The Committee to Protect Journalists’ finding that no journalist in the Philippines was killed in 2024 in relation to their work is, of course, welcome.
The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines issued an alert in October 2024 on the killing of Ma. Vilma Rodriguez in Zamboanga City — a death no less tragic just because investigators ruled it as not work related.
NUJP, in its monitoring, presumes each attack on a media worker to be work related pending the results of official investigations.
As we acknowledge the absence of work-related media killings, we hope that this sets the bar for coming years.
We hope as well that this will mean a quicker resolution to pending cases of media killings from previous years.
We note that the alleged mastermind in the 2022 killing of Percy Lapid is still at large despite search operations as well as appeals from police for him to surrender.
Authorities reported the surrenders of the suspects in the killings of Cris Bundoquin in 2023 and Rey Blanco in 2022. We hope these arrests lead to justice for their families.
As Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Opinion Irene Khan pointed out in her visit to the Philippines in 2024, media killings are “the most egregious form of censorship.”
Calling at the time for a higher rate of resolution on cases of media killings, she said “clearly, much more needs to be done to eliminate impunity.”
While the most brutal and deserving of condemnation, media killings are only one aspect of media safety.
NUJP — like CPJ and other media welfare and safety groups — also tracks other forms of attacks against the press, including the recent filing of a terrorist financing complaint against freelance journalist Deo Montesclaros in Cagayan province.
Our colleague Frenchie Mae Cumpio, has only recently been given the opportunity to testify in her defense — five years since her arrest on questionable terrorism-related charges.
As the community marks this admittedly remarkable development, let us resist the tendency to think that we are already safe and free.
While no longer as sharply felt in the capital as it was in the Duterte administration, attempts to silence and intimidate the press remain and require our vigilance and resistance.
