The Manila Times

BBM camp vows: No restrictions to media access

KRISTINA MARALIT

RESTRICTING the access of journalists to Presidentelect Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. is not and will never be a policy of the incoming administration, his spokesman said Friday.

Vic Rodriguez, Marcos’ longtime chief of staff and executive secretary-designate, made the clarification after the Marcos camp was called out for allowing only three television networks — Net25, SMNI and GMA7 — to cover the incoming leader’s first interview last Thursday after his proclamation.

Rodriguez assured that it was not their intention to favor any network nor do they intend “to exclude anyone.”

“It is not the policy of the incoming Marcos administration

to exclude you, our dear friends from the media. You have been covering us for a long, long time and part of our success is attributable to the way you have fairly covered us even before the start of the campaign period,” he said in a briefing a few hours after the interview.

The networks that were allowed to cover the interview had an “earlier commitment” from the Marcos media team, they will get the first crack at a face-to-face interview with Marcos should he win the election, Rodriguez said.

“If you would notice, it wasn’t done one-on-one. We wanted to be fair, pinagsabay-sabay namin ‘yung mga networks (we had the networks there all at once),” Rodriguez said.

“I beg your understanding and I would like to extend my apologies to some who may have not appreciated the way we have responded in the past,” he added.

The future relations between the new president and the media will be put to an early test when the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO), with Press Secretary-designate Beatrix “Trixie” Cruz-Angeles at the helm, hands out media accreditations to journalists covering Malacañang.

Some reporters who covered Marcos’ campaign had criticized the candidate for shunning interviews, while Rodriguez took the flak for supposedly deliberately ignoring questions from a reporter in one of his press briefings.

There were also concerns that journalists faced stricter restrictions than bloggers and influencers during the campaign.

Rodriguez had said he is open to accommodating more social media personalities to cover Malacañang, a move that is expected to stir controversy, given that bloggers and influencers are not bound by the Code of Ethics that binds journalists from the so-called traditional media — radio, print and television.

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2022-05-28T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-05-28T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://digitaledition.manilatimes.net/article/281517934744585

The Manila Times