ON MAY 3, we celebrated the 20th WORLD PRESS FREEDOM DAY.
I salute to the thousands of journalists around the world who went down to their graves because they wrote the truth of news stories.
Hundreds others remained in hospitals, nursing homes, in the care of their families, because they could no longer work after having been invalidated by their attackers.
These people are heroes. Their only crime in life, if there is any, is telling the truth and nothing but the truth. It is definitely a lonely journey to display the truth. Nobody else could ever do that but them.
In the Philippines, a lot of them had died for the same reason. They offered their lives for freedom to exist and for people to appreciate life much better. They were the eyes and ears of the freedom-loving people who are ready to drop dead any moment.
They are constantly harassed. They are assassinated like pigs. Their lives are always in danger. The worst thing is most of their killers remain free while the victim journalists are six feet below the ground.
It really breaks my heart. It makes my tears run down my cheeks why good people die so early and injustice committed on top of it.
As a journalism practitioner for more than 40 years, both in the Philippines and in the Unites States of America, I felt an arrow that pierced my heart is still there and giving me pain non-stop.
I feel the sorrows of their families, the heartaches of their friends and relatives and the wounds that continuously bleed.
My colleagues in the media are my brothers too and I feel the same blood that runs into their veins. The job is very risky but we all enjoy doing it because we feel we serve people.
It was enough and a great consolation that many people are happy about the things we do for them everyday – even if doing it at our expense.
I, too, had eluded death many times. I changed my movements every now and then. Changed the road I normally would take and the time of day or night I was supposed to pass over.
Danger has always been in my mind because I got dozens of death threats. Engaging in the press profession in Mindanao is not easy.
Many times I nearly fell into a death trap but God was so kind to me and he held me in his arms for protection.
Yes, I always ask God to protect me and my family and to give more time of my life. Prayers are always answered.
It is only in the Philippines that journalists are targeted mainly because the country is very political. Politics divide families, friendship and attitudes.
There are so many jobless people who find some financial incomes from politicians even if they do nothing. In many cases, newspapermen are located in the epicenter of controversies and they become the receiving ends of feuds, war between political groups and others.
Sometimes, both sides hate the media people for writing things that hurt them. This way their ire develops into action and almost always it is the journalists that lie flat dead on the road.
Almost always we are the losers because we die so early.
Notwithstanding all these, we feel happy because dying is honorable and we take with us to our graves the honor and integrity bestowed on us by the general public.
(ben-emata.com)