What Ails Filipino Media in Toronto?

Do Numbers Hide 'Mediocrity' and Lack of Competent Journalists?

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ
Member, Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA)

TORONTO - Were numbers the sole criteria to determine size, the Filipino media in Toronto would easily qualify as big!

Fifteen tabloids are locked in cutthroat competition to gain patronage of a fraction of the estimated 200,000 Filipinos in Canada's largest city.

The papers dazzle readers with full-page colored pictures, entertainment stories, beauty contests, gossips, endless parties and private get-togethers.

(To view video at YouTube, please click the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgyPPVQhfns&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL)

Non-profit organizations unabashedly shed their political color from time to time through advertorials or plain ads.

News coverages are focused on movie stars and entertainment people either from the GMA or TFC stables.

In areas where public support is massive, the competing networks practically take over and run the community fest.

As in July 2010 when sex star Katrina Halili was marketed as some kind of a role model by festival organizer Philippine Independence Day Council.

And because GMA was out to promote its stars, PIDC had to give way to instigation for actor Wendell Ramos to undress. He did, gladly.

By their nature, newspapers had to fulfill a role. Most times they act as watchdogs, whistle-blowers and community guardians. 

That's the reason media or the press are collectively called the Fourth Estate. It's the unofficial eye watching over the three other estates - the executive, the legislative and the judiciary.

Except for some, coverage of events is superficial.

In comparison, entertainers get wide coverage. Their every little story gets published in practically all the newspapers.

This is where the question of relevance comes up. Another is proximity. Are Manila stories more relevant to the Filipino community of Toronto than those happening in their own backyard?

A retired lawyer and blogger, Joe Rivera, makes a stinging comment. He writes: "It is not so much the quantity of newspapers but rather the mediocrity and reportage that these newspapers suffer from".

Rivera continues: "Improving the quality of our local newspapers can be a worthwhile project of the Filipino press association, as they can perform audits of these newspapers if they conform to accepted standards of professional journalism".

We ventured to get insights of 12 publishers and editors (out of 15) in the wake of Rivera's published commentary.

Sadly, only four got back to us. Those who dared to speak were Atin Ito's Eddie Lee, Libreto's Butch Galicia, Taliba's Rolly Cabrera and columnist Tenny Soriano.

Publishers and editors who were courteous enough to respond: from bottom, clockwise, columnist Tenny Soriano, Eddie Lee of Atin Ito, Rolly Cabrera of Taliba and Butch Galicia of Libreto.

The rest simply ignored the questions and did not even bother, as a matter of courtesy, to acknowledge them.

Does that silence, or refusal to join the discussion, an apt indication of what Joe Rivera calls "mediocrity" that the papers suffer from? #

The Filipino Web Channel at YouTube:
1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cT74cbxq6ak&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2FLYca354w&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL