Filipino Journalists in Canada, US Decry Censorship

PHILIPPINE VILLAGE VOICE/The Filipino Web Channel - Redefining Community News

Currents & Breaking News
Volume 5, Issue No. 17
/ News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody /

. . . . . A community service of The Filipino Web Channel (TheFilipinoWebChannel@gmail.com) and the Philippine Village Voice (PhilVoiceNews@gmail.com) for the information and understanding of Filipinos and the diverse communities in North America . . . . . .


Hall E of Metro Toronto Convention Centre where Mabuhay Festival took place.

The News UpFront: (TOP STORY) as of Friday, July 29, 2011 ~ A waiver that selectively allows only the "friendly" writers unrestricted access to its events is the very antithesis of the freedom Filipinos fought and died for. That essence has been lost in Saturday's (July 23, 2011) staging of Mabuhay Festival by Philippine Independence Day Council and ABS CBN-TFC. Now, journalists from across Canada and the United States are protesting the unprecedented imposition. One journalist asks: Is PIDC, a non-profit organization, hiding some mischief?
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .


IT'S CENSORSHIP, AN INFRINGEMENT ON PRESS FREEDOM
Journalists Protest PIDC's Waiver on News Coverage

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ
Member, Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE), Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) and National Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada (NEPMCC)

TORONTO - An innocuous-looking piece of paper is kicking up a storm of controversy in the Filipino community after a local newspaper editor tore his media wrist band in disgust and walked off a press coverage during the weekend.

The incident provided the anticlimax to the staging of the Mabuhay Festival, a whole-day feast of songs, dances and food at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre that's still part of Philippine independence activities more than a month ago.

Officials of Philippine Independence Day Council (PIDC), the umbrella organization that undertook the event in Toronto, had asked journalists to sign a waiver requiring them to get PIDC's permission to use their own film footage or photographs and to provide PIDC with copies of their works.

A press accreditation in the form of a red wrist band was withheld if a journalist refused to sign the waiver, as did happen to this reporter.



Site of Mabuhay Festival on Saturday, July 23, 2011.

 When confronted with a waiver, another writer, Butch Galicia, editor of a monthly community paper in Toronto, firmly refused to sign it. He then cut his wrist band in protest and returned the remnants to the volunteers at PIDC's media booth.
 "It's an infringement on the press, a censorship," he told this reporter in an interview minutes after the incident on Saturday (July 23, 2011).

A co-sponsorship of the event by ABS CBN-The Filipino Channel, the Philippines' largest broadcast network, might have triggered the imposition to protect its talents from exposure, according to officials who did not want to be identified because of their ties with PIDC. The network brought at least seven performers from its base in Manila.

PIDC and ABS CBN-TFC co-sponsored the event. How much did PIDC get from the arrangement?

Journalist Tenny Soriano said he signed the waiver to get inside the hall and did not mind it because he wasn't taking pictures or videos. Later he realized it wasn't right that he'd be subjected to the requirement while others - those friendly with PIDC - were not.
 "Is it because some reporters belonging to the Philippine Press Club - Ontario (a social club) have connections with PIDC?" he asked.

PPCO officials, namely Paul De la Cruz, Mogi Mogado, Riza Khamal and Hermie Garcia, did not respond to queries emailed to them on July 26.

PIDC president Minda Neri also did not reply to inquiries.

"I guess those responsible for even thinking of the waiver had so unceremoniously implied a formal declaration that separated those who could really do journalistic work from those who pretend and could not do so," Galicia said.

He said the PIDC waiver was "censorship of the highest degree clothed in sheepskin".

"It smacks of the lack of respect some people have over those who have humbly bestowed on themselves the now-I-understand-as-the 'useless second-class' rag tag as 'community journalists.' The waiver's face value -- even without reading the words -- simply says: 'Kowtow to us or you'll never get anything good from us'," Galicia stated.

He stressed that it was also an infringement on press freedom "because it can dangerously place a practicing journalist on the plateau of bias and mistrust after being threatened with what the organizers implied as their doubtful, if not dubious, intentions".

A typical scene inside the festival hall.

News of the waiver imposition has generated a backlash of angry comments from journalists across Canada and the United States. Such requirement apparently has no precedence in Filipino community organizing in both countries.
"Who do those PDIC people think they are? I believe Canada has the same freedom of the press like the United States'," says Chicago-based columnist Don Azarias.

A practising lawyer in Toronto with years of working experience in media said "The author is apparently just trying to be cute, and unfortunately found in the waiver outlet for the legal talent that he thinks he has".

"In any event, the caveat in legal gibberish is a nullius in verba -- obviously unenforceable within the context of the very public event. Wika nga, threat lamok," he says laughing.

Seattle, Washington-based journalist Jesse Jose agrees. "Yes, this so-called waiver is plain and simple censorship. And in capital letters too. This event is a public event right in the heart of downtown Toronto, and they're curtailing journalists to report on it. So stupid, I think".

He continues: "I think it's laughable that journalists who want to cover this PIDC event and write about it have to have a 'written permission' from officials of this group. They must be a bunch of ignorant morons. Haven't they heard of 'freedom of the press'? What are they hiding? What do they fear."

Print and broadcast journalist Ace Alvarez said he did not believe that the waiver, as worded, is censorship or an infringement on press freedom.

"However," he emphasizes, "having the journalists sign the waiver is a stupid act, since journalists may write and publish, produce and air on radio and television whatever and however they wish to present their stories".

"A waiver of such nature as PIDC asked journalists to sign goes to show that the PIDC people themselves do not understand the nature of our work," Alvarez says.

"In addition to a very poorly worded piece of document, the PIDC did not accomplish something, except perhaps, to get a free copy of the news article and/or the radio/tv production, or perhaps free photos from those who took them -- if those who took them would even respect the waiver they signed," he added.

(This Currents & Breaking News may be posted online, broadcast or reprinted upon request by interested parties. Permission by the author and the editor must be obtained before any re-posting online or re-publication in print or re-broadcast. Copyright by Romeo P. Marquez, Editor, Philippine Village Voice, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Volume 5, Issue no. 17, July 29, 2011. Email at: TheFilipinoWebChannel@gmail.com, PhilVoiceNews@aol.com or CurrentsBreakingNews@gmail.com).

My news channels can be viewed by clicking the links:

The Filipino Web Channel at YouTube:
1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cT74cbxq6ak&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2FLYca354w&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

At Vimeo:
1. http://vimeo.com/16962555
2. http://vimeo.com/user4144767

For other stories, please visit:

1. http://currentsbreakingnews.blogspot.com/  
2. http://torontonewsroom.blogspot.com/
3. http://timecircumstance.blogspot.com/
4. http://travelsthemes.blogspot.com/  
5. http://gotchajournalist.blogspot.com/