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"(In the Philippines)
crimes against journalists, and the impunity that surround
such acts, show that the press is as vulnerable here as it
is in Latin America."
InterAmerican
Press Association Ricardo Trotti gave this blunt assessment
before 141 delegates, from nine countries, at the "Impunity
and Press Freedom" in Manila.
"The
press needs to denounce the most in those countries which
can protect the least," he added "It is in countries,
with weak democratic institutions where journalists are frequently
murdered, and those responsible go unpunished."
The
Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility and Southeast
Asian Press Alliance organized the meeting to exchange experiences
of other countries.
Since
1986, some 71 Filipino newsmen have been killed. Of these,
34 were cut down during President Gloria Macapgal Arroyo's
watch. There are few convictions. In Latin America, 334 journalists
were murdered in over a decade. Seven were desparecidos (the
"disappeared") - a legacy of Argentina's brutal
dictatorship.
"The
number of crimes against journalists has not decreased,"
Trotti said. "Organized crime is the major instigator."
So is corruption in government.
In
Colombia, narcotics earn twice the country's gross national
product. That illicit income taints whole sectors of society.
"Don't ask where the cow was born," Argentina's
Justice Eduardo Freiler advised delegates. "Ask instead
where it grazes."
Over
30,000 were "salvaged" in Argentina over eight years.
As investigating judge, Freiler is helping untangle today
the cruel scandal of chiquitos desaparecidos: infants given
away once their "disappeared" mothers, who delivered
in military gulags, were dispatched. Childless military families
often were adoptive parents.
In
the Philippines, money from warlords, companies and officials,
cripples law enforcement, noted ex-defense secretary Ruben
Carranza, now of the International Center for Transitional
Justice. Civilian paramilitary units, like Cafgu, "get
funding from political leaders like the Dimaporos and Eduardo
Cojuangco", he said. Paramilitary ride shotgun for politicians,
mining companies and pearl farms in Palawan. Reparation for
victims is ignored.
State
tolerance or complicity in the killings results in "a
sovereignty of the deaf and the dumb," Supreme Court
chief justice Reynato Puno said in his key note address. These
cripple the press from providing information, crucial for
a democracy.
"Until
we do something to submerge this pernicious culture (of impunity),
these attacks will continue to litter our collective consciousness
with the corpses of people who were bearers of truth,"
Puno added.
"Impunity
results in a form of journalism that is less willing to expose
the truth," the delegates were told. To protect staff,
some Mexican papers announced they would no longer report
on drug trafficking. The press surrenders its role of watchdog
and substitutes the superficial.
In
"highly volatile societies with frail institutional network,"
the press must devise ways to prevent from being silenced,"
editor Maria Teresa Ronderos of Colombia said.
Competing
papers formed "alliances" to publish commonly-investigated
stories in massive corruption cases. To shield staff, no bylines
were printed. "Use precise moderate language. Better
facts than adjectives."
The
Puno Court had been concerned by state failure and disinterest
in bringing killers to account. Soldiers or policemen, who
moonlight as executioners, were shielded by gutting of the
writ of habeas corpus. Their agencies stonewalled habeas corpus
writs by simply denying they imprisoned the victim.
The
military here also got government to refuse to join 103 other
countries in the International Criminal Court, Carranza said.
Article 28 of the Rome Statutes provides for "command
responsibility", Yale University's Catherine Chung pointed
out. Military commanders and superiors would be criminally
liable for crimes committed by their forces. That's the legal
vacuum the military use in ducking questions on desparecidos
like Jonas Burgos and others.
Taking
a leaf from Latin America, the Puno Court adopted the "writ
of amparo." This remedy protects those whose right to
life, liberty and security is threatened. In these summary
proceedings ban, mere denials.
The
initial 14 writs forced the military to produce persons they
denied holding. "They didn't want their camps searched."
And the writ forced identification of retired General Jovito
Palparan as connected with desparecidos.
It's
too early to tell if the writ of amparo will work, said Justice
Adolf Azcuna. Since 1970, Azcuna worked to get the writ into
the Constitution. But it was only in 2008, that the courts
started using the writ.
Journalists,
meanwhile, have mustered defenses, CMFR and other press groups
got the courts to transfer venue for trial to more neutral
Cebu for the murder of journalist Marlene Esperat and Edgar
Damalerio. Training to mustering legal panels has been used.
Private
prosecutors have proved invaluable in beefing up patchy, under-funded
government prosecution. "These murders can be stopped
only when assassins, up the mastermind are held accountable,"
human rights advocate Serena Diokno stressed.
"Keep
in mind that behind each (murder) there is a journalist with
a first and last name who died for defending a truth,"
Trotti said. There are widows. Orphans. Memory is important."
(E-mail:
juan_mercado@boholchronicle.com)
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