WHO IS A JOURNALIST?: PPI runs forum recognizing the life of journalists

By Aila Kate I. Moreno

The Philippine Press Institute and Hanns Seidel Foundation joined forces in organizing “Philippine Press Institute (PPI) Public Forum: Who is the Journalist?” last July 7, 2021 via Facebook live stream and Zoom Cloud Meeting.

The event was attended by more than a hundred participants from various media outfits and universities around the Philippines.

The panelists were Photojournalists Center of the Philippines Chairperson Ezra Acayan, ABS-CBN News Senior Contributing Editor and Blogger Inday Espina-Varona, ABS-CBN Europe and Filipino Channel Correspondent Jofelle Tesorio, Al Jazeera Broadcast Journalist Jamela Aisha Alindogan, Sunstar Davao Editor-In-Chief RJ Lumawag, and UP College of Mass Communication Associate Professor of Journalism Danilo Arao.

Each panelist shared their own definition of who the journalists are. They also discussed their opinions about the Media Workers’ Welfare Act and the inequalities happening within the media industry.

The panelists answered questions from the participants during the discussion. The event was hosted by PPI Executive Director Ariel Sebellino and Manila Standard News Editor Joy Pañares.

 

DEFINING A JOURNALIST

Rolando “Rollie” Estabillo, the CEO and Publisher of Manila Standard, emphasized the difference between being a reporter to a journalist. He said that a journalist covers a deeper dimension of reporting by presenting the “how?” of the news reports.

“Go back to the basic… you have the five Ws, ‘who,’ ‘what,’ ‘when,’ ‘where,’ and ‘why’ these are the basic tools of what a reporter is. But then, if you become a journalist, there’s something there that goes deeper. It’s the ‘how,’ the how gives you another dimension of just reporting what’s going on right now, so that distinguishes a mere reporter to a journalist,” Estabillo said.

Espina-Varona agreed with Estabillo saying that anybody could quickly gather facts and news, but the reportage of the “how?” and adherence to the code of ethics separates journalists from citizen journalists.

Meanwhile, Arao gave three perspectives in describing the journalists: theoretical, empirical, and normative definitions.

According to him, the theoretical definition explained journalism as the “creation, distribution, and vetting of news and information.” At the same time, the empirical description stated that a typical journalist is a “38-year-old full-time worker with a communication or journalism degree.” The normative definition highlighted the journalist’s strict observance of professional, ethical standards.

Tesorio also shared that a journalist must have the ability to distinguish facts from fiction.

 

MEDIA WORKERS’ WELFARE ACT

The House Bill (HB) No. 8140, also known as the Media Workers’ Welfare Act, secures wage rights and benefits to all employees in the media industry.

While this bill seemed to benefit the media workers, some panelists expressed their concerns about the proposed legislation.

Lumawag explained that the standardization of salary brought by the act would be difficult to achieve by the community press, especially in the current pandemic where advertising revenues are limited.

Arao also criticized the measure for its proposed minimum wages for media workers.

“I’m looking for the financial statements analysis na ginawa nila para ma-determine ‘yong mga salaries ng mga reporter, camera persons, news anchors… If I’m not mistaken, P25,000 yata’ yong gagawing minimum para sa reporter. Actually, this looks attractive. Kaya lang saan ba hinugot itong mga figures na ito?… Baka mamaya nangangako ka lang ng ganito kalaking halaga pero di mo alam kung sa’n kukunin. How financially viable is it?” he said.

In a PhilStar article dated January 19, 2021 (House OKs bill on media workers’ welfare sans ‘contentious’ higher pay), ACT-CIS party-list Representative Rowena Niña Taduran said they revised the original proposal containing the minimum wage requirement of P20,000 to P60,000 for Metro Manila media workers

The final bill approved by the House of Representatives stated that media workers would get paid by at least the current minimum wage in their region.

 

UNFAIR TREATMENT

Lumawag revealed that based on his experience, there had been a divide between national and local journalists at every national event held in Davao.

Lumawag that there would always be separate areas for Manila-based journalists and local journalists coming from Mindanao.

“It does not foster a healthy relationship between journalists and does not foster a way of learning from one another kasi may divide eh. So you guys are being separated, and then you guys are just mingling with who you are with or with your group and probably just learning what you can there when in fact, there are other things you could learn from, let’s say, from the journalist from Metro Manila or from [the] journalist who [works] for international news outfits,” said Lumawag.

Acayan expressed his sentiments on the underappreciation of photojournalists inside the newsroom.

“Kulang sa collaboration e. Kulang sa collaboration ng photographers… some newsrooms don’t even have a dedicated photo editor. Minsan’ yong nag-hahandle ng photos sa newsroom is not even really versed in pictures,” he said.

Acayan also mentioned the heavy reliance on Philippine newsrooms in handouts in terms of images and videos.

He emphasized that this practice should stop and entrust the job of taking photos and videos to photojournalists instead.

The replay of the online forum is available on PPI’s official Facebook page: https://web.facebook.com/philpressinstitute/videos/1202067270311536.

(The author is a Communications and Media Studies student of UP Visayas)