The Philippine government has stepped away from further harassment of Arnold Zeitlin, the chief of the Associated Press bureau in Manilla, but the anti-Jewish slur directed against him in a letter Feb. 20 signed by Philippine Foreign Secretary Carlos Romulo has not been retracted from the official record nor has any public apology for it been made to the journalist who is Jewish, it was learned here.
In the letter last month to the Foreign Ministers of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, Zeitlin was described as “suspected of being a Jewish journalist” and the letter claimed his dispatches in Feb. on fighting between Moslem rebels and Filipino government troops were false.
American sources told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the matter was “unfortunately handled” and that Romulo, now about 78, probably was unaware of the slur when he signed the letter. The Philippines, the sources noted, have about three million Moslems and fewer than 500 Jews. The country also depends on the Middle East for its oil. Therefore, they said, the letter making Zeitlin the scapegoat was an easy way to obscure the fighting and please the Arab oil producers.
The matter has been quietly dropped, the sources added, by means of a memorandum to foreign news services in Manila from Philippine Information Secretary Francisco Tatad and the chairman of the Philippines Media Advisory Council, Primitivo Mijares. The memorandum said that the Philippine policy is that “international wire services and foreign journalists shall have unimpeded freedom in the performance of their work” and “all inquiries and investigations” being conducted by the Council were being “immediately discontinued.”
The memorandum did not mention Zeitlin although Mijares had previously accused him of trying to “alienate the Philippine government and people from the Arab world.” Zeitlin, the only American correspondent in the Philippines, refused to appear at a hearing before the council on the charges. His dispatches on the fighting in Feb. in Jolo were never questioned by serious journalists and he is continuing with his duties in Manila. (By Joseph Polakoff)
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