Putting the records straight

The country's mass media establishments have filed charges against the police and other officials for violation of press freedom. The cause - the taking in tow of journalists who were covering the charade of senator Antonio Trillanes and company at the Manila Peninsula Hotel in Makati last week.

What rankled the mediamen was the number of newsmen and newshens hauled off to Bicutan for “processing” and the fact that many of them were prominent media practitioners.

PNP chief Avelino Razon countered that police are still investigating the possibility that some mediamen had reserved a room in the hotel prior to the Thursday incident. In short, they may have had advance knowledge of what was going to happen.

But DILG Secretary Rony Puno came out with the theory that some of the mediamen may have obstructed justice because they failed to heed the warnings from their superiors to vacate the hotel premises before the scheduled police assault.

In short, Puno must be credited with having warned the news desks and the superiors of the mediamen that they were at risk because the police were about to launch their assault against Trillanes and company.

There are rules and guidelines of coverage of events similar to what occurred Thursday. In fairness to the mediamen, those who opted to stay behind knew the risks to their lives and persons. And they did not ask for special treatment in the event of a breakout of shooting.

Mediamen are aware that they could become collateral damage victims. That is something that cannot be denied. On the other hand, were they obstructing justice? Justice in this case meant the arrest of Trillanes and company.

It is another thing if some of them had shielded some of the wanted soldiers or officers from arrest. In which case, they are accomplices to the obstruction of justice charged by Puno.

But by simply covering what was happening did not make the journalists in that hotel parties to it. The most deplorable was the handcuffing of the TV crew of ABS-CBN and other TV channels in that post-scenario case. And their gruff treatment by the police.

On the other hand, mediamen should have been aware that the police and army personnel involved in the operation were combat troops. And we must also grant that they had been working under stress. Thus, their high-handed treatment of media personnel can be attributed to the adrenalin surge they had just undergone.

That is why it is important that the rules and guidelines of coverage must be clearly understood by all sides instead of post the fact that something like that had happened.

Gen. Geary Barias, it must be understood, was the commander of the NCPRO that controlled the soldiers and police. One must acknowledge among the officers on the scene, Barias was the most composed and comported himself with complete courtesy and ease.

Barias, therefore, must have succumbed to the tensions of the situation. The police was aware that some of the Magdalo men of Trillanes were armed with automatic weapons. These was clearly perceptible based on the film clips of the hotel scene before the police attempted their service of warrant on Trillanes et al.

Undoubtedly, what the police did afterwards was a clear violation of freedom the press. They even failed to inform the arrested newsmen of the charges for which they were being taken in tow.

Policemen are supposed to be trained in abiding with the Miranda doctrine. You just don't arrest anybody without a warrant of arrest. And if one suspects a mediamen of violating the laws, he should be properly informed why he is being arrested as a suspect.

In the incidents before Martial Law, I had been involved in covering riots and demonstrations in Metro Manila, including the First Quarter Storm before Congress. We often got caught in the tear gas explosions and had to cover our eyes with wet cloths. But we knew all the time that was not the intention of the police. We just were often in the middle of a melee. And we took it as hazards of the trade.

But what happened Thursday was post the event. In short, the commanders on the ground should have immediately taken command of

the situation and told the troops what they could do and not to do.

Putting handcuffs on the media personnel and peremptorily telling them they were to go to Bicutan “because that was the order of the higher ups” did not address the problem of misunderstanding and misinterpretation of the lawmen.

Thus, it is about time the media establishments try to clarify the problem insofar as the government's attitude towards media is concerned.*

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