Negros mediamen, who yesterday united under the "Article 3 Alliance", are staging a vigil starting 6 tonight in front of the Fountain of Justice in Bacolod City to denounce President Gloria Arroyo's issuance of Proclamation 1017 and moves to curtail press freedom.

The alliance urges mediamen to wear red today as a sign of protest against the threat to press freedom.

It also calls on the public to stand up and join the fight to protect their rights and liberties from all those who seek to curtail them.

The protest is being staged on Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent, to remind Arroyo to reflect on the need to uphold the people's rights, members of various media groups who joined the drafting of the statement of the alliance at the Negros Press Club said.

The newly formed group is called the "Article 3 Alliance," to serve as a reminder of Sec. 4, Article III of the Bill of Rights that states that "No law shall be passed abridging the freedom of speech, of expression, or of the press, or the right of the people to peaceably assemble and petition the government for redress of their grievances."

The alliance in a statement issued yesterday denounced the issuance of Proclamation 1017 and vowed to resist its use by the Arroyo administration as a pretext to curtail press freedom and the people's right to know.

"We condemn in the strongest terms this administration's blatant attempt to muzzle these freedoms by using the media as one of the bases for placing the country under a state of national emergency," the alliance said.

The raid on the Daily Tribune and the threat by this administration to shut down or takeover media organizations that refuse to abide by its restrictive and arbitrary "standards," as well as the deployment of troops to television stations, stand out as a direct, despicable assault on the press and on freedom of expression in general, it added.

"These incidents only serve to highlight the lack of respect for our freedoms and liberties by an administration that holds the record for having the most number of journalists - 37 at last count - murdered under its watch," the alliance said. Members of the alliance lauded the Tribune and the threatened networks and those who have vowed to resist all attempts by government to curtail the free exercise of their profession.

The Negros mediamen also vowed to resist all attempts of the Arroyo administration to prevent them from the full exercise of their profession.

Copies of the statement, which the alliance is urging the public to sign during the vigil, will be sent to Arroyo, the Senate, House of Representatives, the International Federation of Journalists, and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights.

The Negros Media Council for Press freedom, in a separate statement, also demanded the scrapping of the state of national emergency charging that it is being used as the basis for curtailment of press freedom.

Members of the Iloilo media, in a statement issued yesterday, also said they add their voices to the growing opposition to the Proclamation No. 1017.

"One of the first casualties of Proclamation 1017 is the media because it delivered a fatal blow to freedom of the press and expression," the Iloilo media statement said.

The Iloilo mediamen urged the immediate lifting of Proclamation 1017 saying "it has created a climate of fear".*CPG

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