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Wednesday, April 05, 2006
Editorials: Easing tension between Government and the press
* Sun.Star's "Reach Out and Link Up" project helped cast light on a shaky relationship
Public officials talk of transparency and yet when a news event calls for openness, they hide facts or leak them out selectively.
Not unusual. Public officials want to promote agenda and protect image.
Journalists, in turn, press for facts because they think the public does not have to wait unless public safety or order demands. They want "now" facts, not later data that public officials can cover up or tamper with. It is not baseless distrust: media are often lied to by public officials.
Journalists, as "permanent resident critics," meet wariness, even hostility, from public officials who suspect the press wants to see their destruction and fall.
Tension
Perpetual tension between Government and the press explodes into open conflict when Government is gripped with fear that the press is laying a siege and journalists are inciting people to sedition.
Lumping the press with "destabilizers" in the recent aborted coup shows how the relationship can sour.
Public officials must understand what the press does and why it is done in seeming haste. Being "makulit" or pushy is mostly necessary.
Journalists must accept that public officials can't be always open. Either not all the facts are in or Government believes they might be used by the opposition and other enemies at the gates.
Not giving up
Appreciating each other's role, however, doesn't mean the press leaves public officials to their wile of clamming up or filtering news. Journalists just have to push harder and seek other sources.
That issue highlighted Monday's forum with regional directors and government information officers.
The Sun.Star-initiated dialogue gave journalists more than a glimpse of government process, and public officials got fresh insights into how the press works.
Sun.Star's modest hope is that exchanges of views help ease tension between the press and Government and make them work better at the "critical collaboration" news reporters and their sources do everyday.
Our journalists appreciate the enthusiasm of Association of Regional Executives of National Agencies (Arena), Association of Government Information Officers (Agio), and Public Information Agency (PIA) to Sun.Star's project.
It cast light on some murky spots of the fragile relationship. And it was fun.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (April 5, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here. |
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