by Cong B. Corrales
slideshow by Cong B. Corrales
FOR A DAY, journalists let go of pen and paper and held on uncertainly to sticks and paper as the world celebrated World Press Freedom Day last May 3.
Media groups assembled at the open field fronting the University of the Philippines Oblation to fly kites in celebration of Press Freedom Day. The activity, dubbed Simulkites: Soar high for Press Freedom, was organized by the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines. Participating groups included the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, the Philippine Center for Photojournalism, the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, the Philippine Press Institute, and the College of Mass Communications, and the Center for Community Journalism and Development.
The kites illustrated the lofty hopes of the region’s freest press amid the continuing threats of violence that make the country one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists.
In fact, the 2013 Impunity Index released by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists’ (CPJ) just before World Press Freedom Day ranked the country as the 3rd worst in the world after Iraq and Somalia. The Philippines has held on to that spot for the last four years.
“This is an indictment of the Aquino Administration’s inaction to prosecute masterminds in media and extrajudicial killings in the country,” said Sonny Fernandez, NUJP national director.
“Despite President Benigno Aquino III’s vow to reverse impunity in journalist murders, the Philippines ranked third worst worldwide for the fourth consecutive year. Fifty-five journalist murders have gone unsolved in the past decade,” the May 2, 2013 special report of CPJ titled “Getting away with murder,” reads in part. The CPJ, which was founded in 1981, is an independent, non-profit organization that advocates for “press freedom worldwide by defending the rights of journalists to report the news withouth fear of reprisal.”
The country’s impunity index rating this year is “0.580 unsolved journalist murders per million inhabitants.” Last year, CPJ also ranked the Philippines third worst in the world with a rating of 0.589.