That foreign ownership would bring more bad than good for the Philippine media appeared to be the consensus among the journalist speakers of a symposium held Thursday, Sept. 21, organized by the Union of Journalists of the Philippines-UP Diliman.
Speaker Danilo Arao, editor of online magazine Bulatat.com and journalism professor, opposed the idea saying foreign owners would want media content to be generalized in order to reach more audiences. This is bad for the country and it will not do good, Arao said.
"We need specific information," he added.
Veteran journalist Luis Teodoro agreed, saying the goal of foreign-owned media is to make money. He said foreign owners would want to generate content that doesn't discriminate intellect and cited Rupert Murdoch's trivial newspapers as example.
Teodoro added that this generalization of content would be bad for the Philippine media that focuses on trivial matters as it is. The country's critical issues won't be given attention, he said.
Other speakers were lawyer-journalist Marchu Lambino and the Philippine Daily Inquirer's John Neri. Arao, Teodoro and Lambino teach journalism and other mass media courses at the university's College of Mass Communication.
The forum was held at the CMC auditorium, UP Diliman. It was organized as part of the week-long celebration of the 17th anniversary of the UJP-UP. Photos from the event are posted below. (Click the pictures to enlarge.)
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Other UJP Week 2005 Photos:
Opening of exhibit (Monday, Sept. 19)
Philippine Daily Inquirer tour (Wednesday, Sept. 21)
Journalism Summit 2005 (Saturday, Sept. 24)