CyberPress Official Statement concerning HP Phils. and Stratworks

CyberPress Official Statement

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 the 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