(Photo courtesy of Al Jazeera)
The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines condemns Tel Aviv’s closure of Al Jazeera’s operations in Israel as a suppression of press freedom and of the people’s right to information, especially on their own government’s military operations.=
More than 100 journalists and media workers, including from Al Jazeera, have been killed in the assault on Gaza.
Those that remain to report do so at great personal risk and the Al Jazeera shutdown is an insult not just to their courage and dedication but also to the supposed free flow of information to the world.
Filipino journalists are still recovering from government attempts to silence newsrooms for justifications similar to Tel Aviv’s and cannot be quiet when it happens elsewhere.
Newsroom shutdowns threaten livelihoods, decrease access to information and subtract from the truth that the profession is supposed to look for and report.