Call For Media Restraint Subjective and Unethical

Written on Friday, June 13th, 2008 at 1:16 pm | by Letters To Editor

The following is an email response from Gil H. A. Santos to benign0’s “Restraint” And The Average Pinoy Schmoe. Mr. Santos served as bureau chief for AP and Dow Jones, correspondent for Time and Life magazines and editor-in-chief of Vox Populi and The Journal group of publications. He is currently president of Center for Philippine Futuristics and lecturer at the Lyceum and at the Asian Institute of Journalism and Communications.

June 11, 2008

The call for media “restraint” on the kidnapped Ces Drilon case is an example of subjective and unethical reaction.

This is subjective and unethical simply because the entire act of calling for media “restraint” is an effort to treat her and her crew as special and powerful personalities in our society. Journalists, wherever they are and regardless of nationalities, MUST not be treated as”specials and favored citizens” as they should be because they treat everyone equally the same–heads of States, government officials (elected or appointed), suspected criminals, hostages or hostage-takers and convicts. That’s part of the ethics of the trade. And we must adhere to that.

Journalists never ask for media restraints while they cover terrorists’ bombings and gory details are photographed for front pages or the hourly broadcasts on radio and TV. Why ask in Ms. Drilon’s case?

The problem is some of us in this trade, obviously cannot see that clearly particularly if he is the one directly or indirectly affected by the events or circumstances.

As news persons, Ces Drilon and her crew must have known what they were getting into.
Everybody–specially editors and publishers and fellow journalists–should have known that. They can all work out privately whatever they want but to call for media restraint and make that public is uncalled for.

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About The Author: Letters To Editor are the articles and emails that have been sent to Filipino Voices.

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3 Responses to “Call For Media Restraint Subjective and Unethical”

  1. When the one giving the news becomes the news « Manilenyo In Davao on June 13th, 2008 4:52 pm

    […] also this letter from  a professor saying that the call for media restraint is subjective and unethical and […]

  2. butch on June 15th, 2008 10:02 am

    But journalists, specially those at Ms. Drilon’s level, ARE special and powerful personalities in our society or at least they are perceived to be so. I agree that the call for a media embargo is subjective and unethical, but the fact remains that the public considers her and her ilk as celebrities, and treats them accordingly. Thus, ABS-CBN had no qualms about asking the rest of the industry to give them “special” treatment.

  3. benign0 on June 15th, 2008 11:10 am

    We take for granted the irony in the exceptional specialness of our regard for the elite and the famous — because many of us have grown up with servants who deferred to our whims and the notion that our welfare trumps those of a particular social sector of our society.

    It takes an ability to step out of that world and regard our society from an outsider’s perspective to be able to see just how un-egalitarian and unjust it is. I think the opposite of this — this insular view most of us evaluate our world with — is the reason why many here cannot see what is wrong with the attention and PUBLIC resources being sucked into this drama. The underlying issue is a lack of a SYSTEMIC effort to build a society that by its very nature assures EVERY citizen fair access to emergency and police services when needed.

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