Saturday, May 05, 2007 Editorials: ‘Natural’ adversaries
THERE was the report yesterday that said the First Gentleman (FG) has decided to drop the almost two dozen cases he has filed against certain members of the media in the national Capitol Region. But while he did this, the media men concerned filed a class action against the FG, which they refused to drop. The former, it should be noted, has just been released from the hospital where he undertook surgical operation.
But that should not be of any moment as far as the relationship of media and the government is concerned. Based on their respective roles as defined by long democratic tradition and practice, there is an innate adversarial relationship ingrained into the accepted and recognized function of the nation’s media and the management of public office. norms of conduct in the relationship call for objectivity on the part of media.
While on the other hand, the public interest which is the bone of contention between media and the government, has emerged as the object over which the two contenders must perforce skirmish and spar over certain realities related to their separate and distinct motivations. This aspect of their relationship belies any possible intimacy in their relationship, thus making imperative a sense of honesty and integrity on either one.
It is on this ground that government, that is the men and women who manage it, developed a guarded attitude or behavior towards the media, a conduct that could easily turn adversarial at the slightest provocation. While media, conscious of its role as “guardian” of public interest, as supposedly served and fulfilled by the government, often become gravely belligerent and often attacks with impunity the failures of public service.
And here lies the dilemma in the relationship of the two institutions that, in a democracy, have become imperative needs in order to ensure effective delivery of public services to the people. And to ensure that the government is getting its needed support in taxes from the people, media functions as conduit of information to the people to urge them to give what government needs from them in order to be able to deliver the desired services.
Indeed, the role of media to police the ranks of public servants, and for government, to give media the needed information so that the people’s trust and confidence in government may be strengthened, is the ideal relationship between the two institutions. The common objective, after all, is the effective delivery of services to the public that will ensure development and generate social peace as well as improvement in people’s lives.
The adversarial relationship that has naturally developed between media and the government through the years actually augurs well for the development of a dynamic democracy in the country. The First Gentleman is merely doing what is expected of him to do, and media is only protecting its turf that allows it to perform its role effectively.
