PNP order decried as attack on free press
MANILA, Philippines -- In a move a top ABS-CBN news executive said could be an attempt to scare the media, the Philippine National Police Monday ordered the network giant to submit its raw news footage of Thursday’s march by rebel soldiers on the Peninsula Manila hotel and the ensuing standoff.
The media giant’s dramatic, hour-by-hour coverage of the seven-hour standoff had raised questions among investigators, including suggestions that the network might have known in advance about the uprising.
“You are commanded to appear before the office of the Southern Metro Manila Criminal Investigation and Detection Team ... on Dec. 5, 2007 at 10 o’clock in the morning and bring with you a DVD copy of raw video footage [of the] March,” PNP Director Edgardo Doromal said in his order to Maria Ressa, head of the ABS-CBN news and current affairs department.
“FAIL NOT UNDER THE PENALTY OF LAW,” the order said in bold letters.
In a statement, Ressa branded the order as apparently part of a continuing attempt to “intimidate and harass journalists” and indicated a “gradual erosion of press freedom” in the country.
Reached later on the phone, Ressa said the network was still studying its options and had not yet decided whether to comply with the order.
“We want to cooperate but we want to make sure what we are being asked to do,” she said, noting that the network had been getting “confusing” signals from the authorities.
A senior government official, speaking to the Philippine Daily Inquirer the other day, had said the refusal of members of the ABS-CBN crew to heed police orders to vacate the hotel raised questions about whether they were there to report a news event or were conspiring with the rebels and “obstructing justice.”
The ABS-CBN crew was not the only media group that refused to heed the police ultimatum to withdraw. About 30 other journalists from various organizations also held their ground so they could report to the public what was happening inside the hotel.
ABS-CBN policy
The PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group ordered Ressa to appear and produce the video tapes at the Southern Police District headquarters in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City.
Doromal specifically ordered Ressa to bring with her the raw footage of the march of Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim and 13 other members of Magdalo soldiers and civilian supporters.
In an interview earlier Monday, Ressa, who also furnished the Inquirer with a copy of the CIDG order, maintained that “as a policy we rarely release raw video.”
“What you’ll get (is) what was in the public airwaves, what we’ve aired,” she said.
Later in a statement, Ressa insisted that “in no instance did ABS-CBN ever ‘obstruct justice’ or prevent authorities from taking action in Thursday’s standoff in Makati.
“ABS-CBN continued its live coverage because the public has a right to know,” she said. “We calculated the risks, took precautions for our team, and made the choice to stay.
“’We did our job -- to make sure that whatever actions both sides take, they are accountable to the people,” Ressa stressed, adding:
“Statements from law enforcement and government officials now seem confused: As some officials tell us there is no probe on ABS-CBN, I receive a subpoena ‘commanding’ me to appear at a police hearing on Dec. 5.
Erosion of press freedom
“It seems attempts to intimidate and harass journalists continue. These actions show a gradual erosion of press freedom and degrade our country’s democratic processes,” Ressa said.
A day after the bloodless siege, the network issued a statement condemning the “illegal arrest” of the more than 30 journalists and cameramen who were inside the hotel during the assault.
Claiming they were acting on suspicions that some rebels had disguised themselves as members of the press, police then manacled some of the journalists and then took all of them to Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan, Taguig City, for “processing” -- along with the targets of the police assault: Trillanes, the other soldiers and their civilian counterparts.
Ressa said there were 12 ABS-CBN personnel among those arrested, including TV reporter Ces Drilon. The rest were producers, engineers, drivers and researchers.
Ressa reiterated the network’s stand that “the arrest of 12 of our journalists along with our other media colleagues is unconstitutional.”
‘Nothing to hide’
“We have nothing to hide,” Ressa said in the interview. “All I can say is we did our jobs. Did the security forces do theirs?
“I feel that some of the questions that have been thrown up (by the investigators) -- and which reporters would pick up -- are all without basis. I don’t know what’s suspicious about (my staff) doing their jobs well.”
In the same interview held at Ressa’s office, Drilon said, “The decision (for the ABS-CBN team) to stay was based on our reading of the situation.
“In previous instances, the (2003) Oakwood mutiny, the 1989 coup, deadlines passed without an assault. And they (the rebels holed up at the Peninsula) had very little arms to put up an effective resistance.
“So where was the danger?” Drilon asked. “If it’s tear gas -- and our office told us that tear gas will be used and gave as a choice (to leave or stay put) -- my instinct was to go to the bathroom and get wet tissues or towels. It was not to leave.”
Call for probe
Ressa recalled that when ABS-CBN got a call from the authorities asking that it pull out its news team from the hotel, she conferred with the head of news gathering, Charie Villa.
“What was the danger? We all covered Oakwood, all the different mutinies here. They were not going to bomb the building,” she said.
Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile told reporters the government should look closer into the franchise of television and radio networks to determine whether they had overstepped the boundaries of their broadcast license in their coverage of Trillanes’ botched takeover of the Peninsula Manila.
Enrile stressed that unlike the print media, TV and radio networks were covered by more rigid rules because they operated on a franchise granted by Congress, which was why the government had greater control over their operations.
Need to be careful
Enrile said the government should look at the coverage of the standoff by the broadcast networks to determine if they had violated their franchise.
The event was covered by practically all the major TV and radio outlets in its entirety, allowing the Trillanes group to monitor the police assault operations on the hotel’s TVs.
Enrile said this was why broadcast stations should be more careful in their coverage, especially if it involved the overthrow of the state.
Enrile said he could not say whether the broadcast stations had indeed violated their franchise.
“This has to be looked into first before we make any conclusions,” he said. With a report from Gil C. Cabacungan Jr.
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