Media ‘weather-weather’

FOR many followers of the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona, television provides the next best spectator seat after a place in the Senate gallery. But for a media perspective of the proceedings, television may not be the best place for this. Broadcasting received the lowest score among the four major sectors examined by the Asian Media Barometer conducted by the Friedrich-ebert-stiftung (FES) in the Philippines last year.

The assessment was based on 45 predetermined indicators divided into four sectors. A score of 1 means the country does not meet the indicator, which means 0 (zero). A score of 5 means the country meets all the indicators or 100 (percent). A positive rating on an indicator starts at 2, so that the mid-point or “passing” is 3.5.

Based on this scoring system, the Philippines got a score of 2.6. The Philippine broadcasting sector had a score of 1.3.

The four sectors in the barometer and their descriptions are:

Sector 1: Freedom of expression, including freedom of the media is effectively protected and promoted.

Sector 2: The media landscape, including new media, is characterized by diversity, independ- ence and sustainability.

Sector 3: Broadcasting regulation is transparent and independent; the State broadcaster is transformed into a truly public broadcaster.

Sector 4: The media practice high levels of professional standards.

The Philippine sectoral scores are: Sector 1, freedom 3.7; Sector 2, diversity, independence and sustainability, 2.8; Sector 3, broadcasting regulation, State broadcasting, 1.3; and Sector 4: media professional standards, 2.6. Who made the assessments? There were 11 panelists. There were six from media: a newspaper editor, an online editor, a provincial paper editor, a provincial correspondent, a TV news deskman and a journalist group head. There were two from government, two from non-govern- mental organizations and one from the academe.

Our relatively high score in the protection and promotion of freedom of expression (3.7 out of 5) pulled the Philippine barometer to a passing score. The lowest sectoral score appears to be an emphasis on a “State broadcaster is transformed into a truly public broadcaster” probably on something like the British Broadcasting Corporation. The assessment on this was primarily based on the National Broadcasting Network ( PTV4), which the panelists say is run as a mere government propaganda arm.

As for Sector 2 which took up the matter of independence, the panelists made this point in their summary:

“Media ownership remains largely under the control of interest groups vested with both economic and political interests. Although a few corporate houses and families hold majority interests in the largest media agencies, there is no anti-trust legislation pertaining to the media in the Philippines. And passing one is not among the priorities of government. There is a growing and worrying tendency of politicians acquiring stakes in (local) media outlets. But the media itself do hardly any explicatory or analytical reporting on these trends and the emerging media monopolies.

The Philippines is “one of the few countries in the world where the fundamental law upholds the ownership of mass media entities as the sole privilege of its citizens, and corporations. The effects of this restriction on the diversity of media and outlets and the concentration of ownership is hardly discussed—and if so, controversially.”

The Philippines may have scored fairly well in the matter of freedom of expression, but the final report underscores that “despite a 15- year advocacy by a broad coalition of citizen’s groups, legislators have still to pass the Freedom of Information Act (precisely one of the objectives of the Asian Media Barometer), which spells out the procedures for disclosing information…

“Thus, in practice it remains a difficult task for journalists and citizens to access financial and asset records of politicians and to secure documents from national agencies. It is even harder to obtain information at the local government level….”

(To be continued)

opinion@manilatimes.net