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This article is extracted from the Editorial of Panay News. Below is the Editor’s note and to read full article please follow the link http://www.panaynewsphilippines.com/editorial.htm (We yield this space to the statement of the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, May 3, 2011. – Editor.) AS in…

Human Rights Online Philippines

May 4, 2011

2–3 minutes

Afghanistan, Egypt, Iraq, Journalist, Libya, MENA, press freedom, World Press Freedom Day

This article is extracted from the Editorial of Panay News. Below is the Editor’s note and to read full article please follow the link http://www.panaynewsphilippines.com/editorial.htm

(We yield this space to the statement of the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, May 3, 2011. – Editor.)

AS in the past, World Press Freedom Day 2011 is being commemorated after a year (May 2010-May 2011) of global and national turmoil.

Iraq and Afghanistan continued to occupy media attention and to subject journalists to the usual perils of covering conflict areas. Five journalists were killed in Iraq in 2010, and two in Afghanistan. And while the unrest in the Middle East and North Africa was among the unique characteristics of 2010-2011, the political crises in Egypt, Tunisia. Yemen, Bahrain, Syria and Libya did subject journalists to the same perils of being killed, threatened, harassed or abducted while doing their jobs. Four journalists were killed in Libya, two in Egypt, and several others abducted.

The Philippine media situation has resisted change despite the change of administration in July 2010. The Ampatuan Massacre trial is continuing, but in terms of results has virtually come to a standstill, bogged down in the tedious processes involved in resolving technical issues, even as the killing of journalists has continued, with nine cases of journalists killed, of which six were work related.

The same ethical and professional shortcomings that have made the media the subject of citizen skepticism and even scorn still haunt media practice, with the performance of the media, whether print, broadcast or online, being uniformly problematic. Plagiarism was a nagging problem, together with sensationalism, lack of fairness and balance, biased reporting, and corruption.

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