De Quiros’s outrage

INQUIRER columnist Conrad de Quiros talks about the killings of journalists in his column today entitled "The Outrage." He certainly puts the issue in perspective, correcting the impression Filipino journalists as a whole are an endangered species, or that there seems to be a government-backed drive to silence journalists. He says:

"The correct formulation is not that the Philippines has become the most dangerous place in the world for journalists, it is that the Philippines has become the most dangerous place in the world for local (as against national) journalists."

De Quiros points out that it is the community journalist, the member of the local media, who daily faces risks and difficulties of kinds which we in Metro Manila take for granted.

"My admiration for local journalists who do their jobs conscientiously is boundless for the simple reason that it is infinitely harder for them to do that than those of us in the national media. It is infinitely harder for them to be courageous amid the very real and obdurate threats to life and limb, and to be honest amid bad pay, the blandishment of the objects of reportage, and pressures from kin and friends not to antagonize their own. For them to be killed while doing their jobs-and many of the victims were doing so, absolutely conscientiously — there are no words to describe the outrage."

Of course, a few of those who were killed belonged to big national publications or broadcast outfits like Bert Berbon of DZMM and Daniel Hernandez of People’s Tonight or even Willie Vicoy of Reuters but the majority who can be considered working in the country’s "danger zones" are members of the local press.