45. Zubiri's solution to 'chilling effect': Go to China
Concern over journalist killings isn't an overreaction
Welcome back to Slow News Days, a now-and-then newsletter on journalism and journalism-adjacent topics in the Philippines.
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There really is not a lot to say about Senate President Juan Miguel "Migz" Zubiri's rant about how the media supposedly blew the Percy Lapid killing — the broadcaster was gunned down outside a gated village in Metro Manila shortly after dinner time on October 3 — out of proportion.
CNN Philippines has a video of his rant, in case you want to see him, when asked about the chilling effect that the killing had on media, respond with: “May I invite you to China and you do your reporting there?”
This is the same trick that Harry Roque and the Presidential Task Force on Media Security tried to pull whenever the World Press Freedom Index was released: That we’re better off than other countries and really should just be grateful.
All that really shows is that the press is under threat in many places in the world. Southeast Asia saw a decline in press freedom during the pandemic and this has prompted more attempts at collaboration among press groups in the region.
“Like that Percy Lapid case, the gunman has been arrested and the mastermind will soon be caught. Help us announce that to the whole world,” Zubiri said, as he called on media to help boost the country’s image.
Media did, of course, report on developments in the case, and has continued doing so. The latest on that being Roy Mabasa, Lapid’s younger brother, saying he believes the case goes beyond suspended Corrections chief Gerald Bantag, the alleged mastermind of the killing.
We have also reported why Duterte allies — one senator said Duterte couldn’t be involved because the logical time for him to have someone killed was when he was still in power — believe the former president shouldn’t be dragged into the issue.
But identifying suspects is still a long way from the justice that victims are owed. We mark this month the 13th year since the Ampatuan Massacre, where a rare conviction of masterminds is still under appeal.
In January, it will be 12 years since Palawan broadcaster Gerry Ortega was murdered and the alleged mastermind is at large and even ran for office in the May polls.
Although we need allies, the journalism community doesn’t have to convince Zubiri or anyone else of the chilling effect that the attacks on our colleagues have on the rest of us. Or of the self-censorship (and self-doubt) that that can bring — it’s something we’ve had to grapple with and know to exist.
We don’t even have to justify why media killings actually are a big deal and that the shock at them is not really blown out of proportion (UNESCO does that here).
There really is not a lot to say about Zubiri except maybe this from the internet: When someone shows you who they are, believe them.
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NUJP has been holding a series of discussions on the law and the latest on police visits and privacy is on Spotify.
Meanwhile, a vloggers’ group organized for accreditation and access to the Palace and to President Marcos’ events has collapsed on itself shortly after Trixie Cruz-Angeles’ exit from the Office of the Press Secretary.
Cruz-Angeles had floated the idea of giving vloggers access for coverage but also said guidelines were still being drawn up.Also, some reading that Zubiri might find illuminating, even though, as he says, there are crazy people everywhere:
For Local Reporters in Philippines, Radio Offers Opportunity and Risk