 Get the views of all those involved and affected by violence and war.

 Open up channels of communication.

 Broad public education about the reality of conflict and the options for peace.

Empowering peacemakers

 Empowering the public in the endeavor to resolve conflict and bring

antagonists to truce that opens up meaningful levels of peace-building.

 The commitment must be made at all levels:

 Editor

 Reporter

 Source

 Understand conflict resolution and conflict mediation.

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Sensational events

Some events-a hostage-taking, a massacre, a bombing with multiple

casualties-are inherently sensational, but need to be reported. The following are
pointers on (reporting) sensational news from Steven Gorelick, a sociologist who
teaches communication and journalism at the City University of New York:

News analysis that provides context to the unusual and sensational gives
sensational news value and validity in the media.

 Functional sensationalism must be clear, direct, explicit. In whatever medium,

reporting should explain the real horror of the crime. Unfortunately, some
crimes are too horrible to discuss, thus the directness can be problematic.
Camera persons are cautioned against going after the blood and gore. In
describing blood and gore, or sexual matters, relevance should be a major
consideration. A direct and forthright style rather than flashy prose may be
more clarifying. But there is no point in sanitizing or making something more
palatable by using euphemisms. There is also no point in giving all the
details-only that which is necessary to describe it.

Reporters and editors are urged to think about how an unusual or sensational
story might be part of a larger social problem. The telling of the story must include
the larger context and the related issues. Details by themselves would have little
value without this larger cosmology of fact except for those pursuing the news out of
prurient interest.

 The unusual crime and out-of-norm elements should be reported exactly as

out of norm, with reasonable, reliable evidence of its unusual incidence.

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Care must be taken in reporting crime statistics. Standard crime statistics are
generally limited to police reports. These hardly ever portray white-collar crime and
other kinds of civil offenses.

A sensational incident that starts the police and the court system moving should be
followed to its conclusion. Do not let it drop out of the news agenda, once the case is
in court and materials become less sensational.

Review the reporting of the paper and revive the trail on those that were reported
sensationally and have somehow fallen out of the pages.

Vulnerable groups

Journalists should exercise care in reporting stories involving the following as

sources and principals. They are already vulnerable in these situations and may be
further "victimized" by the intrusion of, and interaction with the media.

 Women as victims of violence

 Children
 Cultural/religious groups
 Survivors/victims/families of
 Hospital patients/relatives of
 Accused/convicted of crime/relatives of
 Individuals at risk of racial, religious, sexual or other forms of discrimination

The following guidelines were presented by participants in the CMFR

Seminar/Workshop on the Coverage of Violent Crimes Against Women and Minors,
held December 3-5, 1993 at Development Academy of the Philippines, Tagaytay
City.

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 Consent. Recognize the victims' right to decide whether to be interviewed or
not, whether to be identified or not. They must be told that they do not have to
consent to be interviewed and do not have to be identified if they consent to be
interviewed.

 Withhold the identity of the victim and suspect (until indictment).

 Make sure the consent given is free and informed consent.
 Do not assume consent until expressly given.
 Determine if the victim is in the right frame of mind to give consent.
 Broadcast reporters/editors should take care that filming/
reporting/recording of such crimes do not violate the above principle.

Images. Recognize the right to dignity of victims, especially in death.

 Do not use photos of victims who are naked, scantily clad or in otherwise
degrading states.
 Do not photograph or use photos of minors as victims or suspects.
 Use graphics, line shots, other illustrations to visually supplement the
reportage.
 Do not trivialize the reality of violent crimes with the use of humor, cartoons,
etc.
 Do not place reports of violence next to pin-ups and other items which
heighten their titillating value.
 Do not use photos or any visual depiction of confrontations between the
victims, the victims' family and the accused in police stations and other law
enforcement agencies.

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Reportage. Crimes of violence against women and children should be reported
factually and seriously.

 Reporters should not use words and phrases which tend to pass judgment on
the victim and/or suspect.

Example: prostitute, sexy, former dancer, sex maniac, drug addict, etc.

 Eliminate details/descriptions which tend to titillate readers/ viewers and

sensationalize the story or ridicule the victims.

 The general rule: Do not use obscene, profane or vulgar terms in a story
unless they are part of direct quotations and there is a storing, compelling
reason to use them.

The media must take the greatest care to assure and observe the protection
of minors and children, and must refrain from identifying themorshowing them in TV
footage or in still photos so they can be identified. As suspects, the identities of
minors must be protected to preserve their ability to live normal lives as they grow
into adulthood. Publicity on minors as victims makes them vulnerable to further
attack by others. Do not name minors, whether as crime victims or as suspects. Do
not divulge their addresses,theirparents'names or any other information that can
identify them.

Journalist Pennie Azarcon dela Cruz, an advocate of women's issues in the

media, also suggests guidelines for reporters covering crimes in a story she did on
the media's coverage of the murder of her sister. Dela Cruz's article was published
in CMFR's Philippine Journalism Review (January-March 1998, pp. 38-42).

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Among her suggestions:
 Stressing the victim's look adds little substance to crime reportage, so why
use this angle at all? Descriptions such as "Isang magandang babae" (a
pretty woman) only add to the titillation factor and subsequent speculation: if
she was pretty, could it have been a love angle? A spurned or jealous lover?
A crime of passion? The focus on looks also trivializes the victim and
reinforces the old news convention of beauties, babies and beasts. All crimes
deserve condemnation, no matter how the victims look.

 Double-check your facts especially when it concerns the victims' reputation.

When the victims are not around to defend themselves anymore, their closest
kin feel obliged to do it themselves. Reporters are therefore imposing another
burden on them on top of their overwhelming grief at the violent death of a
loved one.

 Grief is private reckoning, not public spectacle. Ask permission before you
barge into a wake and burial rites with your obtrusive cameras and tape
recorders. Tread gently when asking questions and be sensitive to moments
when emotions run high and the bereaved would rather be left alone. Howling
before the cameras and mounting off may feel cathartic at the moment, but
when the calm returns, few people relish being shown at their most vulnerable
on national television. Realize too that friends and neighbors who drop in
during the wake are not as sophisticated about the media as your regular
sources. Thus they are easy prey and can be manipulated to say what you
want them to through loaded questions. Shame on you if you interview
distraught relatives just to get sensational quotes that they may later regret.
 Be honest and forthright and introduce yourself properly when conducting
interviews. Some reporters would try to

 pass themselves off as fellow mourners and chatted with friends and relatives
about what they knew of the case. Realize that such speculation and

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 unguarded revelations, when magnified in the media, might jeopardize
investigation and scare off potential witnesses.

 Do not stoop for a scoop. Underhanded tricks may be fine for government
officials trying to fudge public records, but not when dealing with private
individuals grappling with grief.
 Whether as suspect or victims, minors should not be named or photographed
and by such acts, condemned to notoriety without a fair hearing.

 Even the dead deserve respect and privacy. Publishing grisly photos of the
victims strips them of their dignity and privacy. Such details and photographs
may mean just another story, space filler for a day. But think of how lasting
the impact is to the relatives, who must cope with painful memories now
recorded in print, stored in public libraries and possibly hauled out to haunt
them again years later.

 Do not publish pictures of victims of violent- or sex-related crimes beside

cheesecake photos or salacious movie gossip. The unintended result is that
the crime is trivialized; itassumes the same weight as the gossip or the
nymphet. There is no more differentiation, no more distinction, between the
gravity of the crime and cheap fluff.

Subconsciously too, the message to readers is that women are objects; to use and
enjoy in the case of the starlet, or to kill and dispose of, in the case of the crime
victim. If the message is repeated often enough, would not people start linking the
two together; sex and women, women and crime? There are studies that show how
constant exposure to violence, in this case the gratuitous reportage of violent crimes,
can increase one's threshold of shock and outrage. One would need more and more
stimuli or worsening violence, to react. Humanity, one's capacity to feel compassion
for the victims and outrage for crimes, is replaced by apathy. Is all this worth the
scoop?

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  Choose words and description with care and avoid irresponsible speculation.
Are we perpetuating biases and prejudices with certain words?

The Guidelines for the Reporting of Criminal Proceedings of the Legal

Advisory Committee on Fair Trial and Free Press of the American Bar Association
(published in the Philippine Journalism Review issue of April-June 1996, pp. 19-25)
addresses the journalist's dilemma over what information to include and what to
keep when writing the crime story.

A cautionary note, however: the US police system is far stricter than the
Philippine National Police as far as the treatment of suspects is concerned.
Suspects are often paraded and presented by the police for media mileage, and
readers/viewers seldom learn more about the preliminary investigation and the
bases, evidence or reasons for the arrest. This means that the media very often
have to emphasize that the people so presented to media have not been convicted,
while at the same time looking into the circumstances or bases for arrest and
whether the cases have really undergone preliminary investigation.
The Guidelines suggest that the following details are "appropriate to make
public" after an arrest:

 The suspect's name, age, residence, employment, family status, the facts and
circumstances of arrest and the length of the investigation where appropriate,
a description of items seized and whether there was resistance or use of
weapons.

70
  The identity of the investigating and arresting officers or agency, the
substance or text of the charge as complaint, indictment, information and
where appropriate, the identity of the complainant

 Such information as may be necessary to enlist public assistance to

apprehend fugitives from justice, or to protect the public from danger

The Guidelines also identify the following as information that "may tend to be
prejudicial without serving a significant function of law enforcement or public
interest":

 Opinions about a suspect's character, guilt or innocence

 Admissions, confessions or the contents of a statement attributed to the
accused, except that a lawyer may announce that the accused denies the
charges against him
The media should not ask suspects to pose deliberately for photographs or
television (a common practice in the Philippine media known as "drawing").

"Press interviews should not be granted unless the accused person requests an
interview in writing, or consents to the interview after being informed of his right to
counsel and his right to refuse to grant an interview," warn the Guidelines.

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 A Note on Stewardship

Social responsibility

Stewardship is the sum total of respect for, and observance of the preceding
values. Journalists become responsible stewards of the media when they value and
observe the basic responsibilities of their craft. Being as accurate, as complete and
as unbiased as possible; reporting every side and avoiding harm to the reputations
of the innocent as well as to the daily lives of people in the news; defending one's
freedom not only through vigilance against attempts to dilute it but also by resisting
corruption and valuing honesty-these add up to the protection and nurturing of the
necessary role of the news media in working for the making of the informed citizenry
vital to a democracy, and for the well-being of society as a whole.

The concept of stewardship evolved from the awareness that the press is
more than a commercial enterprise. Among the key factors in this evolution in the
United States, and subsequently in the evolving understanding of the press
everywhere, were the recommendations of the Hutchins Commission on Freedom of
the Press, or the Hutchins Commission.

The Commission was headed by Robert Hutchins, at that time president of

the University of Chicago, at the request of TIME publisher Henry Luce to explore
mounting problems facing the press. Luce and Hutchins feared that public
perceptions of press irresponsibility and the concentration of media power in a
handful of companies were leading to demands for government intervention.

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The Hutchins Commission subsequently made the following recommendations for
the press to provide:
1. A truthful, comprehensive and intelligent account of the day's events in a
context which gives them meaning;

This recommendation implies that accounts must not only be accurate, they must
also provide readers/viewers/listeners enough background information for them to
understand events.
2. A forum for the exchange of comment and criticism;

The press cannot be the monopoly of one view point, but must allow an exchange of
views as well as criticism of government policies and actions, and even of the press
itself.
3. The projection of a representative picture of the constituent groups in the
society;

The press cannot selectively focus only on the concerns of certain groups but must
provide, through its coverage, a sense of the concerns and interests of all the groups
in society.
4. The presentation and clarification of the goals and values of the society;

The press must present to its readers/viewers/listeners what the aims of a society
are, and what it values most as a collective.
5. Full access to the day's intelligence.

The press must provide complete access to the information that the public needs to
form opinions on public issues and to make decisions on them.

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Finally, in The Elements of Journalism (2001), Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel
describe journalism thus:

1. Journalism's first obligation is to the truth.

2. Its first loyalty is to citizens.
3. Its essence is a discipline of verification.

4. Its practitioners must maintain an independence from those they cover.

5. It must serve as an independent monitor of power.

6. It must provide a forum for public criticism and compromise.

7. It must strive to make the significant interesting and relevant.

8. It must keep the news comprehensive and proportional.

9. Its practitioners must be allowed to exercise their personal conscience.

Practitioners will do well to remember these nine characteristics of the

profession/calling/career that they have chosen. They not only describe journalism;
they also provide a quick guide to its professional and ethical standards to enable
journalists to responsibly perform their duty to their society.

74
Bibliography

Books

Commission on Freedom of the Press. A Free andResponsible Press: A General

Report on Mass Communications:
Newspapers, Radio, Motion Pictures, Magazines and Books. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1947.
Hofile?a, Chay Florentino. News for Sale: The Corruption of the
Philippine Media. Quezon City: Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism and
Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, 1998.
Kovach, Bill and Tom Rosenstiel. The Elements of Journalism:
What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should Expect. New York: Crown
Publishers, 2001.
Lambeth, Edmund B. Committed Journalism: An Ethic for the Profession.
Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1992.
McQuail, Denis. Mass Communication Theory. London: Sage Publications, 1991.
The New International Webster's Pocket Dictionary of the English Language. 1998.
Paletz, David L. and Alex P. Schmid, eds. Terrorism and the Media. California: Sage
Publications, 1992.
Thompson, Delia, ed. The Concise Oxford Dictionary. 9th ed. Oxford University
Press, 1995.
Articles
Dela Cruz, Pennie Azarcon. "Murder, They Wrote: A Face to Face Encounter with
How Tabloids Treat Violent Crimes." Philippine Journalism Review. January-March
1998: 38-42

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Gorelick, Steven. "Cosmology of Fear." Media Studies Journal. Vol. 6 Number l.
Winter 1992. New York: The Freedom Forum Media Studies Center: 17-29.
"Guidelines on the Coverage of Crimes Against Women and Minors." Philippine
Journalism Review. March 1994: 15.
"Guidelines for Coverage of Disasters and Catastrophes." Philippine Journalism
Review. August 1990: 10.
Tarcelo, Florian M. "Trial by Media." Philippine Journalism Review. April-June 1996:
19-25.

Internet Sources

McDonald, Michael. "Ethics and Conflict of Interest." http://www.

ethics.ubc.ca/people/mcdonald/conflict.htm. UBC Centre for Applied Ethics. 2004.
Steele, Bob and Al Thompkins. "Confidential Sources: Who? When? Why?"
http://wwwl.poynter.org/content/content_view. asp?id=4361. The Poynter Institute.
Posted March 6, 2000.
Steele, Bob and Al Thompkins. "Guidelines for Evaluating Sources." http://wwwl
.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=4634. The Poynter Institute. Posted
August 1, 1999.
Steele, Bob. "Deception/Hidden Cameras Checklist." http://wwwl.
poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=866. The Poynter Institute. Posted
February 1, 1995.
"Guidelines on Respecting Privacy." http://wwwl.poynter.org/
content/content_view.asp?id=4643. The Poynter Institute. Posted July 1, 1999.
"Guidelines for Covering Hostage-taking Crises, Police Raids, Prison Uprisings,
Terrorist Actions." http://wwwl.poynter.org/ content/content_view.asp?id=4640. The
Poynter Institute. Posted July 1, 1999.

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Appendices
Appendix A

Using the Media: The Oakwood Mutiny

(From the Philippine Journalism Review, August-September 2003)

By near-universal consensus, the mutiny by some 300 junior officers and

enlisted men of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in Makati City last July 27
adversely affected the country‘s already faltering economy. If coup attempt of which
it was a part had succeeded, the country would by now be under the rule of a
military junta, its freedom curtailed and its citizens‘ rights suspended.

Unfortunately, certain sectors of the media, either wittingly or unwittingly,

failed to provide their readers a perspective on exactly what was at stake last July
27. It was not merely the survival of one administration, but from all appearances,
that of Philippine liberal democracy, which for all its failings guarantees among
others the rights to free expression and free press. By failing to do so, and focusing
on the inessentials, these sectors ended up being unwitting instruments in making
the coup attempt seem less serious than the clear threat it posed to the country‘s
fragile democracy.
Some broadcasters, for example, seemed so clueless about their roles as
information givers during the mutiny that they focused on the little details rather than
the big picture, while some print reporters and editors failed to give the public a
sense of the seriousness of the mutineers‘ offense as well as goals.

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 The July 27 occupation of the luxury apartment Oakwood Premioro had
certain terrorist characteristics, specifically the soldiers' ringing the facility with
bombs that could have killed and injured ordinary citizens, members of the media
and other non-combatants. A coup attempt after all involves an attack on an existing
government, which means that by launching their coup the mutineers had made
themselves and their government counterparts combatants in a struggle for power.
The media's lack of appreciation of both this fact as well as the possibility of non-
combatant casualties prevented the public from fully appreciating the extent of what
amounted to a terror threat.
The Philippine Journalism Review published in November 2001 a piece on
the lessons for the press in covering a national crisis such as a terrorist attack
("September 11 , 2001 : Lessons to Learn"). That article saw the patriotism and
professionalism of journalists as being complementary. It quoted a Marvin Kalb
piece published in the International Herald Tribune, in which Kalb said, "Journalists
perform the highest act of patriotism and operate on the highest levels of
professionalism when they subject all government handouts and pronouncements to
the sunlight of honest and truthful inquiry— and then fearlessly report the results.
That is their job, during times of peace or war."

A survey of four Metro Manila broadsheets—the Manila Bulletin, the

Philippine Daily Inquirer, The Philippine Star and Today-from July 28 to August 1, or
the days immediately following the July 27 mutiny, showed that much of the
continuing coverage of the after-effects of the mutiny did not expose the mutineers'
or the government's motives and actions to the "sunlight of honest and truthful
inquiry." What was noticeable was a tendency to gloss over the seriousness of the
mutiny, and, in some extreme cases, even to indirectly justify it.

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Contrasting slant

Not that there was any attempt at conspiracy within the newspapers to do so.
Inquirer news accounts, for example, tended to favor the Oakwood mutineers, in
contrast to its editorials, the first of which "denounce[d] the mutiny in the strongest
possible terms" ("Mutineers," July 28, pp. A8). The disparate views of some of its
reporters and its editorial writers may help explain this seeming contradiction.

The July 30 Inquirer story was supposed to be on Senator Gregorio

Honasan's claim that he was asked by Malacañang through Housing Secretary
Michael Defensor intervene in the then ongoing crisis in Makati ("Palace asked me
to intervene—Gringo: 3 opposition senators opened talks to Oakwood," lead story).
But the story ended up praising the soldiers who staged the mutiny. The lead quoted
the senator as saying, "They are the soldiers of the Filipino people." The part where
he was supposedly asked by the Palace to "help" came later in the story. Defensor's
denial of Honasan's claim, instead of immediately following it, appeared at the very
end of the story.

On the same day, the Inquirer also published a story headlined "How final
hours were handled by negotiators" (p. 1) which reported that three opposition
senators had opened communication lines to the mutineers and that they had
convinced the mutineers to dialogue with Ambassador Roy Cimatu. According to the
Inquirer story, the junior officers had earlier declined to talk to Cimatu. The report,
however, did not include Cimatu's side to verify if this claim was true. Cimatu, former
AFP Chief of Staff, was the government's official negotiator.

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Romanticizing the mutineers

While the media are expected to be fair and objective, some of them could
have been more so had they not highlighted only the "brilliant" and "idealistic" side of
mutineers, and perhaps included the fact that their involvement with politicians eager
to use them for their own purposes had tainted that "idealism" and seriously
questioned their capacity for discernment.
The tendency to romanticize the mutineers was evident in the very words
used in many of the stories to describe the mutineers. Some reporters, for example,
used non-neutral terms in their reports to describe the mutineers, especially Navy Lt.
Senior Grade Antonio Trillanes IV who was the spokesperson of the group. Among
the words used were "idealistic," "brilliant," "boyish-looking," "highly spirited,"
"popular for their brilliance and righteousness" and "as clean as a whistle."

Leaving out the experts

All four newspapers monitored reported on the investigations to be conducted

on corruption in the military. Corruption in this government institution is not only an
open secret, it has dangerous implications for its capacity to defend the country.
Thus, the newspapers' decision to report on those investigations and corruption was
of public interest. In their haste to report on those investigations, however, they often
forgot to seek out the experts on what cases should have been filed against the
mutineers. There was only one report published on the dates of the survey that
sought legal experts on what should be done to properly deal with the junior officers
and their subordinates who occupied Oakwood ("Mutineers may face rebellion coups
raps too," Inquirer, July 31 , p. A2)

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Appendix B
Mindanao Coverage Revisited

By Jeffrey Pe Benito and Josefa Therese Cagoco

(From the Philippine Journalism Review, January 2004)

In 2000, the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) conducted a
content analysis of five broadsheets – BusinessWorld, the Manila Bulletin, the
Philippine Daily Inquirer, the Philippine Star and Today – covering the fourth-month
period of March 1 to June 30.

The results were worrisome: there were 1,633 articles surveyed, and only 22
of them provided background. That is, slightly more than one percent of the articles
provided a socio-cultural understanding of the then-impending crisis.
Whatever the case, the resulting figures were considered large, the military
offensive extensively covered, the deepening crisis particularly eyed by the media.
In an attempt to see if the coverage of the Mindanao conflict has changed,
CMFR conducted a content analysis in 2003, surveying the same five broadcasters
over a period of three months from February 5 to May 5, beginning just before the
launch of the Military offensive against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in
Pikit and extending to the aftermath of the Davao bombings.

Findings

Frequency
The number of Southern conflict-related articles in the new study was huge.
While the first study was extensive, the new one surveyed nearly twice as many
articles and more than six times as much background in shorter period of time.
There were 2,894 articles about the entirety of the Mindanao scenario (2,262 news

81
articles, 207 opinion articles and 425 cartoons and pictures); 135 articles explained
the situation either through the citing of the several decade-long history of violence
in the region, peace pacts or meaningful statistics that clarify the bigger picture. The
2000 study showed increasing coverage as the crisis worsened; the 2003 study
started with 914 articles in February 5 to March 4, many devoted to the Pikit assault.
Coverage peaked in the second month with 1,150 articles mostly on the Davao
bombings and continuing military offensive, and then 840 articles about both from
April 5 to March 5.
Whatever the pattern, the attention that the media—or at least, the
newspapers studied—gave the conflict in Mindanao was extensive enough in 2000.
In the February 5 to May 5 survey, it was doubly extensive.
Discussion

Breakdown of stories

The Inquirer had 18 banner stories about the Mindanao conflict during the
period covered by the study; that number is more lead stories devoted to Mindanao
than the Star, the Bulletin and BusinessWorld combined. It also had 123 front-page
stories about Mindanao in the three-month period, averaging roughly four page-one
articles every three days.

The rest of the Inquirer coverage, in terms of where the articles were located
and how many were printed, was not as noteworthy. The Inquirer published seven
lead stories and 502 regular stories, next only to the Bulletin, but was more than 200
articles behind.

The Star, on the other hand, had slightly fewer articles. It had 108 front-page
articles, slightly more than one per day, nine banner articles (next only to the
Inquirer), 427 regular articles and 11 lead articles, or more than BusinessWorlds and
Inquirer‘s put together.

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BusinessWorld covered everything less. It had the least number of banner articles,
two, and the least number of lead articles at throe. They had 378 regular articles,
which, though considerably large, is second lowest only by 22.

Today had the second to the largest number of lead articles with 15, though it
had the second lowest number banner articles at four. It had the lowest number of
regular stories and the second to the lowest number of all stories. However, it tied
with the Inquirer for the most front-page stories, ensuring that the articles they did
print received reasonable attention.

If you go by the numbers, the Bulletin had, by far, the most extensive
coverage of the Mindanao conflict. It had 908 articles devoted to it: about a third of
the articles surveyed. It had 21 lead articles on Mindanao, or as much as
BusinessWorld, the Star and the Inquirer combined.
The Bulletin had more regular articles on Mindanao than any of the four other
publications at 706, more articles printed about the conflict at any given month than
any of the other publications and more articles printed than the combined total of
Today and BusinessWorld. However, more of their articles went to the inside pages
compared to the Star, the inquirer and Today.
What the publications had in common was that they have the most number of
articles printed during the second month of the study, March 5 to April 4. This was
the height of public attention on two important issues, the Davao bombings and the
continuing assault in Pikit.
Subject

Roughly a third of the stories were devoted to police investigation, body

counts, the ongoing violence. Either because the situation there was so precarious
or because that kind of coverage tends to sell, the biggest chunk of the story pie was
about the peace and order situation.

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 Also getting their share of attention were local business and government
policies. Perhaps because of the political and economic nature of the current issues-
the Balikatan exercises, the Davao bombings, the Pikit assault-the publications gave
due importance to what the government was doing and how the economy was
reacting. There was in fact more coverage on these than the issues themselves;
hence, the study noted articles on international treaties, tourism crash updates and
peace talks developments.
The issue were not far behind; there were 167 articles about the Pikit assault
coupled with 123 about evacuation, 310 Davao bombings stories and 265 Balikatan
stories.

The indirect repercussion-lawmakers talking about federalism, the

Autonomous Region of the Muslim Mindanao scene, the New People‘s Army call for
sympathy strikes-comprised the rest of the subjects.
Background

The 2000 study found only 22 articles providing background among over
1,600. That is just over one percent. The picture looked somewhat better than in the
2003 study. A total of 135 of 2,894 articles provided background-that is, again,
providing insights to the several decade-long history of violence, details about peace
pacts or meaningful statistics that clarify the bigger picture. That is close to five
percent-or about one out of every 20 articles providing background (as opposed to
the results of the first study, which showed about one out of every hundred).
However, one reason for the increase in background material is that the
Bulletin coverage which provided 62 of the 135 articles with the background, used
the same background material in several articles, particularly about peace pact and
the Philippine-American conflict about a hundred years back. Some of the stories
from the Star did the same thing, This is not to say they were irrelevant background,
or they did not provide the public with the knowledge to put things in perspective, but

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that they did so respectively, with little background information spread among
several articles. Still, they provided information that the public needed.

Another reason there is more background material in this study is that after
the first study, the government signed a tentative peace agreement with the MIL,
which was significantly covered aspects of the news streaks of conflict in Mindanao.
This was discussed extensively. The articles provided background about peace
pacts, how long they worked, where they were signed and how they failed.

It is worth noting that the single best background article was from
BusinessWorId. One article explained in detail the history of Christian-Muslim
conflict from the time of the Spanish occupation all the way through now, proof that
there is some effort to bring to public consciousness the nuances of conflict.

Sourcing
Two aspects of sourcing were studied: who were the most significant sources
of news and how many sources each news story had.
The answer to the first one is, the government. The 2000 study showed that
roughly three-fourths of the news attic\es were government-sourced. the 2003 study
showed less dominance, the government still owned a huge slice of the source pie
at less than 60 percent, that is, 2,087 of the 3,550 sources.
Civil Society was a player, with 477 articles providing information derived from
it, while the MILF was the source for some 324 articles, since it has spokesperson
who was actually consulted about events involving the group.

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 The Inquirer and Today presented more sides of the stories than did the other
three broadsheets. The Inquirer had more stories with at least two sources than it
had single-sourced stories. Today had about the same number of single-sourced
and multi-sourced articles. That is considerable, taking into account that little more
than a third of the stories consulted more than one source.

BusinessWorld had the lowest percentage of articles with more than one
source, with just over one-tenth of the articles being multi-sourced. Not far behind,
the Bulletin had 598 articles that were single-sourced, and 150 multi-sourced.

Treatment
In the first study, the results showed that the government received fairly
positive treatment while the Abu Sayyaf and the MILF received negative treatment in
general. Barring neutral articles, the 2003 study still shows more negative treatment
for the Abu Sayyaf at 73 percent and the MILF, 80 percent. However, government
policies were also treated negatively, again barring neutral articles, with a negative
treatment percentage of roughly 68 percent.

Other Observations
Of the 135 articles that provided background, almost 83 percent were news
stories while the remaining were opinion pieces, with the exception of a Ione photo
from the Inquirer about the battle between the Moros and General John "Black Jack"
Pershing in 1906 where 600 Moros died. Today did not have a single opinion piece
providing background, while the Bulletin had the second largest news to opinion
discrepancy, 60 news articles as opposed to only two opinion pieces. Only the Star
had more opinion pieces providing background than its news stories, though only by
two.

It is also notable that of the five publications, Today and the Inquirer published the
most number of human interest or feature articles about Mindanao, while the Star

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focused primarily on the military and rebel conflict and major incidents, such as the
Pikit assault and the Davao bombings.

Besides the article from BusinessWoddthat traced the Mindanao conflict from
the Spanish occupation, another three articles discussed in-depth the ongoing
conflict. Two of these came from Today, one attempted to trace the reasons for the
sudden military offensive against the MILF in Pikit, North Cotabato while the other
talked about the views of the different sectors from Mindanao on the effects of the
Pikit assault, the Davao bombings and the peace negotiations. The other article,
from the Inquirer, analyzed the history and present situation of Davao in connection
to why and how the two major bombing incidents at the Davao Intemational Airport
and the Sasa Wharf happened.

Overview
The results of the 2003 study show improved reportage of events than did the
2000. In three-fourths the time, there were nearly twice as many articles written
about the Mindanao.
There were more than six times the articles providing background, more than
twice the number of sources, better distribution of sources with the government
accounting for less than 60 percent of the story sources, with civil society at over 13
percent. Close to 35 percent of the articles had more than one source and close to
three-fourths of the material was neutral.
Jeffrey Pe Benito and Josefa Therese Cagoco were senior journalism
students at University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication when they
wrote this analysis.

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Appendix C
The Philippine Journalist’s Code of Ethics
(Drafted by the Philippine Press Institute and the National Press
Club)
I. shall scrupulously report and interpret the news, taking care not to suppress
essential facts or to distort the truth by omission or improper emphasis. I
recognize the duty to air the other side and the duty to correct substantive
errors promptly.
II. shall not violate confidential information or material given me in the exercise
of my calling
III. shall resort only to fair and honest methods in my effort to obtain news,
photographs and/or documents, and shall properly identify myself as a
representative of the press when obtaining any personal interview intended
for publication.
IV. shall refrain from writing reports Which adversely affect a private reputation
unless the public interest the same time, I shall fight vigorously for public
access to information, as provided for in the Constitution.
V. shall not let personal motives or interests influence me in the performance of
my duties; nor shall I accept or offer any present, gift or other consideration of
a nature which may cast doubt on my professional integrity.
VI. shall not commit any act of plagiarism
VII. shall not in any manner ridicule, cast aspersions on or degrade any person by
reason of sex, creed, religious belief, political conviction, cultural and ethnic
origin.

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VIII. I shall presume persons accused of crime of being innocent until proven
otherwise. I shall exercise caution in publishing names of minors and women
involved in criminal cases so that they may not unjustly lose their standing in
society.
IX. I shall not take unfair advantage of fellow journalists.
X. I shall accept only such tasks as are compatible with the integrity and dignity
of my profession, invoking the "conscience clause" when duties imposed on
me conflict with the voice of my conscience.
XI. I shall comport myself in public or while performing my duties as journalist in
such manner as to maintain the dignity of my profession. When in doubt,
decency should be my watchword.

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About CMFR
Center for Media
Freedom
Responsibility
The formation of the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR)
addresses one of the critical concerns confronting the Philippines after People
Power toppled the Marcos dictatorship in February 1986. That concern calls
attention to the power of the media and the role of the free press in the development
of Philippine democracy.
All over the world, press freedom has been found to be essential to the
democratic system. Effective participatory government is possible only when it can
count on a well-informed society where individuals freely exchange ideas, where
public debate and discussion arise from knowledge and understanding of national
affairs.
That freedom involves not only media professionals, but also the public
served by the media—public officials, the private sector, civil society groups,
readers, viewers and listeners—who receive information and are part of the cycle of
public communication. But freedom of the press, like all liberties, has its limits, for
the simple reason that it is vulnerable to abuse.
Democratic recovery confronts serious obstacles on the media front. The
press and the media need to exert special efforts to measure up as a collective
vehicle of information, as an instrument for clarifying complex issues and dilemmas
of development that the public should understand.
Against this background, CMFR was organized in 1989 as a private, non-
stock, non-profit organization involving the different sectors of society. Its programs
uphold press freedom, promote responsible journalism and encourage journalistic
excellence.

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