Why killing of journalists continues in the Philippines

Press freedom and other democratic institutions were officially restored during after the ouster of Marcos dictatorship in 1986, yet Filipino journalists continue to get killed for their work, according to the Freedom Fund for Filipino Journalists. Despite massive calls of outrage and for prompt action by local and international media watchdogs and various sectors, Filipino journalists are killed at an alarming rate because of the rampant culture of impunity that exists in the country.

"The persistence of the killings has been attributed to a culture of impunity in which the killers and the masterminds have mostly evaded prosecution in a flawed justice system," FFFJ said in a statement released on the eve of this year's commemoration of the assassination of Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr. in 1983.

The FFFJ is an alliance of six media organizations—the Center for Community Journalism and Development, the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR), the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas, the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, the Philippine Press Institute, and the US-based newspaper Philippine News—created to address the killing of journalists in the Philippines and to assist besieged journalists. It provides financial, legal and other support for prosecution of case and for the survivors of slain journalists, as well as for the witnesses in the killings. CMFR serves as the FFFJ Secretariat.


Journalists still being killed 26 years after Ninoy's death
Source: Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility
Aug. 20, 2009

THE PHILIPPINES marks the 26th anniversary of the assassination of Senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino on August 21. Aquino’s assassination emboldened the anti-dictatorship resistance, and led to the ouster of the Marcos regime and his widow Corazon’s assuming the Presidency in 1986. Press freedom and other rights were officially restored during Aquino’s term of office. But 26 years later its full realization is still problematic as reflected in the continuing killing of journalists for their work.

The persistence of the killings has been attributed to a culture of impunity in which the killers and the masterminds have mostly evaded prosecution in a flawed justice system.

The successful prosecution of a criminal case, to which the Freedom Fund for Filipino Journalists (FFFJ) and its member organizations are committed as part of their efforts to dismantle the culture of impunity, depends on several factors, the most basic of which is the arrest of the accused. There is no consolation in having a criminal case filed only to have the court order it archived prior to arraignment simply because the accused is at large. But it continues to happen.

Without the accused in court, there can be no arraignment. This stage of criminal proceedings in the Philippines requires informing the accused of the nature and cause of the charges, and the accused’s personally entering a plea. The rationale behind this rule is due process: the accused must know and understand the charges against him so that he may adequately prepare for his defense.

Click here for more.

The killings reflect how deep the roots of this rotten culture of impunity exists in the Philippines. As CMFR's Melanie Pinlac writes: "The continuing murder of Filipino journalists/media practitioners indicates how much the culture of impunity in the Philippines has flourished—one more result of the systemic weaknesses of the country’s justice system."

"In addition to the government’s lack of political will, inefficient law enforcement, prosecutors burdened with impossible case loads, the primitive state of forensic investigation, and the poorly-funded witness protection program are responsible for the culture of impunity," added Pinlac, who serves as the CMFR press alerts officer. She analyzed the culture of impunity and why a poor witness protection program contributes to the problem.

Impunity and Witness Protection: An Analysis
Source: Freedom Watch
Melanie Y. Pinlac
July 30, 2009

The continuing murder of Filipino journalists/media practitioners indicates how much the culture of impunity in the Philippines has flourished—one more result of the systemic weaknesses of the country’s justice system. In addition to the government’s lack of political will, inefficient law enforcement, prosecutors burdened with impossible case loads, the primitive state of forensic investigation, and the poorly-funded witness protection program are responsible for the culture of impunity.

The prosecution of criminal cases including media murders in the Philippines relies heavily, sometimes solely, on testimonial evidence rather than forensic evidence, the result of the rudimentary—and sometimes careless—processing and gathering of physical evidence by law enforcement agencies. Investigators, prosecutors and lawyers try to gather extensive and comprehensive testimonial evidence to make up for the lack of physical evidence, and their unreliability if available. The families and colleagues of slain journalists have also been burdened with the task of locating possible witnesses for the prosecution of the suspected killers of their kin.

In the murder case against the alleged killer of Davao-based broadcaster Fernando “Batman” Lintuan, the testimony of the lone witness, described by the court judge as “ridiculous and unbelievable”, contributed most to the dismissal of the case and the acquittal of the suspect last April 22. The prosecution had failed to present additional evidence to corroborate the testimony of its lone witness.

On Christmas eve almost two years ago (Dec. 24, 2007), Lintuan—a radio blocktimer based in Davao City—was shot to death by a lone assassin.

What happened in the Lintuan case was not unusual. Many other media murder cases, like the 2003 killing of another Davao City broadcaster, Juan “Jun” Pala, never even reached the courts because no witness dared to come forward.

Click here for more.

Shawn Crispin of the Committee to Protect Journalists, also writes about the state of the country's witness protection program and the troubles witnesses face when they come forward to help solve cases. Crispin, who is CPJ’s senior Southeast Asia representative, focused on the killing of General Santos City-based radio broadcaster Dennis Cuesta and why his suspected killers remain free.


Philippines Special Report: Under Oath, Under Threat
Committee to Protect Journalist
Shawn W. Crispin
August 18, 2009

When motorcycle-riding assailants shot and fatally wounded Dennis Cuesta along a busy, tree-lined highway here last year, friend and fellow Radio Mindanao Network reporter Bob Flores was walking by his side. Flores recalls Cuesta’s body being flung into his own as one gunman fired three times at close range. As Cuesta dropped to the side of the road, a second assailant fired twice more, inflicting head injuries that contributed to the 38-year-old journalist’s death five days later, on August 9, 2008.

In a twist familiar in journalist killings in the Philippines that allegedly involve wayward public officials, local police initially labeled Flores a suspect rather than a witness. “They said I was the No. 1 suspect in the crime,” Flores told CPJ, recounting what police told him in the immediate aftermath of the murder. “I knew then my life would never be the same.”

Click here for more.

Here's an overview of the CMFR database on the killing of Filipino journalists/media practitioners since 1986 (as of July 2009).

CMFR, which publishes an annual review of the state of press freedom, posted online PDF copies of its Philippine Press Freedom Report 2007 and Philippine Press Freedom Report 2008.

For an interactive map of the killings, please click here.

The Philippines: most dangerous place in Asia for journalists

The Committee to Protection of Journalists (CPJ) and Freedom Fund for Filipino Journalists (FFFJ) cordially invite everyone to the launch of CPJ’s 2009 Global Impunity Index in Manila on March 23, 2009.

There will be a presentation of CPJ’s findings in its global analysis of unsolved journalists’ murders over the last 10 years, a briefing on the case of Filipino journalist Marlene Garcia Esperat to mark the four-year anniversary of her killing, and a discussion of impunity in the attacks against the media in the Philippines.

The Philippines is the most dangerous place in Asia to work as a journalist, according to CPJ research. There have been 78 Filipino journalists/media practitioners killed in line of duty since 1986, according to the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, which is a member of the FFFJ and acts as its secretariat.

Speakers include:
Jose Pavia, Chair, FFFJ
Elisabeth Witchel, Impunity Campaign and Journalist Assistance Program Coordinator, CPJ
Shawn Crispin, Senior Representative for Southeast Asia, CPJ
Prima Jesusa Quinsayas, legal counsel, FFFJ

Date: March 23, 2009, Monday
Time: 10:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Location: Paul Room, Annabel's restaurant,
194 Tomas Morato Avenue corner Scout Delgado,Quezon City

Presentation will be followed by lunch.

Please RSVP:

Lara / Carol
Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility
2/F, 130 H.V. dela Costa St.,
Salcedo Village, Makati City
Telephone: (+632) 894-1314 / (+632) 894-1326 /
(+632) 840-0903 / (+632) 840-0889 (telefax)
E-mail: staff@cmfr-phil.org

Update on the Rolando Ureta case; Burmese junta frees U Win Tin

Freedom Watch, the institutional blog of the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR), has a multimedia report updating the public with the Sept. 6, 2008 hearing of the murder case against the alleged killers of broadcaster Rolando Ureta. The multimedia report is the first one CMFR made in its newly-created Youtube account.

Update on the Rolando Ureta case hearing
Source: Freedom Watch



Freedom Watch has also made a quick post on the much-awaited release of Burmese journalist U Win Tin from jail.

Militants allegedly abduct Ces Drilon, two cameramen

ABS-CBN 2 news anchor Ces Drilon and two camerapersons were abducted in Sulu, according to some reports.

Suspected al-Qaida-linked militants abduct 3-person TV team in Philippines
The Associated Press
Published in the International Herald Tribune
June 9, 2008

Philippine security forces were searching Monday for a Manila television reporter and two cameramen believed to have been abducted by al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf militants while pursuing a story.

ABS-CBN senior reporter Ces Drilon and her two crewmen were intercepted Sunday in volatile Jolo island's Maimbung township by armed men under Albader Parad, an Abu Sayyaf leader in the area, the regional police chief said.

Read more here. According to this report, the ABS-CBN management declined to comment on the issue at the moment, but is releasing a statement early today.

Below is a report from The Mindanao Examiner:

Sayyafs Seize Journalist, 3 Others In Southern Philippines
The Mindanao Examiner
June 9, 2008

Abu Sayyaf militants have seized a Filipino television journalist and two cameramen, including a Muslim university professor in the southern Philippine island of Sulu, police said Monday.

Police said Ces Drilon and her cameramen and their companion Octavio Dinampo were abducted in the village of Kulasi in the town of Maimbung. Drilon’s team arrived in Sulu on Saturday from Zamboanga City, said Supt. Julasirim Kasim, the provincial police chief.

“We received reports that the four were abducted by the Abu Sayyaf led by Albader Parad,” Kasim told the Mindanao Examiner.

He said Drilon’s group, from the television giant ABS-CBN, was believed taken to the hinterlands of Indanan town. Dinampo teaches at the Mindanao State University and is said to be helping Drilon in her coverage. The identities of the two cameramen were not immediately known.

“There is no demand yet for ransom,” Kasim said, adding, Sulu Gov. Sakur Tan convened the Crisis Management Committee to address the situation.


Read more here. Other related reports here and here. The Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility is going to issue a news alert on the incident.

I'm a bit surprised that none of the top news websites, even abs-cbnnews.com, the website of ABS-CBN 2, has so far carried a report on what happened. Or at least from my earlier scan of the news items on their websites and in Google Reader. NBN-4 reported on the incident earlier in the afternoon, but I was not able to catch its full report.

Alert for Help

Got this from text.

"Juan Escandor, Philippine Daily Inquirer correspondent in Bicol, and his three kids, are being pursued and harassed by the Army's 31st IB of 9th ID after his ex-wife, who had left the underground, escaped a hunt last Feb. 10. Please appeal to the Armed Forces of the Philippines not to hurt Escandor and his three kids."

International conference on Press Freedom and Impunity: Finding solutions to unabated and unsolved journalist killings in the Philippines

It's already past 3 am and I just finished doing and tweaking some presentation slides for today's international conference on press freedom and impunity by the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) and the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR).

In case you do not know about this conference, here's the news release about it below:

Legal experts, press freedom advocates flying in from Asia, US, Europe, and
Latin America to address the killing of journalists in the Philippines
Source: CMFR

MANILA - Legal experts and press freedom advocates from Asia, Europe, the US, and from as far as Latin America are flying into Manila this week to help find solutions to a long-festering crisis in the Philippines: the unabated and unsolved killing of journalists throughout the country.

Prosecutors, judges, human rights advocates and even high-level justices from such countries as Colombia, Guatemala, Argentina, Spain, the US, Indonesia, and the rest of Southeast Asia, are expected to meet with Philippine media, rights advocates, and members of the national legal community to address the topic of and to attend a conference on "Impunity and Press Freedom" in the Philippines from Wednesday, February 27 to Friday, February 29.

Welcoming the foreign experts, said the Bangkok-based Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) and its Manila-based member, the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR), will be no less then Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno, who will deliver the opening keynote address to the conference.

Click here for more.

So we're now here staying at the Manila Pen (Yes, the Manila Pen where the infamous siege happened) until Saturday. I'm sharing the room with JB, who is currently snoring at the moment but wakes up from time to time to check if I'm already finished with work.

I was thinking of live-twittering the event, but I just realized that I won't be able to do that because I'm going to be busy not just documenting the event and interviewing speakers and participants but also making sure everything in the conference works well. So help me God.

The right thing to do

In a time when the government has shown that it will do anything to survive and cling to power at the expense of civil liberties including freedom of the press and of expression, it is only right that journalists fight back. Given the current political context we have right now--where the government has proven it will not mind curtailing press freedom and human rights especially since the Hello, Garci scandal broke out--to fight back and defend press freedom is the only fitting thing to do.

To fight back for a free press is a fight not only for the benefit of the press itself, but for the benefit of the whole public, which deserves true, informed, transparent, and honest service from the press.

A group of ABS-CBN journalists has asked the Supreme Court yesterday to declare their arrest illegal and to protect them and other journalists from future government harassment. Here's the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility alert on the issue as posted in the website of the Southeast Asian Press Alliance:

Philippine journalists seek court protection from government harassment
21 January 2008
Source: Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR)

Eleven journalists from the Philippines' biggest television network arrested for covering the November 2007 stand-off between security forces and 20-odd soldiers at the Manila Peninsula Hotel have asked the Philippine Supreme Court to declare their arrest illegal and to protect them and other journalists from future government harassment.

Led by senior correspondent Ces Oreña Drilon, employees of media giant ABS-CBN who were among those arrested in the 29 November incident filed a petition for a "writ of amparo and prohibition" seeking protection from government "threats of future warrantless arrests, and acts of harassment against petitioners and other journalists, in the course or in consequence of the performance of their work, such as in the coverage of breaking news events similar to the Manila Peninsula stand-off".

Read more here. To review what happened in the Manila Peninsula siege, please read the main story of the December 2007 issue of the the PJR Reports.

Now, CMFR, along with other media groups and journalists are planning to file a class suit to protect press freedom. According to Malaya columnist Ellen Tordesillas--who was also among the 50 media people arrested shortly after the siege had ended--the suit filed by the ABS-CBN journalists and media practitioners is just the first of several suits media are planning to file.

The actions and plans taken by the press came after the government and police officials have warned of future arrests of journalists if they defied police orders while covering similar events. The most recent was a Jan. 11 "media advisory" by the Department of Justice, which said media organizations would be "criminally liable" if their reporters did not obey the orders of government authorities at the site of emergencies. The "advisory" was followed by a police declaration that they would use force to remove journalists from such sites should they refuse to leave. For more information about this, click here and here.

"Why kill them when they are just doing their job?"

That's what Jan Marc Lintuan, eldest of four sons of the slain radio broadcaster, Fernando "Batman" Lintuan, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer. The Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility has just issued a press freedom alert on Lintuan's killing and reactions to what happened, including Jan Marc's statements.

CMFR Philippines Alert:
Radio broadcaster killed
Source: Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility

CMFR/Philippines—A radio broadcaster who was a vocal critic of local government corruption was killed by motorcycle-riding men on 24 December 2007 around 10 am (local time) in Davao, a province south of Manila, and an hour and 40 minutes by plane from the capital.

Fernando "Batman" Lintuan, who had just come from his morning program "Ligas Paka" (If You're Wicked, You're Dead) on local dxGO radio, was gunned down just after leaving the station onboard his car.

The gunmen opened fire at Lintuan at close range at a street intersection. Lintuan, who had been a radio broadcaster since the '80s, was also the first president of the Davao Sportswriters Association and was an official of the Philippine Sports Commission at the time of his killing. He was 52.

Lintuan was the second journalist to be killed in the line of duty this year after Carmelo "Mark" Palacios, who was killed on 18 April 2007. The Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility database has listed 70 journalists/media practitioners killed in the line of duty since 1986.

Read more here.

According to PinoyPress, police authorities in Davao say that the much-feared vigilante group, the Davao Death Squad, might be behind Lintuan's killing. Click here for the PinoyPress entry as well as its links about the controversial group.

Now, for the real "bad" news

So I still have my old cellphone number, although I'm a few thousands poorer (So poor I can't even buy watusi and lusis for New Year's Eve) and with more than 98 percent of professional and personal contacts lost. Yes, Cedelf, until now, I am still on a state of denial over the loss of my phone. Sigh.

At least I got my old number back. So please, please, if you know me or I know you or we have worked together for a certain thing or I have interviewed you for a story (etcetera etcetera), kindly send me your number so that I can save it.

But here's more distressing news:

Broadcast journalist shot dead in Davao City: Arroyo orders probe, arrest of perpetrators
Source: Inquirer.net
Nov. 24

Unknown gunmen shot and killed a radio broadcaster in the southern Philippines on Monday, officials said, as President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ordered police to immediately investigate the incident and to bring the perpetrators to justice.

Ferdie Lintuan had just finished hosting a morning program on dxGO Radio in the city of Davao when he was ambushed in his car along with two other journalists, said Jesus Dureza, a senior adviser to the President.

Read more here. For more information about the Lintuan killing, click here, here, here, here, here, here, here.

Two days before Lintuan was murdered, veteran journalist Adrian Cristobal passed away. Click here for more information.

Tsk tsk. The high number of journalists dying (but more often, getting killed for their work) made me remember one incident not so long ago when a friend asked me to be his co-guarantor for a credit loan he was applying for. So there we were in the credit office, showing my documents. "You're from the press?" the credit officer asked me, upon seeing my ID. Sensing her somewhat extreme surprise over my job, I softly told the credit officer: "Yes. Why? Is that a problem?"

"I'll just need to check with my manager," the credit officer told us, walking away with my office to an office a few feet away. My job might have screwed up your application, I told my friend, although we did not exactly know if there was a problem with me being a journalist.

A few minutes later, the officer came back. "But you don't work in the community press? You don't cover conflicts or any hostile situations?" she immediately asked me. I initially thought of telling her the complex nature of the media beat and how the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility works, but I decided otherwise. "If you mean I cover events and issues in the communities or those of conflicts, generally, no." I said.

After I said that, I sensed she was somewhat relieved and appeared more relaxed reviewing my friend's credit application. Now I'm the one curious. Why would a credit officer be so surprised upon learning my work as a journalist?, I thought. Do journalists also get a hard time applying for credit loans or when buying things on an installment basis, just like police and military men (or at least from what some cops and soldiers told me)?

So, after five minutes in front of the credit officer, silently agonizing all these questions, I asked her: "Is there a problem if I am a journalist?"

She sheepishly smiled with my question. While signing the approval of my friend's application, she said: "Aren't journalist killings here in this country remain rampant and unresolved?"

An assault not only on press freedom, but also on democracy itself

The arrests of journalists and other media practitioners who were covering the Makati incident is not only unprecedented but an outrage. Worse, it is a telling indication of the authoritarian tendencies of this administration, which has fallen in its obsession with political dominance.

That is what the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility said in a statement it issued just now in the light of arrests made on journalists covering the Peninsula Hotel takeover. CMFR also calls on all media, free expression and journalists’ groups in this country as well as abroad to "denounce this atrocity as a willful act to inflict collateral damage on the Philippine press for doing its mandated responsibility of providing the sovereign public the information it needs."

Read here for the statement.

It's not Christmas that is just around the corner; it's Martial Law

Any moment now, the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) is issuing a statement on the arrests made on journalists covering the Makati incident.

From Freedom Watch

Journalists and media organizations condemn the arrest of journalists

Maria Ressa, head of ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs, condemned the arrests of not only members of the ABS-CBN 2 technical team but also other journalists and media practitioners covering the Makati incident.

"We in ABS CBN News strongly condemn the illegal arrests of our ABS CBN reporters and our colleagues in the media and decry the atrocious treatment we are being subjected to in the hands of the police. Our reporters were in the Manila Peninsula purely to fulfill their duties as journalists," she said.

Read here for more.

Stop harassing the press! Palace issues curfew

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines issues this statement minutes before Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno said on-air that Malacañang is issuing a curfew from 12 mn to 5 am tomorrow. The curfew might be extended tomorrow if the Palace has not "achieved its objectives," Puno added.

Media not the enemy - NUJP
November 29, 2007
Source: GMANews.TV

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines on Thursday called on the National Police to stop treating journalists who covered the Makati standoff as enemies of the state.

"We protest in strongest terms the PNP's move to forcibly bring some journalists to the National Capital Region Police Office in Bicutan and condemn the confiscation of video footage of the day-long stand-off at the Manila Peninsula Hotel," the NUJP said in a statement.

Read more here.

On Iraq reporting, libel and habeas data

Did media fail in reporting about the war in Iraq?

Prominent film directors Brian De Palma and Paul Higgis think so, according to a Reuters report.

Directors say war films make up for poor reporting
Source: Reuters
Nov. 15, 2007

Two Hollywood directors who are part of a wave of films about the war in Iraq and the broader fallout from the September 11, 2001 attacks have said they were only doing what media failed to do -- telling the truth.

Brian De Palma's "Redacted", arguably the most shocking feature yet about events in Iraq, hits theatres on Friday, using a documentary style to tell the true story of the gang rape and murder of an Iraqi girl by U.S. troops in 2006.

Paul Haggis also based "In The Valley Of Elah", already released, on true events linked to the war, although, unlike De Palma's cast of unknown actors, he employed major stars Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron and Susan Sarandon.

Both film makers have attacked mainstream media for their coverage of the Iraq war and events leading to it.

Read here for more.

Do you agree with their observations?

On the local front, Freedom Watch writes about Cong. Prospero Nograles's bill removing the penalty of imprisonment for libel but increasing the fines for the offense. The Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility's press alerts officer Jose Bimbo F. Santos also has a take on the issue.

In their latest posts, both Bimbo and Malaya reporter Anthony Ian Cruz also reported a speech Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato Puno made on the writ of habeas data. (Bimbo's entry here, Cruz's here)

Murdered for doing journalism

It is not the soldier who gets killed for exposing corruption. It is not the soldier who gets slain for reporting on and criticizing other problems in the country, such as illegal gambling and the drug trade.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer published the latest report made by the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) on the state of press freedom in the Philippines. CMFR's findings showed that majority of the journalists slain in the line of duty (nearly 90 percent) during the Arroyo administration were exposing corruption. Others were killed for reporting on and criticizing illegal gambling and the drug trade. Click here for the Inquirer story.

Thanks to Ma'am Rachel Khan for the link.

On the Burma situation

Here's a recent press freedom alert on the current situation in Burma by the Southeast Asian Press Alliance:

Journalists, artistes warned from joining thousands of protesting citizens, monks in Burma
24 September 2007
Source: Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA)

As thousands of ordinary citizens join some 3,000 monks and nuns in the streets of Rangoon and Mandalay on their seventh day of peaceful marches on 24 September 2007, the junta is warning the press from joining the protests, worried that journalists, too, may be emboldened enough by the deeply moving spectacle to exercise their right to free expression in its most basic form.

Major Tint Swe, the director of the Press Scrutiny and Registration Division, summoned journalists and editors from Rangoon-based periodicals to his office on 23 September and warned them from participating in the anti-junta protests that are gaining momentum by the day, reports the global organisation of exiled journalists Burma Media Association (BMA).

BMA said the order appeared to be a hasty response to the urging of a new group calling itself the Association of Journalists and Artists, for members of both professions to join what is turning out to be the country's biggest protests in two decades.

Read more here.

The latest from Freedom Watch (including Gretchen Malalad- Bong Alvarez issue)

Just what I hinted weeks ago, Freedom Watch, the institutional blog of the Center for Media Freedom of the Responsibility (CMFR), now regularly carries media monitors. Check out Freedom Watch for some of these new monitors.

And it also has something to say on the Gretchen Malalad-Bong Alvarez incident that happened yesterday. Video (including quotes from CMFR deputy director Luis V. Teodoro) below taken from Freedom Watch site.

Malalad's counterattack justified
Source: Freedom Watch

Media must denounce any law that ultimately threaten people's lives -- UP CMC students

Got this from Martha, the vice-president of the UP College of Mass Communication Student Council.

Statement against the Human Security Act of 2007
College of Mass Communication, University of the Philippines – Diliman

We, the students of the College of Mass Communication, University of the Philippines-Diliman, believe that the media, which serve to responsibly inform and enjoin, must unequivocally denounce any law, which ultimately threatens the lives of those they strive to serve – the Filipino people.

WHEREAS, Republic Act No. 9372, also known as the Human Security Act (HSA) of 2007, through the surveillance of unsuspecting civilians and the interception of private communication UPON MERE SUSPICION, violates freedom of speech and freedom of the press as enshrined by the Philippine Constitution;

WHEREAS, the vague definitions of terrorism and arbitrary qualifications for terrorists and terrorist activities promote a chilling atmosphere for the public and especially for media practitioners and students of mass communication who repeatedly and necessarily invoke the right to free speech and free press;

WHEREAS, the power to interrogate and detain a “suspected terrorist” on grounds of MERE SUSPICION is open to abuse and misuse for political ends;

WHEREAS, the HAS can easily be transformed into a repressive legal instrument under the implementation of the Arroyo administration whose integrity and intentions are still in question in the context of unsolved killings and enforced disappearances of media practitioners and individuals critical of the government;

WHEREAS, if a law as powerful as the HAS, which can be used to tag virtually any citizen as a terrorist, is enacted without Implementing Rules and Regulations, and whose substantive interpretation is determined at the discretion of the Anti-Terror Council, the police, the military and the few who are given authority, then it intends to sow fear and intimidation upon the very public it purportedly tries to secure;

We strongly condemn the Human Security Act of 2007 in its entirety and call for its immediate repeal by the Congress.

Why not say it earlier?

"If they're just going to say that they have no jurisdiction, why couldn't have they said it earlier?"

Atty. Jose Diokno was right asking this in light of the recent court decision dismissing the petition filed by a group journalists and media organizations seeking to prohibit executive branch officials from censoring the media. And while the petition -- filed on March 8 last year 2006 following the infamous Presidential Proclamation (PP) 1017 that resulted in a police raid on a newspaper office and threats against critical media -- is already moot and academic, there is still a threat because of the possibility that the threats and raids (or worse) can happen again.

The Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility is a petitioner.

Journalists to continue suit against press intimidation
Source: Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility

Thirty seven journalists, the College of Mass Communication of the University of the Philippines, and eight media organizations will appeal a court decision dismissing their petition seeking to prohibit executive branch officials from censoring the media.

The petition was filed on 8 March 2006 following President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's Presidential Proclamation (PP) 1017 on 24 February 2006 which resulted in a police raid on a newspaper office, and threats against critical media.

In a 17-page decision penned by Associate Justice Bienvenido Reyes, the Court of Appeal's 12th Division on 30 May 2007 dismissed the petition for "procedural deficiencies," stating that the CA is not the proper venue for the petition, which he said should have been filed before the Regional Trial Court.

But the Court said that the actions of the government toward the media following PP 1017 "can be construed as a censure to the exercise of the universal rights of free speech."

"It bears to stress that the clear intention of the law is that no prior restraint can be imposed on the exercise of free speech and of expression, and that the freedom to communicate one's views and discuss any matter of public concern should remain to be so without fear or punishment or liability unless there be a clear and present danger of a substantive evil that the State has a right to prevent," said Judge Reyes.

Following the dismissal, the petitioners will file a Motion for Review (MR) before the Court of Appeals. If the MR is denied, the petitioners will file the case before the Supreme Court.

"We are alarmed and disturbed that the court did not face the issue squarely and (did not) judge it on its merits," lawyer Jose Diokno, member of the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG), said. FLAG's Diokno and Theodore Te are the lawyers of the journalists in the case.

Read more here.

Journalists and disclosure of sources

So, Scooter Libby was sentenced to 30 months in prison and ordered to pay a $250,000 yesterday for his role in the Valerie Plame affair.

Here's a CNN account of what happened. The CNN report also helpfully gives out a timeline of key events in the investigation of the case. You can also read Time's timeline.

In another article, Time gives us an idea of the effect of the Libby trial on the press.

"(Patrick) Fitzgerald's investigation has set a precedent that will encourage other prosecutors to seek testimony from the press, forcing other journalists to betray their sources. Journalism and the public interest will suffer. It is dispiriting that the Supreme Court refused to hear our plea. But in the absence of a favorable court decision, Congress should pass a shield law to protect journalists and their sources. Reporters Without Borders publishes a press-freedom index, based on responses from media organizations and other experts around the world. The U.S. ranked 53rd out of 168 countries last year, trailing embarrassingly behind Bosnia, Namibia and the Dominican Republic. Without relief from continued assaults on the press, we shall fall further toward Russia (147) and last-place North Korea.

Read the article "How Libby's Trial Hurt the Press " by Norman Pearlstine here.

Threatened? Shout it out!

With the canvassing of the election results remains chaotic and bloody, are we seeing more threats against journalists covering it? Journalists -- whether they are based in the provinces or in Manila like Ricky Carandang -- remain under attack for only doing their work.

I was able to catch ANC (ABS-CBN News Channel) reporting about the threat against two of their journalists. The two journalists were in the studio talking about the threat. While ANC and ABS-CBN have been reporting about these media threats and attacks in the past, I hope they would also give cases involving other journalists who might not be connected with their network the same airtime they gave to Carandang and their radio reporter Noel Alamar.

Having that said, ABS-CBN is right to quickly report, and condemn, the incident. When a journalist gets a threat, he or she should quickly report it -- nay, shout it out -- to media organizations and authorities.

Reporter receives death threat after exposing election anomalies
Source: Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility

A television and a radio reporter for the ABS-CBN network received death threats in Lanao del Norte, a province located in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), after reporting election irregularities in the province. ARMM is in Mindanao, the second largest and southernmost island of the Philippines.

ABS-CBN television news program TV Patrol World reported on 28 May 2007 the threats received by reporters Ricky Carandang and Noel Alamar, which came after they reported election anomalies in Lanao. Carandang is a television reporter/anchor while Alamar reports for DZMM, the flagship AM station of the ABS-CBN broadcasting corporation.

ABS-CBN news and current affairs head Maria Ressa released a statement on the 29 May 2007 episode of TV Patrol World condemning the incident.

“ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs condemns in the strongest possible terms, these attempts to intimidate the members of our newsgathering team. We would like to warn those involved that their identities are known to us,” Ressa said.

Ressa also added that they are “prepared to take legal action should these threats continue or should any harm come to Mr. Carandang, Mr. Alamar, or any member of ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs.”

Read more here.