ON THE OCCASION of International Human Rights Day (December 10), the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism is publishing excerpts from an interview it conducted with Presidential Spokesman Herminio Coloma Jr. on the issue of media murders in the Philippines.
The Philippines has been labeled as one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists, and the mounting numbers of media murders under the Aquino administration has raised concerns that the government has not done enough to put an end to violence against members of the fourth estate.
Just yesterday, another journalist was shot dead in the southern Philippines. According to BusinesWorld, DxFM radio host and program Director Michael Milo was shot dead by a motorcycle-riding gunman near Butuan. The BusinessWorld story may be read here.
Milo is the second journalist to be killed in the Philippines in two weeks. On Nov. 29, Bukidnon broadcaster Joash Dignos was also shot dead.
The interview with Coloma was conducted on November 20, 2013, for the PCIJ story on media murders in the Philippines. In the interview, Coloma discusses efforts by the Aquino government to address the issue of media murders. Coloma also downplayed the incidence of media murders in the country, insisting that a number of victims were not “bona fide” journalists.
In addition, Coloma asks whether media should still play the role of a watchdog in the context of a post-Marcos democracy, and echoed statements by his principal, President Benigno S. Aquino III, that the media should stop being too “negative” in its writings about government.
SUPERTYPHOON YOLANDA not only devastated lives and properties in Eastern Visayas, it also cut a wide swathe through the sector that had been giving a voice to the region: The Eastern Visayas media.
Since much of the public infrastructure and private property in the region has been destroyed by the supertyphoon, the local media community is struggling to get back on its feet against daunting odds.
With no stable power supply and many of their equipment washed out or destroyed, many of the local media outfits in the affected areas have been forced to stop publication or broadcast, according to Ricky Bautista, editor of the Samar Weekly Express.
Bautista: Local media struggling to survive
Local journalists now try to eke out a living by acting as guides for the national and international media agencies that have swooped down on the region to cover the Yolanda tragedy. Other than that, there is no work available for the local media, and no way to put food on the table, Bautista said.
In fact, some colleagues have taken on odd jobs to survive. One radio broadcaster, Bausta said, is now peddling fish in Tacloban City in order to feed his family because his radio station has stopped operations.
Unfortunately, even that job isn’t pulling in the money; people in the area are wary of eating fish because of all the dead and unclaimed bodies still scattered in the coastal areas of the region.
“My colleagues in media have not been able to work, because we no longer have a media outlet,” Bautista said in Filipino. “There is no certainty when we can all go back to work again.”
“I saw (a colleague) peddling fish so that he can move on,” Bautista added. “Only a fourth of his house is still standing after the typhoon, because he lived near the sea. I was luckier – only a fourth of my house was destroyed.”
Baustista’s newspaper, the Samar Weekly Express, was forced to shut down because Yolanda devastated both Basey town where Bautista is based, and Tacloban City where the newspaper is published. As well, the storm forced the closure of the Leyte-Samar Daily Express, the mother newspaper of Bautista’s weekly paper. In its website, the last entry of the Leyte-Samar Daily Express was dated November 6, two days before Yolanda made landfall.
At least five media workers in the region were killed as a result of typhoon Yolanda, according to the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines. Some of the casualties were radio reporters and anchors who were doing their jobs reporting the arrival of the typhoon when they were killed by the storm surge.
Other than that, scores of Visayas journalists were left homeless and jobless after the typhoon tore through the region. Printing presses and broadcast studios were damaged or destroyed, laptops and computers were rendered inoperable by the floods, files and records were lost.
The few local news agencies that had been able to resume operations were only able to do so because they have a tie-up with the giant national news agencies that are based in Manila, Bautista said. Otherwise, the local media community is, for all intents and purposes, dead in the water, he said.
Right now, Bautista said, many of the local journalists just hang around near the Leyte park, hoping to be hired as a local guide for the many international and national media agencies that have flown in. Others act as translators for foreign relief organizations that have set up shop in Tacloban.
Unfortunately, everyone knows that this would only be a temporary affair; in the next few weeks, there would be less need for such guides as media and relief agencies start scaling down their operations. When that happens, the local media community would have to scramble to make ends meet .
“They have been asking me, are there any more jobs?” Bautista said of his colleagues. “This is the only job we know.”
The pressing need now is for the local media to make a living and put food on the table. Bautista, the editor, says he is now surviving on relief goods and the kindness of colleagues visiting from Manila. The one time he was able to get a job was when he was hired by the New York Times as a guide, but that stint only lasted for two days.
The long-term problem is how the region’s media will be able to get back on its feet. The scale of the destruction is so breathtakingly massive that no one can say with any degree of certainty what the long term impact of the tragedy will have on the Eastern Visayan media. Too much infrastructure and personal property has been damaged or destroyed for anyone to make an educated guess.
For his part, Bautista says, all he hopes to have soon is a stable supply of electricity. Once that is in place, Bautista says, then perhaps they can start thinking of tomorrow, and the day after.
“All I want is for the electricity to return,” Bautista said. “That is where it all starts. If electricity returns, then my life will resume again, and we can have a semblance of a normal life, and we can write and report again. That is the time we can start to move on.”
FOR YEARS, the Philippine government has been saying it has been addressing the issue of media killings in the country by trying to go after the killers and the masterminds.
As early as 2006, the government created a special task force to identify and prosecute those involved in extrajudicial killings of activists, lawyers, and journalists.
Seven years later, Task Force Usig has made some gains in beefing up the investigative capabilities of the police force. The poor investigative capabilities of the police have been blamed for the culture of impunity that has encouraged more media killings, making the Philippines one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists.
However, much of the reforms that the Philippine National Police has been trumpeting are still to be felt on the ground, where ordinary policemen have to make do with inadequate skills, manpower, and equipment.
In this 12-minute video, the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism looks into whether all these reforms have had an impact on the spate of media killings. To do this, the PCIJ looked at one particular media killing case, and investigated how the investigation has been done so far.
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.
EACH UNRESOLVED CASE of violence against journalists is an open invitation for even more violence.
This was the message – and the reminder – of United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression Frank La Rue to the Philippines on the 4th anniversary of the Maguindanao Massacre, where 58 people including 32 mediamen were murdered in November 2009.
La Rue was interviewed during the Asia Regional Consultation on Freedom of Expression and Civil Liberties in Bangkok last week.
La Rue also expressed his solidarity with Filipino journalists in the fight to end the culture of impunity in the country.
La Rue–who was in Manila for the first anniversary of the Maguindanao Massacre–pointed out the importance of remembering the grisly incident on November 23, four years ago, as a stark example of how impunity threatens the very fabric of democratic ideals.
“I have always been shocked that this is the biggest massacre of journalists–the biggest collective death of journalists in the world–in the history of journalism,” he said.
“I think it is very important to remember this incident to make this a message of eradication of impunity,” La Rue added.
Below is the full transcription of La Rue’s special message:
My name is Frank La Rue and I’m the UN special rapporteur for the freedom of expression around the world. (And) I want to take this opportunity to send a very special message to the people of the Philippines.
First of all, because of the typhoon that affected the Philippines my solidarity and my prayers are with the people of the Philippines at this moment to overcome this huge tragedy, who moved us all in the world.
And secondly, because this is the anniversary of the Maguindanao massacre, I was in Manila for the first anniversary and as special rapporteur on freedom of expression, I have always been shocked that this is the biggest massacre of journalists–the biggest collective death of journalists in the world–in the history of journalism.
(And) I think it is very important to remember this incident to make this a message of eradication of impunity. Every time that an act of violence against a journalist remains without investigation, without justice, is the invitation–not for one other act but–for many more to occur.
For me, analyzing violence against journalism, the biggest cause of violence in the world against journalists is impunity. We have to eradicate impunity and I hope Philippines becomes an example of this.
