DAVAO CITY—Media groups on Wednesday denounced President-elect Rodrigo Duterte for saying it was all right to kill journalists if they were corrupt.
“Mr. Duterte’s crass pronouncement not only sullies the names and memories of all 176 of our colleagues who have been murdered since 1986, he has also, in effect, declared open season [on] the media, [to silence] both individual journalists and the institution, on the mere perception of corruption,” the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines said in a statement.
NUJP chairman Ryan Rosauro acknowledged that corruption was a pressing problem in the media, many have been killed because they were exposing corruption or wrongdoing in the government.
“It is one thing to recognize a possible reason for murder; it is a totally different thing to present this as a justification for taking life,” Rosauro said.
The National Press Club said Duterte’s remarks seemed aimed at justifying the summary execution of journalists.
“While we acknowledge that there are also rotten members of the press similar to other professions like in the PNP and most especially among politicians, to simplify media killings as due to corruption in the press is to gloss over the fact that media killings happen due to the still prevalent culture of impunity,” said Paul Gutierrez, NPC president said.
“This branding of the media would only justify more attacks against them,” he added.
Gutierrez said Duterte’s remarks were “too sweeping, generalized and therefore unfair to the victims such as Gerry Ortega, the Ampatuan victims and to the entire profession in general.”
Gutierrez was referring to environmentalist and radio broadcaster Ortega, who was killed in January 2011. Then Palawan governor Joel Reyes and his brother then Coron Mayor Mario Reyes have been arrested in connection with the murder.
Both media groups also pointed to the most egregious of these killings—the Maguindanao or Ampatuan massacre.
“We wonder if the president-elect is willing to face the orphans and widows of the victims of these killings and tell them they were killed because they were corrupt,” Rosauro said.
“No slain members of the press were given justice particularly in the last six years. That’s why there are still many who perpetrate crimes against the media,” Gutierrez said.
The Asian Center for Journalism said Duterte’s stance could set a bad precedent for more media killings.
“There have been honest… media members, such as Marlyn Esperat, who was killed inside her house,” said Luz Rimban, ACFJ executive director.
Reporters Without Borders also expressed outraged over Duterte’s statement and urged the media to boycott his press conferences until he issues a public apology.
The College Editors Guild of the Philippines express grave misgivings about Duterte’s characterization of murdered journalists as “corrupt and biased.”
The group, the oldest alliance of campus publications in Asia, said Duterte’s statement would have a chilling effect on journalists who expose anomalies.
“The pronouncement made by President-elect Duterte is a faulty generalization in which he failed to understand how the intensifying culture of impunity perpetuates the killing of journalists and media workers in their line of duty,” the group said.
On Friday, Manila-based crime journalist Alex Balcoba was shot dead outside a watch repair shop owned by his family.
Duterte sent his transition team spokesman Peter Laviña to condole with Balcoba’s family during his wake.
Laviña said that the president-elect intends to create a task force to investigate media killings and would appoint a special prosecutor to focus on such cases.
But Duterte took a different tack Tuesday night at his press conference, when he talked about the 2003 killing of radio broadcaster Juan Pala, whom he described as “a rotten son of a bitch.”
“Just because you are a journalist, you are not exempted from assassination if you are a son of a bitch,” Duterte said. “The Constitution can no longer help you when you humiliate a person.
“There are journalists who overdo their attacks. Do not expect all journalists are clean. Many of them are paid hacks,” he said.
Media groups vowed that journalists would not be cowed from doing their duty.
“[L]eadership, or even its mere semblance, carries weight and what leaders say, right or wrong, seriously or in jest, will resound with their followers. Thus, even if this be jest, and we see no reason to believe this was the case, your words may well be interpreted as marching orders by those with an axe to grind against a critical press,” Rosauro said.
“Murder is no joke. Neither is press freedom,” the NUJP added.
The family of slain broadcaster Gerry Ortega issued a statement.
“Last night’s statements also came as a shock to us, below is our reaction:
“Our family is incensed by the hasty and crass generalizations made about murdered journalists in the country. Doc Gerry Ortega was killed for his courage and integrity. He was murdered precisely because he was honorable. He fought for social justice. He stood up against mining in Palawan. He exposed corruption in the provincial government, which included the misuse of billions of pesos from the Malampaya funds.
“This kind of speech is alarming because without due process, it casts absolute judgment on all murdered journalists including those who were killed for telling the truth.”
Duterte’s Press secretary, Salvador Panelo, said Duterte’s statements were taken out of context because the discussion at the press conference was becoming heated.
Panelo, who was a lawyer for members of the Ampatuan clan that is standing trial for killing 58 people, including more than 30 journalists, was unapologetic.
The president-elect, he said, was “his own man” and doesn’t need to tone down his statements.
In a press briefing on Tuesday night, Duterte used Pala as an example of a corrupt journalist.
“If you will be killed, you will be killed. There is no way to know the next victim will be a journalist,” Duterte said.
“Most of the time, you did something wrong,” Duterte said in Filipino. “You received money but you continued to criticize, that’s why you were kiled. There is corruption in the media.”
Panelo denied suggestions that Duterte had any inside knowledge about Pala’s death.
Laviña, on the other hand, said Duterte’s statements were meant as “a reminder to corrupt members of the media” who were spreading black propaganda against him.
“When Duterte said last night that members of the media become vulnerable to killings, it was because they were no longer seen as fair and neutral members of the media but because they have become partisan propagandists, deliberately using their media outlets in attacking or defending one party or another and collecting payoffs on both,” Laviña said.
“His example of most slain journalists as being corrupt or involved in shady deals was based on his own assessment of those killed in Davao City and not on the national scale,” he added.
Laviña, a former journalist, also criticized the media for focusing on his statements about journalists, instead of the new Cabinet appointments or “the declaration of war against red tape.”
“National and international media lapped up the issue of media killings. Again and as usual, Rody Duterte was taken out of context, misinterpreted and misunderstood,” he said.
Panelo said despite the flak over his latest remarks, Duterte was “very protective of journalists.”
Senator Aquilino Pimentel III, president of Duterte’s PDP-Laban party, also urged the public not to misinterpret Duterte’s remarks.
During the campaign, Pimentel also defended Duterte’s remarks about how he should have been first to have sex with an Australian missionary who was raped and killed by inmates in a 1989 jail riot in Davao.
The Palace, which has refrained from criticizing Duterte, said it deplored his remarks about media.
“We recognize the vital role played by journalists as purveyors of information in a democratic society,” said Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr.
“As citizens, they have a fundamental right to due process and equal protection of the laws of the land,” said Coloma.
“Hence, we deplore the proposition that some journalists may have been assaulted or killed in view of their alleged involvement in media corruption,” said Coloma.
Coloma also said the government has the duty to arrest and bring to justice all those involved in media killings.
Ifugao Rep. Teddy Baguilat, a Liberal Party lawmaker, said he was alarmed over the suggestion that killing journalists was justified if they were corrupt or biased.
“The freedom of the press is one of the foundations of Philippine democracy. President-elect Duterte’s statement creates a chilling effect among journalists and threatens them to toe the line, or else. This is anathema to a democracy as it is this attitude precisely that has led to many journalists being killed,” Baguilat said.
Baguilat, a former journalist, said freedom of the press has to be respected and nurtured. Curtailing it would definitely lead to the suppression of basic freedoms.
“The fact that media killings continued during the Aquino administration makes that one of the black spots on its record,” he said.
Using Duterte’s own words, he added: “Being a son-of-a-bitch journalist is not an offense punishable by death.” With Macon Ramos-Araneta, Rio N. Araja, Rey E. Requejo, Sandy Araneta and Maricel V. Cruz
