"Now is not the time to lower our guard," the National Union of Journalists in the Philippines said yesterday.

While we welcome the lifting of Proclamation 1017 by President Gloria Arroyo, we must continue to be vigilant, the NUJP said in a statement it issued.

The NUJP called on PNP chief Arturo Lomibao to withdraw all the threats he had made to media institutions, and the National Telecommunications Commission to withdraw all orders controlling the broadcasts industry and to restore programs suspended in connection with Proclamation 1017.

The "Article 3 Alliance" of Negros journalist demanding press freedom yesterday launched FIRE or "Fridays in Red" and urged colleagues and the public to wear red each Friday.

Wearing red every Friday is a sign of our continued vigilance and insistence on exercising our freedom of speech and expression, Edgar Cadagat the "Article 3 Alliance" said.

Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said policemen assigned at media outlets will be withdrawn with the lifting of the state of national emergency.

However, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez was quoted as saying that, despite the lifting of 1017, monitoring of the media will continue. Gonzalez admitted that the National Telecommunications Commission had forwarded to him video and audio copies of news programs from various television and radio for evaluation.

The justice department will analyze the one-week coverage of ABS-CBN of the emergency rule, he said.

"We will not be intimidated. The news is not propaganda. It is not something to be manipulated, distorted nor censored," ABS-CBN news and current affairs head Maria Ressa said in a statement from the station. Reports from Manila quoted Gonzalez as saying that he had learned from Proclamation 1017 that even the "most rebellious media were intimidated by the proclamation and (as a result) had begun to reexamine their policies."*CPG

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