Saturday, August 18, 2007

IPZ condemns media 'swertres' payola

The Independent Press of Zamboanga (IPZ) issued a resolution Saturday condemning the most recent publicized "swertres" payola, implicating members of the media and high-ranking police officers in the city.


The resolution also stated that the organization reached a consensus to create a special body to probe the veracity of such media payola, starting with its own members, and shall seek relentlessly to ferret out the truth to avoid any recurrence or repetition of this highly irresponsible, malicious and grossly unprofessional act of maligning the media under the cloak of anonymity.

It assured the public that should any members of the organization heavily involved in such anomalous practice and cowardly act,immediate sanction shall be properly instituted against them.

"This alleged media payola has besmirched the integrity and reputation of members of the Fourth Estate in Zamboanga City. Due to none identity of the letter sender and its failure to identify, specifically the persons involved in the alleged payola, has adversely affected the entire media organization in the city, including that of the IPZ," according to the resolution.

The so-called poison letter, reportedly coming from a former policeman, claims that some high ranking police officers and two members of the media are getting payola from swertres operators.

The letter sender also claims that high-ranking police officers and chiefs of police were, respectively, getting P60,000, P2,000 while the mediamen were dividing the P13,000 weekly allowances.

"The IPZ strongly condemns the sender of the so-called poison letter on account of his failure to identify the members of media, who are allegedly receiving 'grease' money from the swertes operators," the IPZ said.

The resolution also urged the author of the letter to identify himself and come out in the open, believing that the letter's content is very damaging to the integrity of the media and the PNP as well.

It said the IPZ will highly appreciate some information of any member involved in questionable transaction, besmirching the good name of the media organization in Zamboanga City.

No comments: