For journalists, a reminder in perilous times

STATEMENT OF THE CENTER FOR MEDIA FREEDOM AND RESPONSIBILITY

WITH STRONG INDICATIONS that it is politically motivated, the November 23 abduction and killing of over 40 people, at least 12 of them journalists, in Maguindanao is a new low even for the Philippines. Not only its brutality, but the sheer senselessness of it as well qualify it for collective outrage and condemnation and the strongest call for the immediate apprehension, trial and punishment of those responsible.

That at least 12 of the over 40 people killed, several of whom were beheaded, and the women among them raped, were journalists is bad enough.

The November 23 killings have increased the number of journalists killed in the line of duty this year from 3 to 15 and added so many more to the 81 already killed in the Philippines since 1986. But what is worse is that whoever is responsible killed them and the wife, sisters, and followers of a local politician in furtherance of the inconsequential purpose of preventing that politician from filing his certificate of candidacy and contesting a small town election that can’t possibly have any impact beyond its narrow borders. “Politically motivated” in fact confers on this act of barbaric madness a substance it doesn’t deserve.

But as mean, as idiotic and as petty as the aim was, the killings are likely to trigger a cycle of reprisals and counter-reprisals that will raise even higher the levels of violence in Maguindanao, quite possibly in the rest of Mindanao, and even the entire Philippines itself. Violence has a way of begetting further violence, as Philippine experience demonstrates.

Indeed, the Maguindanao attack was not only an attack on a local politician, on his supporters, and on journalists. It was also an attack on what’s left of Philippine democracy, in which free and peaceful elections have never been as urgent an imperative as today. Only the quickest and most decisive response in terms of arresting and bringing the perpetrators to court can prevent the November 23 killings from turning into one more incident to inspire the killers—of journalists, political activists, local officials, priests, lawyers and judges—who roam this country with impunity to keep on killing.

But Peace adviser Jesus Dureza has recommended instead the declaration of a state of emergency in Maguindanao, in tacit admission that neither the military nor the Philippine National Police can cope with the situation without being armed with special powers.

We reject that supposed solution as an invitation to further violence as well as to the further abuse of the citizenry. The local military and police are widely known to be partial to certain groups, and are likely to harden that partisanship as election day approaches. Indeed, policemen are said to have been part of the group of 100 that waylaid the convoy the slain journalists were accompanying. A state of emergency will provide a convenient cover for military and police partisanship, among other reasons because it will provide them a legal basis for preventing the media from covering the impact on the citizenry of the political rivalries, based on clan disputes, that haunt Maguindanao and other areas of Mindanao as well as the overall conduct of the elections there.

We affirm that it is the media’s crucial task to provide the citizenry the information it needs so it can make such decisions as to who to vote for as well as others related to its well-being and safety. We reiterate, however, that no story is worth the life of a single journalist. Journalists must take the greatest care to assure their own safety, and to evaluate the risks involved before covering any event of public relevance anywhere.

Elections are especially perilous for journalists. Election times awaken the most brutal instincts. They feed the bloodlusts of warring clans in what’s essentially a feudal society still, and stoke the fires of elite contention for power and the opportunities for graft it provides.

Journalists must thus take care to steer clear of partisanships likely to transform them into casualties of the clash between political parties and feuding clans, and to affirm through their work and actions their sole loyalty to the professional and ethical imperatives of fairness and truth telling.

We mourn the death of our countrymen and colleagues in the hands of the barbaric horde that’s likely to be under the pay of the local politician’s rivals. But we must also remind the living never to underestimate the reality of the threats to their lives and well-being that have become common place in a country ruled by a regime unable to discharge, for both journalists and ordinary citizens, that most basic of State responsibilities, protecting every man, woman and child’s right to life and to a life without fear.