GMA to media: Help fight terrorism

President Arroyo called yesterday on journalists throughout the world to help fight the twin scourge of terrorism and poverty.

Addressing the World Freedom Day rites at Malacañang, the President asked journalists to highlight the good news more, rather than report the "seedy part of the day."

"We must defeat terrorism not only with force but with enlightenment," Mrs. Arroyo said.

"But there is a deeper reason why the press must be deeply involved in the fight against terror as it is accepted that terrorism is aimed at an audience beyond its immediate victims," she added.

The President stressed that terrorism operates in a "broad arena of public awareness and discourse, molding a psychological landscape of its own."

Meanwhile, the Philippine STAR led by its chairman and publisher Maximo Soliven and his wife, Dr. Preciosa Soliven, secretary general of UNESCO-Manila, hosted a dinner for visiting UNESCO Director General Koichiro Matsuura, as well as local and foreign delegates to the just-concluded international conference on media and terrorism.

During the Malacañang ceremony, Mrs. Arroyo awarded the Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Award of 2002 of the UNESCO to Geoffrey Nyarota, editor-in-chief of the Zimbabwean newspaper Daily News.

The Chief Executive also conferred a posthumous award to Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl from the UNESCO Philippine National Commission headed by Mrs. Soliven.

The award was received for Pearl by US Embassy charge d’ affaires Robert Fitts.

Mrs. Arroyo said that in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States, she launched a 14-point counter-terrorism program that involved cooperation of the media.

She also said she solicited the media’s support in the implementation of government policies and programs, enlightening the people on the rationale behind the anti-terrorism campaigns and promoting consensus as well as constructive criticism.

She also underscored the importance of the media’s help in depriving terrorists of the benefits of "glorified coverage and publicity, and most of all in maintaining calm, sobriety, prudence and solidarity in our society."

Mrs. Arroyo identified specific areas of cooperation between the government and the journalists in the fight against terrorists. These are:

• Informing the public of the full dimensions of the terrorist threat, especially the relationship of physical and psychological action.

• Mustering cooperation with the executive, legislative and judicial authorities in meeting terrorist threats through operational and criminal justice programs and legislative measures.

• Strengthening local institutions and civil society to bolster the vigilance of ordinary citizens against terrorist threats.

• Enlightening the public on the constitutional issues involved in the fight against terrorism and ensure that the basic rights of citizens are protected.

Vice President and concurrent Foreign Affairs Secretary Teofisto Guingona Jr., who has just returned home from a trip to Durban, South Africa, along with Nyarota, attended the farewell dinner held at the O. B. Montessori campus in Greenhills, San Juan.

In another development, Sen. Noli de Castro extolled Nyarota as he expressed support for advocacy for the protection of journalists.

De Castro, himself a veteran broadcast journalist before becoming a politician, said he fully subscribes to the position taken by the delegates to the conference that the fight against terrorism is not reason enough to control the media and the reporters in the performance of their duties.

The senator believed that this is an opportune time for his fellow journalists worldwide to call on heads of governments and their military to respect always the rights of reporters to untrammeled pursuit of their mission.

Among these rights, De Castro said, is editorial independence, confidentiality of information sources, access to information, freedom of movement and privacy of communications. — Paolo Romero, Romel Bagares