MANILA, Philippines — Various groups yesterday urged United Nations special rapporteur on freedom of expression and opinion Irene Khan to investigate violations on Filipinos’ rights to free speech and expression during her upcoming visit next week.
Human rights group Karapatan led the launch of the #FightToExpress campaign ahead of Khan’s visit from Jan. 23 to Feb. 2.
At least 36 organizations have submitted reports to the special rapporteur detailing incidents of violations of freedom of expression, including threats and harassment against media organizations and progressive groups.
In a joint submission, Karapatan and women human rights defenders group Tanggol Bayi highlighted the impact of the government’s counterinsurgency program, particularly the attacks against those tagged as members or supporters of communist groups.
They also cited the passage of the Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act and the Anti-Terrorism Act, which they said were “used to hale rights defenders to court and subject them to judicial harassment, despite bearing no sufficient evidence to back up these charges.”
“Red-tagging has quickly evolved into terrorist-tagging and the use of such laws to impede human rights and development work and quell free expression and dissent – all under the pretext of counterinsurgency and counter-terrorism,” Karapatan and Tanggol Bayi said.
Meanwhile, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) noted continuing attacks against media practitioners despite a “slight improvement” since the end of the Duterte administration.
The NUJP said it has documented 109 incidents of attacks and threats against journalists so far during the Marcos administration, including four killings.
“There have also been 36 incidents of harassment, which include incidents of surveillance and of journalists being tailed by suspicious individuals as well as being accosted while on coverage,” said the group.
“Part of the harassment, although counted separately, is red-tagging, of which there have been 20 incidents,” it added.