But where are the
media guidelines?

PNP chief Arturo Lomibao announced following the police visit on The Daily Tribune Office yesterday that it would take over any media organization that would not follow the "standards set by the government during the state of emergency."

But he failed to produce the guidelines on the standards set by the government. It leaves the whole thing up to the police "censors."

That was an open definition. The government, he added, will examine the editorial contents of newspapers and the news views aired by broadcast stations to see if these confirm to standards, was how PNP chief Lomibao put it.

And he added also that "we will recommend (action) based on our evaluation."

The "raid" on the Tribune should have been accompanied immediately by the official proclamation of the guidelines of media standards, not just end up with the generalized "standards" which Lomibao failed to furnish the country's mass media establishments.

Back channel conference with the media moguls was announced as a means of linking up with media organizations. But that's as much as motherhood statement as the previous ones on the standards on which the evaluation and recommendations of overseer will be based.

Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye, who should have known better, seems to have become tongue-tied. He, himself, failed to come up with the so-called standards of conduct and editorial content which Lomibao asserted its personnel will oversee being implemented by media organizations.

Of all the dangers from the state of emergency proclamation, this is the point that could trigger a host of protests. In the first place, that was an unwarranted intrusion into the realm of press freedom.

Now it seems that there was no honest-to-goodness research into how far could the state of national emergency be limited. It seems the decision to implement it was hastily done. Thus, the reason for an open-ended generalized statement about media standards and what constitutes threats to national security.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo should clarify the parameters, or face a possible hornet's nest of criticisms and objections. No, not only from the Press, but the entire political spectrum.

The Tribune "raid" served as a sort of déjà vu. For me, especially.

When Proclamation 1081 was announced, it immediately after ordered the closure of media establishments all over the country. I was then president of the Negros Press Club.

But, I wish to assert that, thanks to then Maj. Marino Filart, acting Negros PC provincial commander, the PC never closed down any radio station or local newspaper.

The reason was simple. Filart did not know what to do except to send his men to close down the media establishments. Filart, however, was cautious about the order.

To ease the tensions and to avoid embarrassing incidents as well as to avoid any untoward confrontation, I asked Filart to allow me to convince the station managers and newspaper publishers and editors to voluntarily close down before they could be service the order.

Thus, properly speaking, media organizations in Bacolod City voluntarily closed shop. They were never shut down by armed men.

They were all closed down. But, just for the sake of quibbles, they were not ordered to do so under the barrel of the gun.*

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