It was Friday
night while I was walking on my way home when I passed by a stand that sold
newspapers. I held up one of the newspapers lined in a single file that caught
my eye. It was a copy of an Inquirer,
and the banner headline read: ‘‘Yolanda’-like typhoon heads for PH”, in bold,
large fonts, written across the page.
It struck me
knowing that it was only last month that the anniversary of the Yolanda tragedy
that took thousands of lives and displaced hundreds of families, was held.
It was another
figurative yet also literal storm looming ahead.
However, just as I was watching the news, a
section of news aired regarding the storm warning that said that the data
recorded regarding the storm ‘Ruby’, the one mentioned in the headlines of the Inquirer, indicates that typhoon Ruby,
with the international name Hagupit, did not have enough wind velocity to match
that of Yolanda’s according to PAG-ASA. The record shows that it sustained wind
velocity is similar to that of typhoon Pablo, not Yolanda, unlike the newspaper
report.
Such ethical
lapses or incidents regarding bouts of misinformation cannot be hard to avoid. It
is done if we want to target the market for our stories. But ethically
speaking, information, and the lack thereof produces consequences that may
prove fatal. In this case, it may even cause public panic.
It’s difficult
to imagine what kind of storm is brewing over the horizon. (Editor’s note: Incidentally, Ruby was nowhere near Yolanda in terms of
damage and casualty.) But one thing is for certain, one false move may
spell yet another disaster.
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(Editor's note: The comparison between Yolanda and Ruby stems from the fact that the paths of the two typhoons were similar, but not on wind velocity as framed by some media reports.)
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