Reflections on the Human Condition - Api-fellowships.org

410 SESSION VI
DEVELOPMENT AND PROBLEMS OF THE LOCAL MEDIA IN THE
PHILIPPINES AND INDONESIA
Kokaew Wongphan
IINTRODUCTION
This research began with the question – why does the
news that is concerned with the problems of local people
and society have so little place in the current media?
As a local reporter, I wanted to study the local media
in Indonesia and the Philippines in order to learn how
they are, how they influence the locality, and do they
participate in the development of the local communities?
The studies were done from 22 September 2004 to 10
September 2005, with five months in the Philippines
from 22 September 2004 to 10 March 2005 and six
months in Indonesia from 10 March to 10 September
2005.
The studies in both the Philippines and Indonesia
used the research tools of interviews with editors,
local reporters, alternative news producers, and nongovernmental
organization workers, as well as attending
various workshops and seminars of the local media as
an observer. The research fields in the Philippines were
Dagupan, Baguio, Davao, Tagaytay and Cebu and in
Indonesia, the research fields were Surabaya, Malang,
Yogyakarta, Bandung, and Medan.
Both the Philippines and Indonesia are archipelagos.
Indonesia is the biggest archipelago in the world,
consisting of 17,000 islands with a population of 230
million, most of whom are Moslem. The Philippines
consists of more than 7,000 islands with 3 major
groupings—the Visayas, Luzon, and Mindanao. The
population of the Philippines is 85 million, most of
whom are Catholic.
STUDY IN THE PHILIPPINES
Historically, the media in the Philippines and Indonesia
have had some resemblance to each other, specifically in
their participation in political transformation and in the
struggle with the autocracy that totally controlled the
media in both countries.
President Ferdinand Marcos was in power from 21
September 1972 until 25 February 1986, when he
was overthrown, and during this period, the media
in the Philippines was controlled under martial law.
During the Marcos Regime, the newspapers, radios
and televisions were closed, and a number of journalists
Ref lections on the Human Condition: Change, Conflict and Modernity
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who criticized the Government were arrested, detained
and even killed. The provincial newspapers and radio
stations were required to submit manuscripts and tapes
to the local Philippine Constabulary Commander
before distributing or broadcasting them. Besides this,
all media in Cebu were closed for a long time. A few
were able to ask for permission to re-operate, but most
were closed down.
“Only government-owned media outfits and those operated
by cronies of the president were permitted to operate.
The government stations were run by the National
Media Production Center (NMPC) and the Philippine
Broadcasting Service. The crony media included the Daily
Express and the Kanlaon Broadcasting System, which
beamed the Radio Philippines Network. Other newspapers,
radios and TV stations were allowed to resume operations
after a loyalty check and a vow to toe the official line.
Sanctions were on hand to punish the violators. Besides
censorship, there were libel suits, and worse - intimidation,
closure, and even death. Some twenty-five journalists were
killed between 1976 - 1986.”
Since the end of the Marcos Regime, the media have
enjoyed much freedom in reporting—ranking foremost
in Asia. In addition to a number of new-born media,
there are also many alternative media such as the
Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ)
and Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility
(CMFR) set up in 1989 to reflect social problems, as
well as play a role in social creativity.
As for media in the provinces, the most influential are
the radio stations, with television playing a secondary
role and newspapers ranking third. Since the Philippines
is an archipelago, the provincial presses are thus as
important as the national ones because readers want to
know about the events happening in their provinces;
they will read the national papers if they want to know
about national events. Therefore, some local presses in
the Philippines are good and have been continuously
operating up until the present, now in their third
generation. For example:
The Sunday Punch was founded in 1956 by Mr. Ermin
Garsia, Sr. The Sunday Punch is a community newspaper