Refusing bribes best way to fight media corruption

CEBU, Philippines - Ethics is between you and your conscience.

This was one of the important points discussed by Philippine Press Institute executive director Jose Pavia in a talk yesterday about Ethics and Envelopes in Election Coverage attended by students and some members of the media.

During the election period it is not uncommon for reporters to be offered bribes in different forms.

Discussing about the challenges that media practitioners usually encounter on election coverages, Pavia said that the only way to stop media corruption starts first in your backyard.

Pavia said all media outlets should enforce a code of ethics that media should refrain from receiving gifts or cash or any forms of bribe as media is there to serve the public.

“Ethics is between you and your conscience. In accepting gifts, we may be compromising our ethics. As media practitioners, we have committed our vow of poverty, obedience and excellence,” he added.

The moderators, The FREEMAN copy editor Joeberth Ocao, Cebu Daily News reporter Ador Mayol and IBC13 TV reporter Janice Callino, shared among others their experiences during such coverages.

Mayol said he has encountered four incidents of having had envelopes placed in his hand after press conferences.

The Freeman’s Ocao also shared on how political press releases will be addressed in the newsroom.

“We screen most of the stories. It’s easy to determine if it’s plain news or PR. The editors will have a conference on their judgment of the story before it will be published in the paper,” he said.

Callino said that the challenges she usually has being in a government-run station is that she get to encounter blockage in some of her stories especially when it comes to reporting against the government.

In dealing with bribery, Ocao, Mayol and Callino said that reporters should observe ethics --refrain from receiving gifts and other forms of bribery from news sources. – Jasmin R. Uy/BRP