Aquino draws flak for slamming media anew

President Benigno Aquino III on Friday slammed what he called an unbalanced reporting on crime, again drawing the ire of a journalism advocacy group.

“Is it too much to ask that reportage on crime be balanced?” Aquino said in his speech at the agenda-setting dialogue with partners at Malacanan.

“It is indeed dismaying sometimes, because we see that if a sensational crime occurs, it reaches the headlines; while if the crime is solved, we would need to scour the pages for a small report on page 20,” the President said further.

He cited as an example reports that policemen were involved in a kidnapping incident along EDSA, which made recently made rounds in social media.

Putting PH in bad light?

“Might I ask: is this the first time that we have seen scalawags in the police? It might be true that there are some scalawags in uniform,” Aquino said.

“But who, after all, caught those who held up a businessman in EDSA? It was the police, as well, under the leadership of General [Alan] Purisima who investigated, pursued, and caught those lawless elements,” he said.

The President also noted that “a plethora of crimes has already been solved, including high profile cases” and that the police’s images has been transformed.

“And because the solution is not adequately covered by media, it cannot be avoided, then, that a number of our countrymen continue to believe that the Philippines is a dangerous and lawless country,” Aquino lamented in his speech.

China on Friday issued a travel warning for the Philippines, amid rumors that criminal groups are planning to attack the China embassy and other public areas.

‘Not Aquino’s cheering squad’

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, however, said Aquino is only looking for “someone to blame for the woes plaguing our country under his watch.”

“[M]edia is not bereft of prominently placed articles, features, columns and even editorials extolling him and his daang matuwid,” said NUJP Chair Rowena Paraan.

She noted, however, that, these reports are “alongside, of course, material that is critical of the many missteps he and his acolytes seem to have a penchant for.”

“We are called the Fourth Estate for good reason, to act as a watchdog and a foil, on the people’s behalf, to the corruption and abuse of power that passes for governance in this benighted land,” Paraan said.

“May we again remind Mr. Aquino that the media are not your cheering squad,” she said further. “We are not obliged to churn out only praise releases for you.”