lately I've been watching philippine TV on cable- feature-like interview/coverage and "expose," it made me think about media coverage from other countries (not the U.S.), since the west sets the "standard" I wanted to see how they were similar or different.
I didn't watch enough to be able to tell the difference. Some of the juxtaposition, I found were interesting especially this 'human interest' story they did where they covered about organizing a place whether home or work (cleaning up the mess) and followed by this story on protecting coral reefs specifically the ones that surrounded Philippines. They went back and forth covering points, basically paralleling the former to the latter.
In some ways it was distracting, but the transition made it smooth. The overall theme was there, and I understood the association about messy personal human living quarters reflecting the damaged ocean ecosystem specifically the reefs. It addressed two issues, they complimented each other, which revealed the significance and the relationship between the two. It made it well-rounded by taking a personal issue and globalizing it (using analogy, metaphor, cause and effect).
The really gory stuff followed it. It was an expose, dealing with a manual for the disposal of dead person and a barrel load of dead babies piled up (think "pickled"). The news station was tipped and they showed the blur images of the dead babies. Before the explanation, the first thing that came to my mind was black market stem cell research. Then they explained that the dead babies where passed to the funeral home to be disposed of. The funeral home being unsanitary hadn't been doing their job.
I was thinking how rights are affected by this expose (if somewhere in the Philippine law, there's privacy rights and warrants). They didn't bust in, rather they had a surprised "sanitary inspection." the people acted all nonchalant but as the health authorities questioned them in depth, they incriminated themselves (once again, issues of right- right to be silent, to have an attorney--- I know these rights are specific to the U.S.--- however Philippines is a democratic country and their government is modeled after the West).
Seeing how effective the authorities moved and handled the issue (concern for the genral health of the people-- improperly disposed dead people can spread some kind of outbreak, my grotesque mind was thinking of resident evil babies), their actions made me wonder, if protecting rights of the criminal in this situation would delay the prosecution or save him so he could continue doing more bad things, sometimes overt criminal acts and innocent until proven guilty are impediments and red tape bueaucracy... journalism, tv media exposing the truth in expose- vigilante?
Posted by Michael Diezmos at April 16, 2006 1:33 AM