Weeks into the official campaign season and with surveys showing Marcos the likely winner if elections are held today, we see hints of how his potential administration might deal with the press.
Marcos has shunned debates organized by corporate media, claiming scheduling conflicts, internet problems and a refusal to appear on “biased” media and at forums where candidates will be pitted against each other.
He has so far shown a preference for more managed media appearances with friendlier panelists.
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Meanwhile, accredited journalists have been barred from covering campaign events over vague security protocol and ignored on official channels like media chat groups.
Even more troubling is how media has also given hints at how it will behave under that kind of administration.
Press releases are picked up and published as legitimate stories and even dubious claims by little-known and rather partisan data analytics firms are amplified without question.
We’re told to not call the elder Marcos a dictator so much and to not mention that the junior Marcos was defeated in the 2016 vice-presidential elections.
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The general advice now, as it has generally always been, is to be neutral. Which is to say keep your head down and try not to offend anyone.
Or, you could go the other way and be so ‘unbiased’ as to debase yourself by singing a candidate praises to a level embarrassing to everybody involved.
Nervousness in newsrooms is understandable, of course, and not really unique to this election period. I have been scared since 2015 so I’m not exactly the hero of this story either.
The Duterte administration has shown what the government can do to broadcast networks and newsrooms that offend it, although Marcos’ dictator father did it first and did it wholesale.
Maybe it’s a genuine belief that another Marcos presidency is the best hope for the country.
Maybe it is self-preservation, maybe it’s the need for ad revenues, or maybe — like Joey Concepcion — they have “[learned] to forgive and move on.”
I guess it is just disappointing that one of the professions repressed during Martial Law and that bloomed after the supposed restoration of democracy is practically tripping over itself to be controlled again.
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I am sure most of the journalists in the so-called crony press during the Marcos years stayed there for noble reasons — better to have someone willing to push back from the inside than someone who was a total stooge, for example. But that thought is less and less comforting as days go by.
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They killed Chad Booc this week. The volunteer teacher of Lumad learners was among five civilians whom the military says were rebels killed in a clash with troops in Davao de Oro.
The Communist Party of the Philippines has denied that there was a clash in that area this week and it is not impossible for security forces to stage an encounter to justify killing civilians.
We weren’t close but we talked online now and then. It is no exaggeration to say that he is one of the people who influenced my reporting and editorial choices in recent years.Meanwhile, the Philippine National Police chief was at a members-only luxury resort island, and we only found out about it because the police helicopter sent to fetch him to he could go to work crashed on the way to get him.
The crash raised questions about what the PNP chief was doing in Balesin and why police equipment was used as a sort of flying limousine service for him.
It’s all good, though, the Department of the Interior and Local Government says. It’s normal.Aside from being the anniversary of the 1986 People Power revolution, the week also marks the fifth year since Sen. Leila de Lima was arrested on drug charges that she says are made up and are politically motivated:
“A victim of vengeance, rather than a subject of proper judicial disposition, she endures punishment on whimsical terms. Her story just has to be told and retold, lest it go the way of much of the nation’s ugly past, forgotten or else falsified in order to prettify it for those who precisely made it ugly.”
Finally, a two-part story on the dictator Marcos’ Martial Law and its lingering legacy, which includes an anthem that was played in schools daily that has now become a dance hit:
Chipping away at the 'Golden Era' narrative in Marcos’ IlocandiaUniTeam Ilocos caravan stirs up memories of Martial Law: Trauma for some, nostalgia for others