I AM part of the media establishment and will try to make this as objective as possible. If not so, do tell me.

G.K. Chesterton, the 20th century writer and thinker, said, “Not facts first; truth first.” Alas, our media do not know this simple truth. In the quest for news and whatever is newsworthy and in the name of freedom of the press and doing a job, media set about showing its true colors. The Manila Pen incident is the prime example.

A point of law: freedom of the press is not the same as freedom of speech. The latter is paramount and covers every conceivable aspect of our human existence, to the point of dying for the right to speak. It engages each aspect of expression from the spoken and written word, to radio and television and now to blogs and cyber messages. We cannot be separated from our right of expression; otherwise, we wither away.

Of course there are limits to freedom of expression. Our rights end when the rights of others begin. The so-called balancing of interests, of rights and obligations, of freedom and its abuse, of privileges and duties. It will be a chaotic world if it were not this way.

Freedom of the press, on the other hand, may be seen initially as a subset of the freedom of speech. But properly considered, it is anchored on two other basic rights: the right to know or the right to information and the right to pursue a vocation for the public good, to be gainfully employed. Thus, freedom of press in general ranks lower than freedom of expression.

Now a few facts: Senator Trillanes and company are detention prisoners under the custody of the law and the court at the time they walked out of the courtroom. They violated the law. When they marched toward the Makati central business district, armed, with the clear threat to life, liberty and property, they committed a criminal act. In other words, everything that happened during that day proceeded from a crime and continued to be a crime.

More facts: a few of the armed men were in disguise and mingled with media and, in fact, escaped. Media refused to leave after repeated requests. It was a police operation and not a military one.

Enter media and they start invoking press freedom to cover the series of statements and releases. Is it not the first duty to make sure criminals are apprehended and to restore peace and order immediately? Are the media exempt from the basic requirement to be a good citizen and a patriot? Are media above the law in ignoring police action at the threat to their own lives and endangering the lives of all present and the welfare of the country in general?

On the practical level, media gave away the positions and tactics of our law enforcers by the live coverage beamed directly into the hotel. Remember that hostage situation in Mindanao a few years ago when media announced troop events that allowed the bandits to escape the dragnet. The journalists were acting as human shields and possible hostages to armed men intent on using force and violence for their ends. The fact that media were tear-gassed only means that they were just really too close for comfort and were in fact abusing their freedom to provide information only.

Mediamen arrested after the operation had to be handcuffed lest a fake reporter pull out a gun and fire. It is a most sensible thing to do. The other obvious thing is to find out whether or not they were media at all. The cry of “overkill” sounds lame now.

The truth is, our media behave and act like spoiled children. Who hasn’t seen a press car violating traffic laws like policemen? Who hasn’t seen the arrogance of media with press I.D.s? The gravest travesty are mediamen who accept money to write for or against a person. In industry parlance, to slant, to angle and to spin. Nay, our media are as corrupt and as lost as the rest of us. The difference is that they dare to invoke the rule of law and not understand it at all; they attempt to give us the facts because they control the camera and the microphone when all we need is the simple truth.