Covering the Impeachment Missing: The Voice of the People
About the people, but…
In one of the live interviews, one question was asked: Why should the people be involved in the impeachment? The answer was clear, yet remained missing in media’s coverage of the impeachment trial.
It needed Prof. Victoria Avena of the University of the Philippines College of Law to remind everyone via ANC that “The impeachment court derives its mandate direct from the people under the Constitution. And therefore in the Constitutional-democratic design, what is supreme is the voice of the people…. Their (Senate and Congress) function as the people’s direct representatives is to impeach. Therefore, they are the sole and final voice on the matter.”
And yet, the press as usual relied on personalities for soundbites much more than on ordinary citizens. Legal and political analysts, lawyers, etc. were represented but the voices of civil society, people’s organizations and the academe, among others, were mostly missing. Some of the rallies pro and con were covered, but only at the onset of the trial. Coverage of the opinion surveys, on the other hand, tended towards getting the reactions of such media perennials as Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago.
Fortunately, the new media helped fill the gaps. The interactivity the social media, chat sites and blogs provide allowed for immediate feedback, thus putting the people were added in the center of the Internet discussions through questions and reactions posted online.
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