Unite to protect civil liberties, journalists tell Filipinos

UCANews

MAKATI CITY, Philippines (UCAN) – Journalists have appealed to groups representing the country's middle class to help protect the right of free expression against what they perceive as suppression of media and the legislature by the government.

Freedom of expression is not only for journalists, but a right of every citizen, journalist Malou Mangahas told a March 13 forum on the Bill of Rights and press freedom at the Jesuit-run Ateneo Professional Schools in Makati City, south of Manila.

Mangahas was among seven publishers, editors, journalists and lawyers who addressed about 100 media workers, lawyers, educators, students and religious at the forum titled "Who's Afraid of Media Freedom?."

The "Forces of the United Middle Class Against Silence and Apathy" movement organized the event with La Salle-Ateneo Alumni At Lahat Na, an organization of graduates from both Catholic and state-run universities.

Both groups, which formed in late 2005 to push for investigation of allegations that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo cheated in the 2004 elections, want the president to resign, according to Patrick Pantaleon, president of the organization for university graduates. He told participants that his group has held forums to "engage the middle class in advocating integrity in governance and enlighten them to seek the truth."

Forum speakers maintained that Arroyo's Feb. 24 declaration of a State of National Emergency was intended to prevent Congress from investigating charges of election cheating and corruption and to gag critical media. Arroyo said she declared the emergency through Presidential Proclamation 1017 (PP1017) to prevent "clear and present" danger to the republic from an alleged conspiracy of military, communist and civilian groups to seize control of the government.

Lawyer Marlon Manuel, Ateneo Law School professor, questioned government guidelines for the media on the reporting of events that "tend to incite to sedition and rebellion."

In his analysis, the raid on the Daily Tribune newspaper's editorial office and printing press on Feb. 25 was an "absurd situation" that showed "media was one of the predicated situations in proclaiming PP 1017," with the legislature being the other. The Tribune was a consistent critic of the Arroyo government.

Veteran journalist Vergel Santos, in his presentation, described Arroyo's withdrawal of PP 1017 as "nominal," maintaining that "the suppressive spirit behind it remains." The president of the nongovernmental Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility and editorial consultant for Business World newspaper noted that government officials had "expressed contempt at news networks for reporting bad news." He countered that "there is no bad or good news." only news and "how one takes it."

Santos regards the accusation of inciting to sedition as "a legality so unclear" that the government uses a "campaign of intimidation sending a chilling effect down a journalist's spine."

Isagani Yambot, publisher of Philippine Daily Inquirer, shared reports he received about an "investigation" into the newspaper, the country's largest-selling national broadsheet, after it reported planned military defections.

"Young reporters who had no experience of martial law” from 1972-81) asked their editors whether they should "tone down" stories, Yambot said. "We told them no," he continued, explaining that the Inquirer's mandate is to "adhere to strict ethical policies" of journalism.

Mangahas said she had received reports that warrants of arrests are "being prepared" for reporters and weblog writers of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism who posted on the Internet alleged wiretapped conversations with election commissioners around the 2004 election period.

Ed Lingao spoke on conditions at ABC Channel 5, where he heads the television's news department. He said staff members are wary of the Justice Department's announcement that police continue to "monitor" media networks and personalities. Journalists have grown "paranoid" about their office phones being "bugged" or about being followed, he said.

Carlos Conde, secretary general of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, said placing the "puny but noisy" Daily Tribune newspaper under the "supervision" of General Arturo Lomibao, chief director of the National Police, was unnecessary. Media can "check each other" and consumers can check media by freely choosing to patronize or not patronize them, he explained.

Forum participants resolved to support media practitioners by writing to court justices who are set to deliberate petitions on media freedom. They called for school and community groups to circulate flyers and join street rallies advocating freedom of expression. Speakers said their papers and broadcasts would continue to adhere to existing codes of journalistic ethics with greater vigilance for each other's rights and safety.

"Only tyrants, dictators and people wanting to remain in power forever are afraid of media freedom," Yambot declared.

Although Arroyo lifted the state of emergency on March 3, five legislators continue to stay at the House of Representatives, under the custody of the House speaker, where they have been since Feb. 27, trying to avoid arrest on rebellion charges.