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RSF, IFJ: Another murder mocks gov’t line impunity ‘not so serious’

December 4, 2013December 4, 2013 mcmangahas Leave a comment

THE PHILIPPINE government’s effort to downplay the state of media murders, but also less than vigorous effort to arrest and prosecute the masterminds and gunmen, took a double hit yesterday from two international media organizations.

“Yet another journalist death shows that the government’s claims that this problem is ‘not that serious’ is a farce,” according to the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), in reference to the fatal shooting of radio broadcaster Joash Dignos on Nov. 29, 2013 in Valencia City, Bukidnon province, about 1,500 kilometers south of Manila.

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Contributed photo by Jun Sapanghari

In a separate statement, Reporters Without Borders (Reporters Sans Frontieres, RSF) said that Dignos’s murder illustrates that Philippine authorities “still have a great deal to do to fulfill their duty to protect journalists and combat the continuing impunity.”

RSF noted that Dignos was killed just six days after the fourth anniversary of the November 23, 2009 massacre of 32 media workers in nearby Maguindanao province, the deadliest assault on the press on a single day, which is now observed worldwide as International Day to End Impunity.

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Contributed photo by Jun Sapanghari

RSF welcomed the creation of a special task group to investigate Dignos’s murder yet also reiterated the need for government to “act preemptively to end violence against journalists.”

“Execution-style killings of journalists should not be regarded as inevitable,” it added.

Mars Medina, dxGT program manager, where Dignos ran a political commentary program called “Bombardeyo” said Dignos had been receiving death threats on his cell phone, prompting him to start pre-taping his commentary programs days to his death.

Founded in Montpellier, France in 1985, RSF covers five continents through its network of correspondents in 150 countries. It has 10 offices and sections worldwide and has a consultant status at the United Nations and UNESCO.

Meanwhile, in a separate statement the IFJ averred averred the effort of the Aquino government to downplay the numbers of degree of seriousness of media murders in the country.

“The Philippines’s continued failure to arrest journalist killers has made it a global target for criticism in its handling of these cases,” IFJ said.

Representing some 600,000 journalists in 131 countries, the IFJ called on authorities to make swift progress to bring the killers of Dignos to justice.

A local IFJ-affiliate, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) decried the government’s failed promise of “swift justice” amid the lingering culture of impunity in the country.

“Each and every media killing is a result of this twisted system, as is the impunity with which such killings continue — 18 to date under the current administration. That not a single mastermind in any of the 157 media murders since 1986 has ever been convicted and punished is enough proof of this,” NUJP said.

The NUJP was formed in 1986 and has since been advancing the interests of the Filipino working press while promoting free expression and free press. It now has over 1,500 members and over 60 chapters in the Philippines and abroad.

For its part, the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) stressed that in all the media murder cases, a mastermind has yet to be convicted halfway through the six-year term of President Benigno S. Aquino III.

“Impunity is the name for the fact that only one gunman and no mastermind has been tried or even arrested in 18 out of the 19 killings of journalists from 2010 to 2013, and for the continuing harassment many journalists have to contend with in the course of their work,” CMFR said.

CMFR is a founding member and serves as secretariat of the Freedom Fund for Filipino Journalists (FFFJ). The other FFFJ members are the Philippine Press Institute (PPI), Center for Community Journalism and Development (CCJD), Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP) and the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ). – Cong B. Corrales

‘States must protect journalists’

December 2, 2013December 2, 2013 Ed Lingao Leave a comment

video by Kat Raymundo/editing by Cong Corrales

SOME POLITICIANS may be averse to this idea, but all states have a responsibility to protect journalists, not because they belong to a special class, but because they have a special role in any democracy.

This was the declaration of United Nations Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression Frank La Rue during the Asia Regional Consultation on Freedom of Expression and Civil Liberties in Bangkok last week.

Speaking before civil society and media leaders from all over the region, La Rue emphasized that journalists have a key role in a democracy that must be protected by the state.

“There is a special responsibility of the state to protect journalists,” La Rue said. “It is not that journalists have different standards of human rights that anyone else. What the state is protecting is the role of the journalist. The Press is one of the fundamental elements to keep society informed so we can all exercise the right to freedom of information.”

La Rue said he has submitted a report to the United Nations stating that all states are obliged to provide at least three kinds of protection for journalists.

First, La Rue said, there must be “an emergency mechanism for physical protection” for journalists. Second is legal protection through the “abolition of all legal obstacles” against journalists. This may be done by decriminalizing slander, libel, “and other criminal forms of legal harassment.”

Lastly, La Rue emphasized the need for “a political element of protection.”

“Higher levels of government should make statements on how important is the role of the press and media to a democratic society,” La Rue said.

UN passes resolution on safety of journos, sans push from ASEAN

November 28, 2013November 28, 2013 mcmangahas Leave a comment

THE THIRD COMMITTEE of the United Nations General Assembly on November 26 passed a resolution on the safety or journalists and the issue of impunity, among others setting 2 November as the “International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists.”

The resolution was approved without vote by the UN’s Committee for Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Affairs Committee (SOCHUM), one of six main committees of the international body, which is also called the “Third Committee”, according to a press statement of the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA).

The resolution, one of 19 passed by the Third Committee on Tuesday, takes off from previous resolutions by various UN bodies to protect the work of journalists, including a resolution by the Human Rights Council and a joint plan of action by different UN bodies, both approved in 2012.

Previously, the International Day to End Impunity (IDEI) was commemorated annually by freedom of expression advocates on November 23 to mark the anniversary of the 2009 Ampatuan massacre, during which 58 persons were brutally murdered, including 32 media workers — the most horrific act of journalist killings globally.

“It would have been more meaningful if November 23 was chosen as the official IDEI date since it would underline the urgency of the problem of violence against journalists and impunity of perpetrators,” said Gayathry Venkiteswaran, executive director of SEAPA.

“Still, having an official day means we can join governments in commemorating the date, and especially in working together to address this serious problem of impunity,” Gayathry added.

“It is still symbolic that the UN General Assembly passed the resolution almost immediately after we commemorated the IDEI,” she noted further.

Gayathry expressed concerned that “not one country in Southeast Asia co-sponsored the resolution even though it is a problem throughout the region.”

Co-sponsoring the resolution “would have demonstrated the ASEAN member governments’ acknowledgement that the problem exists, and would have been a sign of their commitment to address the culture of impunity in the region,” Gayathry explained.

“For three years now, we have been campaigning on the issue of impunity in Southeast Asia but have received nothing more than polite acknowledgement from government representatives,” said Kulachada Chaipipat, SEAPA campaign manager.

Media freedom groups have been pressuring their respective governments for justice in the numerous cases of impunity killings, but little progress has been made in terms of investigations and prosecutions.

“Governments in the region have been in denial about impunity,” Kulachada said.

For example, the Philippines Communications Secretary, said in a 22 November press briefing that journalists killings were “not so serious”, if one did not consider the Ampatuan massacre.

“But the Philippines was the only country in Southeast Asia where journalists were killed in 2013 — and there were at least six,” Kulachada said.

SEAPA member, the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) noted that the case backlog of journalist murders is at a highest point during the term of President Benigno Aquino, with 23 killings recorded.

If the Ampatuan massacre is not counted, “there are now more journalists killed per year on average under Aquino” than any other president after 1986, noted the PCIJ.

The bigger problem is that most cases remain unsolved, including the 2012 killing of Cambodian journalist Heng Serei Oudom, after the court dismissed in August 2013 the case against the primary suspects for lack of evidence.

Founded in 1998, SEAPA is an alliance of independent media organizations in the region, with a secretariat based in Bangkok.

Its members are the Thai Journalists Association, the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) and the Institute for Studies on the Free Flow of Information (ISAI) of Indonesia, the Center for Independent Journalism of Malaysia, and from the Philippines, the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) and PCIJ.