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Thursday, July 28, 2005
Reporters hit Malacañang for choreographed presscon
In her first news conference in seven weeks, President Arroyo was disparaged by reporters who covered the event, saying it was choreographed.
The foreign media also complained about being shut out.
The President, in the midst of the worst crisis of her four years in office over allegations of vote rigging and jueteng payoffs to her family, has begun a charm offensive to win support for plans to change the political system.
Presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye has said the President will go on provincial sorties to explain the need for constitutional change and make herself more available to the press.
But yesterday’s news conference got off to a bad start, with local journalists saying they had to submit questions in advance and that reporters from state-run media were given priority.
Stage-managed
“It was a very strictly staged-managed press conference. Many of the questions there were of no use to us. They were not the questions we wanted to pursue,” said ABS-CBN reporter Lynda Jumilla.
One of the reporters asked Arroyo where she found the “inner strength” to cope with the crisis.
“From the Lord, from praying,” replied the President, who is facing an impeachment motion in Congress by her political foes.
The questions were stopped when Bunye said the President had run out of time.
Journalists working for foreign media outlets were surprised to discover they were not allowed to cover the President’s remarks, which were carried live on radio and television.
The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) urged the President to exercise transparency in dealing with media.
“There is a clear effort to evade more critical segments of society to ‘shield’ the chief executive from the less palatable aspects of leadership and this does not bode well for efforts to reconcile the nation,” the NUJP said in a statement.
Members of the Foreign Correspondents’ Association of the Philippines also reported to the NUJP that they were barred from a Malacañang press conference because it was supposed to be an “exclusive” affair for the Palace press corps.
Screening
The NUJP also received complaints from Palace reporters of an apparent attempt to manage the President’s news conference by screening questions.
Yesterday’s news conference was her first since June 6 after audio recordings surfaced that the opposition said were of the President conspiring with election commissioner Virgilio Garcillano to rig the results of the May 2004 presidential poll.
Three weeks later, Arroyo apologized for a “lapse in judgment” for talking to an election official as votes were being counted but denied trying to influence the results. (From an ABS-CBN report)
(July 28, 2005 issue)
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