[Statement] A win for journalists and the rule of law
The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines welcomes the acquittal of Maria Ressa and Rappler Holdings Corp. at the Court of Tax Appeals.
The cases against Maria and Rappler illustrate the increasing use of the law for reprisal against and for intimidation against journalists and civil society.
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NUJP demands arrest of media killing ‘mastermind’
Joel Reyes campaigning to reclaim Palawan governorship despite arrest warrant
The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) called for the arrest of former Palawan governor Joel Reyes, the alleged mastermind in the killing of Palawan broadcaster Gerry Ortega in 2011.
In a statement on Ortega’s 11th death anniversary on Monday, January 24, the NUJP said former Palawan governor Joel Reyes is campaigning to reclaim the top provincial post even as he remains a fugitive from the law.
“[N]ot only is former governor Joel Reyes evading his warrant of arrest for Ortega’s killing, he is running for Palawan governor, according to news reports, and is campaigning while a subject of a manhunt,” the media group said.
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Media groups reveal renewed Baguio PNP red-tagging of journalists
Media groups slammed renewed efforts by the Philippine National Police (PNP) in Baguio City to red-tag journalists it alleges are members of Leftist organizations.
In an alert, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) said at least two journalists in the Cordillera region have been invited to a fake dialogue with the Baguio City Police earlier this month that turned out to be a witch-hunting activity against journalists and activists.
On January 14, the Baguio Correspondents and Broadcasters Club Inc. (BCBC) and NUJP’s Baguio-Benguet chapter said BCBC president Aldwin Quitasol was invited by the Baguio City Police to attend a so-called dialogue that turned out to be part of its Community Support Program White Area Operation (CSP-WAO), a component of the government’s Oplan Kapayapaan targeting suspected sympathizers of communist rebels in conflict-affected areas.
The second journalist refused to be identified.
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#HumanRights #Media
Ethical Guide for Filipino Journalists
The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines remains steadfast in upholding the ethical conduct of journalism in the Philippines.
This year, in its goal, to strengthen the self-regulation of media in the country, the NUJP, in partnership with Internews and USAID, took on the challenge to produce a comprehensive and updated Ethical Guide for Filipino Journalists.
A product of rigorous research and a series of consultations and discussions with fellow Filipino journalists, this document aims to serve as a tool to guide journalists and newsrooms on the ethical conduct of journalism.
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#HumanRights #StopTheKillingsPH
[Statement] Justice for Gwenn Salamida
The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines condoles with the family and colleagues of Gwenn Salamida of ‘Saksi Ngayon’, who was shot dead in a salon that she owned in Quezon City on August 17.
According to a statement by the National Press Club, Salamida was shot by an unidentified assailant and sustained four gunshot wounds, including two in the head.
NPC said it is in close coordination with the Quezon City Police District and the Presidential Task Force of Media Security on Salamida’s case.
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Emerging stronger: New NUJP leaders call on fellow journalists to unite, resist attacks
March 22, 2021
The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) has weathered a storm alongside colleagues in the profession but we still face rough seas ahead, if not rougher.
The systematic red-tagging of the NUJP, media outlets, and journalists has intensified in the past five years, endangering the lives of members of the press toiling hard to keep the people informed. Aside from being branded as enemies of the state, journalists have reported receiving threats telling them to stop being critical of government or be silenced.
This amid other attacks on press freedom including threats of closure and other forms of harassment that our colleagues from Rappler, ABS-CBN, and alternative media outfits have faced under the Duterte administration.
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#HumanRights #FreedomOfThePress
2020 Philippine Journalists’ Safety Guide
Protect yourself better during the pandemic.
Download and share the 2020 Philippine Journalists’ Safety Guide and video to know how you can stay safer during this difficult time.
LINK:
https://bit.ly/nujp-sg2020
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#HumanRights #DefendPressFreedom
Look back in anger, move forward with resolve
31 December 2020
We can’t wait to be rid of 2020.
As far as press freedom goes, this is the year the Duterte government went full force in its effort to intimidate the Philippine media – and critics and dissenters in general – into silence or timid submission to its will.
When the yet-to-be-sworn into office Rodrigo Duterte infamously said, on May 31, 2016, “Just because you’re a journalist you are not exempted from assassination, if you’re a son of a bitch,” we all knew it was going to be a bumpy ride for media.
But bad as the first three years of were, 2020 trumped them all as Duterte and his minions ramped up their attacks on the free press even as the COVID-19 pandemic began to make its deadly grip felt.
In fact, the year has been bracketed by two displays of what is probably the most brazen abuse of state power: red-tagging.
On February 8, Eastern Vista executive director Frenchiemae Cumpio was arrested along with four activists during raids in Tacloban on what authorities claimed were rebel safehouses.
And on December 10, International Human Rights Day, Manila Today editor and NUJP member Lady Ann Salem was among seven persons rounded up in a series of raids in Metro Manila first touted as against a “criminal gunrunning gang” but eventually changed to ranking rebel leaders.
Both remain behind bars for predictably trumped-up charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives based on planted evidence.
Days before Icy Salem’s arrest, officials of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict accused alternative media organizations, including NUJP chapters Kodao Productions, Bulatlat, Pinoy Weekly and Manila Today, of being among the supposed legal fronts of the communist underground. As in many instances of red-tagging, including accusations raised against us and our officers and members – the lies hurled against our Director, Nestor Burgos Jr. of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, by self-proclaimed rebel returnee Jeffrey Celiz are a prime example – none of these claims have been backed by credible evidence.
Even the dominant media have not been spared the malicious machinations of the NTF-ELCAC and its officials, as when the agency attempted to link the campaign in support of ABS-CBN to the insurgency, with Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr. quoted in a May 8 report by the Philippine News Agency as warning critics of the network’s closure with martial law, and shared material that denigrated Rappler CEO Maria Ressa.
Communications Undersecretary Lorraine Marie Badoy also recently insinuated that staff of CNN Philippines may have links to the rebels because the network’s Twitter account shared the call of an activist youth group’s call for donations for typhoon victims.
The pandemic gave Duterte convenient cover to make good his repeated threats to shut down ABS-CBN, as health concerns forced the growing crowds that had rallied to the beleaguered network since late last year to stand down, and his lapdogs in the House of Representatives allowed its franchise to lapse.
On May 5, the network stopped broadcasting and, two months later, in June, the craven majority of the House committee on congressional franchises sealed its fate, voting to deny it a new franchise to operate.
Thus, did Duterte become the second president after Ferdinand Marcos to force ABS-CBN off the air.
Not only were thousands left jobless, the loss of its network of regional stations also left many areas without their major source of news and entertainment. The full extent of this would become clear during typhoons Rolly and Ulysses.
The government also pressed on with its persecution of another Duterte pet peeve, Rappler and its CEO, Maria Ressa. In June, Ressa and former Rappler staff Reynaldo Santos Jr. were found guilty of cyber libel in a case filed by businessman Wilfredo Keng over an article written before the passage of the Cybercrime Prevention Act but which the Department of Justice maintained had been “republished” when a typo error was corrected. She has been sued again by Keng, this time for tweeting a screencap of a now taken down article that was a source for the story she and Santos were charged for.
With Congress continuing to ignore calls for decriminalization, libel and its more evil twin, cyber libel, continue to be favored weapons of the rich and the powerful to harass journalists who earn their ire. Among the more recent accused were our Director, Kimberlie Quitasol, who is editor-in-chief of Northern Dispatch, and their staff, Khim Abalos, both of whom have also been red-tagged; the staff of Radyo Natin Guimba, and the publisher and the editor of a community paper in Kalinga province who were sued for libel by the mayor of Tabuk City before the prosecutor’s office in Isabela province, some 100 kilometers away. In Camarines Norte, although a court cleared six journalists sued for libel by Governor Edgardo Tallado and former board member Rodolfo Gache, one of them, Virgilio Avila Jr., still has four pending cases, all filed by the governor.
In light of the growing number of libel suits, we have revived the Media Defense Fund from the proceeds of the successful Masked Media Campaign to provide some assistance to beleaguered colleagues.
Media killings continued, claiming four lives this year, all during the pandemic:
To underscore the culture of impunity that surrounds the murders of journalists, according to the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, of the cases that have made it to court, only four, including the Ampatuan massacre case, have resulted in the conviction of masterminds.
Admittedly, there were bright spots to the overall gloom surrounding this most difficult of years.
Not least of this was the successful push to have UNESCO revert the status of the Ampatuan massacre to “unresolved” after it was pointed out that the legal process is not finished and 76 suspects are still at large and will need to be tried should they be arrested.
There were also notable victories for workers who sued the GMA Network over unfair labor practices: The Court of Appeals decision in February to reinstate, with no loss of seniority and with full back wages, 51 employees who had been illegally terminated; and the September Supreme Court ruling to reinstate 30 cameramen and assistant cameramen illegally dismissed in 2013.
However, it is a sad testament to the continuing inequities within the media industry that it still takes years to seek and claim redress for such injustices.
Despite the continuing efforts of the enemies of truth to spread disinformation, the media community has, by and large, successfully fended them off, including the paid influencers and trolls of government.
As we thankfully bid goodbye to 2020, we are also aware of what could be even greater challenges and threats to freedom of the press and of expression in 2021 and beyond.
But, as we have said time and again, the Philippine media are free not because we are allowed to be but because we, the community of independent Filipino journalists, insist on being free. And, we say this with all confidence, we will continue to be, in the service of our people’s right to know.
And so we look forward to 2021 resolved to continue defending and pushing the boundaries for press freedom in our land.
Reference:
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[Joint Statement] We Reject the Terror Bill
Why do our government officials always think law and order, peace and security can be realized only at the expense of our rights?
We, journalists, media organizations, civil society groups, academics, and other concerned individuals unequivocally reject the anti-terror bill that the House of Representatives railroaded through the wholesale adoption of Senate Bill No. 1083, to do away with the bicameral committee conference hasten its passage and enactment into law.
Let us be clear about one thing: We are against terrorism.
However, bad as the Human Security Act of 2007 is, this bill, should it become law, would be much worse, so much that it would be more apt to call it the Terror Bill.
Not only does this proposed law grant an “Anti-Terror Council” the power to designate, on mere probable cause, persons or entities as terrorists or terrorist groups, it also allows the Anti-Money Laundering Council, an ATC member, to freeze the assets of these persons or groups, all without granting them the opportunity to defend themselves and refute any information against them.
Worse, the proposed law would also allow the ATC to authorize the detention without a judicial warrant of arrest of suspects for up to 14 calendar days, extendible by another 10 days.
These clearly violate the Constitution’s guarantee to due process and constitutes a usurpation of judicial power.
Worse, this bill would worsen the impunity with which many of our laws and rights are violated by the very ones sworn to protect and uphold these by doing away with the stiff penalties intended to prevent any abuse of this legislation’s most draconian measure, the extrajudicial arrest, and detention of suspects.
The bill also poses a mortal danger to the principles of freedom of the press and of expression in Section 9 defining the crime of “inciting to terrorism,” which can be committed “by means of speeches, proclamations, writings, emblems, banners or other representations of the same” and is punishable by 12 years in prison.
This provision is, however, prone to broad application much like this and previous administrations have used the existing offenses of inciting to sedition and rebellion to quell free speech and intimidate critics.
In effect, reportage on persons and groups deemed terrorist, or even merely repeating what they say, could be interpreted as committing inciting to terrorism.
While we all agree that the fight against terrorism is important and needs the participation and cooperation of everyone, we maintain that the proposed law is open to abuse by despotic governments to visit terror against critics and the people in general.
If a law to fight terrorism is to be contemplated, let the respect and defense of human rights be the paramount consideration.
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BLACK FRIDAY ONLINE PROTEST
#NoToABSCBNShutdown
May 8, 2020
5pm
Join us in our online protest tomorrow (May 8) at 5pm, contesting NTC’s cease and desist order against one of the country’s largest broadcasting company, ABS-CBN. We also encourage everyone to wear black and post their photos on their social media accounts with the hashtag: #NoToABSCBNShutdown
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The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines denounces the criminalization of free speech and expression by the National Bureau of Investigation as disclosed by human rights lawyer Chel Diokno.
News reports quoted Diokno as saying he had taken on the case of a netizen who had been subpoenaed by the National Bureau of Investigation to appear before its Cybercrime Division to explain a Facebook post “concerning an alleged misused (sic) of government funds,” which supposedly violated Article 154 of the Revised Penal Code, or the “unlawful use of means of publication and unlawful utterances.” And subsequent reports said the NBI had sent subpoeanas to the owners of 27 social media accounts they were monitoring for supposedly spreading fake news about the health crisis.
We agree with Diokno’s contention that ‘di na makatao ang nangyayari. Ang dami nang namamatay, pati frontliners, pero imbis na COVID, kritiko ang gusto nilang puksain.’
Democracy can only thrive amid the free exchange of and respect for ideas and opinions, including those we may vehemently disagree with.
That ordinary citizens may now find themselves summoned by law enforcement and ordered to explain their sentiments and statements will certainly send a chilling message: “Speak at your own risk.”
And it is but a short step from this to targeting critical reporting and commentary.
As we have said time and again, in times of crisis, MORE, not less, independent journalism is needed. The same goes, if not more so, with free speech and expression.
This is no longer media’s fight alone. This should be everyone’s cause. Every voice we allow to be silenced is one voice closer to our own.
National Directorate
+639175155991
HRonlinePH@gmail.com
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President Rodrigo Duterte’s latest tirade against ABS-CBN bears all the signs of a shakedown and raises questions over his real intentions for seeking to block the renewal of the broadcast network’s franchise.
On Monday, December 30, speaking to earthquake victims in M’lang, Cotabato, Duterte did not so much threaten again, which he has repeatedly done since soon after assuming office, as predict that ABS-CBN’s franchise, which expires on March 20, would, indeed, not be renewed.
“Mag-renew kayo, ewan ko lang kung may mangyari diyan (You try to renew, let’s see if anything happens),” he said.
Words that appear to be marching orders to his minions in Congress, led by Alan Peter Cayetano, who has admitted having “personal objections” to renewing the franchise in a clear conflict of interest.
To date, the House of Representatives has yet to act on bills seeking to renew ABS-CBN’s franchise.
And then, Duterte’s bombshell: “Kung ako sa inyo ipagbili niyo na ‘yan (If I were you, I would sell that).”
His statement leaves the network owners, the Lopez family, with a stark choice: sell or lose everything.
But sell it to whom and for whose benefit?
The fact is Duterte has already shown a propensity for coercion, as he did in 2017 when he publicly told ABS-CBN to support his federalism drive and he would agree to settle his difference with the network.
We call on the community of independent Filipino journalists and on citizens who cherish democracy to band together and protect the free arena of ideas that the closure or forced sale of ABS-CBN would severely weaken. The alternative— the death of freedom of the press and of free expression— is too horrible to contemplate.
#ABSCBNIsNotForSale
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The Supreme Court (SC) gave back-to-back victories to human rights groups on Friday, May 3, after it issued writs of amparo and kalikasan against military harassment and environmental neglect in the West Philippine Sea.
Both petitions sued the Duterte administration.
The SC announced on Friday that after its special en banc session, the justices decided to grant the petitions of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) which complained of harassment from the military and Malacañang; and the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) with senatorial bet Chel Diokno which complained of neglect in enforcing environmental laws in the West Philippine Sea.
“It also sends a strong and clear signal to the military and government officials alike, as well as their proxies or agents, that there are certain well-defined rules of evidence not incompatible with basic fairness, decency, common sense and logic that must be observed,” NUPL president Edre Olalia said in a statement on Friday.
Read more @www.rappler.com
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As we mark this day, we note that more than any administration since the unlamented Marcos dictatorship, never have freedom of the press and of expression been under siege as during the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte.
Never has any president, Marcos included, openly spearheaded the attacks and vilification of media. We have also seen how he and his minions wield the lie as a weapon against the profession of the truth.
With his latest antics, the totally false and inane “ouster matrix,” Duterte has upped the ante and signaled that he will go to absurd lengths to stifle the independent and critical media.
It is sad that he does so with the help of the venal and corrupted within the profession.
On this day, let us, the community of independent and critical Filipino journalists, reflect on our role in the preservation and advancement of democracy and rededicate ourselves to defending our rights and liberties that we may continue serving our people’s right to know.
Let us take courage in the knowledge that no matter how despots strive to stifle freedom of expression and thought, the media, the truth, the people, will outlive them.
MABUHAY ANG MALAYANG PAMAMAHAYAG!
MABUHAY ANG MALAYANG MAMAMAHAYAG!
MABUHAY ANG BAYAN AT SAMBAYANAN!
National Directorate
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NUJP
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We will not be silenced, we will fight back
NUJP supports alternative media group’s case vs. cyberattackers
March 29, 2019
The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines fully supports the civil case filed by our affiliates in the alternative media against the people and groups identified to be behind the recent cyber attacks against them.
We stand by them not only because we have chapters in these outfits, we do so because we, ourselves, have been the target of similar cyber attacks and, most of all because these attacks are clearly part of a pattern.
The case filed by Bulatlat, AlterMidya, Kodao Productions, and PinoyWeekly at the Quezon City Regional Trial Court and raffled off to Branch 220 on Friday, March 29, charged the following for allegedly being behind for the distributed denial of service attacks on the news outfits:
–IP Converge Data Services Inc., an information technology firm headquartered at the RCBC Plaza in Makati City, and the following officers: Ernesto Alberto, chairman of the board; Nerissa Ramos, president and CEO; Leo I. Posadas, treasurer; corporate secretary Mark David Martinez; directors Anabelle Chua, Juan Victor Hernandez, and Patrick David R. De Leon; director for technical operations Sherwin Torres; and network support head Cean Archivald Reyes;
–Suniway Group of Companies Inc., a company that is listed as engaged in construction, including of roads and highways, but also bills itself as a provider of “builder services, web services, support computer software, and hardware development” for Filipino and Chinese clients. It is headquartered at the Office Tower Building of SM Aura in Barangay Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City, and the following officers: Rolando O. Fernandez, chairman; Rolando O. Fernandez, president; Julia Mae D. Celis, corporate secretary; Mary Ann Recomono, treasurer; and directors Jiang Zongye, and Jiang Xingzhong.
Fittingly, the case was filed on the 25th anniversary of the Internet in the Philippines.
According to the complaint of the alternative news outfits, Qurium Media Foundation, a Swedish nonprofit that provides “technical, infrastructural and human support to media organizations operating in repressive regimes” from which Bulatlat, the first of the outfits to be attacked in late December, sought help, carried out an investigation that “resulted in the discovery of … IP Coverage and Suniway as the sources of attacks.”
Meanwhile, Leo Henrichsen, of the Computer Incident Response Center for Civil Society (CiviCERT), an umbrella organization of digital defenders, contacted IP Converge’s Torres and, later, the firm’s other officers, about the attacks traced to them but received no response.
As for Suniway, Qurium said the server of the attackers’ two IP addresses “shared the same signatures and are being hosted by Defendant Suniway in its office in the Philippines.”
Qurium contacted the National Computer Emergency Response Team about the problem on January 22 but the agency responded only on March 15, and only to ask for more information.
Whichever way the DDoS attacks are seen, one thing is clear, as the complaint points out: “The magnitude, scope, and scale of the cyberattacks suggest that they were targeted, deliberate, and organized” and “could not have occurred without being orchestrated and well-funded.”
This civil action sends a clear message to those who seek to silence the independent Philippine media: Not only will you fail, we will fight back. We will fight back because we cannot allow you to deprive our people of their right to the information they need to chart their individual and collective futures, we cannot allow you to deprive them of their voice. We will fight back because no less than democracy and our basic freedoms are at stake.
NATIONAL DIRECTORATE
Hotline: +639175155991
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[On Maria Ressa’s arrest] Resist the Silence: Stand with Rappler and the independent Philippine press
March 29, 2019
Rappler has clearly become the whipping boy of the Duterte administration as it seeks to silence or intimidate the independent and critical press.
Apparently not content with the barrage of lawsuits already filed against the news outfit, its CEO Maria Ressa, and other officers and staff, one of the original cases, the still-contested revocation of license by the Securities and Exchange Commission, has actually given birth to new charges of allegedly violating the anti-dummy law. This brings the number of cases filed against Rappler to 11.
With all these, it is hard to shake the suspicion that the filing of this latest case was timed to make sure Maria would be welcomed home by an arresting team as soon as she stepped off her flight from abroad.
But this intolerant and vindictive government’s ham-fisted efforts to humiliate Rappler and its officers and personnel have succeeded only in humiliating itself in the eyes of the world and everyone who values freedom and democracy.
Let us all stand by Rappler and the community of independent Filipino journalists in resisting this administration’s attempts to muzzle us and, in doing so, silence our people’s voices and deprive them of the information they need to decide on their personal and collective futures.
NAATIONAL DIRECTORATE
Hotline: +639175155991
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RED TAGGING: Hands off NUJP-Cagayan de Oro member Cong Corrales and family
February 22, 2019
The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines deplores the inclusion of our member and former director Cong Corrales, his wife and son in an anonymous list naming alleged members of the Communist Party of the Philippines in Cagayan de Oro.
The list also includes religious, lawyers and groups working for human rights and the welfare of the lumad.
There is nothing more cowardly and deplorable than to vilify persons and put them in mortal peril behind the cloak of anonymity.
And as has happened all too often, Red tagging is not mere intimidation. All too often it can be a virtual death sentence.
Even media have not been spared from Red-tagging and other acts clearly intended to intimidaye a critical press into silence, as with the ongoing vilification campaign against the NUJP and the cyberattacks on alternative media.
National Directorate
Hotline +639175155991
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NUJP slams arrest of Rappler’s Ressa
The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) decried the arrest of Rappler chief executive officer Maria Ressa over a cyber libel case, calling it a “shameless act of persecution by a bully government.”
The group questioned the charge against Ressa, which it said, was not yet in the law when the alleged offense was committed.
On Wednesday, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) arrested Ressa for cyber libel over an article published on the news website in 2012. The offense is bailable.
Read full article @www.gmanetwork.com
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Best protection of journalists: A community that understands role of media
At a consultation meeting on safety of journalists organized by the Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication November last year, former Dean of UP College of Mass Communication Luis V. Teodoro, now chairperson of AlterMidya, said there is a need for media to explain to the communities the role that journalists play in society and in the strengthening of democracy.
A community that understands the role of media in their daily life is the most effective safeguard for journalists.
This has become urgent in the light of harassments and the demonization being waged against media groups and individual journalists by powerful forces.
This week, there were stories that came out in the tabloids tagging the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) as a communist front based on a story of a certain “Ka Ernesto,” who claimed to be a former member and supposedly “admitted” that the organization had links to Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Ma. Sison.
NUJP at first laughed off what it called was a “stupid” allegation. “It is hilarious that they keep repeating these charges since the NUJP’s membership represents a broad spectrum of creeds and political beliefs bound by a common dedication to defending and expanding the bounds of freedom of the press and of expression,” the NUJP statement said.
Read full article @news.abs-cbn.com
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Tabloids link NUJP to CPP-NPA-NDF
CMFR/PHILIPPINES — Three Manila-based tabloids published similar banner stories on 7 January 2019 linking the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) to the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), the New People’s Army (NPA), and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).
The NUJP said it was an orchestrated government attack through unscrupulous elements in the media intended to silence journalists.
Local tabloids Police Files Tonite, Bagong Bomba and Saksi Mata ng Katotohanan used the same headline, “NUJP Pinamumunuan ng CPP-NPA-NDF” (NUJP headed by CPP-NPA-NDF ), in their “reports.” All three said their source was a certain “Ka Ernesto” who claimed to be a former member of the NUJP and who said the organization has links with CPP founder Jose Maria Sison.
NUJP said it was the second time in a few weeks that they have been linked to the “rebels.” On 26 December 2018, the 50th founding anniversary of the CPP, a certain Mario Ludades, who claimed to be a founder and former member of the CPP, accused the Union of being a “legal front of the communist movement.” The Union said it was part of an “orchestrated effort” to intimidate and silence them.
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