AMARC Calls Upon the Philippines Government to Stop
Killings of Journalists and Broadcasters
June 28, 2010. Kathmandu. The World Association of Community
Radio Broadcasters-Asia Pacific (AMARC-AP) condemns the recent killings of
three more journalists last week, two of whom were fellow broadcasters, in the
Philippines. The deaths of Desiderio Camangyan of Sunrise FM (Davao) last
June 14, Joselito Agustin of DzJC Aksyon Radyo (Ilocos Norte) last June 16, and
Nestor Bedolido of Kastigado Newspaper (Digos City) last June 20 bring the
number of journalists killed under the outgoing Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo regime
to 104.
We hold the outgoing administration morally liable for
allowing the Philippines to become the most dangerous country for
journalists. On the average, one journalist was killed every month in the
last nine years. This fact calls to question the country’s claim as
one of the region’s oldest democracies. To date, 141 journalists
were killed since the baseline year of 1986 when the dictatorship of Ferdinand
Marcos was ousted.
It is more lamentable that very few cases have been
successfully prosecuted. Even the Philippine Secretary of Justice
initially wanted to absolve two suspected perpetrators of the Ampatuan Massacre
that killed 33 journalists last November. We are also alarmed that one of
the witnesses to the most shocking crime against journalists in history was
killed last June June 22, endangering the quest for justice. AMARC-AP has
condemned the massacre in a unanimously-approved resolution last February in
Bangalore, India on the occasion of our second regional conference.
We enjoin AMARC-AP’s collective voice with local and
international media and human rights organizations in seeking justice for all
victims of media killings and attacks in the Philippines. AMARC-AP calls
on the incoming Benigno Aquino administration to stop the killings of
journalists and other innocent civilians and to prosecute suspects in all the
killings. We also urge the new government to immediately implement a program
that would encourage the establishment and unencumbered operation of community
radio broadcasting in the Philippines.
As the world’s biggest broadcasting movement with more
than 5,000 member community broadcasting stations and advocates worldwide, AMARC
believes that democracy and social justice is only achievable when there is a
free press.
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About
AMARC:
AMARC is an international
non-governmental organization serving the community radio movement in over 110
countries, and advocating for the right to communicate at the international,
national, local and neighbourhood levels. AMARC has an International
Secretariat in Montreal. It has regional sections in Africa, Latin America and
Asia Pacific and offices in Johannesburg, Buenos Aires, Brussels, and
Kathmandu. For more information, please contact Suman Basnet,
Regional Coordinator for Asia-Pacific, [log in to unmask]
or visit www.asiapacific.amarc.org.