NO PRESIDENT should fear public scrutiny of his program. For from that scrutiny comes understanding; and from that understanding comes support or opposition. And both are necessary.
I am not asking your newspapers to support the Administration, but I am asking your help in the tremendous task of informing and alerting the people.
For I have complete confidence in the response and dedication of our citizens whenever they are fully informed.
I not only could not stifle controversy among your readers—I welcome it. This Administration intends to be candid about its errors; for as a wise man once said:
“An error does not become a mistake until you refuse to correct it.” We intend to accept full responsibility for our errors; and we expect you to point them out when we miss them.
Without debate, without criticism, no Administration and no country can succeed—and no republic can survive.
That is why the Athenian lawmaker Solon decreed it a crime for any citizen to shrink from controversy.
And that is why our press was protected by the First Amendment— the only business in the country specifically protected by the Constitution- -not primarily to amuse and entertain, not to emphasize the trivial and the sentimental, not to simply “give the public what it wants”—but to inform, to arouse, to reflect, to state our dangers and our opportunities, to indicate our crises and our choices, to lead, mold, educate and sometimes even anger public opinion.
This means greater coverage and analysis of international news—for it is no longer far away and foreign but close at hand and local.
It means greater attention to improved understanding of the news as well as improved transmission.
And it means, finally, that government at all levels, must meet its obligation to provide you with the fullest possible information outside the narrowest limits of national security—and we intend to do it.
It was early in the Seventeenth Century that Francis Bacon remarked on three recent inventions already transforming the world: the compass, gunpowder and the printing press.
Now the links between the nations first forged by the compass have made us all citizens of the world, the hopes and threats of one becoming the hopes and threats of us all.
In that one world’s efforts to live together, the evolution of gunpowder to its ultimate limit has warned mankind of the terrible consequences of failure.
And so it is to the printing press—to the recorder of man’s deeds, the keeper of his conscience, the courier of his news—that we look for strength and assistance, confident that with your help man will be what he was born to be: free and independent.
Thus, John F. Kennedy’s The President and the Press address before the American Newspaper Publishers Association, April 27, 1961, Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York City.
SANA PO, sa tuwing sasabihin nating, and I quote, ‘Magandang gabi, bayan,’ ay totoong hinahangad nating maganda ang gabi ng bayan…
Alalahanin po natin: Anumang sinasabi n’yo ay nakakaapekto sa pananaw ng Pilipino—humuhubog sa kanyang mga kilos, sa pagtingin niya sa kanyang sarili, sa kapwa, at sa bayan.
Kapag pinaniwala si Juan na panay pangit ang nangyayari sa lipunan, talagang mawawalan siya ng dahilan para tumungo sa katuparan ng mga adhikain niya.
Pero kung nakikita niyang ang dating problema ay nasusulusyonan, mag-aalab ang pag-asa, at magkaka-kompiyansa siyang sumulong dahil alam niyang may pagbabago na…
Hindi ko hinihiling na kumatha kayo ng mga gawa-gawang kuwento, o pagandahin ang imahen ng gobyerno.
Ang akin lang po, kung naibabalita ang mga nagaganap na krimen at trahedya, ibalita rin naman po natin sana kung paano ito naresolba.
Kung inilalantad po natin ang kabulastugan; matuto naman din po sana tayong kilalanin ang mga nagagawang kabutihan. At kung may maimumungkahi kayo para lalo nating mapagbuti ang pagsisilbi sa bayan, kami po ay makikinig…
Ako po’y pagpasensyahan ninyo kung masyadong prangka nagsalita ngayong gabi.”
Thus, Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III’s speech at the 25th anniversary celebration of ABS-CBN’s TV Patrol.
Thus the great chasm between statesmanship and one-upmanship.
Thus one more compelling argument to pass the Freedom of Information Bill.
Now na!
