A barrage of statements in defense of press freedom

REGIONAL and local media and press freedom/communication rights advocates have expressed alarm in the wake of a media clampdown under the state of national emergency declared by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Below are statements issued by the Southeast Asian Press Alliance, Foundation for Media Alternatives, and Antonio Zumel Center for Press Freedom.

Southeast Asian Press Alliance 

February 25, 2006

The Southeast Asian Press Alliance is gravely concerned by the declaration of a state of emergency in the Philippines, and condemns in the strongest possible terms government moves to curtail freedom of the press in the context of the political chaos.

News reports from Manila say a newspaper sympathetic to the opposition has been raided and is closely being monitored by the police. Meanwhile, the broadcasting industry is bracing for a possible clamp down. Philippine newspapers have been quoting officials as warning the media not to encourage or aid elements allegedly behind a coup attempt through their reporting.

Philippine officials also said they will discuss with publishers possible guidelines for reporting on the country’s volatile situation.

"The harassment of the press is uncalled for, the guidelines are unnecessary and unconstitutional, and the whole move to control the media is suspicious," SEAPA Executive Director Roby Alampay said. "Amid allegations that the Philippine president is either overreacting to, or overstating, an alleged threat to the state, it is imperative that Philippine journalists be allowed to do their job without fear of reprisals from the military and/or the government."

SEAPA is a Bangkok-based alliance of free press advocacy groups from around Southeast Asia. Its members are the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, the Jakarta-based Alliance of Independent Journalists, the Jakarta-based Institute for the Free Flow of Information (ISAI), and the Thai Journalists Association.

For Reference:
Mr. Roby Alampay
Email: robyalampay@gmail.com or roby@seapabkk.org
Tel: (662) 2435579

Foundation for Media Alternatives

PROCLAMATION 1017: A THREAT TO COMMUNICATION RIGHTS
Statement of the Foundation for Media Alternatives, 20 years after People Power I

February 25, 2006

The Foundation for Media Alternatives adds its voice to the growing national chorus expressing grave misgivings at the issuance of Proclamation 1017 declaring a national state of emergency. Although we grant the State the prerogative to protect itself from unlawful threats, we draw the line when the state itself becomes the threat to democracy and human rights.

We leave it to the lawyers to question the Proclamation’s flimsy legal and factual basis, even as we concur with an initial assessment of the Proclamation being an overreaction of an Administration increasingly eager to quell voices questioning its mandate to govern.

We will not discuss for now the irony that the Proclamation has already been used as a weapon against the citizens’right to peaceably assemble, and in fact became the basis to arrest peaceful marchers commemorating the 20th anniversary of the EDSA People Power I revolt.

What most disturbs FMA — a civil society organization that promotes communication rights as essential to any democratic society — is how Proclamation 1017 poses a clear threat to freedom of expression, media freedom, and other civil liberties essential for exercising the right to communicate.

We note with concern how one of the premises of the Proclamation was how the national media, in its exercise of its duty to report on the issues of the day, had been tagged as a contributing factor to destabilization. We note with skepticism at how the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) is already moving beyond its mandate to act as a de facto censor for all anti-government views expressed in media. We view with alarm the explicit threat of outright takeover of private media organizations by the state.

These implicit and actual threats contained in this Proclamation only serve to proscribe media practitioners’ performance of their duty to report the events of the day through the strict and skewed prism of “national security”; this creates a chilling effect on all media which may lead to actual censorship of the press. Furthermore, any curtailment of media freedom will only amount to the erosion of the basic right of citizens to freedom of expression.

The right to communicate flows from the various rights which give citizens and communities the freedom to use the social communication processes available to them in order to construct a socio-political order which embodies their highest democratic ideals.

Proclamation 1017 only serves to further deny this, and will only put the country closer to the edge of the dangerous abyss of authoritarianism.

Alan Alegre
Executive Director
info@fma.ph

Antonio Zumel Center for Press Freedom

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo blames what she calls the historical enemies of the democratic state to justify her Proclamation 1017 declaring a state of emergency. In doing so, she tramples upon democracy. And yes, she blames the media for "magnifiying" the claims of these historical enemies of the state.

While stating that Proclamation 1017 does not include arrests, the police and military have begun arresting leaders of the opposition.

While declaring respect for civil and democratic rights of the people, she has ordered the violent dispersal of the people exercising their freedom of speech and assembly.

It will serve President Arroyo well to remember the fate of her predecessors who put their, their families’ and their cabal’s interest first before the interest of the country and the Filipino people.

Curtailing freedoms enshrined in the constitution will not solve the political and economic crisis. It will only exacerbate the crisis. Therefore, we demand the full respect of these freedoms including the right of media to bring the truth to the people.

Media should be allowed to operate and make available to the people the news and the different views on the events in the Philippines. Harassments, threats and arrests of media practitioners and personnel are clear violations of press freedom and should be condemned and defied.

The threat of Ronald Solis, chairman of the National Telecommunications Commission, that the government can close down a television or radio station during a state of emergency, the raids on newspaper offices, detention and interrogation of journalists, columnists and publishers are a vile portent of things to come.

Thus we call on our colleagues in the media to be vigilant and courageous in the face of any threats to curtail press freedom. The Filipino people have the right to be truly informed.

February 25, 2006