00000cam a22000004a 4500 UP-100181420919531192 Buklod 20250303142220.0 m |o d | ta 250303s2011 ph a| |d tt || ||eng|| 19088299 (Buklod)UP-99796217609955582 DMLF DMC rda eng DMLUC PN 4748 P6 P48 2011 Philippine press freedom report 2011 Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility. [Makati City] Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility 2011. [viii], 80 pages illustrations 25 cm. Annual. text rdacontent unmediated rdamedia volume rdacarrier Overview : an end and a beginning -- Legal prospects under the Aquino administration -- Bills on media in the 15th Congress -- Media safety : the press community responds -- The media in the public eye -- Killings and other attacks on journalists in 2010 -- Update on some ongoing trials -- CMFR database on the killing of Filipino journalists/media practitioners since 1986.. Despite the change in administration--from that of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's sham respect for press freedom and its actual contempt for it, to that of Benigno Aquino III, among whose promises during the presidential campaign of 2010 was the protection of press freedom and support for the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill that has long been awaiting passage--press freedom and free expression are still under siege in the Philippines. A number of laws applicable to mass media, among them those on libel, inciting to sedition and obscenity, have been used to harass and silence journalists. The Movie and Television Review and Classification Board, despite demands for its reorganization, remains a threat to free expression because of its power to censor films and even prevent their exhibition. And as of this writing, an FOI law acceptable to both the press as well as the public had yet to pass Congress. But it is the killing of journalists, which despite the Constitutional protection for press freedom and free expression is still continuing, that is the most serious threat to the Philippine press, and hence to the democracy of which it is an indispensable pillar. In 2011, six journalists were killed in the line of duty in the Philippines, despite the pledge of the Aquino administration to stop the killings by seeing to it that the killers of journalists and the masterminds behind them are tried and punished. This number compares to four in 2010. There is little consolation in the decline in the number of journalists killed, given the 32 slain in 2009, the suspected killers and masterminds of which are undergoing a trial that could take decades to conclude. And yet, the speedy resolution of that case--the worst in the history of the Philippine press and very likely the worst incident of its kind in the world--is vital to the prevention of further killings. The failure to resolve it quickly and credibly can only further reinforce the culture of impunity. Equally important in putting an end to the culture of impunity, however, is the need to address the harassments and threats that escalated in number in 2011, of which the filing of numerous libel suits against community journalists and burning of a radio station in Occidental Mindoro were especially disturbing. Putting a stop to both the killing of journalists as well the harassment and threats, which for some reason local officials and policemen seem to have become the means of choice to silence press criticism, is the urgent task of the press community itself. That community, with the support of civil society and of lawyers committed to the defense of free expression, has discharged that task across many fronts, among others by enhancing public awareness of the costs of the killings not only on the press but even more crucially on society, and by itself taking the initiative in the prosecution of the suspected killers of journalists. But the defense of the press, as part of its duty to protect the entire citizenry, is even more the responsibility of an administration that has repeatedly pledged to protect press freedom, if Philippine democracy is to be the living reality of which it claims to be the steward. Freedom of the press Philippines. Journalists Violence against Philippines. Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (Philippines) publisher. FI UPD DMC PN 4748 P6 P48 2011 Continuing Resource