Are bloggers also journalists?

The other day, Erwin of Inq7.net called me up for a quick interview which was just published here. This topic was brought about during our meeting with Al (Sembrano) McCaw with regards to his intent in filing a libel case against Gail. I wanted to do a follow-up on that but I never got to publish that entry until I’ve exhausted all possible ways to have both parties agree on something.

Going forward to Erwin’s article in Inq7.net entitled “Should Filipino bloggers follow ethics in journalism?”, this topic has been discussed in many fora time and time again but in the context of the Philippine blogosphere we’re still young to even consider it.

I might partially agree with Rachel Khan when she said bloggers should at least follow certain guidelines in journalism of truth-telling, impartiality, and fairness but only if the blog is doing pure reportage. Otherwise, expect the blogger to be highly opinionated and partial because it’s personal arena and we’re all entitled to express our thoughts.

Journalists on the other hand are ~~guided~~ bound by the journalistic code of ethics and standards. If we say that blogging has evolved and already gone mainstream and they should be covered under the same standards is like requiring all YouTube videos go thru MTRCB ratings before they’re uploaded.

Again, I’d stress that blogging became so popular because there were no hard rules at all. We could even go back to the age-old issue on what is or what is not a real blog. At the end of the day, the whole social media (which includes blogs) evens out and self-regulates — when you practice these standards/ethics, you get the respect and credibility on what you’re doing; if you exploit it, you’ll loose readership.

Abe Olandres

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

https://www.yugatech.com

13 Comments

Miguel says:

18 years ago

Nice mention!

But, Erwin forgot to put a link. (Or is it, “come one everyone, just google his name if you want to learn more about Mr. Olandres…)
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ruth says:

18 years ago

while i agree that bloggers may be legally liable for what appears in their blogs (including the comments area), i wonder how legal actions can be made, when a good number of bloggers even write under an alias.

i think it’s a long way to go before concrete guidelines in blogging can be made.
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The Ca t says:

18 years ago

The case of libel filed by an ad agency against Lance Dutson was dropped. The Media Bloggers Association made a blast about the case to support the beleaguered blogger. A blog was put up to update other bloggers about the case.

The victory of Lance is a victory of all bloggers, the media bloggers claimed. The case was resolved in May 2006.

http://www.twistimage.com/blog/archives/000561.html
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Andrew says:

18 years ago

It’s different strokes for different folks. The blogosphere covers a very wide spectrum of ideas and opinions. To say that it self-regulates is not entirely true. A lot of the most respected and well-researched political blogs are the most hard-hitting and demonstrate a clear albeit libelous stance on issues. At the other end of the spectrum are the popular celebrity blogs who have no regard for personal privacy and fact. To have bloggers follow a “standard” or “ethics” is like sprinkling holy water on a poltergeist. It’s useless.
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ralphot says:

18 years ago

but then again, journalists are paid to tell the truth by a higher body. it’s their job to investigate the actual facts of a story and then print it. bloggers, at least at this point in time, can write about anything they like – whether it has been confirmed or not. if said blogger’s readers catch on to what they wrote, then it’s gravy (in the ad sense… pun intended).
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The Ca t says:

18 years ago

if bloggers are journalists, are they protected by the law accorded to the media people?

There’s no law that will prevent anybody from suing a person who she thinks has ruined his reputation.

The problem is to prove if it is defamatory in nature or the blogger is just stating facts.
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Cheap Web Hosting says:

18 years ago

Surely, a kind of. But the most popular bloggers definitely have some code of ethics and standards.
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Abe Olandres says:

18 years ago

@ Migs

I got about 4 people searching for my name in Google since yesterday. hehe
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Reb says:

18 years ago

Of all people who should talk about ethical journalism si Erwin pa ang nagsulat. How many times has he misquoted hackers? How many times has he published stories with wrong quotes? My my….
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JC John SESE Cuneta says:

18 years ago

quoting:
but then again, journalists are paid to tell the truth by a higher body. itâ€™s their job to investigate the actual facts of a story and then print it.

—

Eh? You’re kidding right? Coz if you’re not, I don’t know where you got that impression of these so-called ‘journalists’.

Locally or internationally, journalists are paid to tell ‘a story’, truth or not, Factual or not, complete research or not.

They will just write, write, write… interview left and right, and once you read their article, you can spot wrong stuff here and there.

There are very few journalists that deserve real respect and following. Very few, especially here in the Philippines. That’s why I read blogs instead, through blogs, I can read the REAL PoV of all parties and all types of people in all walks of life. Not some “regulated”, “paid”, “bias”, “light research”, “self-interpreted” journalists’ articles.

Sorry, no offense, but… never mind, I don’t want to mention names or give hints to the… ehemmcorruptehemmbadresearchingehemm journalists.
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JC John SESE Cuneta says:

18 years ago

Quoting:
“Rachel Khan, chairperson of the Department of Journalism in UP Diliman College of Mass Communications, said bloggers are considered “journalists” if their blogs provide information.
…
Nonetheless, bloggers can be sued for libel if they defame people. Bloggers who maliciously defame a person can be found liable under existing Philippine laws, she added.

-end of quote-

Locally, entities and rich people will sue bloggers for libel, and oh, the government as well. But internationally, have we heard IBM sueing bloggers for the very negative remarks about their people, products and company? How about Microsoft? Apple? Intel? AMD? Oracle?

In fact, they recognize blogging and respect bloggers. They ‘retaliate’ by blogging themselves, posting official replies, and letting their “supporters” blog about it as well.

Simple. What libel? They just have to accept that people have rights to say what they want. There are 6.65 billion people in the world, is one person’s or one blogger’s defamatory blog-post be believed and accepted by even 1% of the world’s population?

Some people and entities are sueing bloggers because these bloggers are telling the truth. We live in a democratic country after all. If they want to sue bloggers, then they should sue everyone in the world!!
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Linda says:

18 years ago

Lance Dutson is not only NOT a journalist, he’s actually only barely human.

http://bangorreports.blogspot.com/
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