De-pressed

“WERE it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without government, I should not hesitate for a moment to prefer the latter.”
Heel, ye maddened martial mongrels unleashed by Proclamation 1017. This is no advocacy for the downfall of the Macapagal-Arroyo government.
The greatest republican – and unarguably the greatest intellectual of America’s presidents – Thomas Jefferson paid that supreme tribute to the press – albeit prior to his presidency and subsequent rows with the first American muckraker, “that scurrilous scoundrel (James) Callender” – strong in his conviction that “To the press alone, checquered as it is with abuses, the world is indebted for all the triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity over error and oppression.”
My free interpretation of Jefferson leads to the conclusion that the press is supreme over government in service to truth, liberty, and humanity itself, and, consequently, the press holds a moral ascendancy over government.
Considered from this high moral ground, the assault on media instanced in the raid and police occupation of the Daily Tribune offices, and the clear and present danger to press freedom poised by General Order No. 5, as enunciated by the police top dog, are an affront to liberty, a mockery to democracy, a disservice to humanity.
“Shock and awe” intended to induce a chilling effect on media appeared as the primary objective of PNP Chief Lomibao’s reading of the virtual riot act that is GO No. 5. Let me just remind Lomibao: “Shock and awe” was the US oplan for the Iraqi invasion. Look where it got the US. Neither shocked nor awed by the state-of-the-art US war materiel, Iraqi insurgents have, as of last count, sent home over 2,000 US troopers in sealed, starred-and-striped boxes.
For all the sensitive care with which the Palace factotums handled any discussion of the state of national emergency with the no-martial-law recurring refrain, still the martial slip showed in Lomibao’s take on GO No. 5. Did he not warn media to hew to “standards set by government” in the practice of journalism, or face dire consequences ranging from police take-over of media operations to closure?
The closure of media facilities – The Manila Times and ABS-CBN in 1972 – is standard martial law practice. So is the government setting the standards for media to follow in the exercise of their profession. It is not too distant in the past to forget the Marcosian Bureau of Standards for Mass Media (BSMM) that set as the highest standards of journalism practice the apotheosis of Apo Ferdie and the idolatry of Imelda the Beautiful.
So should the standards be now pegged at Gloria in excelsis?
“Overkill” was how former President Fidel V. Ramos termed Proclamation 1107. We are reminded here of Ninoy Aquino’s analogy on the declaration of Martial Law: “You don’t use a .45 to kill a fly.”
Seemingly a panicky over-reaction, the state of emergency negated all the proclaimed gains of the Macapagal-Arroyo administration, most especially in the area of economic stability. Witness how the strengthening peso tumbled vis-à-vis the dollar upon the issuance of 1107. Why, no less than the finance secretary was reported to have said that the state of emergency would have some non-positive impact on the economy.
The intent of a coup confided by one soldier to his very superior did not warrant a state of emergency for the whole country. Especially after the President herself assured the nation that everything was under control, her control. And we readily believe her. The disproportion though in the words uttered and the actions taken by the government leaves a chasm of credibility, nay, of incredulity.
Thus, even greater is the loss of the administration in the free market of ideas. By clamping down on the critical press, it showed its weakness to contend in the realm of reason, in the field of propaganda as well, despite its own formidable media machinery. By Proclamation 1107, the government compensated with brawn what it sorely lacked in brains, as it were.
A relevant read in these times – for the government to take heed and the press to find inspiration – is in Areopagitica (1644), John Milton’s greatest work of prose hailed as the greatest defense of the freedom of expression in all history: “And though all the winds of doctrine were let loose to play upon the earth, so Truth be in the field, we do injuriously by licensing or prohibiting to misdoubt her strength. Let her and Falsehood grapple; who ever knew Truth put to the worse in a free and open encounter.
For who knows not that Truth is strong, next to the Almighty. She needs no policies nor stratagems, nor licensing to make her victorious – those are the shifts and the defenses that error uses against her power. Give her but room, and do not bind her while she sleeps.”
So while the nation slept, the Daily Tribune was bound. We go on sleeping, we shall all be bound.
(Pampanga News, March 2-8, 2006)