Fair rules
| FRONTLINE |
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| Ninez Cacho-Olivares |
Media establishments that have been urging the high court to allow live TV coverage are still complaining — but now that it has been granted, they complain over the claimed “strict rules” imposed by the Supreme Court (SC) on the massacre trial coverage, arguing that the TV and radio networks will be discouraged into airing the trial live.
Yet the rules of the high court are fair to the public at large as well as the rights of the accused, in that TV and radio networks must cover all hearings from start to finish without commercial breaks, with no anchors or reporters speaking or commenting while the hearing is ongoing, as well as repeat airings being banned. Comments can come after the trial is over.
The rules are fair and logical, given the media’s propensity to provide very biased reportage of trials, a case in point being both the impeachment and plunder trial of ousted President Joseph Estrada.
It will be recalled that during the live TV coverage of Estrada’s impeachment trial in the Senate, all those talking heads and their guests, all of whom were anti-Erap, kept up with their biased comments. And even as the trial was ongoing, they made it appear that Estrada was guilty of what he was being charged..... MORE
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110616com2.html
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