By Zeus Legaspi
For 38 years, Pulitzer Prize winner Manny Mogato has been caught at the crossfire of the events that shaped the Philippines’ recent history.
He was an inexperienced crime reporter when late dictator Ferdinand Marcos was at the brink of being ousted and is an award-winning journalist under incumbent president Rodrigo Duterte.
“There is definitely a contrast, but there are also similarities,” he said when asked about Marcos’ and Duterte’s treatment of the media.
“Relatively, there is freedom under Duterte. Because during the time of Marcos, there is a censor, especially during Martial Law. All of our stories go straight to Malacañang, and when your article contains even a slither of criticism towards the administration, they remove it,” he added.
Mogato, who was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his coverage on the Duterte administration’s ‘War on Drugs’ claimed that despite this, press freedom is worse under the current chief executive.
“Duterte is worse because he is attacking the credibility of the media. We saw back in 2016 (and) 2017, he lambasted them (the media), he called them ‘presstitutes’, dilawan, bayaran. This definitely had an impact on the citizens,” Mogato said.
Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2021 data says that only 30% of Filipinos trust news in comparison to its neighbors in the Asia Pacific whose numbers are around 40% to 50%.
Citing the incident of the broadcasting giant, ABS-CBN’s, franchise denial under Duterte, the veteran journalist claimed that other mainstream broadcasting corporations felt the ‘chilling effect’ and went on to report less adversarial news against the administration.
“Even if you do a content analysis, you’ll see that others became tame,” he asserted.
President Duterte, prior to his inauguration in 2016, threatened to ‘personally attack’ journalists who are critical of him.
The chief executive’s communications office is also accused of operating ‘troll farms’ on social media which discredits the work of journalists.
“It is more difficult to be a journalist today because of social media. The trust of Filipinos towards the media is low. Before, when a journalist says something is true, it is believed to be true, but now, even when your information is complete, people still choose to believe in what they see on Facebook”, Mogato said.
When asked about what it means for the press to be free, the veteran journalist said that freedom lies in the media’s ability to report what is true without being silenced or hindered by any force.
“Our media is essential. If the press is gone, our democracy will follow”, he added.
