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Thursday, December 09, 2004
Oro media gird up anew for protests
By Lizanilla J. Amarga
RADIO stations and the Cagayan de Oro Press Club (COPC) are set to join Thursday's nationwide call to stage a noise barrage at 3:00 p.m. while radio stations will go off-air in the same hour and read afterwards a pooled statement condemning the series of killings of Filipino journalists.
Around 80 media groups and individuals signed a pooled statement Wednesday condemning the rash of killings of Filipino journalists.
In separate interviews with Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro Wednesday, COPC president Jerry Orcullo, Kapisanan ng mga Broadkaster ng Pilipinas-Cagayan de Oro chapter (KBP-CDO) former chairman Roy Villaro and incoming chairman Jonas Bustamante said they are now gearing up for the event Thursday.
"COPC joins all forms of protest actions by whatever group, much more by NUJP (National Union of Journalists in the Philippines), in condemning the series of media killings and harassments recently taking place nowadays even as I urge mediamen to carry weapons for self-protection," Orcullo said.
Meanwhile, NUJP chairperson Inday Espina-Verona said the pooled statement was timed for the observance of International Human Rights Day on Friday.
"The pooled statement also lamented the human-rights violations in the Philippines, which is supposed to be one of Asia's most vibrant democracy," she said.
The statement points out that while journalists in other countries are jailed or are subject to harsh censorship and media laws, those in the Philippines are being murdered with impunity.
"The Philippine press will remember 2004 as a year of infamy. We have lost 13 colleagues in what could be work-related murders, the highest number in history," the statement, which was drafted by the NUJP reads.
In condemning the killings, the signatories said, "media groups are aware that our profession does not suffer alone. We also condemn the killings of judges, lawyers, anti-corruption advocates and human rights workers nationwide."
It called on Filipinos to support the struggle for a free press.
Aside from the pooled statement, the NUJP has asked journalists to hang outside their offices streamers protesting the killings.
A noise barrage will also be held at 3 p.m. Thursday. Media outlets nationwide will participate in the noise barrage.
For radio stations that same day, there will be a two-minute silence at 3 p.m. and the reading afterward of the pooled statement, which is available in English, Filipino and Visayan. Television stations are also expected to read the pooled statement.
(December 9, 2004 issue)
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