President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos recently said his government will “remain committed to ensuring transparency and good governance, freedom of expression and of the press, and the protection of media practitioners and their rights in the practice of their profession.”
Sa paggunita ngayong taon ng World Press Freedom Day, pinagsama-sama ng VERA Files Fact Check ang mga kaso na inihain laban sa mahigit 90 mamamahayag na Filipino mula 2007 hanggang 2022. Sa 45 na kaso, 32 ang isinampa ng mga dati at kasalukuyang opisyal ng gobyerno.
Retired ICC Judge Raul Pangalangan: “The Marcos dictatorship killed democracy by jailing journalists, shutting down newspapers, and installing government spies and watchdogs in newsrooms. Today, democracy is in peril without having to resort to such brutal measures. All it takes is to devalue the truth and displace reason from public discourse.”
Journalists in the country continue to face many threats today and freedom of the press will depend on how much support it gets from the people, according to Melinda Quintos-De Jesus, executive director of the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR).
Veteran broadcast journalist Howie Severino lamented on Monday, May 3, that the role of journalists in society has become more challenging as most news consumers now regard the values of truth, facts and evidence in journalism as secondary only to loyalty to a person, ideology and institution.
By MARK PERE MADRONA The unsolved and unpunished killings of media people in past years have kept the Philippines in third place among countries listed as the most dangerous in the world for journalists.
