In his first State of the Nation Address, President Duterte called for the creation of a People’s Broadcasting Corp. (PBC), replacing PTV-4, the government-run TV station. [...] The Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines recognizes the vital role of communication and information in nation building and the right of the people to information on matters of public concern.

Some spokespersons have it tough. Think Sean Spicer trying to defend Donald Trump, Ron Ziegler defending Richard Nixon, maybe Dmitry Peskov fronting for Vladimir Putin. But the kind of tough job facing a spokesman that we should really respect is the one performed for the past three years by Col. Andriy Lysenko, spokesman of the Ukrainian armed forces. He comes daily to the Ukraine Crisis Media Center in downtown Kyiv and reports on-the-record on the state of the war in Ukraine’s eastern regions. 

The latest incident saw Secretary Tillerson and the Saudi foreign minister, Adel al Jubeir, taking questions about the president’s visit to Saudi Arabia from a group of international journalists that did not include members of the American press corps. U.S. journalists complained that they weren’t even given a head’s up about the briefing, a shocking breach of norms that took place in one of the least press-friendly countries on Earth—a place where a servile media parrots the government’s line at almost all times and where bloggers are given lashes for speaking out.

Burdened with meaning, words can hurt or help. As policymakers and public diplomats address Ebola, the word choice must be careful and consistent.