Canadian Press
Condemns Media Killings in Philippines
Initially signed by at
least 30 journalists and other Filipino-Canadians, a statement is
circulating in Canada calling on the Philippines’ Macapagal-Arroyo
government to stop the killing of journalists and to conduct earnest
investigations.
By Edwin C. Mercurio
Bulatlat
TORONTO,
Canada
– At least 30 journalists and other Filipino-Canadians have signed a
statement calling on the
Philippines’ Macapagal-Arroyo government to stop the killing of
journalists and to conduct earnest investigations.
Aside from the
Filipino-Canadian community, others who have signed are Canadian media
practitioners such as reporters from CKLN and CBC, community leaders and
other Canadians who signified their support to seek justice for
journalists killed for doing their job.
The statement, which
is now being circulated all over Canada for more signatories and will be
sent to President Macapagal-Arroyo, was drafted in the wake of the spate
of media killings in Philippines.
The statement came up
following a forum on “How Free is the Philippine Press” held here last
Feb. 13 at the Filipino Centre–Toronto (FCT). Filipino writer Ms.
Ninotchka Rosca, who was the guest speaker at the forum, denounced the
alarming rate of killings of Filipino journalists
The Philippines has
earned the global reputation as the most dangerous country in the world
for media practitioners - second only to war-torn Iraq, Ms. Rosca said.
“Journalists are
killed with impunity in the
Philippines,” said Ms. Rosca, a
book author and journalist. “If you look at the rate by which media people
are killed – over the 14 years of the Marcos regime, the rate was 2.5 per
annum. Under Corazon Aquino, 5.6%. Under Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo the rate
was 4.6% over the 2-3 years.”
Ms. Rosca had worked
as a journalist in the Philippines
before she was forced to go on exile to the United States during martial
law,
Killings
More than 50
journalists have been murdered since 1986 after Marcos’ ouster – or over
100 including those who were killed during martial law. For the past 17
years killings of media people have continued at an average of three per
year.
“Last year, 13 media
practitioners were killed in the Philippines under President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo, ranking the country the second highest in the world in
terms of media killings, after war-torn Iraq,” Ms. Rosca said.
“Unlike Iraq where
journalists are killed covering the war and field battles, most reporters
killed in the Philippines are those from the rural areas writing about
graft and corruption and human rights abuses,” Rosca said. “Nobody has
been held accountable, prosecuted and charged for these killings. If the
risk of speaking out freely is to die, then there is no democratic
process.”
IFJ alarmed
The concern about the
killing of journalists in the Philippines and other critical areas in the
world also raised the alarm bells of the International Federation of
Journalists (IFJ). Aidan White, IFJ General Secretary, said in a recent
statement in the Philippine media that “the crisis of news safety has
reached an intolerable level and must be addressed urgently.”
The January 2005
report of the recently concluded fact-finding mission organized by the
International Federation of Journalists and the National Union of the
Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) has found that “a widespread culture
of violence is tolerated and even condoned by Philippine government
officials.”
Ms. Rosca, who has
written for various Philippine, U.S. and international publications and
who authored six books, one of these entitled “Twice Blessed” earned the
1993 American Book Award for Excellence in Literature said that whether in
the Philippines or elsewhere, there are many factors that affect press
freedom: media ownership, legal and physical threats to journalists and
corruption.
Media ownership
Ms. Rosca said rich
families and their cronies control most of the major newspapers.
“Structurally, the
ownership of all these major newspapers (and broadcast media) is geared
towards the ruling class of the Philippines. So ownership is the first
restriction on press freedom. And if owners of a newspaper or publication
happen to run counter to the dominant bias of the (ruling class) culture,
then the owners are going to be in great trouble.”
Toronto’s Balita
editor, Ruben Cusipag and Rosca herself were among the hundreds of writers
and journalists critical of the Marcos dictatorship who were incarcerated
in various detention centers during Martial law.
Corruption and
manipulation of the media
On corruption in the
media, Rosca explained that vested interest groups and individuals use
money and other incentives in manipulating the generally low-paid media
practitioners to serve the formers’ interests.
“You have ‘blood
money’ which is given before a journalist does someone a favor. ‘Smiling
money’ after the job is done. And then, there is AC/DC, attack and
collect, defend and collect.”
“The average pay of
journalists in the Philippines is P5,000, while the average apartment rent
is eight thousand pesos P8,000,” Rosca explained.
Ms. Rosca also
pointed out that there are alternative media organizations that she
described as very independent and write about the real situation in the
Philippines such as Bulatlat, a cooperative that publishes on the Internet
and is generating an increasing readership globally.
The forum was
organized by the Philippine Reporter, Balita Newspaper Managing Editor
Tess Cusipag and the support of the Filipino Centre-Toronto (FCT) who made
the venue available for the media event.
Media organizations
represented at the forum were: The Philippine Reporter, Balita, Bulatlat,
Filipino Bulletin, Front Page TV, Media Monitor, The Philippine Courier,
CKLN Radio and Taliba. Bulatlat
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