N.B. – This was published in Asian Correspondent (January 4, 9:30 p.m.) where I write a weekly column (“Philippine Fantasy”).

How should journalism be taught at a time when journalists are killed with impunity and the government remains hostile to press freedom?

The following questions need to be answered:

1. Should aspiring journalists be taught to practice “cold neutrality” in handling issues?
2. Is it right for a professor to encourage students to consistently follow the law?
3. Can professors and students just simply dismiss the media situation and just limit the classroom discussions to the theories related to journalistic writing, with special emphasis on grammar, syntax and diction?

The Philippines is said to be the freest press in Asia given the consitutional guarantees of press freedom and various laws that seek to protect freedom of speech and other basic freedoms. There is, of course, a difference between freedom of speech and freedom after speech as journalists and activists face dire consequences for exercising what is supposed to be their constitutional rights.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), in a yearend statement last December 30, stresses that 2009 “will forever be remembered as a year of unprecedented tribulation for the Philippine Press, with the November 23 massacre in Ampatuan town in Maguindanao making its grisly mark in history as the worst ever attack on the media.”

For its part, the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says, “This has been a year of unprecedented devastation for the world’s media, but the violence also confirms long-term trends… Most of the victims were local reporters covering news in their own communities. The perpetrators assumed, based on precedent, that they would never be punished. Whether the killings are in Iraq or the Philippines, in Russia or Mexico, changing this assumption is the key to reducing the death toll.”

NUJP statistics show that 99 journalists have been killed since Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo became President in 2001, the latest being Zamboanga del Norte-based radio commentator Ismael Pasigma who was gunned down at around 6.30am last December 24. According to NUJP’s Alert (December 31), he “was on his way to work when shot at close range. The motive for the killing is still unknown as of this writing.”

CPJ data, on the other hand, show that at least “68 journalists worldwide were killed for their work in 2009, the highest yearly tally ever documented…The record toll was driven in large part by the election-related slaughter of more than 30 media workers in the Philippine province of Maguindanao, the deadliest event for the press in CPJ history.”

Journalists in the Philippines have been killed with impunity since 1986 despite the end of Martial Law (with the ouster of the late President Ferdinand Marcos) and the supposed restoration of democracy. The NUJP counts 136 journalists killed for the past 23 years, or an average of one killing every two months. The killings have worsened under the Macapagal-Arroyo administration as an average of one journalist got murdered every month from 2001 to 2009.

Going back to the previous series of questions, the answers become clear as one deepens his or her understanding of the media situation in the Philippines.

1. “Cold neutrality” cannot be observed in a situation where the killings of journalists become the highest form of censorship. The stakes are too high for journalists to practice indifference to the culture of impunity that gives rise to media repression. Neutrality actually becomes counterproductive to the shaping of public opinion if one considers that a journalist is expected to analyze and not just present the data. One can even argue that the mere presentation of data — which source to put in the lead, for example – is already an analysis by itself which, to a certain extent, reflects the slant of the article. Suffice it to say that there is a difference between neutrality and objectivity, the latter being the value that responsible journalists should aspire for.
2. While laws are necessary to maintain order in society, there are laws that end up muzzling the media instead of protecting them. It is in this context that various media organizations, for example, had opposed the imposition of Martial Law in Maguindanao and took police and government officials to court for being enemies of the press. The NUJP notes that the December 9 rally at Mendiola was “historic” because it was led by the media organizations themselves and joined in by various non-government organizations. Observing the unity between the media and their audiences in the wake of Ampatuan Massacre, one cannot help but conclude that media killings prompt journalists to become “activists” in their own right.
3. In journalism, there should be no dichotomy between form and content because both of them are important. While effective journalistic writing requires a respectable command of the language, the shaping of public opinion which is the journalist’s primary responsibility cannot happen if a journalistic output is bereft of analysis. The challenge for journalism students is to acquire the necessary skills and knowledge of articulating their analysis in a manner that can be understood by their audiences. And once they venture into their chosen field, this will serve as their everyday challenge as they report on pressing social issues.

In order to be effective, the teaching of journalism should therefore remain critical of the forces that perpetuate media repression. But in the event that professors fail to deliver, it is incumbent upon journalism students to acquire not just the nose for news but also a critical eye. To assuage their hunger for information, they should not only read but also observe the reality around them. They should also consider taking part in mass actions especially when it comes to media-related issues.

Just as improvement of one’s grammar greatly depends on the actual practice of writing, journalism students should not expect to be taught the nuances of critical analysis inside the classroom. Their line of thinking, after all, can only be sharpened by the consistency and longevity of their social involvement.