Not as obvious as a gun

We are printing the full text of the speech given by Rowena Paraan, chairperson of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines given during the forum for World Press Freedom Day in Manila, Philippines entitled “Let Journalism Thrive: The right to life, the right to know, the right to free expression.

Not all threats to Press Freedom are as obvious as a .45 caliber gun

“The can be no press freedom if journalists exist in conditions of poverty, corruption and fear.”

News organizations last night had more than the usual skeleton staff on duty. A lot of us in fact stayed up until three this morning to monitor the execution of Mary Jane Veloso at an island prison in Indonesia. Mary Jane came from a poor family of sakadas or seasonal farm workers. She has two sons and, just like the 3,700 Filipino workers who leave the country daily, she decided to work abroad in order to feed her family.

We all know by now the story of Mary Jane. She was recruited by a family friend to work in Malaysia but when she got there, there was no job. Instead she was made to go to Indonesia, unknowingly (according to supporters) carrying luggage with heroin hidden in the lining. With limited English, interrogated without legal counsel and her family receiving death threats from the drug syndicate, she was convicted and sentenced to death by firing squad.

So why am I talking about Mary Jane Veloso? A lot of Filipinos find themselves in situations like that of Mary Jane, including Filipino journalists. Anxious to provide for their families, desperate to break away from poverty and often forced to risk their safety to get the kind of picture or interview that the networks or newspapers would be willing to pay for.

When we talk about threats to press freedom, the first things that come to mind, especially if in the context of countries like the Philippines, are the killings of journalists. But some threats to freedoms are not always as obvious as a .45 caliber gun or as loud as a gunshot. Some attacks happen quietly and hit us where it hurts the most: in the stomach, or sikmura. But, ironically, many journalists have gotten so used to the situation that they no longer see or they fail to understand how it already undermines basic rights and freedoms, including the right to a free press.

I have talked about the plight of media workers before (pasensiya na po kung paulit-ulit) but I am bringing it up again, this time in the context of World Press Freedom Day.

Among our colleagues, community journalists have always been the most vulnerable — to assassin’s bullets or to exploitation and abuse by media owners.

Most community media outfits are too small to be able to provide adequate compensation and benefits to their workers.

A community journalist in Zamboanga for example, who is now in her 30s, reported to NUJP that all the papers she has worked for have always paid way below the minimum. At the moment, she receives the average paltry sum of P80 a day or P2400 a month.

Journalists are also sometimes made to sign two sets of payroll. In one radio station for example, one payroll indicates a salary of P8000 and the other P5000. The same goes even with the required 13^th month pay.

Community reporters usually have neither medical insurance, social benefits nor bonuses.

But there are still far more horrendous ways that community journalists are exploited.

There are media outlets that do not pay at all their reporters, leaving them to find ways to earn money using their press cards. “Diskarte” is how it is usually referred to. This may entail knocking on the door of officials, letting them hear the recording of the commentary or news report that aired recently wherein the official is given much prominence. With fingers crossed, the reporter hopes that the official is grateful or happy enough to slip him or her a Ninoy Aquino bill, depending on how much pogi points he will get from the broadcast.

Some media owners take on politicians as clients, their stations or papers serving as mouthpieces. In exchange, the clients take care of their reporters’ salaries. If the client happens to be the mayor, reporters are sometimes included in the city hall’s payroll.

Then there are those that compel their news staff to solicit advertising to get commissions in lieu of wages. This makes it difficult for the staff to publish reports critical of the entity that have placed the ads. This, we all know, is one of the oldest and most effective ways of influencing media.

But let us not forget the leasing of airtime to unscrupulous politicians who then put / in the blocktime program / media colleagues desperate for work in an increasingly shrinking job market. The journalists then are used as surrogate warriors in their political battles.

These practices have reduced journalists, who used to be very highly regarded being vanguards of democracy and freedom, to almost the level of mendicancy and stripped of dignity.

Furthermore, the lack of decent wage, the absence of job security and the little job opportunities available – ALL make the journalists extremely vulnerable. Just like Mary Jane Veloso, forced to go to Indonesia and later Malaysia despite the uncertainties and risks.

On the other hand, the tactics employed by owners to squeeze as much profit as possible from every issue, every broadcast brazenly violate labor laws. They not only violate economic rights and dignity. They also put the journalists in the line of fire, often leading to them getting threats, being charged with criminal libel, or even physically attacked.

Many, even us media groups, have linked some media killings to a serious lack of ethics and professionalism in quite a number of practitioners. We have never denied the truth to this observation and NUJP has worked hard to promote ethics and professional practice.

But I have to ask: Since when has corruption been a license to murder? And even if it were so, shouldn’t government institutions and agencies be the first to be depopulated?

And while it is true that, in the end, ethics is a personal choice, often overlooked is the fact that corruption does not spring out of a vacuum. There is, indeed, an urgent need to look into the lack of ethics in our ranks. But there is just as urgent – if not more – need to look into the equally serious lack of ethics among media owners and managements.

How can ethics take root and thrive when infotainment and ratings trump real information and public service, when media outfits knowingly hire the unqualified and unskilled because they are cheaper, when many media workers struggle to survive on less than the legal minimum and hardly any benefits, when a media outfit requires its workers to seek ads / or farms them out to clients, when stories are killed because they are deemed inimical to media owners or their allies, when block time continues to be sold to and bought by political and business interests to attack their foes?

The truth is, many of the travails faced by the working press spring from the same malevolent social, economic and political power structure that defines what passed for governance in our benighted land. Even as they often are the ones the oppressed turn to for help, journalists too are among the most oppressed.

Last week, several of our colleagues from a major television network found themselves suddenly jobless. As of our last count, there are already more than 250 of them retrenched. The reason given was “strategic streamlining” geared toward “increasing ratings and revenues.”

For me, for NUJP, for us who are campaigning to improve the condition of the working press and defend the right of the people to a free press – and let me make this very clear – this is not an issue of Kapuso, Kapamilya or Kapatid.

What we know is that it is something that can happen to any of us, any time. As in any industry, the drive to maximize earnings has come at the expense of the workers, leading to the erosion of job security and welfare, with contractualization increasingly becoming the norm, even in the largest media outfits.

Before I end, let me go back to Mary Jane. Reporting to netizens the reprieve that had been given to Mary Jane Veloso last night, the petition campaign platform change.org said in its website something that resonated in me. It said, “Miracles happen when people choose to stand for justice.”

This is now what journalists AND THE PUBLIC must do.

We, media workers, should close ranks and zealously defend our rights and welfare and the dignity of journalists and the press. In so doing, we are also defending our people whose right to information is our utmost priority. Together with the public, we choose to stand for the people’s rights.