We need in the national legislature senators and congressmen who would defend press freedom.
Lest the public forget, their participation in our democratic experiment is enabled by an unfettered mass media.
Unfortunately, the press in the Philippines remains threatened today.
It is still among the world’s most dangerous places for journalists.
The records stand: According to the tally of the Committee to Protect Journalists, since 1992, 80 journalists have been killed here.
Seventy-eight of those were targeted for murder and 66 were murdered with impunity.
Come November 23, we will commemorate yet again the Maguindanao massacre in which at least 32 journalists were killed while covering a politicians filing of candidacy certificate.
Says the Inquirer: “Justice remains elusive. Of nearly 200 accused, only 115 had been arrested. The Quezon City Regional Trial Court decided … to grant bail to a total of 70 accused, including 16 police officers … at least three witnesses have been killed and two potential witnesses have survived attacks and have refused to testify.
“There have been claims of bribery and attempts by the defense to delay the trial. On July 17, 2015, Ampatuan Sr., patriarch of the Ampatuan clan and principal accused in the massacre, died at National Kidney and Transplant Institute.”
While old injustices stand on the brink of oblivion, new ones pile up.
Media outfits are harassed with lawsuits or threats of non-renewal of government franchise.
Media practitioners are conflated with the concept of fake news purveyed by political operators and spinmeisters.
Agents of the state like the police send feelers demanding that journalists in effect do PR work for them.
The freedom of information executive order is compromised by a national leadership that is fond of doublespeak and outrageous, distracting pronouncements.
A new legislature should be elected, of people who are deeply committed to rectifying the historical wrongs against the fourth estate and to protecting the media from further assault, thereby resisting the systematic destruction of a pillar of people’s self-
government.
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