Culture of impunity encouraging attacks on journalists — Puno

CALLING freedom of the press one of the touchstones of democracy that need to be strengthened, Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato Puno opened the international conference on impunity and press freedom yesterday morning at the Manila Peninsula in Makati.

The three-day conference organized by the Bangkok-based regional press freedom watchdog, Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA), with the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR), is being conducted to contribute to ongoing multisectoral efforts and campaigns at the national, regional, and global levels to fight impunity in the Philippines.

In his address, Puno claimed it is a “dangerous time for those who report the truth,” with 679 journalists killed around the world from 1992 to 2008. The Philippines ranks fifth worldwide in the number of murdered journalists. Since 2001, 70 journalists have been killed in the line of duty.

Read Chief Justice Puno’s keynote address here.

Of the cases filed in court, the Chief Justice told conference delegates that only one has been resolved while six are undergoing trial, 18 under investigation, four dismissed, and four still pending prosecution.

The culture of impunity, Puno said, is encouraging attacks on journalists. “Unless and until we do something to submerge this pernicious culture, these attacks will continue to litter our collective consciousness with corpses of people who are bearers of truth.”

Democracy is “all about the voice of the people,” said Puno. But the democratic way of life, he lamented, is under siege in the Philippines because “bullets fired at the direction of journalists pierce not only human flesh, but also our republican ideals.”

In many parts of the world, Puno said there are two threats to freedom of expression and the free flow of information as identified by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Representative on Freedom of the Media, and Organization of American States Special Rapporteur on Freedom and Expression.

“First, dubbed censorship by killing, are attacks on journalists and others exercising their right to freedom of expression; and second, is the abuse of restrictive defamation and libel laws,” he said.

Puno, however, stressed that history has shown that “no amount of mutilation, no amount of murders of truth tellers will kill freedom of (the) press,” in the same way that “misuse and abuse of libel laws against media practitioners through the ages did not stamp out the flame of freedom of the press, and it never will.”

The Chief Justice also shared the efforts done by the High Court to strengthen democracy by enhancing human rights and giving more flesh to press freedom. Among these are the promulgation of the writs of amparo and habeas data, both of which were the results of the national consultative summit on extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances that the Supreme Court convened in July 2007 to address the culture of impunity stalking the country.

The writ of amparo protects victims of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances while the writ of habeas data is an independent remedy to enforce the right to informational privacy and the complementary “right to truth.” It is also an additional remedy to protect an individual’s civil rights, said Puno.

With the rule on the writ of amparo taking effect on October 24, 2007, the SC has already issued 14 writs out of 18 petitions. Of the 14, Puno said five have already been decided by the Court of Appeals from October 2007 to the present.

The rule on the write of habeas data, meanwhile, took effect on February 8 this year. No writ has yet been issued as it is only a month old.

In January, the Supreme Court also issued guidelines directing judges to determine whether the imposition of a fine alone in libel cases would best serve the interest of justice. This, Puno said, has fast tracked congressional debates on bills seeking to decriminalize libel.

Only recently, the justices declared as an unconstitutional prior restraint on freedom of speech and of the press the government warnings against the airing of the controversial “Hello, Garci” tapes, wiretapped conversations between Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and then elections commissioner Virgilio Garcillano.

In ending, Puno exhorted the delegates to break the “enforced silence” on these abuses that gives impetus to the growing culture of impunity.

“If there is anything that democracy can ill afford, it is the sovereignty of the deaf and the dumb,” declared Puno. “It is speech and speech-plus that will dissipate the darkness that hovers over the heads of the Filipino people. Speech is the function of the press. Speech-plus is the action of the sovereign people. Let them converge for they will lead us to the doorstep of truth.”