More on HP Phils. and the Stratworks issue

WE are re-posting a press statement from CyberPress:

April 4, 2010

CyberPress Official Statement

The IT Journalists Association of the Philippines (CyberPress) is issuing this statement to clear the issues regarding an incident involving our board officer Melvin Calimag and co-founder and former member Red Samar.

On March 1, 2010, Mr. Calimag wrote a story on the resignation of Ms. Bernadette Nacario, HP Philippines country manager for Personal Systems Group (PSG). The company branded the story as false although it did confirm on the following day that Ms. Nacario has indeed resigned. The CyberPress firmly believes that the story is true and correct in its totality.

Calimag, a long-time IT contributor of the InfoTech section of the Manila Bulletin, was told to stop writing for the paper. Samar, on the other hand, was the editor of the same section for 14 years, was stripped of his editorial responsibilities.

We don’t question the management prerogative of Manila Bulletin. However, the drastic turn of events was a direct result of a questionable action done by HP Philippines and its local PR agency, STRATWORKS, which communicated directly with Manila Bulletin Executive Vice President – Advertising Department Emil Yap in clear violation of journalism and PR protocol and ethics.

HP Philippines executive Bernadette Nacario and STRATWORKS PR manager Harold Geronimo said Mr. Yap asked them that a “letter of clarification” be sent to him immediately. But, even if it was Mr. Yap who initiated the communication, it was patently inappropriate for them to directly engage with Mr. Yap without involving the people on the ground – the editor and the reporter.

They sent the letter to Mr. Yap, who also serves as the paper’s executive vice president for advertising, when the matter was clearly editorial in nature. They did not contact the reporter and editor until two weeks later when Mr. Samar was asked by Mr. Yap to reply to the letter.

However, Mr. Calimag, as the writer of the story and the one directly involved in the issue, has not received any communication from either HP or STRATWORKS.

In any dispute regarding factual errors, the accepted proper course of action would have been a letter to the editor or a libel suit. What HP Philippines and STRATWORKS did set a very dangerous precedent in the journalism profession. There was obviously an attempt to influence the newspaper owner, suppress editorial integrity, and press freedom.

It is very unfortunate that this controversy has marred the good relationship of HP Philippines with CyberPress, which has been covering the company ever since its establishment in 1996.

Information Technology Journalists Association of the Philippines
(ITJAP/CyberPress)

An assault on editorial independence

CyberPress Official Statement concerning HP Phils. and Stratworks

The IT Journalists Association of the Philippines (CyberPress) denounces in the strongest terms, what the group sees as an unfair and arbitrary treatment of CyberPress members Melvin Calimag and Red Samar* who were penalized for doing their work -- reporting IT industry news.

Calimag was a long-time IT correspondent of the InfoTech section of the Manila Bulletin and was told to stop writing for the paper. Samar, on the other hand, was the editor of the same section and was stripped of his editorial responsibilities.

On March 1, 2010, Calimag reported the resignation of a country manager of HP Philippines – a development actually confirmed by the company. The report also stated that the executive, Bernadette Nacario, had thrice been bypassed for promotion to the top post, an issue denied by the company.

HP Philippines vehemently branded the report as “wrong,” though it announced Nacario’s resignation later on. We believe, however, that the report, in its totality, is true and correct.

We believe that the proper course of action that HP and/or its PR agency, Stratworks, could have taken was to raise the concern/issue directly with the publication’s section editor responsible for the page and/or the reporter who wrote the story.

Instead, HP Philippines, allegedly upon the persistent counsel of StratWorks, HP’s PR agency, ignored this course of action and chose to address the issue in a dubious manner. In other words, there was a breakdown in basic business ethics and public relations practice.

In the eyes of the CyberPress, the manner of how this “issue” was handled is categorically unacceptable. The IT journalists involved have always kept an open line of communication to both IT company and PR agency but were never approached.

We believe that our members, if they did violate any protocol in the pursuit of their story, due process should have been followed. They deserve to be treated like any professional with respect and fairness.

Information Technology Journalists Association of the Philippines (CyberPress) March 12, 2010

*Samar, co-founder of CyberPress, retired from the organization on March 15, 2010.