Again, the media on target

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor GUILLERMO TEJIDA III Desk Editor NANETTE L. GUADALQUIVER Busines Editor CEDELF P. TUPAS Sports Editor (On Leave) RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

At no other time in our country's history has the practice of journalism and the rights of its practitioners been at such peril as it appears to be in this generation, nay, it might even be said, just in the past six years.

Not only have we recorded the most number of practicing journalists gunned down or murdered, with very, very few of the ensuing cases solved or and the culprits brought to justice, but the very freedom they used to enjoy as they go about their work has also never been so direly threatened.

We flinch when we hear or see reports from the international wire services branding the state of media in our country as second only to that of our counterparts in Iraq as far as our liberty to work freely, and to protect the lives of our fellow practitioners are concerned. But it is true that, despite the international attention and condemnation from such entities as the Committee to Protect Journalists, and the Reporters without Borders, and several others, the threat to the lives of media men and women here continues, and several of our so-called “hard-hitting” journalists have been silenced by the bullets of the usual “men in motorcycles” who quickly disappear and, in almost every case, are never identified or seen again.

And now comes another challenge to the Filipino journalist, and this one comes from a government official, one who appears to have been given laizzez faire by his superiors to give onerous warnings to media people, with the use of the awesome powers of his office.

Because of the claims of military officers that journalists covering the Peninsula stand-off late last year had obstructed their operations, the Secretary of Justice has issued a memorandum warning the media about what could happen to them in a similar situation in the future.

One can only imagine what the “operations” being planned by the military had been and what the costs it would have extracted, had the media people not been at the Peninsula then. But that is now beside the point, what all journalists should now focus their efforts on is the protection, perhaps not so much of their lives, as of the freedom and the right of their countrymen to know, without which what we like to call a democracy could be nothing but a sham.*