NPC scores media orgs with ‘foreign funding’

MANILA — The National Press Club of the Philippines, on the eve of World Press Freedom Day, criticized media outfits and organizations for allegedly receiving foreign funding for operations.

“And here, we are referring to the fact that for many years now, other media organizations are directly receiving from foreign sources to fund their activities, particularly from front organizations identified with the United States’ Central Intelligence Agency and from non-government organizations based in Europe,” NPC said in a statement Thursday.

Citing “available facts”, the group named five media outfits “as direct beneficiaries of foreign largesse running in the millions of pesos each year.”

“The issue of legality and constitutionality of such sordid practices aside, they are ethically indefensible and morally reprehensible,” it stressed.

The NPC also accused the groups of committing “the worst form of corruption when they started accepting what amounts to as bribe money from foreign interests.”

“The result is a people divided, a government unable to focus on its job of good governance and a profession — our profession — fast losing its credibility and standing as a pillar of our democracy.”

Asked for the basis of their accusations, Paul Gutierrez, NPC vice chairman said: “Actually we were intrigued by, una ‘yong mga column niBobi Tiglao then sumunod may nilabas (doon sa) Thinking Pinoy. Ako on my part personally, titingnan ko rin mismo ‘yong website na pinagsasabi niya and it appears there.”

Hours before the statement’s release, one of the organizations identified to have received foreign money underscored that the Constitution only bans foreign ownership, not funding.