Sunday, April 15, 2007

Unleashing the media geek in me

Last week, we instructed our batch of interns this year to read and study, among other publications and documents, two recent publications of the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility. Now I just remembered that I haven't posted something about these goodies. With the elections fast coming and the continued attacks against the press, these books sure come in handy.

AS A contribution to the efforts to further professionalize journalism practice in the Philippines, the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) has released an ethics manual for journalists and media practitioners in the country last March.

The CMFR Ethics Manual: A values approach to news media ethics

Based on American journalism scholar Edmund Lambeth’s values approach to media ethics, The CMFR Ethics Manual: A values approach to news media ethics demonstrates the link between principle and practice, giving reason and meaning to both prescription and prohibition.

Written by CMFR executive director Melinda Quintos de Jesus and deputy director Luis V. Teodoro, the manual reflects CMFR’s stand that ethical journalism cannot be divorced from competent journalism. The standards of competence and ethics are not in conflict but support each other. Ethics promotes all basic human values. The requirement of speed has to be balanced by the more important need for accuracy, for example: ethical practice means journalists need to get it right and on time.

The manual is designed for those in practice —journalists who find themselves confronted by problematic situations during coverage and on the beat. Questionable practice has become the norm, unquestioned for its commonness.

Limited Protection: Press Freedom and Philippine Law
The 1987 Constitution clearly protects freedom of speech and expression in the Bill of Rights. But the terms of this protection are vague, even in the interpretation of the courts, where those in power can file libel charges against journalists with the greatest of ease.

To provide journalist a better understanding of their rights and the protections they can seek from law, the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) published Limited Protection: Press Freedom and Philippine Law last December.

Read here for more information about these books and other CMFR publications.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

haay. halos lahat ng binabasa ko ngayon trash. Hahahaha.

Anonymous said...

pwede ba mag-order online?

Hector Bryant L. Macale said...

@ dana

hahaha. after getting such high grades from our well-esteemed professors in cmc, you deserve your trash reads. :P


@ luthien


yes. will ask our circulation about department about it. can you send me your contact details (name, address, telephone number) to hbmacale@gmail.com? thanks.

 
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