Footnote to a farce about press freedom
Thursday, May 10, 2007
I GOT asked by a reporter last week if Mike Arroyo's decision to drop the charges against 46 journalists was something to be glad about in light of that day being Press Freedom Day.
My answer was: Why on earth should anyone be thankful for something like that? Why on earth should we see that as a boon to press freedom? Press freedom is not something we owe to him. It is not his to give or take, proffer or withdraw, as he pleases. Press freedom is a right. It is something to be enjoyed and exercised as a matter of course. It is not a gift that may be freely bestowed by the First Gentleman or his wife, especially since neither one of them has any rightful claim to the positions they occupy. It is part of the condition of our being as citizens who live in a democracy. Or who like to think we do.
Arroyo's own justification for doing it, according to his lawyer, is that he is grateful for the miracle of life granted him by heaven and would like to improve the quality of it. Not least by showing depths of generosity hitherto unassociated with him, or to share his providential bounty with others.
That is all very well, though as journalist Ellen Tordesillas pointed out on TV last week, if he were truly determined to show boundless gratefulness to Providence for a new lease on life and make amends, Arroyo could always extend his newfound generosity to not persecuting the oppositionist congressman and senatorial candidate Alan Peter Cayetano. To this day, Cayetano finds himself the object of legal and political harassment. But such are the surreal ironies of this magic-realist country. Cayetano should probably be thanking the First Gentleman for the harassment and begging him to not stop it. It has given him free and massively persuasive advertisement, catapulting him to the top of the senatorial heap, or near it.
While at this, one might add to Tordesilla's proposal that the reborn Arroyo also agree to open his book of deposits, apart from his book of life, to public scrutiny. That is what Cayetano has been demanding all this time: a blanket waiver. That was what Ping Lacson readily agreed to when he was accused of stashing deposits in the United States — and he did so while in the pink of health. If those deposits do not exist, then Cayetano will only run into a blank wall, which should be sufficient punishment for him. If those deposits do exist, they may be hidden from Cayetano and Juan de la Cruz, but they will not be hidden from God.
More than this, its all very well that the First Gentleman is parading a change of, well, heart before the world, but that is a matter for God and his conscience. That is not a matter for Juan de la Cruz and press freedom. His libel suits against 46 journalists constitute an attack on press freedom. It is not for him to show generosity or, heaven forbid, graciousness by dropping the charges against them. One is tempted to say it is for the journalists to do so by dropping their countersuit against him. But in fact it is not for the journalists to do so either: The transgression is not just against them, it is against the citizens. The issue is bigger than them.
Ironically, it was Arroyo's camp which completely refuted his justification for his libel suits, which was that he was a private person and not public figure. That was while he lay in a bed at St Luke's awaiting his doctors' and heaven's verdict. His friends and allies came out flush with praise for him, specifically highlighting how vital he was for his spouse and her government. One congressman even went on to say he was especially important in sandpapering and/or cementing the relations between his wife and the generals. He was her conduit, or special ambassador, to them. Without him, they would not be so tractable.
If Arroyo had decided to push through with his suit, that alone would have trashed it. He isn't-or wasn't-just a private person, he is-or was-a public figure.
A couple of weeks ago, newspaper publisher Jake Macasaet called me up to say that if Arroyo dropped the charges against them, he personally would continue with his own suit against Arroyo even if the plaintiffs in the class suit decided not to. He was especially incensed by the suggestion that Arroyo was doing him a favour by letting bygones be bygones. Arroyo was the one who owed him and not the other way around, Jake fumed (and when Jake fumes in his raspy voice, he leaves no doubt he is fuming). He would get what was owed him, monetarily and morally, while letting Arroyo experience some of the mental anguish he had caused him.
I told Jake I sympathised with him completely. I am one of the plaintiffs of the class suit notwithstanding that I am not one of the accused, and that was my position too. The reason I am one of the plaintiffs is that I believe this case goes beyond the egos of the parties concerned to the very core of press freedom, or this case goes beyond the interests of the accused to that of the nation itself. Its not just the 46 journalists Arroyo has put on the dock, he has done so all of journalism. I am one of the plaintiffs because I think its time we, the citizens, fought back to protect a right as vital as air itself.
Like murder and mayhem, harassment via libel suits is part of the culture of impunity. And like the culture of impunity, it is a most contagious disease.
It is airborne and spreads like a plague upon release. Look at how libel suits are rioting today.
You now even have Mega Pacific, the one company that screwed computerised elections having the gall to try to send the whistle-blower, Gus Lagman, to jail via that route. Enough already. Do unto the overbearing what they do unto us. They want to file libel charges at us, let us file charges right back. Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN
My answer was: Why on earth should anyone be thankful for something like that? Why on earth should we see that as a boon to press freedom? Press freedom is not something we owe to him. It is not his to give or take, proffer or withdraw, as he pleases. Press freedom is a right. It is something to be enjoyed and exercised as a matter of course. It is not a gift that may be freely bestowed by the First Gentleman or his wife, especially since neither one of them has any rightful claim to the positions they occupy. It is part of the condition of our being as citizens who live in a democracy. Or who like to think we do.
Arroyo's own justification for doing it, according to his lawyer, is that he is grateful for the miracle of life granted him by heaven and would like to improve the quality of it. Not least by showing depths of generosity hitherto unassociated with him, or to share his providential bounty with others.
That is all very well, though as journalist Ellen Tordesillas pointed out on TV last week, if he were truly determined to show boundless gratefulness to Providence for a new lease on life and make amends, Arroyo could always extend his newfound generosity to not persecuting the oppositionist congressman and senatorial candidate Alan Peter Cayetano. To this day, Cayetano finds himself the object of legal and political harassment. But such are the surreal ironies of this magic-realist country. Cayetano should probably be thanking the First Gentleman for the harassment and begging him to not stop it. It has given him free and massively persuasive advertisement, catapulting him to the top of the senatorial heap, or near it.
While at this, one might add to Tordesilla's proposal that the reborn Arroyo also agree to open his book of deposits, apart from his book of life, to public scrutiny. That is what Cayetano has been demanding all this time: a blanket waiver. That was what Ping Lacson readily agreed to when he was accused of stashing deposits in the United States — and he did so while in the pink of health. If those deposits do not exist, then Cayetano will only run into a blank wall, which should be sufficient punishment for him. If those deposits do exist, they may be hidden from Cayetano and Juan de la Cruz, but they will not be hidden from God.
More than this, its all very well that the First Gentleman is parading a change of, well, heart before the world, but that is a matter for God and his conscience. That is not a matter for Juan de la Cruz and press freedom. His libel suits against 46 journalists constitute an attack on press freedom. It is not for him to show generosity or, heaven forbid, graciousness by dropping the charges against them. One is tempted to say it is for the journalists to do so by dropping their countersuit against him. But in fact it is not for the journalists to do so either: The transgression is not just against them, it is against the citizens. The issue is bigger than them.
Ironically, it was Arroyo's camp which completely refuted his justification for his libel suits, which was that he was a private person and not public figure. That was while he lay in a bed at St Luke's awaiting his doctors' and heaven's verdict. His friends and allies came out flush with praise for him, specifically highlighting how vital he was for his spouse and her government. One congressman even went on to say he was especially important in sandpapering and/or cementing the relations between his wife and the generals. He was her conduit, or special ambassador, to them. Without him, they would not be so tractable.
If Arroyo had decided to push through with his suit, that alone would have trashed it. He isn't-or wasn't-just a private person, he is-or was-a public figure.
A couple of weeks ago, newspaper publisher Jake Macasaet called me up to say that if Arroyo dropped the charges against them, he personally would continue with his own suit against Arroyo even if the plaintiffs in the class suit decided not to. He was especially incensed by the suggestion that Arroyo was doing him a favour by letting bygones be bygones. Arroyo was the one who owed him and not the other way around, Jake fumed (and when Jake fumes in his raspy voice, he leaves no doubt he is fuming). He would get what was owed him, monetarily and morally, while letting Arroyo experience some of the mental anguish he had caused him.
I told Jake I sympathised with him completely. I am one of the plaintiffs of the class suit notwithstanding that I am not one of the accused, and that was my position too. The reason I am one of the plaintiffs is that I believe this case goes beyond the egos of the parties concerned to the very core of press freedom, or this case goes beyond the interests of the accused to that of the nation itself. Its not just the 46 journalists Arroyo has put on the dock, he has done so all of journalism. I am one of the plaintiffs because I think its time we, the citizens, fought back to protect a right as vital as air itself.
Like murder and mayhem, harassment via libel suits is part of the culture of impunity. And like the culture of impunity, it is a most contagious disease.
It is airborne and spreads like a plague upon release. Look at how libel suits are rioting today.
You now even have Mega Pacific, the one company that screwed computerised elections having the gall to try to send the whistle-blower, Gus Lagman, to jail via that route. Enough already. Do unto the overbearing what they do unto us. They want to file libel charges at us, let us file charges right back. Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN
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