GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/9 Dec) – The media must dig more and be more critical in the midst of a deteriorating environmental situation in Mindanao, former presidential assistant for Mindanao Jesus Dureza said in the opening Thursday of the three-day 7th Mindanao Media Summit.

Dureza, who is now publisher of the Davao-based Mindanao Times and the Mindanao trustee of the Philippine Press Institute, said the media must go beyond the usual fare of reportage “amidst the various advocacies” on the island’s deteriorating environmental state.

By Regina Bengco, Malaya

(This is her research project for the 2011 Asia Journalism Fellowship held in Singapore on Feb. 7 to April 29, 2011. It was written in April. An update and acknowledgments follow the main article.)

INTRODUCTION

The press council is one of the accountability systems in the Philippines, which has a self-regulated media.

The Philippines has two national-level press councils: the Philippine Press Council under the Philippine Press Institute (PPI), which covers the newspaper industry; and the Broadcast Standards Authority of the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP or Association of Broadcasters of the Philippines), which oversees the broadcast industry.

Regional- and local-level press councils also exist in Baguio City in the northern Philippines, in the Central Luzon region, in Palawan province, and in Cebu province.

The first national-level Philippine Press Council was created in compliance with Republic Act Number 4363 (RA 4363), which was enacted on June 19, 1965, to amend the provisions of the Revised Penal Code on defamation.

Section 3 of RA 4363 required the Philippine press to organize and elect the members of a Press Council, which will promulgate a Code of Ethics, investigate violations, and censure any journalist or newspaper guilty of violating the Code.

In 1972, President Ferdinand Marcos abolished the Press Council after proclaiming martial law. Marcos, through Presidential Decree No. 36, canceled the franchises and permits of radio, television and communications facilities and created the Mass Media Council (MMC) to regulate the operation of the media in order to “safeguard the security of the state” from what he claimed as the use of mass media in the conspiracy against government by “forces of insurgency and subversion.”

by Atty. Jesus Dureza

PRESS FORUM –This week, the Philippine Press Institute is co-hosting a media forum cum workshop in General Santos City. It will discuss child welfare. Interesting topic, badly needed, but rarely taken up. If I were a child today, how would the present environment, TV, radio, the media, the computers, the cell phones, the Internet, etc affect me and the other children?

GOOD ‘OL DAYS —This caught me reminiscing today about those good ol’ days. I spent my early childhood in a barrio called Guihing down south until I moved to Davao City when I entered college. The city was only 60 kilometers away. The roads and transpo were so bad that it seemed like forever going to the “big city”.

But those were good times. I wish I were a child again.

The 1950′s and 1960’s were simple times. (gads, I feel so ancient now. hahaha!) No TV, no refrigerator, not even electricity but only with a small “Philips” transistor radio (made in Germany, mind you) to connect us outside. No movies except when a movie van of “Golden Key” cigarettes or “Purico” cooking lard or a USIS audio visual unit (yes, the Americans were there already) would gather us in the open field plaza for outdoor free movies on some rare nights. On those rare occasions, I would feed the backyard pigs early before sundown and hurry off with my own wooden stool so I would not miss a scene straining at the elevated screen for an hour or so. It was always a treat. Never mind the stiff neck the morning after. Coke and other soft drinks cost only ten (10) centavos per bottle. Thankfully we got to consume not too often those unhealthful sweet-laden treats (several spoons of sugar in every bottle) and other junk food. Yes only during birthdays or some important occasions. That was the world I only knew and was aware of. And cared about. Until I moved to the big city.