Two views on media

Not too long ago, two media personalities spoke separately on the same role of, and challenges, to media on making an impact on people’s lives. The first was Felipe L. Gozon, GMA Network chairman, who spoke at the general membership meeting of the Bankers Institute of the Philippines on the role of media in promoting greater transparency, accountability and fairness towards strong governance.

The second, was Matiur Rahman, editor of the Bangladesh daily, Prothom Alo, whose investigative work won for him the 2005 Ramon Magsaysay Award in journalism, who addressed a forum sponsored by the Islamic Institute of Studies at the University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City, his topic dwelling on media and Islam.

Gozon started by saying that good governance is something that every Philippine institution must have particularly because globalization is now upon us.

The fundamental principles of fairness, transparency, honesty and accountability are necessary – be it for public governance or corporate governance – in an increasingly interdependent global economy, he said.

The application of the above virtues is very important if not indispensable in banking and media, he said. "Fairness or one’s ability to maintain objectivity even against his own interest is required in providing the necessary services to our clients and viewers. Transparency means openness and honesty in dealing with our stakeholders and others. Accountability simply means being answerable to and responsible for our actions."

Trust, Gozon said, is "the bedrock of our relationship with our clients and viewers (and) is earned when we apply these basic virtues. As you know, the trust of our customers or viewers in what we do is indispensable to our customers or viewers." If clients and depositors lose their trust, business will not survive. The same is true for media, he said. "For this reason, it is imperative to institute a culture of transparency and to set the highest standards in our operation."

Because what they do impact on society, the media and the banking sectors can share the responsibility of promoting good governance in our country. Banks and their allied financial services, the GMA network chair said, hold "the key to the success of our financial system, as they protect the lifeblood of the economy, generate savings and investments and support businesses and consumers alike."

On the other hand, media’s responsibility is to keep the public informed on matters affecting their lives, in line with the constitutionally-guaranteed right to information and freedom of the press.

"Media play a key role in the reform process and in building decent societies." Through their reports and actions, media have done a lot to promote transparency in government, business and civil society. "They have stimulated and broadened the debate in public policy and have played a key role in exposing and relentlessly following up allegations of corruption and questionable transactions not only in government, but also in the private sector."

He told of media achieving the triumphs of people power that ousted the dictator in 1986, and are currently in the thick of investigations into the jueteng and Gloriagate scandals. Media reported on price manipulation and inside trading involving shares of the firm BW Resources. The publicity generated by media prompted regulators, led by the Securities and Exchange Commission, to launch an investigation into BW which implicated a number of stockbrokers, as well as prompted the Senate to pass the Revised Securities Act. The SEC, at the same time, began pushing brokers to reform.

"Media should continue with more vigor to build awareness and knowledge of public and private sector practices and of issues affecting the lives of our people. They should not stop in monitoring performance and developments and step up the pressure when needed to require action on critical issues."

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Rahman spoke of the attraction of media across the world in the recent past to Islam’s "militant aberration." For example, the Iranian Revolution pushed Islam to the forefront of world attention. This revolution, "with its fierce and anti-western rhetoric was more of a domestic phenomenon, and very little of its contents were of exportable potentiality or success," he said. But 9/11 and 7/7 happenings "with alleged linkages to militant Islam spawned by obscure militant Islamic outfits have literally delivered knee-jerks around the world.

The Western media, Rahman said, more often than not, "has assumed the role of Islam and Muslim-bashing. There are, however, exceptions, which seek to address the roots of Muslim range and exonerates Islam as a religion of its violent spirit and tendencies, and finger-point to the shortcomings in the undemocratic global order and draws attention to the underlying politics of the religious militancy."

Rahman said there are "incendiary media coverages of (phenomena) of Islam both by promoters and detractors of Islam, and examples of which abound around us. This kind of media worries us, and well-meaning watchers of humanity have a moral responsibility to counter such ill-advised media coverages through building a well-meaning supermedia. Actions require sensitizing public opinion by putting across substantive positive elements of Islam as well as suggestive indications to go deep into the phenomenon of militant Islam, which might lead to successful coping with the violent phase of human history.

"Media as the strongest way to directly impact the human mind and public opinion has the inescapable moral responsibility to send across a loud and clear message that terrorism cannot be fought with provocative rhetorics through waging war the likes of which have been unleashed through Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and the Operation Iraqi Freedom. As is obvious, the Operation Enduring Freedom has, despite some temporary positive outcomes, have been fast running into an Operation Enduring Frustration.

"On the other hand, the Operation Iraqi Freedom has so far meant freedom from Saddam’s worst and cruelest tyranny, but not a freedom of the country. That the world is not any safer despite these many-pronged war on terror is the testimony to the imperative that militancy in the name of Islam needs different handling with different strategies.

"I frankly admit that I am simply echoing what has so far been put across in the well-meaning media. This admission of mine makes at least two senses. First, the strength of media in opinion formulation is unmistakably demonstrated. Second, quite unfortunately, well-meaning media outpourings have so far had no impact on the policy-making elites in the stakeholder countries around the world."

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Children’s Garden Philippines will celebrate its 50th year with a dinner at East Garden, Ortigas Extension, on Saturday, September 24. Children’s Garden was founded by former Secretary of Welfare Asuncion Perez and Dr. Charles Mosebrook, a Methodist missionary. To help underprivileged kids. For inquiries, call Lydia Niguidula, tel. 6605900, or Lillian Pickard, tel. 8230165.

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Mchiko Chiba, a certified Totsuka embroidery teacher, will be in Manila starting today, up to Friday. She will be conducting full-day lectures/demonstrations on the beautiful type of Japanese embroidery. Students may take basic or advanced courses at Unit 504 Parc Royale Condominium, Julia Vargas Ave., Pasig City. Contact Lilli de Leon for inquiries, at 0917 880 3327.

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My email: [email protected]