Jose “Pinggot” Zulueta. Tilamsik series, first one-man exhibit. Published with express permission from the artist (thanks much!). Asinta images. Right-clicked from http://www.asinta.netfirms.com
Quote “The January 14, 2008 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, on its A7 page, featured a story on the Philippine National Police’s yearend report for 2007 with a headline that read “PNP: Extrajudicial killings fell by 83% in 2007″.
Quote “The article is, of all things, single-sourced, with statements coming from Department of Interior and Local Government personnel, and appears to be written in such a way that puts the administration and the police in a good light. There was a part that mentions how the Philippines was included in the human rights watch list of the United Nations and the US Congress, and how “a UN special rapporteur criticized the Arroyo administration for not doing enough to stop the killings” and then goes on to enumerate how the government, with the help of the PNP, managed to deter extrajudicial killings.
Quote “This is in violation of Article III, Number 3 of the Code of Professional and Ethical Conduct of the Philippine Press Institute which says that “Single sourced stories must be avoided as a rule. There is always the imperative to get a second, third, or more sources, the contending parties to an issue, the expert source, the affected party, the prominent and the obscure, in the story. We must strive at all times to ascertain the truth of our sources’ assertions.”
Quote “In this case, a separate and contending opinion from a stakeholder in the issue of extrajudicial killings (eg. The Commission on Human Rights) would have helped put a better perspective and dimension in the story.” Closed-quote.
