Renewing a resolve

JOURNALISTS ARE vulnerable to other physical threats and put themselves at risk when they cover various events, like disasters, natural catastrophes, accidents, or street protests. Do journalists also think about their safety when they cover these events? How do newsrooms ensure the safety of their journalists when covering?
In commemoration of this year’s World Press Freedom Day, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) decided to focus on issues involving the safety of journalists, in addition to press freedom.
Since 1997, May 3 has also been observed by awarding the annual UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize, which honors a person, organization, or institution that has contributed to the protection and promotion of press freedom anywhere in the world despite grave dangers. The prize was named after Guillermo Cano, director of the Colombian daily newspaper El Espectador, who was murdered on Dec. 17, 1986 for his critical commentaries against drug trafficking syndicates in his country.
Since this year was the 10th anniversary of UNESCO/Guillermo Cano Press Freedom Prize, the main celebration for this year’s UNESCO World Press Freedom Day was held in the city of Medellin, Colombia. Medellin was Cano’s home city.
This year’s recipient of the Guillermo Cano Press Freedom Prize is Anna Politkovskaya, the Russian journalist who was murdered in Moscow last Oct. 7 after she had written articles claiming that the Russian armed forces had committed human rights abuses in Chechnya. Politkovskaya was the first journalist to receive the award posthumously.

The press in Southeast Asia
To commemorate World Press Freedom Day, the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) gathered journalists from various countries to a forum-meeting on the theme, “Press Freedom, Safety of Journalists and Impunity” in Jakarta, Indonesia last May 2. Supported by UNESCO, the forum was organized by SEAPA with the help of the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) and the Indonesian Press Council.
The next day, SEAPA and other international media organizations issued a joint statement calling for the decriminalization of defamation in Asia.
Journalists, including those from the Philippines, also attended a candle-lighting rally on May 3 in Jakarta for British journalist Alan Johnston, the British Broadcasting Corp. correspondent in Gaza who has been missing for more than nine weeks after he was abducted on his way home from work last  March 12.
Established in November 1998, SEAPA is an alliance of groups advocating press freedom. Its members come from Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippiness. The Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) and the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ), both Philippine-based organizations, are founding SEAPA members.
In his welcome address, SEAPA executive director Roby Alampay explained why Bangkok-based SEAPA chose Indonesia for the forum. “For good and bad, Indonesia has provided models,” Alampay said, “(but) it has also provided very painful lessons, whether they are journalists getting on board a sinking ship, or journalists covering natural disasters.”

Informed citizens
In his speech, UNESCO Director General Koïchiro Matsuura said, “World Press Freedom Day is an occasion to remind the world of the importance of protecting the fundamental human right of freedom of expression as enshrined in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”
Matsuura underscored the intricate relationship between securing the safety of journalists and realizing citizens’ freedoms, he said that the “ability to act as informed citizens of the world depends on a media that can work freely and safely.”
Discussing the high number of journalist killings in the country that used to boast of having the freest press in Asia, Jose Torres Jr., of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), said, “The killings and the official and unofficial acts of repression by the government work together to impose a culture of fear among Filipino journalists, even as the government touts how free we are.”
If Filipino journalists continue to report critically despite the killings and other acts of repression, Torres, who is managing editor of GMAnews.tv, the online arm of GMA-7 television network, explained, “The Philippine press remains free, but only because journalists refuse to be cowed.”

Dealing with danger
In many cases, danger simply comes with the job. Such was the case of Indonesian reporter Meutya Hafid of Jakarta-based Metro TV when she and a cameraperson from the network were briefly abducted in Iraq in 2005 while doing an assignment. They were later released when the Indonesian government told the abductors that the two were in Iraq doing a news report.
“I still consider myself lucky,” Hafid told participants in the forum, adding that their “experience taught me so much.” Among the lessons she learned was knowing when to stop chasing a story, no matter how interesting and exciting it is.
The kidnapping incident also prompted Hafid and her news organization to review the way they cover the news. When she and her cameraperson were sent Iraq to cover the elections of 2005,they did not bring any kind of protection at all. No helmets, no bullet-proof vests, no bodyguards, she said. So when people, concerned about their safety, asked them about why they were not so equipped,   Hafid told them: “We don’t have any. We can’t afford any,” while silently hoping that God would protect them while they covered the war.
The event ended with the launching of Philippine Press Freedom Primer: Quick Answers to Your Questions, the latest CMFR publication, a quick guide to and overview of press conditions in the country. Edited by CMFR deputy director Luis V. Teodoro, CMFR launched the primer in commemoration of World Press Freedom Day.
On May 3, Philippine organizations CMFR and NUJP joined other organizations, including SEAPA, in issuing a joint statement calling for the decriminalization of libel in Asia.
“Different ways and reasons are used to prosecute, arrest, and punish the media, and even imprison journalists, only because they were doing their professional duty,” the groups said in a joint statement. “Being aware of this dangerous tendency, journalists from Asian countries are committing to unite and say no to every form of press criminalization.”— Hector Bryant L. Macale

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