The media and the elections
by Tita C. Valderama
WHEN media groups started going about the grim task of compiling a list of journalists killed in the November 23, 2009 massacre in Maguindanao, there was a brief moment when the numbers wouldn’t add up.
While it was clear that many of the victims worked for local newspapers and radio stations, some of the victims held positions that did not seem to be connected to journalism.
by Rowena C. Paraan
MA. THERESA Briones thinks it’s bad enough that her father had to spend five years in jail – including two years with hardened criminals – because something he wrote offended someone. But now five libel cases are again hovering over her father’s head, and 22-year-old Theresa can’t help but cry.
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| Posted Thursday, September 17th, 2009
Burma before and after Nargis
by Tita C. Valderama
IT IS Southeast Asia’s largest country in terms of land area, yet there is reason why Burma is unfamiliar to many people, even within the region.
For one, it has been isolated for the last few decades as a result of both Burmese and international actions. For another, press freedom is unknown in Burma, which means accurate and up-to-date information is hard to find — and report — even within the country itself.
First Person: August 21, 1983
by Joel C. Paredes
WE DIDN’T even hear the shots. Someone had to tell us about the gunshots outside, and then I saw Doña Aurora Aquino stand up and start praying. Roberto Coloma of Agence France Presse, meanwhile, quickly grabbed the nearest phone and began breaking the news to the world.
A few minutes later, foreign TV correspondent Ken Kashiwahara managed to slip into the airport VIP lounge, which was by then packed with people. As he slumped into a couch, he cried, ”Ninoy was shot! Ninoy was shot!”
First person
by Tita C. Valderama
YANGON, MYANMAR — How long should the Burmese people suffer?
Cyclone Nagris that hit this former capital of Myanmar and its neighboring areas last weekend has made the already impoverished people in far worse situation in the months, and maybe years, ahead.
The death toll, initially reported by cable news networks at four on Saturday evening, quickly multiplied to at least 10,000 by Monday night. The military government gave an exact number of 243 deaths late Saturday, and then 351 deaths, hours later.
Crossborder
by Joseph Israel M. Laban
DILI, EAST TIMOR — What has been described as East Timor’s leading independent daily operates out of four small rooms and has a budget that threatens to disappear altogether every day.
‘It’s not just the leadership that must change. The people, too, must change’
AFTER TWO people power revolutions where her publications played a role in removing disgraced presidents, Eugenia ‘Eggie’ Apostol retains an optimism that can only come from one who has scaled the mountains and sees the larger view.
“It’s not just the leadership that must change,” she says. “The people, too, must change.”
