|
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Local media holds rally Wednesday
By Lizanilla J. Amarga
LOCAL print and broadcast journalists will be joining the nationwide "Media in Black" (MIB) Day protest rally and candle lighting Wednesday by holding their own activities at the Kiosko sa Kagawasan, Divisoria to remember their fallen comrades.
The National Union of Journalist of the Philippines (NUJP) slams the government's idea of arming journalists.
In an interview with Sun.Star, NUJP Cagayan de Oro chapter president Susan Palmes said there will be lighting of 79 candles for the 79 media practitioners who were slain in the line of duty.
"We are inviting all to join us," she said.
Palmes said they would be reiterating calls to the government to finally lift a finger to put a stop to all media killings.
She said the government is somehow indirectly encouraging those who perpetrate these media slayings by leaving media murder cases unsolved.
The NUJP has sent out an advisory that Wednesday will be a black day for the media calling all other media practitioners to join them in bidding slain Palawan broadcaster Fernando Batul goodbye through a candle-lighting ceremony on May 31 at Quezon City at 6 p.m.
Media organizations in various parts of the country will also hold simultaneous candle-lighting ceremonies.
"We say: Enough is enough! Let us cease to be just observers and recorders to the death of democracy. Let us unite and fight back the threats to our lives and liberties," NUJP said.
"We also enjoin our colleagues to wear black t-shirts whole day of May 31 as our way of expressing our grief and outrage at the murder of another journalist."
Palawan broadcaster Fernando "Dong" Batul was gunned down early morning of May 22. He was the 5th journalist killed this year, the 42nd under the Arroyo administration and the 79th since 1986 when press freedom was supposed to have been restored. The hard-hitting journalist known as the "Bastonero ng Palawan" will soon be laid to rest.
NUJP spokesperson Jose Torres Jr. slammed the government for even considering on arming journalists as a solution to the continued murder of their colleagues.
He said this was confirmed by no less than National Security Adviser Secretary of Justice Raul Gonzalez.
"This proves once and for all that the media community and the citizenry in general can no longer trust this administration to fulfill its sworn mandate to protect and defend us," he said.
Torres said it was bad enough when the Philippine National Police first broached this harebrained suggestion.
He said the toll of journalists slain during the first half of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's term surpassed both that of the 14-year Marcos dictatorship and the combined record of all three previous presidents.
"We rejected it then, we reject it now," he said.
Torres said such a suggestion is nothing but an "abject admission" that government is "either unable or unwilling to protect us."
He said while they will not dispute the right of citizens, including journalists, to legally arm themselves for self defense, this is not the solution to the continued murders of their comrades.
"We would like to point out that a number of our recently slain colleagues had, in fact, armed themselves, albeit in vain," he said.
(May 31, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor. Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board. Click here. |
|
[return to top]
[home]
[network page]
|
LOCAL NEWS
BUSINESS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFESTYLE
FEATURE
SUPERBALITA
|
