Int’l media groups push probe of threats vs Marites Vitug

International media watchdog groups called on the Philippine government Wednesday to conduct a full investigation of the death threats received by Marites Vitug, online editor-in-chief of Newsbreak. "The Philippine justice department has a terrible record of protecting journalists and of prosecuting those who commit violence against them... The judiciary can show journalists that it is fully committed to protecting their rights by pursuing a full and vigorous investigation into these despicable threats," said Joel Simon, executive director of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. A second group, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), called on authorities to undertake all necessary measures to protect Vitug. "In an environment where attacks on press freedom are frequent and violent and all too often unpunished, all measures must be taken by authorities to quash any potential risk to the personal safety of individual media personnel," IFJ Asia-Pacific director Jacqueline Park said. "Only by actively pursuing justice against all perpetrators of violence against the Philippines media will the authorities be able to send a message that such impunity will no longer be tolerated," Park added. For its part, the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) said: "Specifically, we call on the Philippine government to condemn the cowardly attempt to intimidate Ms. Vitug, and move government police and investigators to unmask and bring to justice those responsible for the threatening messages that have been coming the journalist’s way in recent days," it said on its website. At the same time, SEAPA condemned the libel suit filed by Supreme Court Associate Justice Presbitero Velasco against Vitug for the series of articles she wrote about him published online. Threats In an interview with GMANews.TV last Tuesday, Vitug said she started receiving the threats on Monday, six days after she launched "Shadow of Doubt," her book examining the inner workings of the Supreme Court. "The first message went something like ‘The pen is mightier than the sword, but the sword kills faster than the word.’ I erased it and paid no attention to it," she recounted. "But the next message was something more direct," Vitug said. Referring to the November 23 carnage that killed 57 people, mostly journalists, in Maguindano, the death threat read: "Kaya pala maraming napapatay na journalists dahil katulad mo. May katwiran pala si Ampatuan na pagpapatayin ang mga journalists. Sana nakasama ka dun, malay mo malapit na." (Your kind is one of the reasons why journalists are being killed. Ampatuan has valid reason to kill those journalists. I hope you were one of them. You’ll never know, it could be sooner.) She received another message about 10:30 p.m. last Monday, which read: "Takot ka ano? Iyong anak mo na lang (You’re afraid, right? I’ll target your child instead)." The last message was sent on Tuesday morning, which read: "O saan ka pupunta (Where are you going)?" All the messages were sent from 0909-1348825. Police are investigating the origin of the text messages, but have yet to identify a suspect. — RSJ/LBG, GMANews.TV