Manila hostage crisis: Responsible or irresponsible media coverage?
By Izah Morales – August 24th, 2010- Yahoo News Southeast Asia
Following Monday’s hostage crisis, the media finds itself in the middle of a fiasco.
Some media observers and even the public are now pointing their fingers on the live coverage of the siege, which might have agitated the dismissed cop Rolando Mendoza to start shooting inside a hijacked bus carrying Hong Kong nationals. At least 10 were reported killed during this bloody siege.
In an interview with Yahoo! Southeast Asia, media critic Vergel Santos said the media should have not aired the grievances of Mendoza’s brother, Senior Police Officer 2 Gregorio Mendoza.
“I think they apparently covered the affair in practically the same as other coverages. In past cases, no one had been killed. The media should have been more aware of certain things and should have taken into account that the brother was creating a spectacle that could have agitated the hostage-taker,” said Santos.
“But we should not blame the media. The people involved in the situation are tense, even the police. The police didn’t know what to do,” added Santos.
Photojournalist Voltaire Domingo, bureau chief of NPPA Images, told Yahoo! Southeast Asia that the media was very professional during Monday’s hostage crisis.
“We did not interfere whatsoever with police operation. We were very far away from the scene and had to bring longer telephoto lens to cover the event,” said Domingo who was present during the hostage crisis at the Quirino Grandstand in Manila.
“The problem was policemen did not cordon off the area [to prevent] civilians from entering the media area. There were times when the policemen would asked the crowd to vacate the media area but when there were updates, nauuna pa ang mga miron at usisero sa unahan para maka-tsismis [the bystanders were even racing to get the news]. This is what happened when they were bringing out casualties outside the bus. Nauna pang tumakbo sila papunta sa bus! ,” recounted Domingo.
Media critics said that media outfits took advantage of the situation for ratings sake.
Independent journalist Inday Espina-Varona defended the government’s watchdog and wrote in her blog, “I will say this: there is little talk (nor thought) of ratings when lives hang on the balance. And however flawed coverage may be — and there will always be flaws — journalists do care about the lives they cover. But like the authorities and the comfortable we are professionally bound to afflict, media will have to listen with grace to criticism.”
Poynter Online, a resource website for journalists, laid out guidelines for covering hostage-taking crises. The guidelines stated the following:
“Always assume that the hostage taker, gunman, or terrorist has access to the reporting.
Avoid describing with words or showing with still photography and video any information that could divulge the tactics or positions of SWAT team members.
Challenge any gut reaction to “go live” from the scene of a hostage-taking crisis, unless there are strong journalistic reasons for a live, on-the-scene report. Things can go wrong very quickly in a live report, endangering lives or damaging negotiations. Furthermore, ask if the value of a live, on-the-scene report is really justifiable compared to the harm that could occur.”
More than fifty members of the Yahoo! Answers community had mixed reactions and feelings about how the media covered the crisis. Majority said that the media crossed the line and should have implemented a news blackout while the police were doing their operations.
“The live coverage of the hostage crisis proved to be detrimental to any progress that was to be made in the negotiation. Yes, the media crossed the line when they revealed too much information and put lives in danger. The public has the right to know, but people’s lives are at risk here. It is common protocol to not divulge any of the negotiators or police tactics to the media for the hostage taker(s) will probably have access to news reports,” said Yahoo! user Red The Haze.
Yahoo! user Rommel believed that the media helped in giving the position and movement of the policemen.
“The media should be responsible and know when to turn off the camera. Police should have ordered a news blackout so the media will not interfere on the police work,” said Rommel.
Meanwhile, Yahoo! user Venisse said that the media should not be blamed.
“It is their job to cover the story and it is their responsibility to the people to give all the information they can gather. They’re just doing their job. On the other hand, I think it is the Manila Police, the PNP and the government (both local and national) that should be totally blamed in this story. They just showed to the Filipinos and to the rest of the world how incompetent they are when faced with such situation. Their delayed reaction, lack of control and wise judgment, pure ego and arrogance for hold of power resulted to bloodshed which claimed at least 9 lives including the hostage taker himself,” answered Venisse.
Yahoo! user Oliver agreed to Venisse’s answer saying, “In this situation, I don’t think that the media was at fault. I mean, media people were even filling in the lapses that the policemen have, like conversing with Captain Mendoza.”
While other users said that both the Philippine National Police and the media were at fault in the situation.
Photos by Jerome Ascano/NPPA Images.
No comments:
Post a Comment