The New York Times disputed Wednesday claims made by Malacanang that the stories they published about the drug war in the Philippines is part of a “demolition” against the Duterte administration.
Read: NY Times wants accountability for Duterte: ‘Hit PH where it hurts the most’
Andrew Glazer, who produced the New York Times documentary “When a President says, ‘I’ll kill you'”, said they have no ulterior motive in publishing the stories.
He said they merely wanted to humanize the victims of President Duterte’s anti-narcotics campaign.
“I can only say that there is no conspiracy to bring down the government that I was made aware of. At least the New York Times has no agenda other than telling stories that we find important and we’ve got a large international audience. These are stories we feel like they should know about so I’m not sure what the basis of that is but it seems to be kind of the reflexive response when you don’t like what is being reported,” he told ANC’s Early Edition.
Read: Watch: New York Times makes documentary about Duterte’s drug war
“Its about humanizing victims, survivors, and the surviving family. It’s easy to dismiss these people who are getting killed as a problem that needed to be eradicated. It’s harder when you see their daughter crying at the funeral.”
Glazer said the paper also reached out to the Philippine government to balance their coverage. He said the New York Times was able to reach Director General Isidro S. Lapeña of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency to ask questions during a press conference.
“Prior to me arriving back in June or maybe in late May, we actually we had time set aside for him. The genesis of my reporting I expected to spend some time with the president-elect at the time and do a documentary on him and spend some time with him. I don’t know what the circumstances were but that was pulled at the last minute so that never happened,” he said.
Malacañang has criticized the New York Times, saying it should focus on problems in the United States.
This story first appeared on ABS-CBN News and is re-published with permission.
Reader Interactions