EDITORIAL

Journalists in the Philippines have weathered a rare storm of some of the biggest challenges in history in the same year. The pandemic, comparable to the Spanish Flu pandemic of the early 1900s, has changed how we gather and deliver news and has brought about financial and emotional stress that has battered our resilience and our resolve.

As this happened, the industry has also seen massive layoffs and staff reductions made worse by the loss of the franchise of ABS-CBN, a giant network and a huge employer for the sector.

And even as the public we serve needs accurate, reliable and relevant information, we face the shrinking of democratic space and the erosion of the assurance that reporting stories that depart from the government narrative will not be treated as an assault on the government or on the country itself.

We take courage from knowing that we are not alone — whether in supporting colleagues in beleaguered newsrooms or in helping them get access to basic protective equipment — and that the previous terrible year and the ones that preceded it that were not easy either have taught journalists to more closely stand with each other for each other, for press freedom and for the people’s right to know.

We take courage too from those who have been threatened and harassed, whether by government or by their anonymous proxies, who come back every day to work that is often thankless but that is always necessary.