Welcome back to Slow News Days, a now-and-then newsletter on journalism and journalism-adjacent topics in the Philippines.
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A week since the announcement that Rappler CEO Maria Ressa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize alongside Novaja Gazeta's Dmitry Muratov and we have seen interesting gatekeeping of the profession (and of the prize) by people who are at most journalism adjacent.
Among the first to comment and since answered by John Nery in this newsletter was National Artist F. Sionil Jose, whose views were echoed by presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, who claimed that the prize is proof that press freedom is alive and well in the Philippines.
Bonus: OPINION: F. Sionil Jose is a lost cause
The STAR columnist Ramon Tulfo went a different route, playing down the significance of the award, saying “many Nobel laureates didn’t deserve the supposedly prestigious award” anyway, so whatever.
The Fighting Spirit award goes to Manila Times’ Yen Makabenta, though, who said “there is very little in the published record to show that Ms. Ressa has done serious journalism and is worthy of admiration” and then asked whether she can really be called a “Philippine journalist” because she is a dual citizen.
Referring to her that way despite her having a US passport “suggests that she is like all the items and things associated with the Philippines, like Philippine mango and Philippine pineapple.”
All of these miss the point, though, made by the prize committee, which said that Ressa and Muratov are “representatives of all journalists who stand up for [freedom of expression] in a world in which democracy and freedom of the press face increasingly adverse conditions.”
Whether you like Ressa and Muratov or not is irrelevant — whether the award reflects on the president is also not very relevant, although also very obvious.
What it means is validation for colleagues who have been red-tagged and who “lived on the edge for several months, always fearful that gunmen would attack me any day” or have had to deal with the misogyny that has become common in recent years.
Perhaps the best counterpoint to the sour grapes, from among the bright batch of young journalists who will replace us (and those who came before us):
“Rappler may be press freedom's poster personality to the international eye, but it goes beyond them. Can't wait to drive the jealous, backward thinking of this old guard out of relevance.”
But this week also saw journalists who still actually leave the house talk about where we are and we might be going.
The Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility held the Jaime V. Ongpin Journalism Seminar , which, this year had two panels to talk about journalism during the pandemic and at a time when many of us live online.
Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines also had the Teodoro Benigno Journalism Lecture with US-based photojournalist Rosem Morton and ANC's Christian Esguerra (who was also on the CMFR panel).
Hard to top these two seminars, especially Esguerra’s FOCAP lecture (because of uncomfortable truths and a cameo by a cat), so just some links you might want to check out:
Two stories on Philstar.com that reveals how we have been secretly pushing the halamanist agenda: “Their right to the city: Garden grows sense of community amid precarity”, and “‘Farm along da riles’: Tondo youth marry urban farming and bayanihan for food security”.
From the sidelines of the filing of Certificates of Candidacy earlier this month:
Quiboloy’s news group repeatedly red-baits Makabayan bloc during COC filing
Sort of related to that: Three soldiers have been convicted over the murders of labor leader Rolando Olalia and activist Leonor Alay-ay in 1986.
Nearly 35 years later, higher ups linked to the abduction and killings have already retired from the military and have moved on: How the accused masterminds of the Olalia-Alay-ay slay relished impunityIf you are on Instagram (many people aren’t anymore), you might want to check out Oversimplified Stuff, which is a little like Media Commoner in that they help make me feel smart.
Also, this story from Jacobin on how Starbucks is trying to keep its workers from unionizing and a tactic that may sound familiar to anyone who has ever been to work anywhere:
"But what the company perhaps relies on most is the rhetorical strategy of insisting that Starbucks is a better place to work than other food service companies. All shop employees are known as 'partners,' and training materials state that each café functions as a 'third place.'"