Category Archive for: media

kultura

On Rappler, Ressa, “independence,” and global attention #MediaCrisis

At the end of 2018, Washington Post’s Regina Cabato and Kristine Phillips sent me questions about Rappler.com and Maria Ressa for a story they were doing. A bit of that long-ish set or responses landed in their profile on Ressa. I asked if I could publish their questions and my answers on my site, and they said yes.

I always welcome the opportunity to flesh out my thoughts, especially at a time when too much is happening, and we can barely keep our heads above water. This is Part 1: On Ressa, Rappler, mode of production, its claims of independence, and global attention.

One of the things you wrote was Rappler “has fashioned itself internationally as the bastion of independent journalism in the country,” and it is “seen by the international community as the only local media company that’s worthy of mention in the time of Duterte.” What makes you say this, and what are other local media companies that you think also deserve the spotlight?

Even before Duterte, and obviously ever since, the real source of independent reporting would be the alternative media of the Left: Pinoy Weekly, Bulatlat, Manila Today, AlterMedia, Kodao. These are media practitioners and writers who have been doing the stories that are not covered by mainstream media, across the different Presidents, and yes, mainstream media includes Rappler. Some of these alternative media sites were already online long before Rappler even went live, and are the true “independents” if we are to use the word at all: they are not funded by a huge capitalist, they are covering the stories of the people, the ones that don’t make it to TV or radio news, and they are on the ground covering stories that no one else is covering. (more…)

komentaryo

A reckoning: #Rappler and #MediaCrisis (Part 1)

I’ve generally stopped talking about Rappler. I stand with it in terms of the Duterte government’s blatant use of its power to silence and disallow its reporters from covering Malacañang, and certainly I will stand with the news site when it comes to the incompetent Mocha Uson proclaiming that the site is nothing more than social media, because I will side with a private entity over a government official wasting taxpayers’ money on idiocy.

But none of that means I’ve ceased to be critical of Rappler. And I will remain critical especially at a time when it has fashioned itself internationally as the bastion of independent journalism in the country, when it is seen by the international community as the only local media company that’s worthy of mention in the time of Duterte.

Replying to someone who thought exactly that on Twitter, I said Rappler has its own sins and sacred cows; another Twitter user asked for at least three instances to prove that opinion. In the interest of discourse: this is but one of a series of articles that will remind all of us of Rappler’s arrogance and failures, something that was used quite ably against it — for good or bad — by the Duterte social media campaign.

Let’s start with the Zamboanga Siege of 2013. (more…)

kultura

The refusal to give up today

This was published on July 27 2012, after the premier of the documentary “Give Up Tomorrow” at the 2012 Cinemalaya in CCP. Remembered it today, and reposting it, because for whatever reason, there is a film on the Chiong Sisters coming out this week. — KSS.

On the evening of July 16 1997, Paco Larrañaga was having drinks with his classmates from culinary school after a full day of exams. He went home at 2AM and was back in school at 8AM on July 17, for more exams. The teacher who proctors the tests swears that Paco was present in that classroom, his classmates are witness to his attendance – in school and for drinks the night before, official school records prove his presence, too. Paco was in Manila, and nowhere else, on July 16 and July 17 1997.

I insist on beginning this story this way, not because “Give Up Tomorrow” has successfully swayed me into believing that Paco’s innocent. This documentary’s power in fact is that it wasn’t out to sway anyone into believing anything, as it could and will only bring you to the point of disbelief, that slowly moves towards the territory of dismay, and then into that space that you know to be anger. Interwoven with a whole lot of shame, and plenty of sadness, here is a documentary that can only be heart-wrenching not because it might bring you to tears, but because it will tug at both emotion and rationality, heart and common sense. (more…)

komentaryo

Damage control, the Tulfos, and returning the P60M pesos

Will it matter at all that the Tulfos are returning the P60 million pesos that it received from the Department of Tourism’s (DOT’s) advertising fund placed with PTV4?

The answer is no. Because while that’s P60M in taxpayers’ money that changed hands from DOT to PTV4 to the Tulfos’ production outfit Bitag Media, and of course we want it returned, there is little here that tells us it won’t happen again. Neither is there any indication that more of it isn’t happening. See, there are just too many other questions about this triumvirate of two government agencies and one private company, bound together by the Tulfo name. There are too many questions that demand answers.  (more…)

komentaryo

Wanda Teo, a P60-million ad placement, and the stench of corruption (Part 3)

When news broke that Wanda Teo’s Department of Tourism had placed advertisements with her own brothers’ TV show which is aired on PTV4, it was no surprise. After all, there is an existing complaint against Teo from the concerned employees of the DoT, about alleged unethical, corrupt, questionable practices that has been languishing in Malacañang since June 2017, which also sheds light on the blind item (which turned out to be about her, as she herself responded to it) about a government official asking for free shoes and theater tickets from a hotel in Manila.

Teo has also NOT been forthright or upfront about the expenses of government for the Miss Universe pageant in early 2017, which she says happened without any amount coming from public funds, even as it is obvious that money was spent by government to hold the pageant here. A request via the Freedom of Information portal for a breakdown of expenses has yet to be responded to by the DoT; it’s been there for 100 days.

Which is to say that it’s no surprise that the Commission on Audit’s report on PTV4 has surfaced this obviously highly irregular (to put it kindly), and absolutely questionable and unethical (again, kindly), transfer of cash between Teo’s office and her brothers’ production outfit, which produces her other brother’s TV show.  (more…)