Columns

Controlling the media narrative

When asked their views on media and press freedom as well as free expression, politicians of the Philippine variety will swear to high heaven their respect for both. But the most clueless among them about what both freedoms mean and what they consist of will do their all to diminish them once...

Educating the electorate

Educating the electorate

The Philippine experience with elections should have taught everyone by now that voter education is crucial to the present and future of this country.

Truth and Consequence

Truth and Consequence

The Filipino people just celebrated Independence Day, and one is reminded of the popular saying “The truth shall set us free!” These words are frequently uttered by oppressed peoples fighting for liberation; as well as by those whose freedom has been curtailed by acts...

The Dengvaxia Fiasco: Symptom of a Deeper Malady

The Dengvaxia Fiasco: Symptom of a Deeper Malady

The Dengvaxia fiasco is just a symptom of a deeper malady of the US-modeled health care system which is driven by market forces rather than by people’s actual health needs. This illustrates starkly the danger of putting health in the hands of profit makers rather than...

Reliving the past

Reliving the past

THE ONE-YEAR extension of martial law in Mindanao was a foregone conclusion. Even the political opposition predicted approval of it because of the overwhelming dominance in both the House of Representatives and the Senate of the allies and party mates of President...

Media Literacy 101: The Alternative Press and Media

Media Literacy 101: The Alternative Press and Media

THE phrase "alternative press" gained currency in the last years of the Marcos terror regime, when Jose Burgos' Malaya, We Forum, and other newspapers, magazines and news agencies were published to provide Filipinos and the rest of the world the information about...

Clear and Present Danger

Clear and Present Danger

THE dominant press and media are often constrained by the political and economic interests of their owners and even some practitioners. On the alternative tradition therefore falls much of the responsibility to defend press freedom and to provide the citizenry the...

Changes In Media Ownership During A Troubling Regime

Changes In Media Ownership During A Troubling Regime

WHILE any change in the ownership of media organizations should be a continuing public concern, it has become specially relevant at the present time, when the media need to sharpen their capacity to accurately chronicle and make sense of events and issues during the...

Reinventing Mocha Uson 

Reinventing Mocha Uson 

HOW does the appointment of blogger and die-hard Duterte partisan Margaux "Mocha" Uson as an assistant secretary in the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) mesh with President Rodrigo Duterte's declaration last March 10, during the launch of...

Journalism and General Education

Journalism and General Education

THE MARCH 21 decision of the University of the Philippines Diliman (UPD) University Council (UC) to cut the number of  General Education (GE) units from 45  to 21 – or from 15 three-unit subjects to seven – means that undergraduate students will be...

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