{"id":203665,"date":"2019-02-24T04:35:57","date_gmt":"2019-02-24T09:35:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=203665"},"modified":"2019-02-24T04:35:57","modified_gmt":"2019-02-24T09:35:57","slug":"egco-only-echoed-danish-envoys-remark-on-ph-media-ptfoms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/02\/24\/egco-only-echoed-danish-envoys-remark-on-ph-media-ptfoms\/","title":{"rendered":"Egco only echoed Danish envoy\u2019s remark on PH media: PTFoMS"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Egco is Executive Director of the PTFoMs created through Administrative Order No. 01 which Duterte signed on Oct. 11, 2016 or four months after he took his oath as the country\u2019s 16th President. (Photo<\/a> Screengrab from RTVMalaca\u00f1ang\/Youtube<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Undersecretary Joel Egco only echoed a remark made by a Danish envoy blaming some media outlets for its negative news reportage on the Philippines, particularly those concerning the government.<\/p>\n

\u201cUsec. Egco merely echoed the statement of His Excellency Jan Top Christensen, ambassador of Denmark to the Philippines, during the multi-stakeholder consultation for the safety of journalists organized by the Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication and International Media Support last November,\u201d the Presidential Task Force on Media Security (PTFoMS) said in a statement on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this event, Ambassador Christensen remarked that some of the media in the Philippines are systematically negative and therefore are not able to present what the government is doing, a practice he attributed to poor compliance with journalism standards,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n

The PTFoMS made this comment after both the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) and National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) blasted Egco\u2019s presentation at the Press Freedom Caravan held in Brussels, Belgium last week and blamed him for spreading disinformation.<\/p>\n

Earlier, NUJP-Europe chair Macel Ingles claimed that Egco said both media groups are responsible for making \u201c[systematically] reporting negative stories about the Philippines\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, the PTFoMS belied these claims emphasizing that Danish envoy Christensen was the first to make this remark in November 2018.<\/p>\n

The PTFoMS further said that ABS-CBN online even published a report about Christensen\u2019s remark noting that it was not merely a \u201cfigment of Usec. Egoc\u2019s imagination.\u201d<\/p>\n

It further said the NUJP report blaming Egco for lack of \u201cdue diligence\u201d and merely \u201cfocused on the sensational\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cMacel Ingles, erroneously attributed to Usec. Egco some previous statements from other sources without taking them in the proper context,\u201d the PTFoMS said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt considered Usec. Egco\u2019s presentation as an attack on press freedom. It must be pointed out, however, that the report lacked due diligence and focused on the sensational, or at the very least, misappreciated the facts. These acts are considered to be grossly unethical,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n

Lack of concern<\/strong><\/p>\n

The PTFoMS, meanwhile, noted that both media groups failed to make concrete feats in terms of improving media workers\u2019 conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cUsec. Egco likewise reiterated the observation of (PTFoMS Chief of Staff Atty. Abraham) Agamata and the entire PTFoMS Secretariat to point out the apparent lack of genuine concern on the part of CMFR and NUJP on matters concerning the safety of journalists, most notably in instances when these groups are not the ones at the helm of such activities,\u201d the PTFoMS said.<\/p>\n

Egco is Executive Director of the PTFoMs created through Administrative Order No. 01 which Duterte signed on Oct. 11, 2016 or four months after he took his oath as the country\u2019s 16th President.<\/p>\n

According to the PTFoMS, one Secretariat staff member even recalled being rebuffed by a CMFR official when he attempted to furnish a copy of a particular PTFoMS report. CMFR claimed it already had its own data on the matter.<\/p>\n

The PTFoMS, meanwhile, pointed out that safeguarding of press freedom is a shared responsibility, trumpeting how Egco and other members of the task force have continued to ensure that protective mechanisms for the benefit of the media workers are put in place.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, the CMFR and NUJP do not share this position. They are both quick to jump in on the action, with guns blazing, when it comes to matters that will promote their own interests and portray both groups as the staunchest defenders of press freedom in the Philippines,\u201d the PTFoMS said.<\/p>\n

The PTFoMS said both media groups would be \u201ctoo quick to pass the blame on others\u201d but could not account before the international community for acts that put into question the adherence of their officials and members to ethical standards of journalism.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis does not bode well for our media workers. Whose sides are these self-styled media groups really on? Who\u2019s behind them?\u201d it added.<\/p>\n

On November 2018, Christensen said that there seemed to be a lack of ethical standards and professionalism in the way some media in the country reported news.<\/p>\n

He described some media as ‘systematically negative’ for not being able to present what the government is doing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Undersecretary Joel Egco only echoed a remark made by a Danish envoy blaming some …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":203667,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-203665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}