News in Pictures: Thirteen Widows

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By RONALYN V. OLEA
“While we respect the view that a trial by publicity can be detrimental to the accused, we fail to see how that can happen in this case. The Ampatuan case is extremely important for the public, the media and the relatives of the victims. The media and the public -- particularly those who live outside Metro Manila and who can only follow the proceedings through the media -- need to know exactly what is going on inside the courtroom."

By ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
In this Q&A, Esmael Mangudadatu, vice mayor of Buluan town, Maguindanao, talks about the Ampatuan massacre and how the Ampatuans ruled the province. "They made business out of the votes. They extorted money out of the senatorial candidates who were campaigning in Maguindanao by selling votes to them," he said. He also wished that there would be no whitewash in the case against them.
And this impunity would not end for as long as Arroyo wields power whether as president, congresswoman, or prime minister. Impunity would also persist if Arroyo’s clone cum anointed one, Gilbert Teodoro, emerges the winner in the presidential elections by some stroke of luck, especially of the Garci kind.

By AYI MUALLAM
On Wednesday, hundreds of Filipino journalists and activists, along with several of their colleagues from other countries, marched to Mendiola to mark the "Global Day of Action Against Impunity." The journalists and activists demanded an end to impunity and blamed the Arroyo regime for the rash of killings of activists and journalists nationwide.
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Ampatuan Massacre and Culture of Impunity

Arroyo's Complicity in Ampatuan Massacre

By GILL H. BOEHRINGER
By seeking to convince its readers that the effects of Ondoy were “felt equally by rich and poor” and that it was a “great equalizer,” the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the most influential newspaper in the Philippines, was attempting to bolster the view that the Filipino class system had nothing to do with the disaster, and that the lives of all Filipinos are shaped by the same forces of nature, even by fate or by God.
Developments that show the popularity of activism through social networks and other online media have led some people to believe that activism online would be sufficient in addressing issues of general concern. But is it really?

A Humanitarian Crisis Deepens in Maguindanao
The point of all this is that there’s no point in social media comparing itself to the news media, let alone proclaiming that Twitter can do a better job than CNN in bringing news to the masses of the world.
Regardless of its flaws, the news media remains the only institution capable of performing the very important task of verifying the flood of information let loose by social media, and to put all of it in context.
In forum, CHR officials and journalists from the NUJP bewail the use by the military of OBs. CHR chairperson Leila de Lima says the AFP claimed to have stopped using OBs but replaced these with “watch lists” – and military officials could not explain to her the difference.
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