AlterMidya members file rights violation complaints vs state forces at CHR
MANILA, Philippines — Media outfits under AlterMidya trooped to the Commission on Human Rights on Thursday to file complaints alleging rights violation perpetrated by state forces.
AlterMidya-People’s Alternative Media Network said their members, including Pinoy Weekly, filed “complaints of red-tagging and illegal seizure against government agencies and state security forces” at the CHR office.
ATM: Members of Altermidya Network including Pinoy Weekly file complaints of red-tagging and illegal seizure against government agencies and state security forces at the Commission on Human Rights.
Posted by Altermidya - People's Alternative Media Network on Wednesday, July 29, 2020
The filing comes days after cops seized copies of independent newspaper Pinoy Weekly as they also arrested community leader Rose Fortaleza in Pandi, Bulacan.
An earlier Philstar.com report, quoting an unnamed source, stated that the police took what they identified as subversive materials after they were voluntarily surrendered to the police.
Pinoy Weekly editor-in-chief Kenneth Guda, citing witnesses accounts, shared that the police had “said the magazines were ‘illegal’ and that they should give up the copies or else ‘may mangyayari (something will happen).’”
In March last year, AlterMidya members called on the Department of Information and Communications Technology to act on Distribute Denial of Service attacks on their websites.
NUJP backs AlterMidya filing
The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines in a statement said they stand with their colleagues at AlterMidya as they filed the complaints.
The journalists’ group noted that the AlterMidya’s years of shining light on underreported realities are replete with suspicion, threats and attacks, but “never have they, and media in general, come under worse attack” under the current administration of President Rodrigo Duterte.
[Statement] We stand with Altermidya The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines stands by our colleagues in...
Posted by National Union of Journalists of the Philippines on Wednesday, July 29, 2020
The NUJP said that while Duterte has not directly attacked alternative media, “those in government, particularly state security, have taken the presidential wrath against free press as license to go after those who shine the light on truth on the inconvenient truths of Philippine society.”
It also pointed out that at least two community journalists have been arrested on what they called are “fraudulent charges” based on accusation of involvement in the rebel movement.
“It is for this shared history of struggling for press freedom and for the invaluable work they do that we are proud to have our colleagues from AlterMidya stand alongside us in the continuing struggle to resist those who would seek to silence open discourse in our society,” NUJP added. — Kristine Joy Patag
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