A Reminder

3 May 2013

THE NEW York-based Committee to Protect Journalists’ (CPJ) Impunity Index,  for the fourth year in a row, has  ranked the Philippines the third worst country in the world, after Iraq and Somalia, in terms of the number of unresolved journalist murders per  million inhabitants.  The Impunity Index, first released in 2008, has for the last five years ranked the Philippines among the worst countries in the world for failing to apprehend and punish most of those responsible for the killing of journalists.

CPJ cited the flawed government Witness Protection Program and its failure to protect witnesses as among the key reasons behind the persistence of impunity, or the exemption from punishment of wrong-doers, in the Philippines. It mentioned the case of Dennis Aranas, one of the suspects and a possible state witness in the 2011 murder of broadcaster and environmentalist Gerardo “Gerry” Ortega, who was found dead in his detention cell in Lucena City. (More on Aranas here.)

Ironic that CPJ issued its 2013 Index on the eve of World Press Freedom Day, which continues to resonate with irony in the Philippines,  where not only have the killers of journalists escaped retribution; the killings are also continuing.

Towards ending impunity and stopping the killings, CMFR reiterates its call for the strengthening of the WPP not just by increasing the program’s budget,  but also by improving the State system of assisting the families of witnesses whose lives have been profoundly changed as a result. The WPP budget is still inadequate to meet the many needs of witnesses in the program. A stronger protection program for witnesses was one of CMFR’s and other media organizations’  recommendations  during a meeting with key Malacañang officials at the start of President Benigno Aquino’s term in 2010.

Among those recommendations was the creation of a national task force with media and NGO representatives and responsible government officials as members. The task force would quickly investigate the killing of any journalist anywhere in the country and recommend concrete actions in response, including the filing of the appropriate cases. Such a mission would also articulate a message that needs to be heard: The President cares and will do something.  CMFR reiterates the need for such a task force in the context of the negative implications on the state of Philippine democracy implicit in its ranking in the CPJ Impunity Index.

CMFR has also called for a review of the rules of court.  The common experience of CMFR and other media groups involved in the prosecution of the killers and the brains behind the killing of journalists is that the rules of court can be manipulated to so delay trials it constitutes a travesty of the judicial system.  The rules that urgently need revision  seem to exist only for the benefit of lawyers rather than for the  sake of justice.

The Philippine government should take note of this humiliating ranking— and for the fourth consecutive year. Stopping impunity involves State action;  a proactive response to this problem is a State responsibility not only to halt the killing of journalists but also that of  such citizens as environmental activists, human rights defenders,  reformist members of the clergy and other citizens victimized by crime and violence.

The Philippine ranking should be a source of shame for a government that claims to be presiding over a democratic country but is unable to take meaningful action to protect its own citizens.  Only by doing so, and pro-actively prosecuting the killers of journalists, can the Philippines make its claim to democracy more meaningful.