Just when journalists wrote 30 on this year’s Cebu Press Freedom Week, a lawyer dropped a bombshell that sent shockwaves throughout the media industry.
Nestor Archival, lawyer of Senior Insp. Jose Liddawa Jr. “whose car collided head on with a pick-up of ABS-CBN last week and figured in an altercation with the news crew” turned the tables on the giant network.
He said contrary to the news report over channel three in Cebu, Liddawa was “the real victim” and that the broadcast news report did not tell the entire truth.
He pointed out that at the end of the story, ABS-CBN footage showed Liddawa “collapsed on the ground.”
According to The Freeman, Archival “was able to gather witnesses who can testify that the TV crew mauled his client and not bystanders.”
The “lawyer said that just like the statements of the witnesses, who were owners of stores near the site of the accident, the ABS-CBN insider told him that it was (Ramil) Paican, (Joel) Noel and the crew’s driver who mauled his client and not the bystanders as the network earlier reported,” The Freeman further stated.
As a public relations practitioner my initial reaction to the lawyer’s statement was that it was a very clever spin. It was enough to create reasonable doubt. But, after giving it much thought, I got very much worried about the allegations made by Liddawa’s defense attorney.
It was a mouthful. To accuse a news organization, a giant network at that of peddling a lie or reporting half truth is very serious. The statements by the lawyer could be tantamount to an affront to press freedom.
I always believe that there are two sides of a story just like there are two sides of a coin. So, it beckons upon ABS-CBN to conduct a thorough investigation to ferret the truth. I am confident that ABS-CBN will do what needs to be done to protect its credibility.
It is also incumbent upon the media to ensure that there will be no whitewash so that the credibility of the Cebu press, which up to now is held on high esteem, is firmly protected.
The public deserves no less.
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