Global Filipinos3 <globalfilipinos3@gmail.com> wrote: THE DEATH OF FIL-AM PRESS FREEDOM. Philippine News, the oldest-and-largest (sic)Filipino-American newspaper fires Mr. Lito Gutierrez, its editor-in-chief. The letter of the newspaper President and the statement of the editor-in-chief are reprinted below in full.
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From: " francis.espiritu@philippinenews.com" <francis.espiritu@philippinenews.com>
To: litogutierrez@yahoo.com; lito.gutierrez@philippinenews.com
Cc: carmen.espiritu@philippinenews.com; j.espiritu@sbcglobal.net
Sent: Saturday, June 23, 2007 5:18:46 PM
Subject: termination
June 23, 2007

Mr. Lito Gutierrez

Dear Mr. Gutierrez,

FedEx is trying to deliver your letter and checks but nobody would receive it.

You are hereby advised that your employment with Philippine News is terminated effective immediately.

Your final check, including any accrued vacation is attached with the FedEx package.

You are required to immediately surrender all corporate property in your possession including but not limited to the keys and ID.

You are no longer authorized to access any corporate information in any medium.

You are further advised that any malicious attempts to injure the corporation as a result of this termination will be met by vigorous legal action.

Very truly yours,

Francis Espiritu
President
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STATEMENT OF MR. LITO GUTIERREZ:

PHILIPPINE NEWS has fired its editor in chief after he refused to spike a story as instructed by the paper's management.

Lito Gutierrez, 55, who has been with the oldest and the only nationally circulated Filipino American newspaper for five years, received a call June 22 from the paper's advertising manager who told him he had been terminated.

The story involved the case of Carlos Araneta, head of the San Francisco-based cargo and money remittance facility LBC, who had lost his appeal to have a court ruling against him reversed. He had been ordered to pay $25 million to his partners who accused him of depleting the assets of their partnership in a bank.

LBC is a major advertiser in Philippine News and other Filipino American media.

"The management of Philippine News must have forgotten that we are not in some banana republic, that we are in the United States of America where freedom of the press is a fundamental right," said Gutierrez.

"Can you imagine," he asked, "if it had been the White House or some powerful politician who called?" Gutierrez said this was not the first time he had been asked to kill a story. Last year, he said PN president Francis Espiritu asked him not to use any story on businessman Rene Medina who had been charged by the Internal Revenue Service of failing to pay taxes.

Medina is the owner of Lucky Chances, a gaming facility in Colma, Calif., which, like LBC, is major advertiser. He said he was able to avoid a confrontation with Espiritu and use the story on page one after Loida Nicolas Lewis, who then headed the National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NaFFAA), issued a statement in support of Medina, saying that the IRS case was politically motivated.

In an e-mail message to Gutierrez, the writer who had been assigned to do the Araneta story, Felix Ilagan said, Espiritu merely put a "hold" on the story so the paper's lawyers could go over the documents.

"I think the guy just wants to smoothen things over," Gutierrez said in response. "But that's just being disingenuous. Given the propensity of Philippine News's management to suck up to advertisers at the expense of serious, honest journalism, that 'hold' order was effectively a 'kill' order. Let's not kid ourselves here."

The public has this perception that media sing to the tune of advertisers, he continued. "Well, not under my watch." # # #