CPJ to Philippines: Convict Killers

New York-based media watchdog Committe to Protect Journalists (CPJ) issued a statement on Wednesday in response to the statement made by Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita that the 24 murders of journalists in Philippines had all been “properly attended to,”.

“It is outrageous for the Philippine government to declare these murders have been ‘properly attended to’ when not one single conviction has been made in any of these cases,” said Joel Simon, CPJ’s executive director.

“There’s no mystery how the Philippines got on CPJ’s Global Impunity Index ‘Getting Away with Murder 2009′: the unsolved murders of 24 journalists. There is also no mystery how the Philippine government can get off the list: convict the killers of these journalists. CPJ will continue to support the efforts of Philippine government in solving these murders and we hope it can exert every effort to ensure the prosecution of the remaining cases,” said Simon.

On Tuesday, Ermita branded CPJ’s Global Impunity Index as “unfair”, adding that “the Philippines is once again put in a bad light on its commitment on the promotion and protection of human rights”.

“The allegation by the CPJ is an unfair depiction of what is happening based on measures that are inadequate. These incidents have all been properly attended to,” Ermita told reporters.

Ermita added that out of 31 media practitioners killed since 2001, at least four people had been convicted and 26 others were facing charges.

CPJ ranked the Philippines sixth in a list of 14 countries with high numbers of unresolved killings of journalists against the size of the population. In the report, at least 24 journalist murders have gone unsolved in the last decade. This pervasive climate of impunity has led to repeated attacks on the press, with renewed levels of violence recorded in 2008.

“The low conviction rate has been misconstrued as a slack in the country’s justice system. This is a misconception because we always conform to the rule of law. The government will not force quick convictions simply for the sake of announcing achievements,” Ermita said.

The CPJ said it was standing firm on its “impunity index” because the data-based report “belies the claim of an exaggeration.”

According to CPJ, countries racked by armed conflict like Iraq, Sierra Leone and Somalia top the Impunity Index but most of the list encompasses peacetime democracies with functioning law enforcement, nations such as Russia, India and the Philippines.

CPJ released this year’s Impunity Index in Manila to mark the fourth anniversary of the murder of Marlene Garcia-Esperat, a columnist who reported on corruption in the government’s agriculture department. (pinoypress.net)