Media outlets should make a careful distinction between straight news and commentaries to avoid misleading the audience, said journalist Raissa Robles.
Robles, the Manila correspondent of the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post, whose online commentaries on Philippine politics are widely read, spoke before over 250 mass communication students in Cebu City yesterday.
“News commentaries take it a step further from spot news and give an opinion on an issue,” she said. The forum “Reaching Out to Future Journalists: The News Commentary” was held at the Albert van Gansewinkel Hall of the University of San Carlos.
Robles said while columnists and bloggers write commentaries, some news outlets are slowly blurring the lines between opinion and fact.
She cited as an example the lead sentence of a local daily’s headline story in which the reporter wrote “a rather ironic and challenging time.”
“If the reporter wrote that when one of my editors were still around, that reporter would be asked the basis for justifying that lead. Personal opinions belong to commentaries,” she said.
Informed
Robles, who maintains her own website “raissarobles.com—inside Philippine politics and beyond”, said it’s important to signal to readers what they are reading or watching and what they can expect from these articles.
“An editorial is the stand of a publication on an issue, whereas news commentaries are informed personal opinions,” she said.
To make good news commentaries, Robles said they should be factual.
“Research, counter check facts, write your piece, rewrite and then edit. Never be afraid to kill a story. There’s a saying that goes, “A good writer is one who is ready to kill his darlings,” Robles said.
In writing her commentaries Robles lets her husband, also a journalist, review her pieces.
Libel
“It’s always good to have another pair of eyes. I’m not afraid to have my pieces edited,” she said.
She also noted that many reporters are actually “shy” and are afraid to write commentaries because they force one to make a public stand.
By taking a stand, it is impossible for news commentators not to run over certain personalities, thus, making them susceptible to libel suits.
“Political personalities don’t like being humiliated. Libel is the defense of the rich and powerful,” Robles said.
To avoid libel, Robles advised journalists to always check their facts and get the side of the person involved in the story.
Offensive
“If he/she can’t be reached, then specify that in your piece. That is very important and will safeguard you from libel,” Robles said.
She also said one must be careful with descriptions, especially adjectives.
Robles cited the case of Malaya columnist Lito Banayo who called former First Gentleman Mike Arroyo “El Esposo Gordo” (The Fat Husband) in the column “So I See” published in the Daily Tribune in 2004.
“Despite (Arroyo’s) rotundity, maybe he found “gordo” more offensive than “mataba” in Tagalog or “tambok” in Cebuano,” she told the audience. One of the other safeguards to libel, she said, is simply turning the issue into a blind item like how some news items are reported in show business.
In the eye
Robles also said columnists should avoid any trace of malice or bad faith when writing their commentaries.
“You can be right about the facts but there can still be an element of malice,” she said.
In the end, Robles said there is no fool-proof way to avoid libel because “it is always in the eye of the one filing the case.”
In posing questions to news sources, Robles also said one cannot avoid offending certain sectors. She cited one incident in which she asked then president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo if she had sex with her husband in her fifties.
Headline
“She answered yes and then she reconsidered, thinking that it would become the headline of the papers instead of the (issues she addressed at the) Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) that she was attending. Then presidential chief of staff Rigoberto Tiglao got mad at me,” she said.
Robles asked students wishing to pursue journalism as a career to write pieces that would reflect the adverse effects of national issues in Cebu and their local communities in order to draw response from the national government.
“I noticed the Mactan Cebu International Airport. You need a new one pretty fast. Like Mindanao and the rest of southern Philippines, Cebu has been getting the short-end of government attention,” she said.
The forum organized by Sun.Star Daily and sponsored by Smart Communications was attended by students from the University of the Philippines (UP) Cebu, Saint Theresa’s College (STC), University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R), Cebu Normal University (CNU), Southwestern University (SWU), CIT University (CITU), University of the Visayas (UV), University of San Carlos (USC) and Benedicto College.
The forum is part of several activities held in observance of the 20th Cebu Press Freedom Week from Sept. 21 to 27. /With Senior Copy Editor Stephen Capillas