khanterbury tales

Impunity and Press Freedom

The "Impunity and Press Freedom" conference held at the Manila Pen from February 27-29, turned out to be a very interesting exchange between Filipino lawyers and media practitioners and their Latin American counterparts.

Killings of journalists are not unique to the Philippines. In fact, the situation in some countries of Latin America, such as Colombia, are worst. At the same time, however, the Latin American media and civil society have been more successful at prosecuting the guilty ones and they have a higher rate of assassins and masterminds in jail than we do.

I think the most quotable quote of the whole affair was uttered by Argentinian Damian Loreti of the Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales, who said that there is:

How rightly said...it is something that can be applied not only to the killings of journalists but the problems ailing our society at present. I have always thought that the greatest problem of Filipinos was there short-term memory. This is why we never learn from our past mistakes and that is why injustice, corruption, etcetera continues to plague us.

Truth is an important commodity in the fight against injustice and this is why media practitioners of integrity are so much needed. At the same time, the public has to realize that media's intergrity is fostered by a vigilant audience who will call media to task when they are in error and at the same time, rally behind media practitioners when they are being suppressed, threatened or even killed as a result of their effort to bring out the truth.

(photo inset: standing- Prof. Doreen Weisenhaus of the University of Hong Kong, seated - Joel Simon of the Committee to Protect Journalists (USA); Carlos Castillo of the Fundacion para la Libertad de Prensa (Colombia); Damian Miguel Loreti; and, Carolyn Arguillas of Mindanews (Philippines)

related links: www.impunidad.com#

Labels: media, nation

posted by rek @ 3:38 AM