Task force taps cops for media security, stresses not all journo killings work-related
MANILA, Philippines — The Presidential Task Force on Media Security is readying guidelines to designate police officers as "focal persons for media security" but said Tuesday that that not all attacks on journalists are work-related, claiming that media killings are being used "to humiliate our country and our government."
Speaking before Philippine National Police public information personnel, Presidential Communications Undersecretary Joel Egco, PTFoMS executive director, said that the police will be tapped as "media security vanguards" and the "first line of defense" for journalists.
Of the 190 killings of media workers it recorded around the country, PTFoMS said that 55 were determined to not be work-related. In a presentation, the task force said that journalists in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao are the "most vulnerable" to attacks, accounting for 33 cases.
"[My] observation is that [the risks are] a by-product of the hostile or violent geopolitical environment," Egco said as he pointed out that media-related violence always increases during election season.
"They're not all work-related...it doesn't necessarily mean that they were killed because they were journalists like some groups are trying to project."
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Press freedom groups as well as UNESCO have said that impunity over attacks on media increases the likelihood of more attacks against journalists.
Egco also said that besides economic vulnerabilities, the safety of media workers is also vulnerable to "rivalries and infighting among various media groups and practitioners."
When Pampanga-based journalist Jesus Malabanan was shot dead by a motorcycle-riding assailant in Calbayog City, Samar in December, authorities suggested that his death was over a land dispute and was not work-related.
Egco said then that Malabanan had written mostly "feel-good" stories before he was killed, making it unlikely that the murder was related to his reporting.
The Manila Standard, where Malabanan was a correspondent, rejected the assertion in a scathing editorial. Colleagues said Malabanan has also assisted a Reuters team in its coverage of the "drug war" in 2018 and that he had received death threats then.
"Always remember that our critics and some enemies of the state are deliberate in their campaign or propaganda when someone dies just to humiliate our country and our government and put us in a bad light," he told the PNP.
"Don't get confused by the propagandists who are against the government. They're really going to count all of them and blame it on us," he said.
Usec Joel Egco of the Presidential Task Force on Media Security lays out investigation protocols for new "media security vanguards" in the Philippine National Police, says marching order is to prevent killings of media workers amid election season @PhilstarNews pic.twitter.com/JC9c98tl4J
— Franco Luna (@francoIuna) January 18, 2022
As "media security vanguards," city and municipal police chiefs are tasked to serve as point persons of the PTFoMS and provide the local media security council "pertinent data or actionable information of high-intelligence value with regard to the status of the practice of journalism in their area."
Per the PNP's Procedures in the Investigation of Heinous and Sensational Crimes, shootings against media practitioners are considered heinous crimes. Egco said that the PNP will form Special Investigation Task Groups when a media death is recorded.
At least 22 journalists have been killed during the Duterte administration.
RELATED: PNP investigating journalist shot dead in Sultan Kudarat
'Report threats to media'
Egco encouraged journalists under threat to report these to the police and to the task force.
"You can report it to the police in general since that's their [mandate.] But for us, it's a specialized concern. We'll have vanguards on guard in the far municipalities. The designated spokespersons should have knowledge of coverages in unsafe areas for example unlike before when we'd wait for reports."
In case the threats come from unifomed personnel, Egco said that "[w]e really have them arrested even if they're our men in uniform...we don't tolerate that."
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"We will be launching the vanguards on Friday. We're just waiting for the full guidelines, I'm hoping anytime soon," the undersecretary said.
Egco also said he would also consider proposals to arm journalists. "That's still my advocacy. I'm still very much into that advocacy up to now, I haven't let that go."
The Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunition Regulation Act includes media workers among those "in imminent danger due to the nature of their profession" and who are qualified to apply for permits to carry.
"We support those who opt to carry firearms because many media members have already been saved by that. The police won't always be there 24/7. It [comes down] to your training and evasion, but it should still be a last resort if you have that option to fight back," he told Philstar.com in a phone call.
— Franco Luna
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