The media and Ecclesiastes

"First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out because I was not a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Catholics
and I did not speak out because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me
And by that time there was no one left to speak out for me."

The above lines are attributed to Martin Niemoller, a German pastor and social activist, and are about his experience with the Nazis in his native country. Although originally written in German, it has since been translated into several languages and has inspired persecuted people everywhere. I don't know why or how, but it was the quotation that immediately flashed on my mind as soon as I heard about the plan of our government, to impose its "standards" on the media.

***

I first heard this quotation from former Senator and once press secretary Francisco "Kit" Tatad. We had invited him to be the guest speaker at the induction rites of the local press club sometime during the Martial Law years, when Tatad had already distanced himself from the Marcos administration. We knew that having him could lead us to trouble since the two Big Guns of the sugar industry here were both close friends of Marcos, and among his most trusted supporters.

***

Kit Tatad mesmerized everybody with his beautiful speech about press freedom and the need to speak out even if one was not directly concerned yet. We were all fired up by his admonitions, and we excitedly prepared the tapes for airing at a local TV station with which we had earlier made arrangements to show our entire program. What a shock we had when we found out later that, while the rest of the affair - the introductions, the swearing in, the minor speeches, even the dinner - had been shown, Tatad's speech had been snipped off! Oh what a furor this caused, with our members pouncing on the station manager who later confessed that he was afraid the speech would make his boss angry.

***

After a lot of fretting and fuming, we - the club officers who were female, decided to take the bull by the horns and sent a message to the owner of the station, the late Roberto S. Benedicto, citing press freedom, human rights, etcetera. And surprise! He gave the go-signal for the showing and we did not even have to pay for the extra time. And it was shown over and over, to our great satisfaction. I don't know if it is true, but we heard talk, maybe just gossip, later that the local station was even asked to explain why they censored it.

***

But perhaps it was still part of the Martial law policy, as we also heard much later. When Ninoy Aquino was murdered and the Manila media mostly ignored the story, with coverage only focusing on the peripheries, and comments greatly subdued (except for the renegade press there), the DAILY STAR, then only a year old, carried vivid reports supplied us by our friends in the international press. The reports did not appear in Manila, so we had to ship copies to Bacoleños there who wanted to read them. There was no fax, no e-mail, no internet, not even computers then. We headlined the burial story of Ninoy, and the leading Manila newspaper then had only the electrocution of a worker for its top story.

***

Readers and friends worried for us, concerned that we, too, might be sanctioned. We crossed our fingers every night after putting the paper to bed. We did not know then, but were told later that the dictator had specifically instructed his hounds to leave the small papers in the boondocks alone, because we could be used to show the international community that there is freedom of the press in the country!

***

Well, that was long ago, but what brought back Niemoller's words the day Proclamation 1017 came out? It was the statements from our colleagues all over the country that we should not be cowed because it is a time to speak out.*

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