On World Press
Freedom Day
Journalists decry
killings, vow to fight for press freedom
BY DEE AYROSO
Posted 1:41 p.m. May 3,
2006
Bulatlat
A “growing movement” of Filipino
journalists vowed to continue the fight for the people’s right to
information amidst threats against media.
In a press conference in
Quezon City on World Press Freedom Day, the
National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), Alyansa ng
Filipinong Mamamahayag (AFIMA) and the Association of Responsible Media
(ARMED) paid tribute to slain media colleagues as they decry the murder
yesterday of yet another colleague, the 40th killed under the
Arroyo administration.
Nicholas Cervantes, 66, a columnist
of a local newspaper in Surigao province, was shot dead in Mandaluyong
City in Metro Manila on Tuesday. NUJP spokesperson Jose Torres Jr. said
Cervantes’s killing could be linked to his giving assistance to the
Bureau of Internal Revenue in running after tax evaders.
AFIMA spokesperson Allan Encarnacion
said Cervantes is the 77th journalist killed after the ouster
of the Marcos Dictatorship in 1986.
Torres said their groups compose a
“growing movement” that is uniting journalists to defend press freedom,
just wages and the welfare of media workers.
Benny Antiporda of ARMED called
their ranks “the Freedom Fighters of the new generation.”
Former journalist and now legislator
Satur Ocampo called on the media to take inspiration from the “mosquito
press” spawned by media repression under the Marcos Dictatorship.
In a message distributed at the
press conference, Ocampo said the media should “remember and learn from
the epic fight” of journalists like Antonio Zumel, Joaquin Roces,
Teodoro Locsin Sr., Ernesto Granada, Antonio Nieva and Jose Burgos Jr.
“They did not surrender to the
dictatorship. They fought its lies… merged with the more powerful mass
movements of common people,” Ocampo said. He said that such “dedicated
journalists” helped fought the Dictatorship as they “reported directly
to the people, put the people’s actions and movements at the top of the
news.”
Ocampo, a representative of Bayan
Muna Party-list, was reporter and later on editor of the pre-Martial Law
Manila Times. He was detained by Marcos for 12 years. Ocampo and four
other partylist representatives have been charged with rebellion and are
currently under protective custody of the House of Representatives at
the Batasan Complex.
The media groups will hold a mass
and light candles at the grounds of the National Press Club in
Intramuros, Manila, at 5pm. Bulatlat
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