Cebu Citizens-Press Council

ELECTION MONITORING STUDY SHOWS
Print media objective in covering elections
By Cherry Ann T. Lim
Sun.Star Cebu, June 30, 2010

THE three English daily newspapers in Cebu were generally objective and fair in covering the 2010 elections, a study revealed yesterday.

Editors of the newspapers covered by the study also said the monitoring had helped them to improve their coverage.

Ian Manticajon, leader of the academe-led group tasked by the Cebu Citizens-Press Council (CCPC) to monitor the election coverage of the Cebu print media, reported that coverage by Sun.Star Cebu, The Freeman and Cebu Daily News had an overall neutrality rate of 89 percent.

During the CCPC’s 19th quarterly meeting at MBF Cebu Press Center, Manticajon said the study team, composed mainly of students and faculty members from the University of the Philippines Visayas Cebu College and St. Theresa’s College, looked at adjectival and adverbial bias, as well as the provision of context in the reporting, to determine whether the reports were biased or neutral.

Feedback

A joint project with the Manila-based Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, the monitoring covered the newspaper issues from Feb. 10, 2010 to May 10, 2010, and gave the newspapers the opportunity to improve on their reporting during the election period, as the monitoring team provided regular feedback on the results of their monitoring within the three-month period.

Michelle So, editor-in-chief of Sun.Star Superbalita [Cebu], said she emailed to her editors the regular reports the team provided, so they could make adjustments in their election assignments.

Cebu Daily News editor-in-chief Connie Fernandez said the paper used the points raised in the regular reports as guidelines in planning its election reportage.

Manticajon said the top five themes covered by the English dailies were the campaign, the personality/character/record of the candidates, other Commission on Elections-related issues, he-said, she-said fights; and development/policy issues.

Bisaya

For the Bisaya dailies, Sun.Star Superbalita [Cebu] and Banat News, the top themes were also the campaign and personality of the candidates. But these were followed by development/policy issues, complaints/reports of irregularities, and election-related violence/peace and order.

Most of the election coverage of the English dailies, or 1,281 reports, had to do with the local elections, followed by 990 reports on the elections in general, and 661 reports for the presidential race. The senatorial, vice presidential and party-list races were minimally covered with 189, 160 and 152 stories, respectively.

Bohol trip

During the meeting, Elias Espinoza of the Cebu Media Legal Aid also reported on his fact-finding mission to Bohol last June 9 with Cebu Federation of Beat Journalists president Elias Baquero to investigate allegations by The Bohol Chronicle Radio Corp. (BCRC) owner Peter Dejaresco that he was being harassed by Tagbilaran Mayor Dan Lim through the non-issuance of a business permit.

Lim said the non-issuance was because BCRC failed to pay the correct amount of business taxes, but Dejaresco said it was because his media outlets were critical of the mayor.

Espinoza and Baquero went to Bohol under the auspices of the CCPC. The results of their trip were published in Sun.Star Cebu on June 18.

Commitment

The team secured the commitment of the mayor not to close BCRC, and to instead resort to court and other remedies to resolve their conflict, said Pachico Seares, CCPC executive director.

Columnist and Philippine Press Institute trustee Juan Mercado said, “To use administrative measures to close down the media is not acceptable in a free society.”

Seares said City Hall has a right to enforce the payment of the right amount of taxes but that the media are also entitled to press freedom so long as they followed journalism standards.

Petition

Cherry Ann Lim, assistant executive director of the CCPC, reported on the efforts of the CCPC to obtain a printed copy of the results of the last elections.

The CCPC sent a petition to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in Manila seeking to be given one of the 30 printed copies of the election results, as provided for by the poll automation law.

The Comelec failed to act on the petition before the May elections.

During the CCPC meeting, Comelec Lapu-Lapu City election officer Ferdinand Gujilde said there was no need to send a petition, as the media could have gone directly to the local election officers to ask for the results. He said they still have many printed copies of the election results on hand.