“A free press needs to be a respected press.”
—Tom Stoppard
By Alex P. Vidal
EVEN if I have been writing from outside the Philippines for several years now, several readers and friends have continued to badger me “to write something” about Manuel “Boy” Mejorada’s reported arrest recently.
I have nothing to write, I replied to them.
In the first place, I don’t have the complete detail of his reported arrest; why, when, where, and how he was “arrested.”
Despite our past quarrels and personal differences, I still consider Boy Mejo (that’s how we call the former Iloilo provincial administrator) as a friend being a former colleague in Iloilo media.
We don’t badmouth or add fuel to conflagration when our brother in profession is in dire straits, whatever the reason or reasons for his reported arrest.
Boy Mejo has been at odds with a lot of politicians, mostly from the city and province of Iloilo, who had filed cases for cyber libel against him.
The ones filed by Senator Franklin Drilon had been reportedly decided with finality by the Supreme Court in the Ilonggo senator’s favor.
If he was arrested in relation to this case, it’s a victory for the justice system, but a defeat not only for Boy Mejo, but also for the freedom of the press and expression, and for the media community as a whole.
I believe that, in a free country like the Philippines, press freedom is better abused than curtailed.
I believe that no journalist (or blogger whatever they may call him) must spend a minute in jail for the crime of “libel” or “cyber libel” against a public official.
My last conversation with Boy Mejo was when he contacted and interviewed me “live” in his vblog in March 2021 after the video, showing I was verbally attacked by a bully inside a subway train in New York City, went viral at the height of the Asian hate crime in the United States.
We wish him well, wherever he is now (initial information more than a week ago said he was brought to the NBI in Manila).
-o0o-
READERS who disagreed with us wrote “letters to the editor” or opinion pieces submitted by readers, which were published in the op-ed or “opposite the editorial page” section of the newspaper (or as a backronym the "opinions and editorials page").
This was the vogue in print journalism when the Internet wasn’t yet part of the mainstream and social media, and news websites weren’t yet conceptualized.
It’s the best way for readers to express disagreement or opposition to the opinion writers, or to call the opinion writers’ attention if we committed a sin of omission and commission, so to speak.
It’s a healthy interaction; the beauty of the freedom of the press and expression.
There are contemporary readers who still continue to write letters to the editor until today; they send them through the normal process in the postal office, and through the electronic or e-mail for those who have laptops and desktop hardwares.
-o0o-
Printed opinions or those expressed on air and on television don’t constitute the gospel truth.
It’s called opinion because it’s a view or judgment formed about something, not necessarily based on fact or knowledge.
Some opinion makers in the mainstream media, however, are allowed or authorized by the publisher and editor to use a space in the newspaper or news website because of their proven expertise and proficiency on certain subject matters; or empirical competence as “columnists.”
There are letters to the editor that are column-materials or rich in facts and substance, and there are letters to the editor that are written horrendously and not fit for publication even in the obituary page.
The publisher or the editor, as the gatekeeper, will still have the final say which letter to publish and which one is for the dustbin. Ditto for the regular columns.
Independent opinion writers who dabble in a myriad of legitimate issues can be easily spotted from PR writers who promote certain products or political personalities or parties in a pretext of column-writing.
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two dailies in Iloilo.—Ed)
