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Altermidya expresses grave concern over the House of Representatives’ (HOR) blacklisting of at least 50 individuals including sectoral leaders and activists, a journalism professor, campus journalists, and media liaison officers of national student organizations, among others.
Bowe Cabaluna, TAG president, sums up their one-year old struggle as “masayang mahirap” (happy but difficult).
Not only the lives and livelihood of journalists and media workers are at stake here but also press freedom. What kind of journalism can we expect from media organizations that treat news as a commodity, their workers as disposable currency and their audience as unthinking consumers?
“This is an attack on the rights of Elmer James Bandol and on the freedom of the press.”
"The continued failure of the government to arrest, prosecute and convict the perpetrators is indicative of how little, if any at all, importance that the Aquino administration is making to stop this murderous rampage and end the state of impunity in our country.”
Media freedom advocates in the Philippines scored a rare victory when a court convicted an alleged gunman in the killing of broadcaster Miguel Belen.
“I could say that we don’t have the dignity of labor. People who work at GMA often jested that talents are second-class citizens.”
SPECIAL REPORT: Talents, or those who are not considered “regular” employees by the GMA 7 management, despite years of service, do not receive their 13th month pay, a mandatory benefit under the Labor Code.
Related story| New contract, same ‘exploitative’ terms
Sidebar | Talent? | How can you be considered a regular employee
We cannot settle for a law that will make truth telling even more difficult: a bad law is worse than no law at all.
“The people demand a genuine FOI law, and those who wish to thwart this are on the defensive in light of the corruption, anomalies, human rights abuses and injustices previously covered up due to information restrictions.”
“Our justices may look into the possibility of reviewing and revising the rules of court.” – Prima Quinsayas, lawyer of the Freedom Fund for Filipino Journalists
“Deprive us not of justice.” – Edita Tiamzon, wife of UNTV cameraman Daniel Tiamzon
RELATED STORY: Reforms needed to solve Ampatuan massacre case, other media killings
SLIDESHOW: 5th year of Ampatuan massacre | Calls for justice reverberate
The Ampatuan Massacre is a key issue in the Filipino people’s struggle against the culture of impunity that has afflicted the country for so long. A decision favourable to the masterminds and killers will encourage more killings of and human rights violations against journalists, activists, and other sectors.
Members of the End Impunity Alliance, AlterMidya, a national network of alternative media outfits and the University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication will hold a protest march around the university’s academic oval on Nov. 21.
“Aquino is wrong in saying that the killings are not work-related. These journalists were killed for their work, not because of a love triangle or any other reason.” – Luis Teodoro
“Rather than demonstrating the government’s sincerity in seeing the trial to a credible conclusion, the ban [on media coverage] provokes suspicions that concealing vital information from the public is in progress.” – Freedom Fund for Filipino Journalists
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