PCOO steps up efforts to strengthen gov’t-media understanding

By Zorayda Tecson/PNA

MEETING THE NEWSMEN. Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Martin Andanar meets and interacts with Kapampangan media practitioners on Friday (Feb. 1, 2019) as part of the continuing efforts to build healthy relationship between the government and the media people. (Photo by Zorayda S. Tecson)

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga — The Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) is stepping up efforts to promote the welfare of media workers through the Presidential Task Force on Media Security (PTFoMs) and by advocating the Freedom of Information (FOI).

Communication Secretary Martin Andanar stressed this Friday to Kapampangan media practitioners as part of his continuing effort to build a healthy relationship between the government and media workers.

He said the government-media bridge policy is one of his lifelong advocacies in strengthening media interests.

“What we are doing right now is a bridge policy. Engagement and talking to you, getting to know each other and hopefully, soliciting suggestions and finding out solutions to the issues,” Andanar said during his media interaction at the Capampangan Island Grill and Restaurant.

Andanar also met with Bulacan newsmen in Malolos.

He said a press freedom caravan will roll out in the regions to provide updates on the FOI and PTFoMs.

He also shared the rapid growth of government radio and television stations, including the Philippine News Agency (PNA), the state-run online newswire.

Andanar has been personally meeting local media workers across the country to hear their different concerns. He has already been to Dipolog City, Dapitan, Zamboanga del Norte, Cebu, Nueva Ecija, and Cavite.

“This is part of the government-media bridge policy ensuring that there is always engagement. We engage the media to find out challenges and the issues. Once we find out the issues, we will go to the media solutions,” he said.

Andanar cited the importance of knowing the problems and issues in the media industry to find collaborative solutions.

“I am doing this because first and foremost, I am a media man and I would die a media man, too. After this government, I will go back to private media. Ayoko naman na matapos ang termino na ito na may masabi sa akin na hindi man lang tayo kinausap ni Secretary (I don’t want this term to end and be told that I did not even talk to you),” he said.

He also handed out copies of the Handbook on Personal Security Measures for Media Practitioners.

The handbook was published by the PTFoMS, which was created by President Rodrigo Duterte in October 2016 to institutionalize mechanisms that will protect the government’s partners in mass media.

Under the Duterte administration, the Philippines has been delisted from the Reporters Without Borders’ (Reporters Sans Frontières) list of five most dangerous countries for journalists.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), another international journalists’ organization, has also noted the Philippines’ “improved status” in the 2018 Global Impunity Index. (With reports from Manny Balbin/PNA)

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