Press Freedom Continued to Decline in 2008

By JB Santos

PRESS FREEDOM again took a beating in 2008 as the number of journalists killed in the line of duty, one of the most telling indicators of threat to press freedom, rose to six from two recorded cases in 2007.
The Philippines’ ranking in world press freedom surveys had improved due to the marked decrease—from six journalists killed in the line of duty in 2006 to only two—in 2007. In the 2007 press freedom index of the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the Philippines moved 14 places higher, which RSF noted as an “unexpected improvement.”

But with the elements that feed impunity still present—lack of political will, poor law enforcement, and an ineffective judicial system—the number of killings, which since 2003 had never been below five, except in 2007, again went up this year. There are now 39 journalists killed in the line of duty during the Gloria Macapagal Arroyo administration—more than half of the 77 killed since 1986.

Indifference
Despite these developments and the hostile environment in which journalists work, government has remained basically indifferent to the situation.

When RSF downgraded the country’s press freedom ranking this year, dropping  11 places from 128th to 139th in its 2008 Annual Worldwide Press Freedom Index, Presidential Management Staff head Cerge Remonde dismissed the fall as only a “matter of perception.”

“But if you think hard about it, this is more perception than reality,” Remonde said over government-run Radyo ng Bayan.

“If those behind the rankings monitored our radio and TV, they would see the press is very lively, aggressive and free,” Remonde said.

RSF cited “corruption” as a “disease that eats away at democracies and what makes them lose ground in the ranking is corruption.”

“The existence of people who break the law to get rich and who punish inquisitive journalists with impunity is a scourge that keeps several ‘great countries’…in shameful positions,” RSF said.

Perception, perception
And yet, when the Philippines was again named as one of the most corrupt countries in Transparency International’s corruption perception index, government had also dismissed it as mere perception.
Presidential Anti-Graft Commission chair Constancia de Guzman said that Transparency International’s survey was “not a factual assessment of the actual situation” while deputy presidential spokesperson Anthony Golez Jr. was quoted in a GmaNews.tv report as saying that the survey merely “tells us something” but is “not Gospel truth.”

Arroyo was quoted in an Inquirer.net report as saying that the Transparency International survey was “a whole layering of perception indices. And if you compare the Philippines with the rest of the region, we have to remember that the Philippines has the freest media in the region.”

In another instance this year, Arroyo had described the media in the Philippines as the “freest”, a tag difficult to reconcile with the growing number of journalists killed every year.

“I know for a fact, from being around my father…how challenging it is to govern our nation, especially with a media that are the freest in the whole world, as it was during my father’s presidency,” said Arroyo in an address delivered in Cabarroguis, Quirino province last Sept. 10.

Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez has also reinforced the govern-ment’s insular attitude toward criticisms regarding press freedom related issues.

Last January, Gonzalez told the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) to “go jump in a river.” Gonzalez made the remark when CPJ asked him to recall an advisory he issued to media outfits warning that they risk “criminal liabilities” if they disobey government orders “during emergencies.”
Gonzalez’s advisory was issued on the heels of the Nov. 29 Manila Pen arrests.

Government orders
But the government has not been limiting itself to statements. Different government orders in 2008 also helped erode press freedom.

Philippine National Police (PNP) Director General Jesus Verzosa issued a directive last Oct. 30, “The Decentralization of the Public Information Office,” which sought to limit media’s access to police blotter reports.

“The information contained in the police blotter, in order to protect the integrity of the document and the identity of any victim and suspect, shall not be made accessible to the public or media, without the proper authorization from the head of office or unless the disclosure is in compliance with a lawful order of the court or any pertinent authority,” Verzosa’s directive stated.

Verzosa’s directive drew condemnation from the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines as well as the National Press Club.

Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines chair Leila de Lima was quoted in news reports as saying the directive “limits access to information” and is a “violation of the right to information.”
After even Malacañang questioned the directive, Verzosa withdrew and said journalists do not need any more to get authorization to view the police blotter, which is a usual source of leads for different stories.

Complaints plus
ABS-CBN 2, meanwhile, became the subject of a government complaint after airing an exclusive interview with Moro Islamic Liberation Front leader Abdullah Macapaar alias Commander Bravo.

Abs-cbnNEWS.com reported that the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) filed a complaint against ABS-CBN for allegedly violating the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP) Broadcast Code of 2007 by airing the Bravo interview last October. The complaint was filed before the KBP Standards Authority. During the interview, Bravo aired his anger over the government and said that they will “fight until the end” for their rights.

ABS-CBN 2 news and current affairs head Maria Ressa defended the Bravo interview and said it was a “legitimate story”.

“It is our responsibility as journalists to report on people and events that affect public interest. The public has the right to know. Commander Bravo is one of the country’s most wanted men, a key figure in the collapse of the peace process in Mindanao. He’s a legitimate story, and our interview with him…adhere to ethical standards of journalism,” Ressa said in an official statement.

Amando Doronila said in his Nov. 29 Inquirer column that “a ban on broadcasting such interview in effect already restricts the scope of the freedom of media on the ground that such broadcasts constitute a threat to the security of the state.”

Before NTC’s complaint, Gonzalez had already declared that he was “considering a complaint” against ABS-CBN 2 for violating the KBP Broadcast Code which states that “criminals shall not be glorified” and that “crime should always be condemned.”

Gonzalez also said that ABS-CBN 2 may have violated certain provisions of its franchise agreement because of the interview. Gonzalez, demonstrating go-vernment’s tendency to shoot the messenger and betraying a misappreciation of media’s role in a society, also took issue with ABS-CBN 2 for not helping them arrest Bravo.

“Government spent millions chasing Bravo and (Commander Umbra) Kato, and here is ABS with easy access to Bravo giving him all the publicity. The least they should do is give info to the government,” Gonzalez told abs-cbnNEWS.com.

Media profiling
In Mindanao, media practitioners cried foul over the attempt by the Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom) of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in “media profiling” last November.

According to the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), journalists covering the Westmincom were required by the latter to complete an information sheet before they can be accredited for coverage. Among the required information are the journalist’s social security and tax identification numbers, distinguishing physical marks, eye and hair color, blood type as well as the names and addresses of next of kin, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, and religious affiliation.

The form also requires journalists to sign a waiver of “all my legal rights/claims against the AFP for any accident, loss or any untoward incident that may occur while covering the AFP activities,” supposedly executed “on my own free will and volition.”

NUJP condemned the requirement and described it as “an invasion of privacy. It is a subtle repression of press freedom as it would give the Westmincom information office blanket authority to decided who it will or will not consider a journalist, an authority it does not have the competence or legal right to possess.”

The courts
The press also suffered setbacks in the courts.

Makati City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 56 judge Reynaldo Laigo dismissed the civil damage suit filed by journalists and media organizations against government officials for the arrest of around 30 media practitioners covering a Nov. 29, 2007 press conference by rebel soldiers. In his five-page decision, Laigo said media were “lucky” the state did not file appropriate criminal charges under Article 151 of the Revised Penal Code.

Last June 27, the Court of Appeals denied the petition for a writ of amparo filed by Oriental Mindoro journalist Nilo Baculo saying that it “reasonably doubts the believability of (Baculo’s) murder-plot story.” The appellate court also said the respondents (several local government officials) could not possibly want Baculo dead for his 11- or 10-year old commentaries. This was the first time that a journalist in danger had petitioned for a writ of amparo.

The Supreme Court’s decision on Sept. 4 upholding former economic planning secretary Romulo Neri’s invocation of executive privilege in the NBN-ZTE controversy, and the Court of Appeals’ dismissal on Sept. 11 of the petition for a writ of amparo filed by corruption whistleblower Jun Lozada weakened Philippine press’ function to provide information to the public and narrowed its sources of information.

The only victory attained by the press in a major court decision came when the Manila Court of Appeals denied on Sept. 22, 2008 the petition by presidential spouse Jose Miguel Arroyo to junk the P12.5-million suit filed against him by journalists in 2006 in response to the 11 libel cases he filed against 46 journalists. Makati RTC judge Zenaida Laguilles is now hearing the case again.

Libel
The Supreme Court released an administrative circular on Jan. 25 advising judges to prefer fines over imprisonment in deciding libel cases. Despite the circular, The Daily Tribune publisher Ninez Cacho Olivares was still sentenced to jail (a minimum of six months to a maximum of two years) and to pay P5 million in moral damages and P33,732.25 in civil damages for libel. Makati RTC Judge Winlove Dumayas found Olivares guilty of libel for an article she wrote in 2003 alleging ethical lapses on the Ombudsman then. Olivares has appealed the ruling.

Davao-based broadcaster Alex Adonis still remains in prison even after being granted parole by the Department of Justice Board of Pardon and Parole and having posted bail in a second libel case. Adonis was sentenced to jail on Jan. 26, 2007 for a libel charge filed by House Speaker Prospero Nograles. The libel case stemmed from a radio commentary by Adonis alleging that Nograles was seen running naked in a Manila hotel when caught by the husband of his alleged paramour.

The Davao Penal Colony refused to release Alex Adonis after the alleged former paramour—a female broadcaster in Davao—filed a separate case on the same grounds. A petition for habeas corpus filed by the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) and the NUJP now pending.

Legislation, prosecution
The right of reply bill, which have passed the third and final reading at the Senate and is set for second reading at the House, also have dire implications for press practice.

The bill, which is open to abuse especially in the coming 2010 presidential elections, imposes stiff penalties for non-compliance. The Senate version imposes a penalty ranging from P10,000 to P50,000, while the House version imposes fines ranging from P10,000 to P200,000 along with prison terms and even closure or suspension of the franchise of the offending media outfit.

With the near-passage of the right of reply bill, efforts by various groups to have libel decriminalized, which CMFR has called for since the early ‘90s, remain dim. The freedom of information act filed by Rep. Lorenzo “Erin” Tañada III has also hit a snag as Sen. Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr., chair of the Committee on Public Information and Mass Media, has yet to conduct a hearing.

Positive developments, however, did occur in 2008 in the prosecution of the killers of journalists. At the initiative of the Freedom Fund for Filipino Journalists (FFFJ) and the NUJP, the prosecution of the killers of broadcasters Rolando Ureta and Herson Hinolan resumed in May. FFFJ is a coalition of six media organizations in the Philippines.

FFFJ has also helped in the legal battle for the prosecution of the alleged masterminds in the 2005 killing of Sultan Kudarat-based journalist Marlene Esperat. A new case against the alleged masterminds, Osmeña Montañer and Estrella Sabay, was filed before the Tacurong City Regional Trial Court last Oct. 20. The court issued warrants of arrest against them the following day. The Roger Mariano and Philip Agustin cases, both being heard at the Manila Regional Trial Court, is already nearing resolution as the defense panel is already about to wrap up its presentation of evidence.

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