Masked Media: Remembrance, resistance and some relief

MANILA — Launched on the commemoration of the 48th year since the declaration of Martial Law, the Masked Media campaign was both a reminder and resistance.

“We’re not here just to remember them,” National Union of Journalists of the Philippines Deputy Secretary General Raymund Villanueva said at the launch of the campaign at the Bantayog ng mga Bayani in Quezon City. “We are here because there are similarities between their time and our time.”

Among the parallels between the Martial Law era and the present time, where government critics say a state of undeclared martial law persists, is the shutdown of broadcaster ABS-CBN and attacks on independent journalists. The commemoration was also a call for journalists to continue what the fight for press freedom that journalists under Marcos did.

In a statement at the launch of the campaign, which included selling face masks to raise money for a defense fund for Filipino journalists, NUJP said that just like in 1972, “we face the same renewed efforts by another government, one led by an unabashed fan of Marcos, to suppress freedom of the press and pervert the truth.”

“[W]e remember the past not in defeat or resignation, but in the spirit of those who defied the dictator, from the clandestine mosquito press, to the alternative media of the time. Today, we honor them. And as we do so, we honor the people whose thirst for the truth they served and who, in turn, helped protect them; the people who would, in the end, rise up and throw off the shackles of tyranny,” it also said.

The masks, sold on online shopping sites Shopee and Lazada, sold out quickly, prompting a second run of printing. Stocks of the second batch of masks also ran out almost as soon as they were made available.

The masks, sold on online shopping sites Shopee and Lazada, sold out quickly, prompting a second run of printing. Stocks of the second batch of masks also ran out almost as soon as they were made available.

Through the mask sales, NUJP managed to collect P130,717.63 from online orders and donations as of October 2020, with masks again available online in November.

Among the beneficiaries of the defense fund are:

• Anne Krueger, a journalist of community media group Panghimutad, who was among those arrested in raids in Bacolod City in October 2019.Krueger, who managed to broadcast the raid and question the search warrant against her as well as how the warrant was served on Facebook, faces a charge of illegal possession of firearms and was released in November after posting bail.

• Fidelina Margarita Valle, a veteran journalist in Davao City arrested in Cagayan De Oro on June 9, 2020 and held incommunicado for hours until police admitted she had been nabbed in a case of mistaken identity.The Office of the Ombudsman dismissed complaints of kidnapping and serious illegal detention against the police in October 2020.Investigators said her arrest was legal despite lapses since she and the person police were looking for “are elderly and have short hair.”

• Nueva Ecija community radio station Radyo Natin Guimba, which faced complaints of cyberlibel and violation of Bayanihan to Heal as One Act filed by Mayor Jose Dizon in 2020 over reports on the local government’s Social Amelioration Program.The cyberlibel complaint has been dismissed, as has another complaint for alleged violation of the Bayanihan Act filed by a barangay chair in Guimba town.The complaint against the radio station for alleged violation of the Bayanihan Act had yet to be resolved as of February 2021.

• Manila Today editor Lady Ann Salem, who was among those arrested in raids on December 10, 2020 and accused of illegal possession of firearms and explosives.The Mandaluyong Regional Trial Court dismissed the charge against her and labor organizer Rodrigo Esparago, noting inconsistencies in witness statements and irregularities in how the search warrant was implemented.

• Surigao del Norte broadcasters Edito Mapayo and Leonardo Hijara, who are facing cyberlibel charges in a dispute with an Australian businessmen they had called out on air for supposed false advertising.The businessman, John Trundell, had paid for an ad on Mapayo’s show saying he would give out rice to senior citizens during the pandemic lockdown.When Trundell didn’t distribute the rice as promised, Mapayo and Hijara called him out, saying the broken promise would affect their credibility as journalists. The two are out on bail.