Reflections on the Malu Fernandez issue

Now that’s the issue of Malu Fernandez is over, hopefully the hate generated by the issue will dissipate. The Malu Fernandez campaign index is probably the most viewed blog post in this blog, and it also has the largest number of comments (though some made multiple comments).

Let me explain the things that I have learned from this issue.

Malu’s resignation is not a victory for bloggers

I was informed of the Malu Fernandez issue by Schumey via text message. He urged me to post about it, which I did, though not in the strong terms that most bloggers did. Nick pushed the envelop further by campaigning for the resignation or termination of Fernandez from Manila Standard Today and People Asia. Some other bloggers called for an apology.

I had supported the campaign by linking all blog posts supporting Nick’s campaign. I was surprised by the sheer number of bloggers who heeded Nick’s call, and by the number of comments left on each posts.

Fernandez has resigned from both publications. Is this a victory for bloggers? My answer is no.

In several text messages, and in a blog post, I had noted that unless the mainstream media took notice of the issue, Nick’s campaign would end up as another online phenomenon that resulted to nothing. Let’s face it: not everyone has Internet access, and not everyone is familiar with blogs.

What I think broke the camel’s back was this statement made by journalists in Dubai (it seems that Nick’s site is down, maybe bandwidth issues, so I am reposting the statement here):

STATEMENT FROM THE FILIPINO PRESS CLUB-DUBAI ON THE DEROGATORY ARTICLES OF MALU FERNANDEZ

Ms. Malu Fernandez’s travel columns “From Boracay to Greece” (People Asia, June 2007) and “Am I being a diva? Or do you lack common sense?” (Manila Standard Online, July 30, 2007) continue to draw negative reactions from Filipinos here in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

While we, the Filipino Press Club in the UAE, believe in press freedom and the wide latitude given to writers in expressing their conscience, we believe that Ms. Fernandez and her editors overstepped the bounds of responsibility with these stories.

The incident recounted in her flight via Dubai to Manila in which she berated fellow Filipinos (who had already endured the misfortune of working away from their families) on board Emirates for wearing “cheap” perfumes had no significant bearing to her story.

This particular anecdote did not provide any form of entertainment, learning opportunity or even delightful trivia to the readers. To suggest all Dubai-based OFWs smell awful because they are unable to afford expensive perfumes like the one she’s wearing is high-brow snobbery.

It is the same snobbery stamped on the psyche of some members of the Philippine society’s elite that has caused the yawning gap between our rich and poor, and the economic exodus of which millions of us Filipinos have now become a part.

To enlighten Ms Fernandez and her editors, Consul General Maria Theresa Taguiang from the Philippine Embassy in Abu Dhabi cited unofficial estimates (as of December 2006, submitted to the Philippine Congress) that there are now 250,000 Filipinos in the UAE. Of that figure, 24 percent are professional workers, 35 percent are skilled, 24 percent unskilled and 16.89 percent household workers (housemaids, personal drivers, nannies, cooks, tutors, gardeners, among other household staff).

More local as well as foreign companies in the UAE are employing Filipino workers because of their proficiency in English and admirable work ethics.

A print medium that aspires for relevance in today’s competitive media world cannot hide under the skirt of press freedom for its licentiousness to insult a group of people. One’s freedom to poke her fingers begins where someone else’s nose begins.

Ms Fernandez’s unrepentant response to the barrage of angry reactions from OFWs and their loved ones (“I obviously write for a certain target audience and if what I write offends you, just stop reading”), simply adds fuel to the fire.

A nation like the Philippines that aspires for renewal and regeneration needs a responsible press with a high level of sensitivity to all sectors that comprise it.

We strongly demand that the publishers of People Asia and Manila Standard Today to take full responsibility and do the right thing: give Ms Fernandez and her editors a disciplinary action and apologise to the people insulted by these articles.

THE FILIPINO PRESS CLUB-DUBAI

(A mutual support group of Filipino professional journalists from the print, broadcast and web-based media in the United Arab Emirates)

Manuel L. Quezon III made several observations about the role of the blogosphere in the Fernandez issue:

I am not convinced it was totally an achievement of the blogosphere: it’s still a small circle compared to the online media Filipinos congregate in, in truly significant numbers, and that’s e-groups (and e-mail: the magazine article was scanned, then circulated by e-mail, some time before it finally started being commented on in blogdom). The impact of a statement by press associations, such as the one issued by the Filipino Press Club in Dubai, is also the sort of thing media practitioners from the older generation get impressed.

What MLQ3 did not say is that it is the blogosphere that made this issue almost mainstream. What he did say is that the mainstream news orgs harbor some sort of disdain over blogs – they have not yet grasped the impact of blogs over public opinion.

The victory is partial, and I am afraid it has become pyrrhic.

The Malu issue has shown how terrible the “power” of blogging can be

I still maintain that freedom of expression is absolute, but it always come with responsibility. Ms. Fernandez exercised her freedom at the expense of the people she hit in her article. The people had spoken against her. Some blogs maligned here. In the end, she apologized and resigned.

Journalists are bound by a code of ethics, and rightfully so. While they can freely exercise their freedom to express, they know their responsibilities.

The debate on bloggers vs. journalists has been raging for years, and my belief is that a blogger can be a journalist if he subscribes to the code of ethics that journalists abide. But if the blogger chose not to be a journalist, does that mean he can just say anything he wants?

Here lies the power of blogging. A blogger is freed from the shackles of ethics of journalism. There are no restrictions. He is accountable to no one but himself. He can expose the truth without restraint. And this power is scary.

Some bloggers are calling for some sort of blogger’s code of ethics or conduct. This issue is as controversial as Malu Fernandez herself. The main contention is enforcement. But what the code highlights is the fact that bloggers know how dangerous the unrestrained use of blogging can be. And the Malu Fernandez issue has shown me (at least) that this is the case.

Some blog posts are so libelous that I still wonder why Fernandez did not even bother threatening with libel charges. Some bloggers maligned someone who maligned some people. Some bloggers called her names. If this is the power that blogging carries, that it is scary indeed. That is blogarchy (a term I had encountered at The Philosophical Bastard).

However, there is hope. Blogging has a correcting mechanism. Other bloggers and readers can always put a blogger to task if that blogger has overstretched the truth or said something foul. Still, this mechanism can be abused. We can all just hope in the goodness and honesty of bloggers. But that is another issue.

Is the Malu issue a blow against freedom of speech?

This, I think, is the most important collateral to the Malu Fernandez issue that is yet to be tackled by most bloggers.

The freedom of speech is central to blogging; without it, blogging will not exist. Now, in exercising her freedom of expression, Malu Fernandez was forced to apologize and resign. In effect, she was punished for what she had said. As one blogger had said, “What she wrote was reprehensible, but she has the right to write what she did. Her drivel is protected speech. The freedom that allows her to spew crap is the same freedom that allows those whom she had offended to call her Ms Piggy. By allowing her the space for her inanities, we are protecting our freedoms as well.”

I disagree.

As I have said before, freedom comes with responsibility – that’s the price we pay for absolute freedom. We are responsible for whatever effect the exercise of that freedom entails. We all agree to a social contract – to respect each other’s person and property. We have laws, norms, and values to enforce the contract, to hold us responsible.

We all agree that Fernandez has abused her freedom, maligned a lot of people, hurt a lot of egos.

What, then, is the proper way to make her responsible?