Defend Press Freedom, Advance Democracy : QC IMC

The Antonio Zumel Center most vehemently condemns the latest spate of attacks against Filipino journalists, with two of them having been shot in two consecutive days.

On Nov. 12, 26-year-old photojournalist Gene Boyd Lumawag of MindaNews was shot dead in Jolo, Sulu while covering the Eidl Fitr, a ceremony marking the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. The next day, commentator Boy Hinolin of DYIN Bombo Radyo in Kalibo, Aklan was also shot, several times. Lumawag died on the spot; Hinolin died two days later.

Lumawag and Hinolin are ninth and 10th, respectively, in the list of Filipino journalists killed this year. Just less than a month before their deaths, the Philippines had witnessed the slaying of Eldy Sablas, a radio commentator in Surigao del Sur.

There have been reports that the Eidl Fitr coverage joined by Lumawag was in place of an investigative story on corruption. Sablas and Hinolin were both known for their hard-hitting commentaries against corruption. Hinolin is the 58th Filipino journalist slain since the so-called “restoration of democracy” in 1986, following the ouster of the Marcos dictatorship. Most of the journalists killed since 1986 were in the midst of exposes on corruption.

Not one of the killers of these Filipino journalists has been brought to justice.

The Antonio Zumel Center cannot help but compare the post-1986 media atmosphere with the martial law years, when journalists like the late Antonio Zumel were relentlessly pursued by the state, and many of them landed behind bars and not a few were killed or abducted, for exposing the fascist regime’s atrocities against the people. Journalists were among the first to be arrested following the Sept. 21, 1972 declaration of martial law.

That journalists continue to be attacked mercilessly 32 years after Martial Law raises questions as to whether press freedom does exist today and what kind of democracy was restored in 1986. Censorship imposed by the Marcos dictatorship was replaced by pressures from government and corporate advertisers; in place of arrests and “invitations” from the military are libel suits and worse, dastardly attacks that snuff out the lives of journalists who dare cross the powers-that-be in the pursuit of truth, justice, and good governance.

The Antonio Zumel Center calls on all Filipino journalists to close ranks in defense of press freedom and unite with the people in the advancement of democracy, in the tradition of the great people’s journalist Antonio Zumel.