Despite change in administration, threats to journalists persist

CEBU CITY — On the table, a single nameplate marked the empty seat where Edelgrace Amoro should have sat and addressed the delegates to the first media conference on the protection of journalists held here Tuesday. Instead, all that the audience in the darkened auditorium heard was her voice. “There is no end to impunity unless we take the challenge to resist the enemy and fight the good fight of faith," she said, as scenes from media killings past were flashed on the screen.

Her father, radio journalist Edgar Amoro, was gunned down three years after he witnessed the killing of his colleague Edgar Damalerio in 2002. Since then, her family has been on the government’s Witness Protection Program, which was why she could not show herself to the public. “When a journalist is killed, it affects all of us – our right to know, our right to information that helps us make decisions in our lives," said Red Batario from the Freedom Fund for Filipino Journalists (FFFJ). The FFFJ was set up in 2002 in the wake of the Damalerio killing to help the families that slain journalists leave behind. “We look at it not as a media problem but a problem for the entire society," added Batario, who also serves as executive director of the Center for Community Journalism and Development (CCJD). The CCJD teamed up with the Cebu-based Peace and Conflict Journalism Network (PECOJON) and the International News Safety Institute (INSI) to organize the media conference, which was timed to coincide with the first anniversary of the November 23 massacre in Maguindanao. Plaintive strains from a flute and frenzied drumming by musicians from the local cultural group Upstage opened a photo exhibit showing scenes from the massacre site and the arrest of prime suspect Andal Ampatuan Jr. “This is a reminder that an aberration like the Nov. 23 massacre should not happen again," said moderator Karlon Rama from PECOJON.

Photo by Charlie Saceda/PECOJON

Since the restoration of democracy in the Philippines in 1986, at least 140 journalists and media workers have been reported killed in violent incidents, according to the organizers. ‘Frightening trend’ Lawyer Al Parreño noted that activists and journalists comprised the majority of victims of unresolved killings from 2001 up to August 2010, according to a study that he conducted for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting. An average of 2.5 killings per week were recorded during the term of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, with her home province of Pampanga and Negros Occidental topping the list of sites where the violence occurred, Parreño said. Despite the reforms promised by President Benigno Aquino III when he took office last June, however, Parreño observed: “There’s a frightening trend right now." He said two killings per week were reported during the first two months of the Aquino administration — which is comparable to the rate of killings during Arroyo’s term. “It’s all about guns, hoods, and motorcycles," he said, describing the manner of most killings. He added that all the killings were “systematic and planned, not just some homicide on the street." Philippine National Police Supt. Alex Paul Monteagudo, deputy director of Task Force Usig, advised journalists to take extra caution if they sense that they are being shadowed. The task force was created to look into the reports of extra-judicial killings during the Arroyo administration. “Our studies show that it is during surveillance period that you can best prevent an attack," he said, adding that most of the reported killings happened in or around the victims’ houses. “There are only 130,000 policemen in the entire country and we cannot secure each and every media practitioner," Monteagudo said. 11-point agenda The media conference ended with the signing of the “Cebu declaration: A call to action for the protection of journalists in the Philippines." Among the steps proposed are the following:

• Government observance of international resolutions on the safety of journalists
• Provision of safety equipment for media workers by news organizations
• Media-academe cooperation programs to prepare new journalists for the hazards of the profession
• Engaging the citizenry in supporting protection for media workers
• Solidarity among media organizations in pursuing freedom of the press

The participants also lit candles to remember the 58 victims of the Maguindanao massacre and other victims of media killings in the country. – JV/HS, GMANews.TV