[Inside the Newsroom] I knew you were waiting for Martin Romualdez’s mug shot

• Rappler chose not to publish Martin Romualdez's mugshot taken in a hospital to adhere to ethical reporting standards, emphasizing the presumption of innocence and avoiding sensationalism.
• The outlet fact-checked an AI-generated image of Vice President Sara Duterte in handcuffs, clarifying that she was never actually handcuffed and providing context to her legal challenges.
• Rappler aims to balance public interest in accountability with the rights of suspects, maintaining a commitment to ethical journalism while navigating pressures from government officials.

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Rappler didn’t publish former House speaker Martin Romualdez’s mugshot taken while he was lying in a hospital bed. 

Rappler fact-checked a lawyer who initially circulated an image of Vice President Sara Duterte in handcuffs without disclosing that it was AI-generated. 

And some of you might have been disappointed in our decision in the first case, and thought we were too grim about the second one.

I understand — “understand” being an understatement if you’ve read our commentary or watched our talk shows or followed our investigative reports. 

When the national budget is supposedly plundered by way of anomalous flood control projects, or when the country’s second highest official lets out ear-piercing expletives against the President and admits to thoughts of beheading him, you are reasonably outraged (and horrified).

We are outraged (and horrified).

So why didn’t we indulge the public, who must be desperate for big, presumably untouchable, people to be made to account; who felt like seeing one official’s mugshots or another in handcuffs served some degree of swift justice? 

Because we have to provide an anchor amid the waves of emotion. Journalists must presume a suspect’s innocence, avoid sensationalism, and apply standards of ethical reporting equally and consistently for every person. Publishing images that could be humiliating runs counter to those three standards I just mentioned. 

We established that the police did their job of serving Romualdez the warrant by showing their photo getting his fingerprints. We cropped and blurred some parts of the photo provided by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group. We zoomed in on just the booking process, and excluded as much as possible the medical tubes and blood pressure-cum-heartbeat monitor attached to him. 

After that photo, I reminded the news desk that, consistent with our policy, we would not use the other one — of Romualdez lying in bed, a tag bearing his name and alleged crime placed atop his haggard body. 

We would have followed the same standards if Sara Duterte were indeed handcuffed. No photos if the purpose was to just show a degrading spectacle. 

By adhering to these editorial standards, the intention was to ensure that the focus was on the facts of the case, our rigorous and insightful reporting, and our excellent explainers. 

In Romualdez’s case, we raised questions about the necessity of a hospital arrest. We laid out the inside story and the timeline that made the circumstances leading to the hospitalization — on the day the anti-graft court issued the arrest warrant — invite suspicion.  

In Duterte’s case — to be clear, she was never handcuffed — we gave context to the grave threats cases and walked our audience through what to expect moving forward, and whether or not this could affect her ongoing impeachment trial. We placed her claims of untrustworthy courts and police side by side with contradicting statements she had made in the past.

We acknowledge that government officials occupy a unique position of trust. So when they are accused of violating that, the public needs to see confirmation that law enforcers process them the way they do ordinary suspects. Thus, our use of Romualdez’s finger-printing photo but not the mugshot.   

With regard to handcuffs, in some newsrooms overseas, publishing photos of officials in handcuffs are now considered appropriate under certain conditions: when they are arrested on the spot in a public place (as opposed to them submitting themselves to the cops and courts), they are accused of serious abuse of power, and there is a disclaimer that the accused is not yet convicted. 

We are watching these trends and will always review our standards — to serve justice and the public, not to protect politicians. (As the newsroom evolves, and some ethical guidelines are further refined, we may have missed updating or purging past contents. We would appreciate you bringing this to our attention via feedback@rappler.com.) 

For now, we do our best to show state action while we also uphold the suspect’s rights and adhere to due process. We also avoid giving a platform to the drama the accused officials may have wanted to stage. 

More importantly, when we take a deep breath amid the uproar, we — the press and the people — do not become like the monsters in high places we condemn and abhor. Challenging as it may be, we can only make progress as a society if we pursue justice and accountability without moral savagery.  

P.S.: We draw the line, however, when an accused official weaponizes the concepts of due process, presumption of innocence, and sub judice to gag the press and prevent free public discourse on legitimate issues. 

While I started writing this newsletter Friday morning, September 11, the law firm representing Martin Romualdez wrote to Rappler, seeking to stop our Rappler+ briefing on our series of investigations into multi-million-dollar properties linked to Romualdez. We went ahead with the members-exclusive program at 3 pm on Friday.

The event will not be livestreamed nor uploaded for the broader public. If you miss it, you can still become a Rappler+ member and gain access to our archives and future exclusive reports and events. – Rappler.com

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