ABS-CBN justifies hostage coverage

MANILA, Philippines - Maria Ressa, head of ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs, maintained yesterday that even if the network had delayed the airing of parts of its coverage of last Monday’s hostage crisis in Rizal Park, it would not have changed the outcome and viewers would probably have just switched stations.

Amid criticisms over the network’s blow-by-blow account of the hostage crisis, Ressa said: “No one (television) network has the power to do a blackout.”

“If we (ABS-CBN news team) had unilaterally pulled away, it wouldn’t have affected the situation,” she said during a forum at the University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication.

“If sometime in that situation I could pick up the phone and talk to Jessica (Soho of GMA Network), ‘let’s stop,’ then maybe (we would have stopped),” Ressa said, referring to her counterpart at the rival station.

Ressa acknowledged the fact that ABS-CBN aired a report detailing the positioning of the police during the assault.

“One of our reporters was giving too much information,” she added.

Journalism professor and former UP CMC dean Luis Teodoro said the live reports on the position of the police team at the time of the assault were a “gross violation” of protocol developed through many years of the journalism profession.

“We could blame the police for arresting the brother (of hostage taker dismissed police Senior Inspector Rolando Mendoza). But why did the media decide to air it live?” Teodoro said.

Ilang-Ilang Quijano, national director of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, said some journalists clearly violated ethical standards and guidelines.

Ressa maintained that the police or the government should have set ground rules especially during the critical period of the 11-hour hostage crisis at the Quirino Grandstand.

“When there are no rules, we push for what we can get,” Ressa said.

Ressa even challenged the police and asked: “Why allow journalists in an area near the command post?”

She added that had they stopped the blow-by-blow account of the incident, including the arrest of the brother of former senior inspector Mendoza, or delayed their airing, “we would have been criticized by the viewers or what viewers would have done is switch stations.”

Ressa appealed to the public to “please don’t over blow it,” referring to criticisms raised against the broadcast media for their live coverage of the hostage crisis.

The Manila police chief went on leave while four other police officers were relieved because of their hesitation and lapses during the assault on the tourist bus where dismissed policeman Mendoza held the Hong Kong tourists hostage.

Mendoza, who was dismissed from the police force last year for extortion, commandeered last Monday a Hong Thai Travel tourist bus in Intramuros and held hostage 21 Hong Kong tourists and four Filipino guides for several hours in front of the Quirino Grandstand at Rizal Park in Manila.

The suspect, armed with an M16 rifle and a pistol, had released several hostages before the SWAT team assaulted the bus, resulting in the death of the hostage taker and eight tourists.

Police hostage negotiators said Mendoza turned violent due to frustrations after failing to get his demand to be reinstated to the police force.

Ressa said: “It’s very easy (to criticize) when you’re not there.” She added that while their editorial board was working during those times, the decision-making process was “fast” considering the nature of the coverage.

There was no representative of GMA News and Public Affairs present during the forum but a statement from the network was read: “We are now taking a second look at our existing policies and processes to determine how these can be improved and how we can fill up what is lacking. At the end of this review, we will come up with a revised set of rules and guidelines to be implemented during situations that pose risks to our personnel and to the public.”

GMA said the network was open to a dialogue with authorities on the matter. ABS-CBN, in a statement, had asked broadcast media colleagues to come together for an “industry review.”

Teodoro said there should be a meeting among media organizations to thresh out parameters to reduce the tendency to try to outdo each other during similar situations.

National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) called on journalists to exercise self-examination amid the criticisms on how the media covered the hostage crisis.

NUJP chairman Nestor Burgos said it is media’s responsibility to cover events and report these as comprehensively and truthfully as possible, “but some colleagues clearly violated ethical standards and established procedures and guidelines in covering crisis situations including hostage-taking incidents,” he said.

Burgos urged media men to abide by previous guidelines in covering crisis situations including hostage-taking, while also urging news organizations to ensure that those it assigns to cover these situations are adequately trained and informed.

Police probe media liability

Police investigators are looking into the possible liability of members of the media during the hostage crisis.

Director Leon Nilo de la Cruz, chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), said investigators are analyzing the chronology of events from the time the hostage taker boarded the tourist bus until the end of the standoff.

De la Cruz said that investigators were in the process of case buildup for legal steps against reporters, who interviewed Mendoza over the telephone at a critical moment, thus blocking negotiators from dealing with the hostage taker.

He said initial analysis on Mendoza’s mobile phone unit showed that the suspect received several calls from a landline telephone between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. last Monday.

Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Jesus Verzosa said the phone conversation between Mendoza and the person at the other end of the line could help investigators establish the turn of events.

“It’s very critical… there are things that are being correlated, the CIDG is analyzing the entries of the cell phone, which will be correlated to the actual footage of the live coverage,” Verzosa said.

He said the critical points in the case could be when Mendoza boarded the tourist bus, then the start of the negotiation and how it developed.

“In the beginning his temperament was good, he (Mendoza) acceded to some of our requests by releasing hostages, so we are looking into the sudden change of his mood. We will correlate not only what is happening inside the bus but also outside, specially those that are covered live and then monitored inside, through the TV monitor inside,” he added.

A reporter admitted during a hearing at the Senate that he interviewed Mendoza, but clarified that the hostage taker was already in a bad mood during their conversation.

Meanwhile, Malacañang officials would start meeting with executives of media agencies next week to lay down guidelines for coverage of crisis situations and allowing police operations to go unhampered and prevent another bungled operation in the future.

Communications Secretary Ricky Carandang told reporters that they might start by meeting with small media groups first.

“There will be no conditions. I want to listen, I want to hear (from them),” he said in an interview late afternoon yesterday, after he and Presidential Spokesman Edwin Lacierda visited the Press Office at the New Executive Building.

The Kapisanan ng mga Brodkasters sa Pilipinas has also scheduled a meeting with Interior and Local Governments Secretary Jesse Robredo and Philippine National Police chief Director General Jesus Versoza, following the hostage crisis at the Rizal Park.

KBP president Herman Basbaño said they are glad that the two accepted the invitation. The meeting is aimed at coming up with measures that would avoid the same fiasco in the future.

President Aquino earlier said his Cabinet members, among them former broadcast journalist Carandang who is now secretary for the Presidential Communications Office, will be holding a dialogue with the media regarding the coverage of such situations.

“The state cannot impose prior censorship. We’re trying to put conflicting principles into unity,” he said, noting that the presence of media, including kibitzers, had somehow hampered police operations. With Cecille Suerte Felipe, Delon Porcalla