Last year 70 journalists and media workers around the world were murdered, with the motive confirmed or suspected to be connected with their work. The number brought to 1,054 the global total since a count was started in 1992 by press freedom advocates.
Of the 70 recorded killings last year, nine were in the Philippines, with three cases confirmed to be work-related. This made the country the eighth deadliest for journalists in 2013, behind Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Pakistan, Somalia, India and Brazil, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Of the 1,054 killings worldwide since 1992, the Philippines accounted for 76. The 2009 massacre in Maguindanao, wherein more than half of the 58 fatalities were journalists and media workers, was the most atrocious of the attacks, but the killings did not stop there. The failure to bring murderers to justice has encouraged more attacks and made the Philippines rank among the worst three countries in terms of impunity. This year has seen its share of armed attacks on journalists, with the latest victim a tabloid reporter who was gunned down in front of her daughter in Cavite.
Deadly violence, however, is not the only challenge to press freedom, which the United Nations considers indispensable for good governance, poverty alleviation and development. Today’s observance of World Press Freedom Day focuses not only on threats to the safety of journalists but also on the integrity and sustainability of journalism amid rapid developments in mass media.
In the Philippines, journalists continue to fight for the enactment of a Freedom of Information Act amid tepid support by an administration that professes to champion transparency and good government. Groups also continue to press the government for more action in solving the murders of journalists that did not stop with the restoration of democracy in 1986.
On the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova declared: “Only when journalists are at liberty to monitor, investigate and criticize policies and actions can good governance exist.†If the daang matuwid administration wants to spur development, it needs to give its wholehearted support for media freedom.