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Following the arrest of over 30 journalists and media technicians who were covering a hotel takeover by a group led by a former military officer who is now a senator, a high-ranking government official told journalists last Dec. 5 that they could be arrested again if they defied police orders while covering similar events.
In a dialogue between members of the media and government held to discuss the arrest of journalists covering the Nov. 29 takeover of the second floor of the Manila Peninsula Hotel, Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Sec. Rolando Puno told journalists that the arrests were standard police procedure and that they will happen again if media people defy police orders to leave a crime scene.
“Their (journalists’) physical presence in the scene caused obstruction of justice,” Puno declared before an audience of high-ranking police officials, media executives, and journalists’ groups. The DILG is the government department with jurisdiction over the Philippine National Police (PNP).
Former Philippine Navy Lieutenant, now Sen. Antonio Tri-llanes, Army Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim, and a military group called Magdalo which Trillanes leads walked out of a court hearing after being dissatisfied with the proceedings in Makati City where Trillanes and the Magdalogroup are being tried for a 2003 mutiny.
From the regional trial court, Trillanes, Lim, several Magdalo officers, and other sympathizers walked around 2 km to The Manila Peninsula Hotel where they demanded in an impromptu press conference that President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo step down and called on supporters to join them.
When an armored personnel carrier rammed through the hotel entrance, and police SWAT teams fired tear gas and machine guns and stormed the hotel, the Trillanes and Lim group surrendered, saying they did not want civilians hurt. Trillanes, Lim, and the Magdalo group, who did not fire back, were rearrested and brought to a police camp about an hour away together with the media people covering the event.
According to Puno, the media people, among whom were newspaper and television reporters, photographers, cameramen, and TV technical crew members, were handcuffed and arrested for “obstruction of justice” and “consistent and persistent refusal to obey” police orders.
“It was not the coverage that was the problem, but the physical presence of the media that caused obstruction,” Puno said.
At the time of the arrests, Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro had said that it was being done based on reports that there were Magdalo members posing as members of the media and that the government only intended to verify the identities of the media practitioners.
Maria Ressa, senior vice-president for news and current affairs of broadcast giant ABS-CBN, said that the network “in no instance ever obstructed justice or prevented authorities from taking action in Thursday’s standoff.”
“ABS-CBN continued its live coverage because the public has a right to know,” Ressa said.
ABS-CBN, many of whose personnel were arrested, is the biggest media conglomerate in the Philippines.
“We calculated the risks, took precautions for our team, and made the choice to stay. We did our job—to make sure that whatever actions either side takes, they (would be) accountable to the people,” Ressa said.
After the arrests, the PNP “commanded” ABS-CBN in a Dec. 3 letter to submit its raw footage of the Nov. 29 incident. Ressa said that “attempts to intimidate and harass journalists continue.”
Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez had himself declared earlier that the PNP could not compel ABS-CBN to release its video tapes. Gonzalez said all the PNP could hope for was for ABS-CBN to cooperate.
Various local media groups like the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, the Philippine Press Institute, and the National Press Club (NPC) have condemned the arrests.
The NPC also filed a complaint before the Commission on Human Rights against Puno, PNP chief Dir. Gen. Avelino Razon and other police officers for the media arrests, with charges of arbitrary arrest, violation of press freedom and illegal seizure of journalists’ technical equipment.
President Arroyo, however, reiterated that her government “whole-heartedly uphold(s) press freedom and rule of law. We were not happy with the problem with the media involving police procedures even if it was just for a few hours,” Arroyo said in Filipino, apparently referring to the arrest and detention of the journalists and media technicians covering the event.— With reports from inquirer.net and abs-cbnnews.com
A crucial eyewitness in a journalist’s killing was prevented from testifying in court on the strength of an arrest warrant served by the police for a supposed illegal cockfighting offense committed by the witness in 1998.
Ferdinand Bayles, an eye-witness in the May 22, 2006 murder of Fernando “Dong” Batul in Aklan, was arrested by the police just as he was about to present his testimony on the witness stand last Nov. 28 at the Palawan Regional Trial Court branch 52 presided over by Judge Toribio Ilao. Palawan is an island province approximately 586 km southwest of Manila.
Batul, a radio commentator for the Palawan-based station dyPR, was shot 12 times and killed just 200 meters away from the radio station by a gunman-riding tandem onboard a motorcycle. Batul was known to be critical of Puerto Princesa mayor Edward Hagedorn. He was 34.
The suspect in the case, Aaron Golifardo, is a former police officer.
After Bayles was sworn in, the defense panel informed Ilao that there was a pending arrest warrant on Bayles because of an illegal cockfighting offense in 1998. Joselito Alisuag of the prosecution asked that the arrest warrant be served after Bayles gives his testimony. Ilao denied Alisuag’s motion.
“Sumama ka na sa mga pulis. Tutal maliit lang naman ‘yang kaso mo (Go with the police. Anyway, the case against you is not that serious),” Ilao told Bayles, according to Fernando’s sister Letty who was present at the hearing.
Bayles was released from jail after the prosecution raised P10, 000 (approximately $233) for his bail.
Bayles, a tricycle driver, said that he does not recall any incident of him betting on a cockfight.
“Hindi naman ako sugarol. Tricycle driver lang naman ako. ‘Yung pinakamalapit na punta ko lang sa sabungan eh pag naghahatid lang ako ng pasahero sa sabungan (I am not a gambler. I am just a tricycle driver. The nearest thing that I’ve come to cockfighting was when I take my passengers to the cockfighting arena),” Bayles said.
“Parang harassment na rin itong nangyari (This is harass-ment),” Bayles said.
Alisuag said that there were also two previous attempts to block the testimony of two witnesses through arrest warrants, both of which the prosecution managed to prevent.
“There is a consistent attempt to derail the presentation of our witnesses,” Alisuag said.
Bayles is a crucial witness as he claims to have seen the killing of Batul. He also helped bring the body of Batul out of his vehicle.
The two suspects in the 2001 killing of Aklan journalist Rolando Ureta are now under police custody after Jessie Ticar surrendered to the police on Dec. 18, three weeks after Amador Raz was arrested last Nov. 27.
Ticar, as he requested, surrended to the Kalibo police at the office of his lawyer Joan Ibutnande. Ticar disclosed his plan to surrender over a radio interview at dyKR of Radio Mindanao Network, according to reports. Ureta was the program director of dyKR when he was gunned down on Jan. 3, 2001.
Raz, meanwhile, was arrested by elements of the Aklan police in coordination with the Numancia police station on the strength of an arrest warrant issued by Aklan Regional Trial Court branch 4 Judge Marieta Jomena Valencia dated Nov. 16, 2007.
Raz did not resist arrest, said Senior Police Office Reynaldo Francisco, who heads the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in Aklan. Francisco said about ten of his men, in coordination with the Numancia police station, served the arrest warrant on Raz, who is a municipal employee in Numancia.
Raz, 58, was presented to Valencia by the police, and was later brought to the Aklan rehabilitation center, the provincial jail in Aklan.
Ureta, 30, was killed while on his way home onboard his motorcycle in Lezo after his evening news broadcast on Jan. 3, 2001, when an assassin riding pillion on a motorcycle shot him three times. He had been reporting on illegal gambling, illegal drugs, and corruption at the time he was killed.
After being dismissed twice by Aklan prosecutor Apolinar Barrios, the case against Raz and Ticar was reopened on Jan. 16, 2007 after the Department of Justice (DoJ), acting on a petition for review filed by Ureta’s wife Emely, released a resolution ordering the reopening of the case. Raz and Ticar then filed a motion for reconsideration before the DoJ, asking for the retention of the case’s earlier dismissal on Feb. 6, 2007.
“The motion for reconsideration filed by the accused not having been resolved by the Department of Justice by the time the motion to hold in abeyance issuance of warrant of arrest was filed on Feb. 21, 2007 up to the present, let a warrant of arrest be issued against the accused in accordance with the resolution of the Secretary of Justice dated Jan. 16, 2007,” read the warrant of arrest issued by Valencia.
Barrios first dismissed the case for lack of probable cause on Dec. 6, 2004, and again on Feb. 10, 2005 after Emely filed a motion for reconsideration.
Barrios rejected the testimony of eyewitness and balut vendor Gerson Sonio, who claimed he was ten meters from where Ureta was shot. (Balut, or boiled duck embryo, is a Filipino delicacy sold by ambulatory street vendors.) Sonio’s testimony was contradicted by the testimonies of Perlito Sonio, his father, and of Diego Masangya, his uncle, who contended that Sonio was in Iloilo City at the time of the killing.
The Jan. 16, 2007 resolution by the DoJ however said that “(w)eighed against the denials and alibis of respondents, said witness’ affirmative testimony is stronger than a negative one.”
The case has the potential of being the first of its kind to be tried in a special court should the DoJ deny the accused’s motion for reconsideration. Through Administrative Order 25-2007, Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato Puno had created 99 special courts across the country to try and decide cases involving the killing of political activists and members of the media. Cases tried in special courts will undergo marathon hearings within 60 days and without postponements, with a decision to be issued no later than 30 days after.
The Ureta case is among those the Freedom Fund for Filipino Journalists (FFFJ), a coalition of six media organizations formed in 2003 in response to the rising incidence of media killings, is helping prosecute through various forms of assistance to the survivors.
FFFJ is composed of the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, the Philippine Press Institute, the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (Association of Philippine Broadcasters), the Center for Community Journalism and Development, and the US-based newspaper The Philippine News.
Nearly 40 Kinshasa-based radio and television stations have been banned in the Democratic Republic of the Congo since October, in what the government says is an effort to “clean up the profession.”
The ban largely accounts for the record number of attacks against journalists and the media in the country in 2007, said Journalist in Danger (Journaliste en danger, JED), which marked International Human Rights Day last Dec. 10 by denouncing the “programmed death” of the opposition media.
“The general situation of the press is of concern,” says JED. “Not only have media outlets been forced to toe the official line to ensure their survival, but...(those) who have upset the authorities have already been reduced to silence.”
Twenty-two television chan-nels and 16 radio stations have been banned since Oct. 20 for “failing to conform to laws” regulating the media industry, for not paying taxes or for not having valid licences, according to Information Minister Toussaint Tshilombo.
But Tshilombo admitted that the decision to “clean up the profession” stems from a government meeting in March, the day members of the Congolese Armed Forces violently clashed with guards of Jean-Pierre Bemba, an exiled former vice president, rebel leader and arch-enemy of President Laurent Kabila. The ban in particular affects a television channel and radio network owned by Bemba.
Although several stations said that they have since paid their dues or submitted required documents, they have not been allowed to reopen.
The broadcast ban is a symptom of a larger deterioration of press freedom in the DRC. In its annual report, JED found that one year after the 2006 elections and the establishment of new, “democratic” institutions, the number of attacks against journalists and the media had increased by 30 percent. In 90 percent of 163 cases, the very institutions that should protect journalists are those carrying out the attacks: the police, the army and state security forces.
Venezuelans narrowly rejected constitutional changes in early December that would have allowed President Hugo Chávez to proclaim an indefinite state of emergency and suspend press freedom. Meanwhile, violent clashes continue in Bolivia in response to President Evo Morales’s reform plans.
In Venezuela, voters rejected the proposed constitutional changes in the Dec. 2 referendum, with 51 percent against and 49 percent in favor. Besides allowing the president to eliminate the right to information during a state of emergency, the changes would have let Chávez run for re-election indefinitely.
The Institute of Press and Society (IPYS), Inter American Press Association (IAPA), ARTICLE 19, and Reporters Without Borders (RSF) feared the changes would grant Chávez unchecked power and threaten basic rights.
The rebuff, an unprecedented defeat for Chávez since he came to power in 1998, will oblige him to stand down when his term ends in 2013 rather than continuing to run for office until 2050 as he had hoped. Analysts say it will also embolden the opposition to create a more unified front.
Chávez said he would respect the results, despite a low turnout of 55 percent.
But the Venezuelan leader remains extremely popular with the poor. According to news reports, he has redistributed more oil wealth than any other leader.
RSF said the proposed changes affecting the media—and the recent closure of popular television station RCTV—“had a direct impact on the outcome of the referendum,” and will hopefully mean “the end of confrontation and media battles.”
Both the pro-government and opposition media had suffered in violent clashes triggered by debates over the changes.
In one case, IPYS reported that television reporters Francia Sánchez of RCTV Internacional and Diana Carolina Ruiz of Globovisión were physically attacked as the police looked on without intervening during a student demonstration outside parliament in Caracas on Oct. 15.
In another instance, Paulina Moreno of state-owned TV Avila was injured by an explosive device in Caracas on Oct. 25, while her crew was sprayed with insecticide by change opponents.
An IAPA delegation earlier in November found a polarization of public opinion, “increasingly exacerbated in the country due to a political climate in which confrontation rather than a respectful, plural and diverse dialogue predominates,” and that the public did not have time to familiarize themselves with the proposed changes.
Meanwhile, in Bolivia, violent protests over the government’s attempt to rewrite the constitution have led to at least five journalists’ being assaulted and many more harassed in recent days, reported the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), RSF and IPYS.
On Nov. 24, the constituent assembly meeting in Sucre approved the broad outlines of a new constitution, which would allow for Morales’s indefinite re-election and give more political power to Bolivia’s marginalized indigenous majority.
But on the streets over the weekend, opposition protesters clashed with police, sparking violent riots involving rocks, tear gas, and rubber bullets. Three protesters and one police officer were killed in the fighting, and at least five journalists were beaten by police, said CPJ. An estimated 130 were wounded. According to RSF, BBC reporter Lola Almudevar was killed in a traffic accident on her way to cover the unrest. Eduardo García, a Spanish reporter working for Reuters who was traveling with Almudevar, was seriously injured.
A Catholic educational radio station, ACLO, whose Quechua-language programs are partly produced by local indigenous communities, was forced to suspend broadcasting after being threatened by opposition students, says RSF.
CPJ said that violence also flared in La Paz, where Morales led a rally in support of the changes on Nov. 26. Pro-government protesters harassed journalists and attacked media outlets. According to CPJ, more than a dozen attacks on journalists have been reported in recent months.—IFEX
Malaysian authorities have invoked a draconian law allowing detention without trial on five leaders of a movement which organized a recent rally to express disaffection over the plight of minority ethnic Indians in the country.
Inspector General of Police Musa Hassan confirmed the arrest of P. Uthayakumar, M. Mano-haran, R. Kenghadharan, V. Ganabatirau and T. Vasantha-kumar under the draconian Internal Security Act (ISA) on Dec. 13, reported the independent web-based daily Malaysiakini. The five leaders of the group Hindu Rights Action Force (HINDRAF) will be detained for two years at the Kamunting detention centre in the Perak town of Taiping, 300 kilometres north of the capital Kuala Lumpur.
Originally enacted to contain security threats during the armed communist insurgency in the 1960s, the ISA has been repeatedly amended to remove safeguards from abuse. It now allows for 60-days’ detention without warrant, trial and access to legal counsel, after which the period of detention can be extended for up to two years, renewable indefinitely.
As local SEAPA (Southeast Asian Press Alliance) partner Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ), and the Writers Alliance for Media Independence (WAMI) argued in a joint statement, “such action further [fuels] the people’s distress, especially the [ethnic] Indians, that the government [is] unprepared to address their concerns”.
The government-controlled mainstream media have also either ridiculed or demonized the group HINDRAF, quoting authorities in one-sided reports without giving the aggrieved party room to detail their exact grievances. The police chief himself has accused the group of having terror links without furnishing details and proof.
HINDRAF held a Nov. 25 rally that drew about 10,000 ethnic Indians, who are mostly Hindus, to publicly speak out and stand up for their rights as citizens in the multi-ethnic, multi-religious country dominated by the ethnic Malays.
To prevent the rally, police invoked a rare court order under Section 98 of the Criminal Procedure Code, applicable to urgent cases of nuisance, barring rally participants from certain locations for seven days. Even so, protesters defied the ban. Police arrested some 400 people, with 31 denied bail and facing various charges including attempted murder.
On Nov. 23, Uthayakumar, Ganabatirau and P. Waytha-moorthy were arrested and later charged under the Sedition Act for allegedly inciting hatred in their speeches at a Nov. 16 gathering in the Selangor town of Batang Berjuntai. Discharged by the court on Nov. 26, they faced the same charge again after the prosecution filed for a review of the ruling.
Uthayakumar, who is a lawyer, faces another second sedition charge over a 15 November letter to United Kingdom Prime Minister Gordon Brown, which was posted on a website documenting alleged acts of police abuse, reports Malaysiakini. He faces a maximum fine of RM5,000 (approx. US$1,510) or a jail term of up to three years, or both. A repeat offense can land him a maximum jail term of five years.
SEAPA noted that the ISA is an instrument of fear that has been used to silence dissent to great effect during times of political upheaval for the ruling party. In 1987, the law was used to suspend three newspapers for six months and arrest 106 people, including leading opposition politicians, activists and community leaders, detaining some for two years. Former detainees have described how their first 60 days were spent in solitary confinement when they were not being humiliated and tortured during interrogations. The law has been repeatedly cited by the ruling elite to curb public discussions on “sensitive” issues and criticisms of the government. SEAPA is a regional press advocacy organization. The Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility is a founding member of SEAPA.
By invoking the law now, the government appears intent on creating a chilling effect on an increasingly vocal citizenry that has been braving official warnings, arrests and beatings from riot police in calling for reforms in the judiciary, the electoral system, human rights, and political and economic policies via petitions and marches in October and November.
Meanwhile, on Dec. 13, more than 200 participants from local and international organizations attending Malaysia’s Global Knowledge 3 Forum in the capital signed an open letter to the prime minister urging the government to uphold its responsibility to the Constitution, respect the freedoms of assembly and expression without favor, as well as drop charges against those “expressing their constitutional rights of freedom of assembly and expression”. |
