JOURNALISTS AND content creators should collaborate and be driven by a shared principle to retell historic events such as the EDSA People Power Revolution, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter said.
In a panel discussion for the 39th anniversary of the 1986 revolt, UST Journalism instructor Manuel Mogato said the legacy media should reinvent and regain the public’s trust to preserve the significance of the historic event.
“I think there should be a lot of collaboration in the legacy media and content creators. Help us to be compelling, to be interesting, to make the audience happy… [W]e should reinvent ourselves because we’re Jurassic—we move slowly, we adapt slowly,” Mogato said on Wednesday, Feb. 26, at the Education Auditorium of the Albertus Magnus building.
“[E]ven if you’re a content creator or a journalist, our principle should be one—accuracy. What we’re doing is truth-telling and evidence-based because that’s the only way we can be trusted,” he added.
Mogato lamented that the credibility of journalists was tainted under the administration of former president Rodrigo Duterte, wherein terms like “bayaran (paid hacks),” “presstitute” and “biased” were associated with the press.
“So, the journalists in Duterte’s time really suffered. I hope we can regain our trust in our journalists. And I hope the content creators will help to increase our trust,” he added.
In the same forum, content creator and Thomasian alumnus Ryan Pronstoller, also known as “Tita Baby,” said enjoying the benefits of democracy comes with the responsibility of protecting it.
“It’s easier to keep the freedom that you have now than losing it and being responsible for fighting for it again. So keep the stories alive,” he added.
Pronstoller lamented that some Filipinos were solely focused on reclaiming their “hard-fought” freedom that they were surprised by the duty of maintaining it.
“Everyone [was] just so adamant to be free, that when they got freedom, they could no longer determine that there was a responsibility to fight for it, to keep it,” he said.
From Feb. 22 to 25, 1986, nearly two million Filipinos gathered in EDSA to oppose the dictatorship of the late president President Ferdinand Marcos, Sr. The military-supported uprising led to the ouster of Marcos and the restoration of the country’s democratic institutions.
His son, President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., has been criticized for declaring this year’s EDSA Revolution anniversary a mere special working day and has been accused of trying to diminish the event’s significance.
However, Malacañang maintained that there are no efforts to erase history as the President did not halt any commemorative activity.
The event titled “Revisiting People Power through Film, Archives, and Dialogue” was organized by the UST Journalism Society in collaboration with media production company Probe Productions Inc. F
