Some were saying that the gruesome ending of the hostage taking in Quirino Grandstand in Manila by a former PNP Capt. Rolando Mendoza was the media’s fault. It was the media’s fault because they wanted scoop. If the media did not show footages of the hostage takers brother being arrested he wouldn’t be agitated to fire his weapons that lead to the deaths of 7 hostages. (Manila tourist bus hostage taking time line)
I beg to disagree, its not the media’s fault but the PNP, MPD SWAT and the operatives fault because they obviously didn’t have any plan on how to get Capt. Mendoza out of the bus and assure safety of the hostages. (National Police Procedures During Hostage Taking Incidents)
The media was there not to get scoop, they were there to keep an eye. They were doing their job. (But of course this international journalism guidelines in covering Hostage-Taking Crises, Prison Uprisings, Terrorist Actions does not apply in the Philippine journalist, not everyone knows this guidelines, seriously)
If not for the media we wouldn’t witness how untrained and incompetent our PNP, SWAT operatives are in situations like this.
Now we know where our authorities fail, why most hostage situations fail because our police enforcer are so inexperienced, untrained, unprepared and unequipped.
Imagine going to the bus without having any ladder, tear gas, flash light, gas mask or anything to protect themselves. Just a mallet to smash the bus windows and doors. What a big joke. What a big fail!
Here was a chance to disable the guy that could have prevented the gruesome ending. What was the plan of the MPD SWAT? I doubt if they have any plans at all. What incompetent people. If the photographer was able to take this nice shot the snipper could have disabled this guys legs!
Mendoza was completely armed when he entered the bus bearing Hong Kong nationals. He know what he was doing. The NPD SWAT was totally clueless.
Even at the end of the situation when the hostage taker was taken down by a snipper and declared dead. There was no crowd control, by standers freely got in the premises. What a shame!
Are our police just trained to control crown during inauguration and State of the Nation Address of the Philippine President? Or our crowd control is as bad as our flood control program. Evidence were already tampered they can say anything they want.
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@ um_not_really yes a major major booboo on everyone’s part there the Philippine media admitted they have different guidelines… lesson learned to everyone … let’s move forward
Honestly this is the very 1st time i have visited your blog so it’s NOT possible that i have been here before. Moving forward, this SHOULD be a lesson to the police and media that they have lots of things to improve and change regarding how to handle situations like this. News organizations can still report blow-by-blow accounts but they can delay their broadcasts for 15 mins so that the perpetrator(s) wont have a REAL TIME broadcast of what the authorities are up to.
Media is a very powerful entity in our country and (almost) everyone has access to it, and in yesterday’s situation it became a double-edged sword.
I beg to disagree. The media people should be the first ones to know what to do when they are in the middle of a hostage crisis, or terrorist attack. What they have done is to only botch up the whole operation and put the hostages lives in danger. The police is to blame too, BUT the media should’ve backed off from the situation. Someone from BBC asked why would the government allow the media to cover the hostage scene?
And the reason why I disagree is to pose my point which was actually written via Poynter.Org (isn’t this supposed to be the media’s bible?):
-Always assume that the hostage taker, gunman, or terrorist has access to the reporting.
-Avoid describing with words or showing with still photography and video any information that could divulge the tactics or positions of SWAT team members.
-Be forthright with viewers, listeners, or readers about why certain information is being withheld if security reasons are involved.
-Seriously weigh the benefits to the public of what information might be given out versus what “potential harm” that information might cause. This is especially important in live reporting of an ongoing situation.
-From the article: Guidelines for Covering Hostage-Taking Crises, Prison Uprisings, Terrorist Actions
Now the lesson we get from the whole ordeal is this: No more whitewashing AND forgetfulness. The Media and the police should take responsibility from their actions. Nuff said.
I hope that they all do something. Because we people can’t take anymore of their garbage.
Again I apologize if I may have hurt you in someway, but I am just stating my stand. Thanks earthlinggoddess. 🙂
It saddens me that we see most of the media are seen as heartless, greedy and news-thirsty. I would agree they are always in the need to know and get the news first, that was the practice for so long so as to get more viewership/ readership after all its their work their bread and butter.
However, if in the beginning the law enforcers and the higher ups immediately showed his authority, he indeed could have called for a press briefing and informed the media that they need to have a media black-out to prevent feeding news to the hostage taker who is unstable. I’m sure they would understand, the media only goes on guerila tactic of gathering news when they feel somebody is hiding something from them.
Maybe the live reporting was too “honest” as they went blow-by-blow the media could have been censored or asked to minimize reporting until such time the hostages are all safe.
It just shows how inexperienced and unprepared our law enforcers are in times like this and how the media has grown into get it all news not censoring themselves on sensitive information.
Lessons learned, I hope everyone goes back to training and keep in mind all the guidelines set in covering hostage-taking crisis, prison uprising and terrorist activities and the guidelines for police in handling hostage taking situations.
I read it first on twitter, cause the news become TT there, and now from my reading here (your post and the comments) I can understand more.
Sorry that it has to end like that.
My condolence goes to all the victims and that includes to the hostage taker.
I can understand those who see that the media has its part of what happened, and I tend to agree with it.
Not all media though, but I like what @um_not_really saying:
heartless, news-thirsty rabid news organizations masking greed with “honest journalism”
That kind of “journalism” happens too in my country, and that’s just sad.