The Parallels Between Toronto's Balita Newspaper and Rappler
Volume 1, Issue No. 5 OPINION/COMMENTARY
The News UpFront: (TOP STORY) as of Sunday, November 5, 2017
~ A media colleague in Manila, the embattled Maria Ressa of Rappler, on Thursday, Nov. 2, received in Washington, DC, the W. Averell Harriman Democracy Award, the National Democratic Institute's highest honor, bestowed on an "individual or organization that has demonstrated a commitment to democracy and human rights". More than this recognition, however, is her affirmation of her continuing commitment to journalism. Her fearless advocacy is inspiring in these troubled times, particularly for a community periodical like Balita, Toronto's largest Filipino newspaper.
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THE INSPIRATION THAT IS MARIA RESSA
The Parallels Between Balita and Rappler
By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ
Editor, The Filipino Web Channel
TORONTO - I am inspired to write this article after watching Maria Ressa speak after receiving the National Democratic Institute's W. Averell Harriman Democracy Award in Washington, DC on Thursday, Nov. 2nd. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3Byy8ZVO6w).
Maria, the co-founder, and editor-in-chief of Rappler, the Manila-based online news site, is constantly attacked in social media by partisans identified with the administration of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte for Rappler's reportage. She is pilloried to the point of threatening her person.
"We’re journalists, and we will not be intimidated," she declares with such firm conviction, almost sounding unbelievable coming from one so fragile-looking.
"We will shine the light. We will hold the line," she proclaims, not a quiver in her voice, not a hint of fear, but articulating a sacred oath every journalist must take in the pursuit of their profession.
The W. Averell Harriman Democracy Award is the highest honor bestowed by the National Democratic Institute, a non-profit, non-partisan, non-government organization that, for more than three decades, supports democratic institutions and practices around the world.
Among its prominent recipients are former Philippine president Corazon Aquino, former U.S. presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, former Czech president Vaclav Havel, Burmese democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Madeleine K. Albright.
Maria deserves it, if I may say so without provoking her antagonists in the cybersphere. I do not wish to be involved in their ongoing war with Rappler. Whatever their politics may be, I am expressing my sincere congratulations to her as one journalist to another.
I'm not close to her in any capacity except that I had been a witness to how she covered and reported events as she and I were colleagues in the foreign press corps in Manila. She was the Manila bureau manager of CNN at that time, and I was reporting, and holding the same position as her for Deutsche Presse Agentur, the German news agency.
The only other time I saw Maria in person again after the 1986 People Power Revolt in Manila was in June 2014 in London, England where we both covered the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4JDKAtfKkg).
Maria's current situation seems to have its parallel in Balita, the fortnightly periodical that I also write for in Toronto. As the largest Filipino newspaper in the Greater Toronto Area engaged in investigative journalism, Balita has its share of whiners and enemies.
The stunning blow Balita experienced recently in the form of a huge payout ($410,000) from a defamation suit lodged by Tobias Enverga, a member of the Senate, will not be the death knell for the paper. (Full story at: http://newsinthesix.blogspot.ca/2017/11/volume-1-issue-no.html).
Rather, it's a lesson that goads us to do more to unearth the corrupt and the culprits deep into their criminal activities in the community. Every thinking person in the GTA knows who are the thieves, the opportunists, the crooks in sheep's clothing, the abusers, the evildoers, and the wily pretenders.
Losing the Enverga lawsuit was quite unnerving, admittedly, but it does not mean the loss of investigative reporting, for me personally, and for my own news outlets under the Romar Media Canada umbrella. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQD8macEjAM).
Balita and its editor might have a different take on this issue, which would be reasonable to expect given that it shouldered the costs of litigation, but for me again, I'll stick to what I have been doing for at least three decades now.
Enverga did not put an end to adversarial journalism, if that was his intent; rather, he lit up the flame that will shine the light on his every move as a politician, for one, and on those who hold positions of public trust, be they Conservative, Liberal, NDP or whatever political shape or colour they sport.
This will not be the first time to renew my commitment to exposing the many ills in the community. I do affirm that, and will continue to do so, even if clones of Enverga multiply like rabbits. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFNAMLr-qgc).
To borrow from Maria Ressa: "We will shine the light. We will hold the line."
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