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TODAY the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility and
delegates—from the Philippines and other countries—to the
Conference on Impunity and Press Freedom at the Makati Pen will
launch the “International Campaign to Fight Impunity and Protect
Press Freedom in the Philippines.”
The conference began last Wednesday. CFMR
co-organized it with the Bangkok-based Southeast Asian Press
Alliance with the support of two New York-based organizations, the
Open Society Institute (a member of the Soros Foundation Network)
and the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Chief Justice Reynato Puno, The Manila Times
2007 Person of the Year, gave the first keynote address. He, once
more, proposed positive measures to strengthen press freedom. He
said—reiterating a conviction that other learned men have held and
promoted through the centuries—there would be no democracy without
press freedom.
“Bullets fired at the direction of journalists
pierce not only human flesh, but also our republican ideals,” he
said. He recounted that since 1992 all over the world 679
journalists have been killed and that since 2001, 70 journalists
have been killed in the Philippines. (Not the CJ’s words but mine,
this makes the rich and powerful of our country the fifth highest
devourer of poorly paid journalists doing their work).
The Chief Justice reserved his deepest lament
for these facts: Of the cases that have been filed “as a result of
these [70] killings, only one has been resolved, six are undergoing
trial, 18 are under investigation, four have been dismissed, and
four are pending prosecution.”
He spoke about how the newly promulgated writ of
habeas data can be used to buttress press freedom and human rights
protection in our “bedeviled” country.
Libel and defamation laws
CJ Puno said that aside from the killing of
journalists, the abuse of the law on libel and defamation was the
immediate threat to press freedom.
Indeed, the rich and powerful use Philippine
libel laws to stifle freedom of the press as handily as murder and
enforced disappearance. CJ Puno asked the Philippine Congress to put
a cap on the civil liabilities imposed on those found guilty of
libel.
He also appealed to our lawmakers to pass the
pending legislation to decriminalize libel.
But the massive majority of the congressmen are
allies of the Palace and powerful local government officials. Are
there enough lawmakers who believe with Thomas Jefferson, Tom Paine
and CJ Puno that the press is vital to democracy and civil
liberties?
Most of the congressmen and local government
officials are oligarchs out to preserve their clans’ hold on
social, political and economic power. Their power gives them the
capability to be venal, corrupt, untruthful, treasonous and abusive
without fear of punishment.
He reiterated that the Supreme Court has asked
judges to carefully evaluate libel cases so that the punishment for
libel could be limited to fines (rather than fines plus
imprisonment).
The High Court has been driven to take these
steps because the threat of imprisonment makes some journalists
shrink from their duty to report the truth to their readers and
audiences. The journalists’ poverty makes it veritably impossible
for them to set up a proper defense. Worse, if found guilty, where
would they get the money to pay for the fines?
Focus on RP
The “International Campaign to Fight Impunity
and Protect Press Freedom in the Philippines” will focus the
world’s attention on our country for being one of the world’s
most dangerous places for journalists. More people will then get to
know that State power is constantly being used to corrode the
already weakened pillars of press freedom here.
The delegates from foreign countries will surely
make sure that their publics in Asia, Latin America and Europe learn
the details of how—under the Arroyo administration—freedom of
the press has shriveled, the people’s right to information has
diminished and the perpetrators of these anti-democratic acts are
doing so with impunity.
But will the Arroyo administration
officials—nowadays so consumed by the imperatives of
survival—give a damn what the CFMR, SEAPA, the Open Society
Institute, the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Inter-American
Press Association, Magsaysay Awardees like Atmakusumah Astraatmadja
and foreign editors and newsmen say about the Philippines?
Perhaps they will just say—as the Justice
secretary once told some other Philippine-watchers: “Go jump in
the lake!”
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