Duterte has previously cursed journalists for their coverage of the ’war on drugs’ [EPA]
Manila, Philippines - International and local journalists’ groups have strongly condemned online threats made by alleged pro-government supporters to at least two female journalists in the Philippines, urging President Rodrigo Duterte to launch an investigation and penalise the perpetrators.
The two Manila-based journalist became targets of social media attacks in recent days, receiving threats of rape and harm to them and their families.
They had been reporting on Duterte’s anti-drug war, as well as the military operation against the armed group Abu Sayyaf.
Since June 30, when Duterte took office, more than 3,500 people have been killed in police operations and by unknown attackers.
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) on Tuesday called on Martin Andanar, Duterte’s senior spokesperson, to investigate the threats under a special government body, announced by Duterte in July to investigate media killings in the country.
“The IFJ expresses serious concerns for the safety of media employees working in the Philippines,” the groups said in a statement.
“Threats delivered to journalists via social media must be taken seriously by the government and perpetrators must be penalised accordingly so as to ensure the safety of journalists.”
Shawn Crispin, senior Southeast Asia representative at Committee to Protect Journalists, told Al Jazeera: “We are increasingly concerned by threats made to journalists, including over social media, for their coverage of the drug war in the Philippines.”Philippine officials, including President Duterte, have jeopardised the security of journalists by accusing them of misrepresenting or being supported by drug lords to critically portray the campaign.
“They should immediately cease and desist from such veiled threats and instead work to reveal and punish those who use social media to anonymously threaten journalists.”
In a separate statement, the Philippine journalist group NUJP said that while the media “always welcome engagement, including criticism, from their audience”, the threats “have gone beyond legitimate criticism of their professional output to outright threats on their persons”.
“We will never take any threats, whether of physical harm or to silence us, lightly for we have lost far too many of our colleagues and hardly seen justice for them,” NUJP chairman Ryan Rosauro said.
The group said it is hoping the special unit formed by Duterte to investigate media killings and other media threats could “prove its worth” in looking into the latest cases.
’Corrupt journalists legitimate targets’
The Philippines remains one of the most dangerous countries for practising journalists, with 145 media workers killed since 1990.
Duterte, himself, has been known to denounce journalists for their coverage of his drug war.
He has previously cursed foreign journalists for their reporting [1], and has said that corrupt journalists are legitimate targets of assassination.[See article below.]
A self-confessed hitman from Davao, the hometown of Duterte, recently told a Senate committee hearing that the then-mayor had ordered the killing of a radio commentator who was critical of him [2].
Before taking office, Duterte was also quoted as saying that the commentator, Jun Pala, was “a rotten son of a whore”, who “deserved” to be killed [see below].
But Duterte previously said that he welcomed questions from the media. “I have nothing against you. I am not at liberty to [be] angry at anybody,” he said.
Ted Regencia
* Source: Al Jazeera News:
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/09/philippines-threats-journalists-denounced-160920114525647.html
Duterte endorses killing corrupt journalists
DAVAO, Philippines — President-elect Rodrigo Duterte said Tuesday that corrupt journalists were legitimate targets of assassination, as he amped up his controversial anti-crime crusade with offers of rewards for killing drug traffickers.
Duterte won this month’s elections by a landslide largely due to an explosive law-and-order platform in which he pledged to end crime within six months by killing tens of thousands of suspected criminals.
The foul-mouthed politician has launched a series of post-election tirades against criminals and repeated his vows to kill them — particularly drug traffickers, rapists and murderers.
In a press conference called on Tuesday to announce his cabinet in his southern hometown of Davao, Duterte said journalists who took bribes or engaged in other corrupt activities also deserved to die.
“Just because you’re a journalist you are not exempted from assassination, if you’re a son of a bitch,” Duterte said when asked how he would address the problem of media killings in the Philippines after a reporter was shot dead in Manila last week.
The Philippines is one of the most dangerous nations in the world for journalists, with 174 murdered since a chaotic and corruption-plagued democracy replaced the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos three decades ago.
“Most of those killed, to be frank, have done something. You won’t be killed if you don’t do anything wrong,” Duterte said, adding that many journalists in the Philippines were corrupt.
Duterte also said freedom of expression provisions in the constitution did not necessarily protect a person from violent repercussions for defamation.
“That can’t be just freedom of speech. The constitution can no longer help you if you disrespect a person,” he said.
Journalist ‘deserved to die’
Duterte raised the case of Jun Pala, a journalist and politician who was murdered in Davao in 2003. Gunmen on a motorcycle shot dead Pala, who was a vocal critic of Duterte. His murder has never been solved.
“If you are an upright journalist, nothing will happen to you,” said Duterte, who has ruled Davao as mayor for most of the past two decades and is accused of links to vigilante death squads.
“The example here is Pala. I do not want to diminish his memory but he was a rotten son of a bitch. He deserved it.”
One of the world’s deadliest attacks against journalists took place in the Philippines in 2009, when 32 journalists were among 58 people killed by a warlord clan intent on stopping a rival’s election challenge.
More than 100 people are on trial for the massacre, including many members of the Ampatuan family accused of orchestrating it.
Duterte has named Salvador Panelo, the former defense lawyer for the Ampatuans, as his presidential spokesman, a nomination criticized by the victims’ families and journalists’ organizations.
Duterte, who will assume office on June 30, also said he would offer bounties to law enforcement officers who killed drug traffickers.
He said three million pesos ($21,000) would be paid to law enforcers for killing drug lords, with lesser amounts for lower-ranking people in drug syndicates.
Outlining some of his other plans for his war on crime, Duterte said he would give the police Special Action Force shoot-to-kill orders and send them into the main jail in Manila where prisoners run drug trafficking operations.
Duterte also said he would enlist junior soldiers to kill corrupt top-ranking police officers who were involved in the drug trade.
“I will call the private from the army and say: ‘Shoot him’,” Duterte said.
He also urged police not to wait until he assumed the presidency, and start killing criminals immediately. “Now, now,” he urged them.
Police earlier confirmed killing 15 people in a series of drug raids across the country over the past week, which Amnesty International described as a sharp and sudden escalation in the long-standing problem of questionable deaths by Filipino security forces.
Agence France-Presse
* The Inquirer. 07:00 AM June 1st, 2016:
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/788543/duterte-endorses-killing-corrupt-journalists