

PUBLISHER’S NOTE
Pandemic conditions enhanced authoritarian tendencies, as the control of disease heightened the paramount role of state power in managing disease. Governments attacked mainstream media, and used extensive propaganda to make people believe journalists were paid purveyors of “disinformation.” The pandemic had legitimized the heightened securitization, surveillance, and other restrictive measures to control people’s activities and to criminalize legitimate criticism.
PANDEMIC YEAR 2

COVER STORY:
MEDIA IN THE TIME OF COVID
Unfortunately, the media too have been failing for decades because of (1) the system of private ownership in which conflicting political and economic interests are in such constant contention they hinder the making of a community of shared values; (2) the vast differences in training, and even the absence of it, among practitioners that results in professional and ethical lapses; (3) the corruption and patron-client relations between some practitioners and their sources that prevent their fulfilling the fundamental responsibility of truth-telling; and (4) the continuing killing and harassment of journalists.
Other Stories

The Dutertes’ political theater

Year of the Filipino athlete: 2021 Olympics victory brings pride to the nation

Hostilities vs. Human Rights: State agents in the forefront of HR violations

Threats and attacks against the press under Duterte

The Power of Data Journalism: Dissecting COVID Numbers in the Philippines
In light of these daily data-driven stories on COVID-19, people have also started to have a better appreciation of numbers and become more comfortable in dealing with them. Eventually, they started to become critical as well.

Pera pera lang?
Yes, in Journalism, pay and ethics are tied
To promote ethics collectively is to fight for better pay collectively, too, no matter where you are in the pay hierarchy.

Why journalists can’t lose in the 2022 elections?
In truth, journalists take sides; we are biased for what is right and for who’s telling the truth, and against those seeking to undermine it.

The annual digital microsite which contains the findings of the Center for Media Freedom & Responsibility’s (CMFR) journalism review on media and press performance.
MEDIA TIMES 2021
PUBLISHER Melinda Quintos De Jesus
EDITORIAL CONSULTANT Luis V. Teodoro
EDITORIAL STAFF Jeraldine Pascual, Leah Perez, Fidel Feria, Andie Canivel
EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Lara De Jesus