SIGNS OF MEDIA SUPPRESSION ON THE NET!

There’s something happening in the Internet, people.

And if my suspicion is right (which I sincerely hope is not, being a former media man myself), it’s SUPPRESSION of freedom of the press or CENSORSHIP in progress.

The latest lead story in inquirer.net as of this hour has this lead paragraph:

“Torrential rains brought by typhoon Gener has claimed at least eight lives, and has left over 200,000 persons affected, a report from National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said Tuesday.”

But when I clicked to read the whole story, there was NO COMPLETE STORY Just blank, gray space.

NORMALLY, the story would have had at least several paragraphs.  Inquirer.net would not have posted it if it did not have enough details for more than one paragraph.

I allowed at least 20 minutes to pass before I started writing this piece. Still, nothing but gray, blank space.

The source of the story was NDRRMC. Therefore, any media outfit could have readily gotten it like inquirer.net. But when I checked the sites of abs-cbn and gmanews.tv, they did not have the story.

It would be RIDICULOUS for the two networks, and other media firms, not to write the story and post it in their websites. For  those who are not so familiar with media work, the name of the game is WHO GETS AND COMES OUT with the story first.

Hourly updates can follow  

So inquirer.net would be CRAZY not to come out with the story at once on their website. Every editor worth his or her salt would not even dream of such a thing.

Unless THEY WERE STOPPED from proceeding with the story, or was turned down when they asked the NDRRMC for more details.

Now for those who’ll ask why suppress the story, think about these:

This will be a BIG BLACK EYE to the government – 200,000 people affected and eight dead and NOT A WORD UP TO NOW from Pnoy.

People have been wondering where is Pnoy since typhoon ‘Gener’ started battering various parts of the country. But he’s nowhere to be found and  not a single word of concern or what he’s doing as President from Malacanang up to now.

When people learn that 200,000 people have been affected, a whole damned lot of questions will be asked by the citizenry.

Like what went wrong, why so many victims and what’s being done to help them?

My professional guess – the story will come out only when Malacanang has answers to all possible questions. But whether it’s just a few minutes or hours, suppression of the frteedom of the press is suppression of the freedom of the press.

An act only a ruler with a DICTATORIAL MENTALITY practices.

(Until I finished this piece, the story has not been posted yet) 30