by Nimfa Estrellado September 14, 2019 (AP Photo) Journalism is not dead. But journalists are dying. They are being killed. They are...
September 14, 2019
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| (AP Photo) |
Journalism is not dead. But journalists are dying. They are being killed. They are being assassinated and jailed for speaking and revealing the truths. Despite this, many more continue to bear witness, they toil, despite repeated threats, harassment and intimidation.
Journalists do crucial work to hold people in power accountable.
When a figure in power reflexively calls any press that doesn’t suit him “fake news,” it is that person who should be the figure of suspicion, NOT THE PRESS. The media are just reporting the news. It’s called doing their job. You have all the right to sue them but you have no right absolutely to kill them.
Journalists are protected by the "Shield Law". Shield law is a law that protects journalists from having to reveal confidential sources." They can pretty much write whatever the hell they want with zero consequences. But passing a media shield law is not enough. Real press freedom requires rolling back a sprawling national security state.
There should be a law that protects journalists in the Philippines.
In the Philippines, many of the Filipinos, hate media for their fake news. Certain media are under the influence of crony capitalists and some are biased. Media really needs to smarten up and convey factual narratives. Freedom of the press does not give them a right to provide a biased and deceitful narrative. I am disappointed some are even in this country. Doing more harm than good.
Some of the journalists get hugs from readers, standing ovations, surging subscriptions, while many journalists are being vilified as "the enemy of the people," journalist are feeling the community's embrace.
Unscrupulous politicians continue to call the press "the enemy of the people," which is both disgusting and dangerous. To understand why, let's look at the history of that sinister phrase, who has used it in the past, why, and how it fosters a higher likelihood of violence against journalists.
The modern origins of the phrase are from the French Revolution's "reign of terror," when people were beheaded en masse. But it re-surged during the Nazi era, when Hitler referred to the "lying press" and called Jews "the enemy of the people." But, it keeps getting worse. It's a Soviet phrase too, something Lenin started and Stalin continued. For Stalin, labeling someone an "enemy of the people," meant internment at a forced labor camp and sometimes death. The term was *too extreme* for Nikita Khrushchev, who denounced it "in the 1950s." Mao used the phrase regularly too to label anyone who opposed his rule as an "enemy of the people." The consequences of that label were also dire and often led to death. Mao was a murderous dictator who killed nearly 40 million people.
In modern times, other dictators have used the phrase too. Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez labeled critical media outlets as "enemies of the homeland," in the same vein. Are you beginning to see a pattern in what type of regime calls its critics the "enemy of the people?" The phrase has also been deployed against the press in places as diverse as Myanmar (when it was ruled purely by a military junta) and Zimbabwe (when it was ruled by longtime dictator Robert Mugabe). There is a reason that the phrase "enemy of the people" has been almost exclusively deployed by murderous dictators. To use it to describe the free press, which is a pillar of every democracy, is particularly sinister. Donald John Trump is borrowing a phrase from the worst of the worst. Calling the press "the enemy of the people" has consequences foreign and domestic. Many journalists in other countries have been jailed for being "fake news" since Trump began using that term. Journalists in authoritarian regimes are sometimes killed.
Everyone is going after the media.
The Philippines was dubbed as the deadliest peacetime country for journalists in Southeast Asia, according to this year’s Southeast Asia Media Report, as published by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) on Friday, December 21.
Calling the press "the enemy of the people" encourages violence against journalists in the Philippines. Keep in mind that Former President Benigno “Noynoy” Simeon Cojuangco Aquino III once called the free press, the noisy minority. And president Duterte acts like Aquino, calls the media and his critics, the Anti-Duterte and the loud minority. The stupid who complains and rants nonsensically about his administration. Just a noisy minority who complain about anything.
Only corrupt evil leaders hate the media because media exposes their corrupt and criminal activities. Democracy can't survive without a free press. Authoritarianism requires the press to be crushed or cowed. Slandering, threatening, bullying, intimidating, even killing journalists, will not stop us hard working journalists from serving the public and continuing the mission. Facts are often inconvenient. Problematic. But shooting the messenger won't stop the message coming out.
Slandering, threatening, bullying, intimidating, even killing journalists, will not stop our hard working colleagues from serving the public and continuing the mission. Facts are often inconvenient. Problematic. But shooting the messenger won't stop the message coming out.
We're not enemies of the people, stop killing journalists! Journalism is not a crime. No to media killings. End impunity. Free press. Protect journalist.
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