Media watchdog: Duterte's words brought presidency to historic low

MANILA, Philippines — The Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) issued a strongly worded statement on Friday on President Rodrigo Duterte’s polemic against media organizations the day before, calling the comments from the president an attack against the institution and the country’s journalists.

CMFR’s statement contradicts the statement from the Palace which said that the president’s remarks were directed at unfair media coverage and not at Philippine media.

CMFR said that the “virulence and viciousness” of the president’s language was an “abuse of power, a stain on the freedom of our public forum.” CMFR said the president’s words had brought the presidency to a historic low.

“Being itself in the media, as both practitioners and watchdog of the profession, the Center for Media Freedom & Responsibility (CMFR) takes exception to, and strongly protests, the president’s accusations against the media and his imputations of political and pecuniary motives for their coverage,” the media watchdog said.

Duterte issued a hard-hitting criticism of the newspaper Philippine Daily Inquirer and broadcaster ABS-CBN in a speech on Thursday for their alleged bias and distortion of his words in their coverage. He accused these news outfits of letting money influence their reporting.

The president also said that the news outfits were negatively covering him because their preferred candidate lost during last year’s presidential election.

The Inquirer immediately denied the president’s accusations, saying that the local and international awards it had received would prove it had been upholding the highest standards of journalism in its coverage.

The newspaper also said that it had tried to get the president’s side in every issue.

ABS-CBN is yet to issue a statement on the president’s comments.

CMFR said that the media are just revealing the truth in the interest of the public, a duty which is protected by the Constitution.

The watchdog said journalists could be held liable if they were proven wrong.

The president, however, was not keen to pursue charges against those he perceived to have covered him unfairly, according to Ernesto Abella, the presidential spokesperson.

CMFR said that the president’s remarks constituted verbal abuse since they were made publicly and without bases. It labeled this “cheapest form of harassment and intimidation.”