Philippine Press

2. Press Vulnerability
 the existence of a robust and rambunctious
press
 no government control of publishing and no
official censorship exists
 restrained only by laws on libel and sedition
 Constitutional guarantee of a free press
 utilized by their owners to wage political and
business battles

4. SOURCE: BUSINESSWORLD TOP 1000
CORPORATIONS

6. Mouthpiece of Owners
*In October 1995, the Emilio Yap’s Manila
Bulletin, the country’s second largest
newspaper, ran daily front-page stories
criticizing the awarding of the sale of the Manila
Hotel to a Malaysian consortium
*The paper asserted that the historic hotel was
part of the national patrimony and should
therefore be sold to a Filipino company.

7. Mouthpieces of Owners
 In August and September 1996, the
Manila Standard owned by Razon's
family ran editorials and news stories
questioning the awarding by the Subic
Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) of
the contract for port services to the
Hong Kong company Hutchison Ports
Philippines Inc.

9. Proprietorial meddling
 Proprietorial meddling is open-ended
and outcomes can vary
 Some newsrooms are like marketplaces,
where bargaining between journalists
and owners occurs, and where
journalistic principles are often
compromised, but sometimes also
prevail.

10. Proprietorial meddling
 At some situation in Manila Standard, they leave
their editors to decide on what the paper can
print often as favors to friends or when they
think the reporting has become too critical of
key officials
 In Manila Bulletin on the extreme , the owner
takes the place of editors as gatekeeper of news
and information, deciding what readers will find
in their morning paper

11. Proprietorial meddling
 In the Philippine daily Inquirer, some editors
manage to strike out a relationship where
owners have a hand in drafting editorial policy
but leave the newsroom decisions to
professional journalists
 Other newspapers like the Philippine Star or
Malaya editors unquestioningly accept the
rules set by owners and dutifully execute
orders to highlight or kill a story

12. Philippine Daily Inquirer

14. Proprietorial meddling
 The Inquirer, which started out as a
fighting, journalist-owned opposition
paper, operates on such mode, even if
its main owner, the Prieto family, is
involved in businesses that include a
paper mill, fast-food chains and real
estate

15. Foundations of modern day
newspapering
 in the beginning of the 20th century,
foundations of modern-day newspapering in
the country were laid by American colonizers
 American notions of a commercially run,
profit-oriented press, brought in modern
printing technology, and schooled a
generation of Filipino journalists in U.S.-style
reporting

17. Foundations of modern day
newspapering
 By the 1920s, newspapering was becoming a
profitable business, with the expansion of the
market for subscribers as well as advertising
directed to that market
 Lewis Gleeck, took place in the first decades
of this century: “the conversion of Filipino
journalist of opinion run by politicians into
newspapers run as business enterprises.”

18. Development of Philippine Press
 Alejandro Roces –Spanish Mestizo who
founded a chain of newspapers and the
pioneer of this trend
 William Randolph Hearst - U.S. press tycoon
and an icon to Filipino press proprietors
 Manuel Quezon- a senator, persuaded his
millionaire friends to set up the Philippines
Herald to serve as a mouthpiece for his
political faction

20. Foundations of modern day
newspapering
 In the 1930s, the wealthy Elizalde family
acquired other newspapers to form the
El Debate-Mabuhay-Herald-Monday Mail
(DHMM) chain.
 In 1938, the chain was leased to J.
Amado Araneta, a sugar baron who
needed a voice to lobby for a bigger U.S.
market for sugar

21. Foundations of modern day
newspapering
 In 1947, Eugenio Lopez Sr., bought The
Manila Chronicle to help boost his
efforts to get congressional action on
behalf of sugar planters
 I.P. Soliongco and Renato Constantinocountry’s leading crusading journalists
work for the Lopez

22. Foundations of modern day
newspapering
 Luis R. Mauricio -a Veteran journalist
during the Quirino administration and
the news editor of the Chronicle and
was under pressure from Eugenio Sr.
not to highlight anti-Quirino stories
 The Lopezes Manila Chronicle was at
the lead of the press pack that was
stridently critical of Marcos campaign to
undermine his presidency