Pope Francis talks about journalists

In 10 days, it will be the first one hundred 100 days of President Rodrigo "Digong" Duterte and in my search for the best analytical minds within the Cebu media, I nearly forgot that within MyTV Channel, I had two great talkshow hosts notably, "Open Mike" with Mike Lopez and "Republika" with Mr. Erik Espina. I cooked up an idea which turned out to be TV history in Cebu by fusing my own talkshow Straight from the Sky with Open Mike and Republika with one major topic, discussing the first 100 of Duterte.

Just on this one topic alone, our biggest problem was time. Yes one hour really isn't enough just to talk about what Duterte has done in his first hundred days in office. It is a sharp contrast to what his predecessor has done in his six-years in the presidency. Just a talk about the war against drugs took a lot of time. We even talked in passing about the "expose" of Senator Leila De Lima and what the high-profile prisoners said about her.

So watch Philippine TV history unfold as we fused three talkshows into one big talkshow, with my own show, Straight from the Sky, then with Open Mike with Mike Lopez and Republika with Erik Espina on the topic of the first 100-days of Duterte. So watch it tonight on SkyCable's channel 53 at 8:00PM with replays on Wednesday and Saturday same time and channel. We also have replays on MyTV's channel 30 at 9:00PM Monday and at 7:00AM and 9:00PM on Wednesday and Friday.

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Last week, we held the 22nd Press Freedom Week with The Freeman as convenor for this year. One of the culminating events was when we held an event with the Philippine Press Institute exhorting to end impunity and stop the killings of media people. While it wasn't a huge media event, it was important enough for Communications Secretary Martin Andanar to join us in front of the Capitol Building to light up candles in memory of the media personalities who were killed through all the years.

So I thought with the Press Freedom celebrations all over and done with, it was time to move to the more pressing problems of today. But then when I opened my email, a surprise of surprises appeared when no less than Pope Francis apparently received in audience the Italian National Council of the Order of Journalists. While this also happened while we were celebrating the 22nd anniversary of Press Freedom Week, I only got this report on my email last Saturday and I thought I needed to write about this event on the thoughts of Pope Francis about our work as journalists. This article came from Zenit: The World Seen from Rome and it was entitled, "The Pope to Journalists: No one can kill a person with words."

Here is what Pope Francis had to say about Journalists. "There are few professions that have so much influence on society as journalism does, in some way you write the 'first draft of history,' constructing the agenda of the news and introducing persons to the interpretation of events, and this is so important. Though the printed paper or television loses relevance in respect to the new media of the digital world - especially among young people - when journalists have professionalism, they remain an important pillar, a fundamental element for the vitality of a free and pluralist society."

The Zenit article pointed out that Pope Francis reminded journalists, and given this he has outlined to them three pillars which should always animate their important work. "To love the truth, something essential for all, but especially for journalists; to live with professionalism, something that goes well beyond laws and regulations; and to respect human dignity, which is much more difficult that one might think at first sight." 

As the Zenit article pointed out, "To love the truth, the Pope explained, does not only mean to affirm it but to live it, to witness it with one's work "to live and work, therefore, with coherence in regard to the words that one uses for a newspaper article or a television service." In face of the changes in the world of media, the Pontiff pointed out, "The Holy See has also lived and is living a process of renewal of the communicative system, of which you also should benefit; and the Secretariat for Communication will be the natural reference point for your valuable work."

While the Pope talked about journalism during the audience, the Italian National Council of the Order of Journalists was quite lengthy, here is my last quote from the Pope who said, "I realize that in today's journalism - an uninterrupted flow of facts and events reported 24 hours a day, and seven days a week - it is not always easy to arrive at the truth, or at least to come close to it. In life not all is white or black. In journalism also, it is necessary to be able to discern between the shades of grey of the events that one is called to report." With this quote we end our Press Freedom celebration.