Duterte Sponsors
Did President-elect Rodrigo Duterte actually blame slain journalists for their own demise when he said that those who were killed in the line of duty were either corrupt or biased?
Basing on the news articles written on the issue, it seemed like he did.
His camp, however, believes otherwise.
Peter Tiu Laviña, Duterte’s campaign spokesperson, on Wednesday (June 1) scored the media for supposedly twisting the President-elect’s opinion on media killings.
“Again and as usual Rody Duterte was taken out of context, misinterpreted and misunderstood,” he lamented in a statement.
Laviña explained that Duterte was merely speaking from experience when he said that some journalists were killed because they continue attacking certain personalities even after they accepted bribes from them.
“His (Duterte’s) example of most slain journalists as being corrupt or involved in shady deals was based on his own assessment of those killed in Davao City and not on the national scale. Certainly, Duterte has no personal knowledge on each and every single case of media killings in many parts of the country,” he said.
Asked at a press conference in Davao City regarding his administration’s policy on media killings, Duterte remarked: “Karamihan ‘yan, alam mo ‘yan nabigyan na, especially if you want to take sides, nabayaran mo na tapos you play. ‘Yan ang karamihan ng namatay. Or tumatanggap na sa mga sugarol tapos bira pa rin.”
“You really want the truth? ‘Yun ang truth,” he added.
Duterte said journalists who do not engage in questionable activities should not be wary of being a target for killings.
“Kasi kung journalist ka na tama, wala namang gagalaw sa iyo, especially if it is true. I mean, you cannot hide the truth, by the way, “ he said.
Laviña said that when the President-elect said journalists have become vulnerable to killings, “it was because they were no longer seen as fair and neutral members of the media but because they have become partisan propagandists, deliberately using their media outlets in attacking or defending one party or another and collecting pay offs on both.”
He cited their experience during the campaign season for the national elections, when newsworthy articles were supposedly bumped off “to give way to paid black propaganda masquerading as news items.”
“In the context of Duterte’s campaign against corruption, his remarks indeed should be seen to mean a reminder or a message that there are also corruption in mass media. And he has seen this during the recent election when headlines, for instance, Hence, he said you really want the truth? well that’s the truth,” Laviña said.
Even before winning the presidency, Duterte’s campaign spokesperson said he already placed importance on solving media killings by vowing to create a Task Force to address them and ask for a special prosecutor to focus on these cases.
“I repeated the same stand when I joined members of the National Press Club (NPC) visit the wake of the most recent victim of media killing, Alex Balcoba, last Monday night (May 30),” Laviña recalled.
Post a Comment