Corruption in the Media

In the last two decades, murdering journalists has developed into a terrible industry across the Philippines. According to the National Union of Journalists in the Philippines, Esperat was the sixty-seventh journalist killed since 1986. As of February 2009, the National Union of Journalists in the Philippines list had grown to 100, including no fewer than sixty-four since former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo assumed office in 200.

Arnel Manalo, a columnist for a local newspaper in a province in the Philippines, was killed by two men on August 2004; Armando Pace, a radio commentator in Mindanao, was shot in the back by two men in public with many witnesses; Fernando Batul, a radio commentator in Palawan, was shot by two men on May 2006. Another is the case of George and Macel Vigo, a husband and wife journalist team in Mindanao, who was murdered by two men on a motorcycle on June 2006. And Marlene Esperat herself whose partner, also a journalist by whom she had two children, was assassinated in 1989.

In 2009, the Committee to Protect Journalists or more commonly known as CPJ ranked the Philippines as the sixth most dangerous nation for journalists. The Philippines ranked directly after Iraq, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sri Lanka and Colombia which is more dangerous than Afghanistan, Russia and Pakistan. According to CPJ, what’s striking is that “that the Philippines is one of the only countries in the top half of this list that is a stable, peacetime democracy.”

Most of the murders things in common: the victims were provincial journalists, that are not usually not connected with major news organisations; the victims were exposing stories either through commentary corruption and abuse of power in their locality. Esperat, a columnist for the Midland Review, a local newspaper in Tacurong City in Sultan Kudarat province, was a former government employee who had dedicated her life to detailing graft in the regional office of the Department of Agriculture.

Also, the murderers were unknown gunmen, who are presumed to be hired killers. Fourth, hardly any of the killers have been caught. Vergel Santos, a trustee of the watchdog Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR), says: “I can count the number of solved cases on the fingers of one hand.” The Bangkok-based Southeast Asia Press Alliance (SEAPAsays there have been 78 Philippine journalist murders since 1986, and only two have been “partly resolved”.



Sources:

Robles, 2009

National Union of Journalists of the Philippines
http://www.nujp.org/media%20killings%202005.htm