[Media-watch] Troops to join Philippine media as journalists - Philippine Daily Inquirer - 13/08/2004

[Julie-ann Davies]

http://news.inq7.net/regions/index.php?index=1&story_id=3957
 
Troops to join media as journalists 

Updated 10:35pm (Mla time) Aug 12, 2004 
Inquirer News Service 



Editor's Note: Published on page A17 of the August 13, 2004 issue of the
Philippine Daily Inquirer 

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Zamboanga del Sur, Philippines -- They will be the real
embedded journalists.

At least 30 soldiers from the Philippine Army, Navy and Air Force will
soon become members of the mainstream media after they finish a 10-day
seminar-workshop set to start next week.

Maj. Gamal Hayudini, chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines' Civil
Relations Service in Western Mindanao, said the soldiers will be trained
on "actual radio and television reporting and they will do coverage
regularly like the other mainstream media."

Hayudini said the move was an idea of former intelligence chief Victor
Corpus. He said initial coordination had been made between officials of
the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP) and the AFP radio
station dwDD in Camp Aguinaldo two weeks ago.

After the training, Hayudini said, the soldiers will report directly to
radio and television stations, and "do what regular reporters do
including following instructions from the station managers."

The AFP, Hayudini said, will pay for the soldier-reporters' salaries.

Hayudini said the move had nothing to do with spying on reporters and
journalists' activities, "but simply intensifying the AFP's campaign
against terrorism."

In Mati, Davao Oriental, the head of the provincial chapter of the KBP
said the best weapon against threats is responsible reporting.

"You (only) hit because you have to hit people in the government who are
not doing their jobs," Romeo Bote Jr., host of a daily commentary
program over Manila Broadcasting Company's affiliate station Radyo
Natin, said.

Bote said irresponsible practice could be one reason journalists are
being attacked.

"It is really true that many radio broadcasters nowadays have become
irresponsible. They attack people in the airwaves without (any) reason
and worse, they make money out of that. But that should not be the
reason to kill journalists," he said.

Bote said if despite being responsible, journalists are still
threatened, then they should already arm themselves.

"The best way to put up a fight against these people who are out to kill
us is to arm ourselves. We could no longer rely on government
authorities to protect us," he said.

Last year, Bote's Radyo Natin station in Lupon town came under attack.

Unidentified men fired at the station but no one was hurt in the attack.

"I was not inside the radio station when they strafed it. But I know I
was their target," he said. Ferdinand O. Zuasola, Julie Alipala and
Aquiles Z. Zonio, Inquirer Mindanao Bureau