“It is not only untrue, it also perpetuates the dangerous narrative that journalists are communists or rebel sympathizers for reporting that (which) does not parrot what the government says. It (is) also the kind of labeling that has raised concerns over how the Anti-Terrorism Act will be implemented.”
By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – The National Union of Journalists in the Philippines criticized the recent tirades of Manila Times columnist Rigoberto Tiglao calling for purging of what he called “red reporters” in media outfits and once again tagging the group as a “red front.”
“It is not only untrue, it also perpetuates the dangerous narrative that journalists are communists or rebel sympathizers for reporting that (which) does not parrot what the government says. It (is) also the kind of labeling that has raised concerns over how the Anti-Terrorism Act will be implemented,” the group said in a statement.
Tiglao in particular cited the coverage of political prisoner Juanito Itaas’s release from prison after 32 years. He questions the use of political prisoner in the stories of different media outfits and said that only the Communist Party of the Philippines and its fronts have called Itaas as “political prisoner.”
“While the definition of who and what a political prisoner is remains debatable, Itaas has been referred to as a political prisoner since the 1990s, when then Fidel V. Ramos’ administration granted amnesty to persons ‘who may have or may have not committed crimes…in pursuit of political beliefs,” the groups said.
The NUJP added, “None of the reports omitted the judicial fact that Itaas was convicted. Neither did they justify, much less glorify, Rowe’s murder. Some noted, however, that Itaas claimed to have been tortured into confessing.”
Tiglao also singled out an officer of the NUJP for reports while at the Manila Times “was clearly so sympathetic to a labor union on strike” and that “many of her articles on the issue were lifted from the manifestos of that labor union.”
The NUJP countered, “quoting from a manifesto or a statement does not necessarily equate to sympathize with who said it.”
“If it were so, quoting government statements defending alleged rights violations and killings in the ‘war on drugs’ would be an endorsement of those acts,” the group added.
“In any case, most media workers are overworked, underpaid and have more in common with laborers forced to go on strike than they do with columnists in air-conditioned offices,” the NUJP said.
The group added that “labor issues are not as widely reported and that writing about them is somehow proof of being a communist sympathizer is the bigger anomaly here.”
Tiglao has been consistently tagging many media outfits and even individual journalists as members of the underground movement for their reporting. Groups including the NUJP have been calling out such acts as it puts in danger the individuals who are wrongfully tagged as such.
Read: ‘Red-tagging is meant to silence democratic discourse’
Read: How red-tagging justifies human rights abuses
“NUJP has members from across the political spectrum because there is no ideological test for being a member. Neither should there be one for being a journalist,” NUJP said. (RTS) 
