Term Paper

Raener Conrad A. Nuez Prof. Joseph Reylan Viray

BACR 2-1 Media Laws and Ethics

Anthony Taberna, a broadcast journalist of the television network ABS-CBN announced that he will temporarily leave his home network due to the ongoing controversy surrounding the religious group, Iglesia ni Cristo (INC). Anthony Taberna is an active member of Iglesia ni Cristo. He said that the reason why he will temporary leave is because he is not credible to discuss the events surrounding the Iglesia ni Cristo. “I have religious beliefs, and I also have a duty as a journalist, two things I cannot mix due to conflict of interest” he said. Anthony Taberna joined the group in protesting at EDSA and made a brief speech about that the church authorities did not force them to join the protest. He said that the reason why they joined the protest is because they love their religion and they will fight for it. His home network agreed to his leave request and he said that he will be back once the controversy surrounding the group dies down.

For my opinion, Anthony Taberna only did what is the right thing to do. He filed a leave to prevent himself to become bias among the issues surrounding the group. He did it to prevent a conflict of interest. According to Wikipedia, A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple interests (financial, emotional, or otherwise), one of which could possibly corrupt the motivation of the individual or organization. It’s not that he wanted to temporarily leave his home network it’s just he needed to. If he will discuss issues about the religious group while the audience knew he is a member of it, it will be very obvious that the audience will think that he is not credible and being...