Piercing Pens

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) today reminded President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo that it is the media’s duty is to report the news without any agenda.

The media organization issued the statement after Arroyo invited executives of several media outfits to Malacañang to solicit their help for the last three years of her administration, during which she hopes to build her “legacy.”

“We would like to remind Ms. Arroyo that media’s role - nay, duty - is to report events, good or bad, as they happen and not to spin the news to suit anyone’s agenda, much less conform to anyone’s concept of what balanced reporting, balanced commentary and editorial focus should be,” the NUJP said. (more…)

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) demands the Philippines president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo act immediately to protect media safety, following this week’s distressing news of the murder of journalist Carmelo Palacios, and attempted murder of journalist Delfin Mallari Jr.

According to IFJ affiliate the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), Palacios was found dead in St. Rosa town, Nueva Ecija province on April 17. (more…)

Antonio Zumel Center for Press Freedom

Press Statement
18 April 2007

The Antonio Zumel Center for Press Freedom (AZCPF) strongly condemns the recent attacks on media people and journalists. The assassins want to prevent the media from bringing to the public the true state of the nation and the criminal activities being committed by those in power. (more…)

National Union of Journalists of the Philippines

This week marks another dark period for press freedom in the Philippines, with the murder of a colleague, the attempted murder of another and a libel case filed by a governor against yet another.

Carmelo Palacios, 41, field reporter of the government-run Radyo ng Bayan, was found dead in Sta. Rosa town, Nueva Ecija, Wednesday morning, his body battered and shot in the chin. He was the 51st journalist to be killed under the Arroyo administration’s increasingly blood-drenched watch, and the third this year. (more…)

From Prof. Danilo Arao of the UP College of Mass Communication via Bryanton Post:

This press statement released on March 20 (Tuesday) was signed by 18 faculty members of the University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication (UP CMC) led by Dean
Elena Pernia. For verification, please call the UP CMC Department of Journalism at 920-6852.

The undersigned faculty members of the University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication (UP CMC) condemn in the strongest possible terms the filing of multiple murder charges against Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo which resulted in his arrest and detention last March 16.

That the charges were filed during the election season is already questionable, especially since
Ocampo’s Bayan Muna Partylist group is running for representation in the House of Representatives and has been repeatedly accused by the powers-that-be as a communist front. The situation is preposterous as the crimes he allegedly committed happened more than
two decades ago while he was in detention. (more…)