When asked their views on media and press freedom as well as free expression, politicians of the Philippine variety will swear to high heaven their respect for both. But the most clueless among them about what both freedoms mean and what they consist of will do their all to diminish them once...
Life lessons matapos ang ika-30 anibersaryo ng EDSA People’s Uprising: una, pinatalsik ang diktaduryang Marcos matapos ng 14 taong labis na panunungkulan, pandarambong (di simpleng korapsyon), nepotismo at burukrata kapitalismo, pandudusta (di simpleng paglabag) sa...
Life lessons matapos ang bigot remark ni Manny Pacquaio on same-sex marriage and non-straights, at ang pag-drop sa kanya ng Nike bilang endorser dahil sa kanyang "abhorrent" remarks: una, daming dapat mag-google muna ng definitions ng bigot at abhorrent dahil key...
THE dominant media have either mentioned only in passing or completely ignored US imperialism’s role in the Mamasapano incident of January 25, 2015. That absence is also notable in the reportage of the peace process between the Philippine government and the Moro...
THE PRIMARY challenge to the alternative press and media has always been to provide the information and analysis that the people need so they may, by understanding the state of Philippine society, proceed on their own power to change it. For over a hundred years, the...
THE LATE TEODORO LOCSIN, SR., for a long time editor of the pre-martial law Philippines Free Press, once described the Philippine press and media as cheap rather than free. He was then referring to how easy it was to corrupt practitioners—and its consequent impact on...
A WEEK before the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit (APEC) in Manila, the Aquino administration was not only clearing city thoroughfares of street vendors, parked cars, and sidewalk stalls; it was also evicting from their encampment in Liwasang Bonifacio...
SOME radio and TV stations as well as broadsheets have been commemorating the declaration of martial rule in 1972 by airing and presenting special reports every September. These media organizations, among them the Philippine Daily Inquirer, started early this year....
In 2010, candidate Benigno Aquino III pledged, among others, to prioritize a Freedom of Information Act among his legislative initiatives. In the ensuing months his administration practically made it a point not to include an FOI bill among those it submitted to...