IN a shocking development on Tuesday, May 5, the founder of the online “independent media” outlet Peanut Gallery Media Network (PGMN), Franco Mabanta, was arrested in a National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) sting operation, along with several of his colleagues, on charges of extortion. Mabanta, along with some other personalities in the PGMN organization, allegedly demanded P300 million from former speaker Martin Romualdez to withhold the release of a video the media group claimed to have that would present irrefutable evidence of Romualdez being one of the “masterminds” of the ongoing multibillion-peso flood-control corruption scandal.
Romualdez, who is already under indictment on several charges related to the scandal, filed a complaint with the NBI, which arranged the sting operation. Mabanta and his cohorts were arrested when they allegedly received what was supposed to be the first P75-million installment of the payoff. Mabanta has, quite understandably, denied any wrongdoing, and has further characterized the NBI operation as a “setup” meant to silence him and his social media-based network, as well as “an attack on press freedom.”
The disturbing incident is certainly not an attack on press freedom. And while Mabanta and his co-accused must, as anyone should, be afforded fair due process by the court in determining their guilt or innocence, the chain of events and the items of evidence presented publicly by the NBI so far do not suggest the complaint and subsequent arrests were a contrivance in order to “silence” anyone. The best piece of evidence that it was not comes from Mabanta’s own statements following his arrest, in which he claimed that he had given instructions to a trusted colleague to publicly release the purported video “if anything happened to him.” Other than his claims, and an acknowledgement from the NBI that a portion of a video was sent to the camp of Romualdez to back up the alleged extortion demand, neither the public nor anyone else not involved in the case has seen it, and can confirm that it actually exists.
However this entire sorry situation is eventually resolved, that it even happened casts a pall over the credibility of the media in general, and that is something we must take issue with very strongly.
The integration of social media into everyone’s lives has enabled the rise of this so-called independent media, because anyone with online access can, if they so desire, style themselves as a journalist. And while we here at The Manila Times are the very epitome of the “traditional media,” being the oldest media outlet in the Philippines, we do not feel threatened by the concept of the social media-based “independent media.” On the contrary: The competition the sincere independent media outlets present is healthy, because we are obliged to learn, to innovate and to evolve our own media product.
But whether a media organization is a 128-year-old newspaper or a two-year-old social media-based upstart founded by a former music video jockey, credibility is the only capital it can claim. From that flows public trust in the outlet as a source of information. That credibility is constantly questioned, as we at The Manila Times and any media outlet, traditional or otherwise, can attest. The vast majority of us who take this business seriously, no matter our scale or mode of delivery, understand that the only way to answer that criticism is to adhere to the principles, ethics and practices of good journalism. The truth will out, as the saying goes, and the proof of that is the staying power of so many media organizations in the Philippines — traditional print and broadcast, as well as many that have become fixtures in the social media-driven space.
Whenever a media organization, or even just a few people within that organization, make themselves the news by failing to cultivate their credibility, whether by pursuing malicious or greed-driven motives, or by poor decision-making that prioritizes their brand and image ahead of the quality and reliability of their work, the failure does not just harm the organization, it demeans the entire media sector and undermines everyone else’s efforts to provide fair, factual, and complete news and information to the public. Of course, all the rest of us can do, particularly with regard to this deplorable development involving PGMN personalities, is to demonstrate our commitment to public service by continuing to provide clear, complete, and balanced news and information.
