AMARC Calls Upon the Philippines Government to Stop Killings of Journalists and Broadcasters

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.