The Presidential Task Force on Media Security (PTFoMS) assured media practitioners of access to important police blotters once an agreement is reached with the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the National Police Commission (Napolcom).
Undersecretary Paul Gutierrez, PTFoMS executive director, disclosed in a whole-day media summit here last week that talks are ongoing with the PNP and Napolcom following complaints from journalists on the police’s non-disclosure of vital information that the media needs for news reporting.
“Let us just wait as the Napolcom will be releasing by next month some regulations on this. Just last Monday, we attended a final review of the final draft of the guidelines on the relationship between the media and the PNP,” Gutierrez said.
“Part of this will be what we have been rallying with the National Privacy Commission regarding one of the exemptions of the Data Privacy Act which is that of the media’s access to the police blotter,” he added.
Media practitioners raised their complaints during the summit that incomplete details, such as the names of the suspect and the victim of a crime, affect their reporting.
Lt. Stephen Polinar, spokesperson of the Negros Oriental Police Provincial Office and also a summit resource speaker, highlighted during his presentation a PNP memorandum circular on the Data Privacy Act.
Polinar admitted that the spot reports that he sends out to the media regularly are incomplete due to the Data Privacy Act and the PNP hierarchy’s directives.
“But we are not limiting you (the media) to getting the names of those involved in a crime or other police-related incidents from other sources,” he stressed.
The PTFoMS also said that every PNP chief has a different way of managing the organization’s affairs, noting that previously, the police allowed the publication or revelation of names in the blotter entry.
Gutierrez emphasized certain crimes, such as rape and child abuse, that warrant the anonymity of the involved persons.
Lawyer Hue Jyro Go, PTFoMS chief of staff, said media practitioners accessing the police blotter do not need a legal basis to access the reports, with the exception of the “pink blotter” that contains sensitive information on special cases.
Go also said a memorandum of agreement with the Napolcom will establish “the media safety vanguards of all (PNP) public information officers of all regions” that the media can connect with as regards harassment and threats, among others.
This is different from the one that the PTFoMS and the Napolcom are working on regarding the Data Privacy Act, he clarified.
The PTFoMS, in cooperation with the Dumaguete City local government, spearheaded the 2024 Visayan Media Summit attended by some 100 media practitioners and government public information officers. (Judy F. Partlow/PNA)
