Philippines down 34 places in Press Freedom Index
THE AMPATUAN massacre has put the Philippines in 156th place in the 2010 World Press Freedom Index of the Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF, Reporters Without Borders), 34 places down from its 122nd rank in 2009.
RSF cited the Philippines as one of the countries whose “rankings dropped due to a breakout of serious violence.” RSF also said in its October 20 news release that “(d)espite a few murderers of journalists’ being brought to trial, impunity still reigns in the Philippines.”
On Nov. 23, 2009, around 100 men allegedly led by Andal “Unsay” Ampatuan Jr. killed 58 persons including 32 journalists/media workers who had joined the convoy of the wife of former Buluan town mayor and now Maguindanao governor Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu. The convoy was on its way to the Maguindanao capital of Shariff Aguak to file the certificate of candidacy of Toto Mangudadatu for Maguindanao governor. Mangudadatu’s candidacy allegedly angered the Ampatuans, who have reigned unopposed in the province for years.
The Index listed Eritrea, North Korea, and Turkmenistan as the top three countries where press freedom has declined. Meanwhile, six countries—Finland, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland—were tied at number 1 with a 0.00 score.
The 2010 World Press Freedom Index contains the results of RSF’s annual survey on the state of press freedom in all five continents. The 2010 Index looked into press freedom violations from 1 September 2009 to 1 September 2010. (The full report is in the RSF website [http://www.rsf.org/].)
Last April 2010, the New York-based press freedom advocacy group Committee to Protect Journalists also named the Philippines as among the top three countries where impunity for the killers of journalists thrives. (http://cpj.org/reports/2010/04/cpj-2010-impunity-index-getting-away-with-murder.php).
One hundred eighteen out of the 175 cases of journalists/media practitioners killed in the Philippines since 1986 are work-related. Only in 10 cases have the killers been convicted.
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