No legitimate, self-respecting media platform can possibly greet Annabelle Rama's Cease-and-Desist Letter of April 14, 2009 with anything but shock and exhaustion.
The shock comes from the fact that most everyone knows by now that the Constitution protects the rights of media in no uncertain terms: "No law shall be passed abridging the freedom of speech, of expression, or of the press..." (1987 Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines, Bill of Rights, Article III, Section 4). I wager that most media platforms will not even bother to respond to a letter like this.
And the exhaustion comes from PEP's penchant for doing the right thing: We apologize when we're wrong. We clarify. We correct.
Last March 30, 2009, I posted an Editor's Note on this site—which I kept unmoving at the top tier of our Breaking News for three days straight—to apologize for uploading a piece on Richard Gutierrez that had yet to be fully researched and investigated. The next day, March 31, in a press conference where television, print, radio, and the web were all represented, I again apologized for what I called a premature and inadvertent uploading. [Click related story here.]
Now we go out of our way once more to explain ourselves—even in the face of the shocking C & D Letter—as further proof that the apology PEP issued to Richard Gutierrez, Epy Quizon, Michael Flores, and to our readers is one that we take very seriously.
Thus, we now address every point raised by the C & D Letter.
STOPPING ALL ARTICLES/COMMENTS. The C & D Letter asks for something really grave—and impossible to give. It asks that we stop any coverage of Richard Gutierrez and shut down all comments about Richard by PEP users, a.k.a. the PEPsters.
The C & D Letter demands that "PEP's publisher Summit Media, its editorial staff headed by Jo-Ann Maglipon and Karen Pagsolingan, and its writers to immediately, upon receipt of this letter, CEASE AND DESIST from publishing any further articles and/or comments about Richard Gutierrez."
There is no other way to say it.
This is an affront to a free press.
It is cavalier about free speech.
It totally misrepresents the nature of public figures.
And it is dismissive of the public's right to know.
(Incidentally, in the interest of fact and accuracy, the Letter's authors should note that PEP is not owned by Summit Media but by PEP Inc. A more complete research will show that these are two distinct entities.)
We received the C & D Letter on April 14, 2009. Today, we are still printing articles and comments on Richard Gutierrez, as they come. Tomorrow, we will still be doing the same thing.
Let us not forget who we are talking about here. This is Richard Gutierrez, a movie star who, in the words of his mother and talent manager Annabelle Rama, is "the No. 1 na artista" in the land. [Click related story here.] The 25-year-old Richard is, therefore, by every measure a public figure. And PEP—being a site that carries reports, opinions, features, blogs, videos, podcasts, and photographs of and about public figures—will continue to do its job of reporting on Richard Gutierrez, for as long as the public is interested in him.
In brief, no one shall storm what the Constitution protects.
SUSPICIONS OF ANNABELLE. The C & D Letter is "suspicious" of the "608 comments" generated by the article "Richard Gutierrez files P25-million libel case against PEP," written by PEP contributor Jojo Gabinete, posted April 13, 2009. [Click related story here.]
Even more "suspicious," notes the C & D Letter, is that the 608 comments were all uploaded within 24 hours of the article being posted.
As a result, says the C & D Letter, Richard's mother, Annabelle Rama, wants "appropriate action" taken against PEP's "...continuing grossly negligent act of uploading a barrage of negative comments..."
The C & D Letter advances its accusation that PEP has been "grossly negligent" by questioning whether the PEPsters who posted comments under the article were really warm bodies. The implication is that they may all be fictitious characters, invented by PEP, to unleash against Richard.
The suspicion is two pronged: (1) How can hundreds of "negative and insulting" comments possibly pour in under the Richard article within 24 hours of its posting, compared to those pouring in under other PEP's HOT items for the same period? (2) And why do these "alleged comments" come from anonymous, "untraceable" sources?
Of course, the flipside will have to be: (1) Will suspicion turn to hurray if the 608 comments had happened to be more praise and applause? (2) Will the C & D Letter then be replaced with a lovely note for "good promotion?"
But the more plausible reason for this Cease-and-Desist Letter is because the Gutierrezes want to find another way to stop PEP from operating. With the libel case filed by Richard against PEP subject to sub judice—that is, the case is in the hands of the court and may not be commented upon in public—a C & D Letter is a new tack to get to the same point: stop PEP.
So the C & D Letter now tells the entire PEP site—from publisher, editors, writers, PEPsters—to stop publishing anything on Richard immediately. Then it couches this with an ambiguous threat: "Failure to heed this demand shall be construed as an unlawful refusal to do so..." Ambiguous because there is no comprehending what can possibly be unlawful about continuing to publish articles and opinions about the actor.
In conclusion, the C &D Letter threatens, again with ambiguity, that the client will be "constrained to take any and all necessary steps to protect her interests, and that of her family."
PEP RESPONSE: As editor-in-chief of PEP, I say categorically that none of these suspicions and insinuations is true. PEP has no campaign against—or for that matter, for—any public figure. These are imaginings. They are fertile thoughts possibly wrought by the highly competitive entertainment industry. They are, as Ruffa Gutierrez might say, "mga fabricated stories na kuwentong barbero."
THE 608 COMMENTS. But since the "608 comments" that attached themselves to the Richard libel-suit article are the bone of contention here, PEP shall address these numbers.
We really do get hundreds—no, thousands—of comments every day. To be exact, we average 3,500 comments daily. The PEPsters are a very involved, engaged, and active bunch with an opinion on everything.
In fact, given the PEPsters fascination with show business, "608 comments" is a low-to-medium comment count for a single article within 24 hours.
Here are articles with 900 to 1000 comments within 24 hours:
1. The article "Dingdong Dantes describes leading lady Marian Rivera in many ways" (March 17, 2009 at 2:45 p.m.) gathered 1,063 comments within 24 hours of activation. The 1,063rd comment was posted on March 18, 2009, 12:47 p.m., by natring619.
2. The article "Manny Pacquiao reportedly ditches Solar Sports for ABS-CBN"[March 18, 2009 at 9:23 p.m.] gathered 1,022 comments within 24 hours of activation. The 1,022nd comment was posted on March 19, 2009, 11:51 a.m. by joanncabale.
3. The article "Marian Rivera on Dingdong Dantes: "Hindi makukumpleto ang buhay ko kung wala siya" [April 4, 2009 at 5:27 p.m.] gathered 991 comments within 24 hours of activation. The 991th comment on April 5, 2009 at 9:10 a.m. by makopa.
GOOGLE ANALYTICS. Now, you may well ask: where do these numbers come from?The answer: Google Analytics.
PEP subscribes to Google Analytics, which provides detailed statistics on visitors to a site as its free service to Google Inc clients. Google Analytics can track visitors from all referrers, such as search engines, display advertising, pay-per-click networks, email marketing, and digital collateral like links within PDF documents.
According to Wikipedia, Google Inc., an American public corporation co-founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin with headquarters in Mountain View, California, earns revenue from advertising related to its Internet search, e-mail, online mapping, office productivity, social networking, video-sharing services, and more.
In plain English, Google Analytics is the AGB Nielsen of the Internet.
Local media clients of Google Analytics include: www.abs-cbnnews.com, www.pinoyexchange.com, www.gmanews.tv, www.inq7.net, www.mb.com.ph, and, as we said, www.pep.ph.