Eguillon, Frecilo A. BC5A MASS MEDIA ETHICS Prof.

Maaliw 09/01/2011 PERSONAL ATTACK of Article 4 of Broadcast Code of Ethics The Broadcast Code of Ethics tends to guide the media to avoid matters that will provoke negative thoughts or point of views to the audience. But still there are instances that practitioners unguardedly going against this set of rules. The Article 4 of the Code of Ethics Personal Attack is most likely been forgotten once personal biases left uncontrolled. Inflammatory statements and personal attacks are two of the most common causes of conflict escalation. When people attack other people verbally, those who were attacked were most likely to get defensive and will throw back same manner of words. This will start a bigger conflict that you wouldnt want to see on your TV or hear on the radio. But unfortunately, this was not prevented to happen. I remember the issue regarding the strong and detrimental statements of Dong Puno veteran newscaster and former head of ABS-CBN news team on his late night show Dong Puno Live. He accused GMA 7 intended to infringe their copyright over footages of Angelo de la Cruzs arrival in NAIA. It just burst out on his mouth the word magnanakaw that is directly going against GMA 7. This started when GMA 7 uses the footage of Reuters which was also being used by ABS-CBN. GMA 7, a subscriber of Reuters was not informed by the international network that the video was intended only for ABS-CBN. ABS-CBN has filed a case against GMA regarding their said violation of R.A. 8293 (Intellectual Property Code). The case was then dismissed by the local court. On the other hand, GMA7 also filed a case against Dong Puno and the Producers of his late night show for its malicious words that tends to give damage to the network. In his official statement, Puno denied that there was malice to the things that he said on the particular episode. Punos act of saying his opinion was a clear violation of the Article 4, Section 1 of the Broadcast Code of Ethics. It is not proper for him neither to speak nor to burst his personal bias without the investigation of the issue. He already expressed his opinion seemingly without peoples clear point of view of the subject matter. Though he has the freedom of expression, but by the word freedom doesnt mean you can say whatever you want, it still has to be lawful.

I also remember how Mike Enriquez, DZBB station manager, was reprimanded by the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster sa Pilipinas (KBP) for violation of the Article 4 of the Code of Ethics. He allegedly attacked some personnel even the station itself, ABS-CBN. According to KBP Standard Authority through former chairperson Diane Gosum, Enriquez violated the Program Standards of the organizations radio code (Section A, News, Paragraph 4F) stating that Personal attacks against fellow broadcasters and other stations are considered unethical and subject to sanctions. Management shall be jointly and severally liable with the speaker for any or all utterance on-the-air using facilities of the station. With this, ABS-CBN filed a case against Mike Enriquez and was sanctioned by KBP. GMA 7 brought out a statement on behalf of its affiliate RGMA that the sanction implemented by the KBP was unfair. They dont see anything wrong in Enriquezs defending the station against the accusation that was first made by the ABS-CBN. They also stated that he just quoted words from the complain that GMA filed against ABS-CBN. This issue started when ABS-CBN accused GMA 7 manipulating the ratings surveys. During that time, GMA was leading in the areas where large percentages of the audience shares are being collected. For me, Mike Enriquez actions were not an intended act of instigating damage against ABS-CBN. Besides, ABS-CBN has started the accusations. The only thing that is, Mike should have not speak anymore regarding the issue for the case has already reached the court. We cannot sometimes prevent these kinds of issues. But, being a media practitioner, it is a must to always check and be reminded of what the Medias bible is containing. Media is a very influential medium, with its great power, should always be guided by the ethics. And its a clear responsibility of the media practitioners.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GMA_Network http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=244149 http://www.newsflash.org/2004/02/hl/hl100141.htm http://pcij.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/KBP.-Broadcast-Code-of-2007.pdf