Launch of The Philippine Report, Asian Media Barometer on Dec. 13, 2011

The Philippine media, one of the freest and most rambunctious in all of Asia, is an incredible, hopefully not incorrigible, story of dissonant trends and practices.

Press freedom has broad and firm guarantees in law and jurisprudence, but the Philippines remains one of the deadliest places in the world for journalists, even as the Executive and Legislative branches have been slow to move on strategic reforms, including the Freedom of Information Act.

Reporters and editors zealously guard and assert their freedom and resist all attempts by state authorities to restrict their trade, but self-regulation by professional and industry associations had always lacked for vigor and constancy.

Self-criticism of media by media remains scant and thus ineffectual, even as competition for sales, revenues, and audience share drives most editorial decisions of most gatekeepers.

As much as journalists zealously assert their independence from state authorities, and insist on the strict observance of the laws by political leaders, media managers have tended to ignore and neglect concerns of media rank and file about economic benefits, provisions for safety for those assigned to dangerous assignments, and security of tenure for correspondents and stringers in the provinces.

In gist, the Philippine media situation could be called an irony of contradictory currents — an excess of freedom and impunity unfolds amid a deficit of ethics and self-criticism.

These are among the findings of the Asian Media Barometer: The Philippines 2011 Report that will be launched on:

The PCIJ served as researcher and rapporteur of the Philippine study.

Three of the 11 expert-panelists who participated in the production of The Philippine Report will speak at the forum.

This first Philippine report of the Asian Media Barometer, a project of the Friedrich-Ebert Stiftung (FES), was co-organized and co-authored by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ).