MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine STAR columnist Cito Beltran told media practitioners not just to criticize their news sources but to praise them as well.
“We have distrust, we are suspicious and we always think that because we are media, our job is to criticize and you always think because you are government, your job is to hide,” Beltran said in a forum yesterday.
He dared media practitioners to break the rules in reaching out to news sources.
“I don’t make the habit of being critical, it’s not always about criticizing and we should do more praising,” he said.
Other speakers were Philippine Information Agency-7 officer-in-charge Minerva Newman and Association of Government Information Officers-7 president Dale Mark Antonio, who talked about the limitations and problems of government media.
The theme of the forum was “Government and Media in a World With No Wangwang” with the word “wangwang” being equated with corruption.
Held at the Marcelo Fernan Press Center as part of the 17th Cebu Press Freedom Week celebration, the forum was hosted by The FREEMAN and BANAT News of the Philippine Star Group of Publications in partnership with the Visayan Electric Company and the Cebu City Marriott Hotel.
Beltran emphasized the need to trust and protect news sources.
“You cannot expect that in this no-wangwang generation that everyone will be punished, everyone will be persecuted,” Beltran said.
Beltran said that media has to choose its battles and must be able to tell the differences between a scapegoat and a “sacred cow”.
He also said many keep attacking President Benigno Aquino III for so many things.
“Don’t attack the building, not everything is the president’s fault. You have to distinguish who is the culprit and who is responsible. When you call someone names, it gets personal, when it gets personal nothing will ever be resolved,” Beltran said.
He said media practitioners should be media practitioners and not agencies like the Department of Justice and the prosecutor’s office.
“Don’t be confused about your role, you are not secret agents,” Beltran said.
Beltran also warned that while being the vanguard and being vigilant is already a given for media professionals, they should take care not to become watchdogs that just bark and growl.
“We hope you come to realize that we all have a shared responsibility to be vigilant to be vanguards but we also have a responsibility to recognize others to praise others and to lift others,” Beltran said. –/BRP (FREEMAN)