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23
Dec
Joey III lauds Senate boost to media practitioners
The Senate’s passing of the Freedom of Information Act could become a turning point for Philippine media, IT businessman Joey de Venecia III said yesterday.
“With this law, investigative journalists can expose corruption and all kinds of wrongdoing in the government,”he said, “Philippine media can become an even more powerful force in nation building.”
Noting that the country’s press has long been considered the freest in Asia and one of the most vibrant in the world, the ZTE-national broadband network whistleblower recalled how his expose became known to all Filipinos through print and broadcast media.
The leading senatorial candidate said he would like the House and Senate to create more laws that will help mediamen and women perform their jobs more efficiently.
He noted that in the US, which passed its own Freedom of Information Act many years ago, newsmen could work wonders. He cited the work of Woodward and Bernstein on the Watergate scandal, which led to the fall of President Richard Nixon.
The Philippines, he said, had its share of committed journalists whose only agenda is to report the truth, regardless of who gets hurt.
The son and namesake of former Speaker Jose de Venecia — himself a journalism graduate — said Filipino newsmen were among the world’s best, whether in print, broadcast and the electronic media.
His own pioneering work in broadband has helped Philippine media practitioners not only spread news, but also helped them in research, the foundation for good stories.
Joey de Venecia, however, expressed sadness that the Philippines has now become the most dangerous place in the world for journalists, especially after the massacre of 57 civilians in Maguindanao last month, more than half of whom were journalists.
“Before they were killed, some of the 30 slain newsmen were able to inform their families and peers of their imminent death as ordered by Mayor Andal Ampatuan through their cell phones,” he pointed out.
Their use of IT turned them from being mere victims to heroes of Philippine journalism. They “literally died in the performance of their duty.”
After the Freedom of Information Act, de Venecia said he would like Congress to decriminalize libel next.
“It is another tragedy that we have journalists who have been imprisoned because they dared write stories unfavorable to powerful politicians.”
In Mindanao, for example, an editor was imprisoned because he allegedly libelled Speaker Prospero Nograles. This would have been unthinkable during the five terms that his father served as Speaker, according to deVenecia.
