Press Freedom Watch

Labeled for Death?

For contradicting the military?s propaganda against the New People?s Army, a hard-hitting Kidapawan journalist is being vilified by the army as a communist, thus putting her life in grave danger.

By Carlos H . Conde
davaotoday.com

DAVAO CITY ? Malu Manar is no stranger to death threats. As a journalist who works and lives in Central Mindanao, where rebels, bandits and warlords are aplenty, she is bound to step on some toes every once in a while.

She had worked for the Catholic-ran DXND in Cotabato City since the early 1990s but moved to a sister radio station in Kidapawan City a few years ago after her family received death threats. She had been very critical of some local officials in her radio program and she believed that had something to do with the threats.

?When some men went looking for my two daughters at their school, that was it,” Manar told Reuters last year. At one point, she started disguising herself, wearing a wig and sunglasses to avoid the people stalking her.

“It was difficult and painful. It was a traumatic experience for my family. Even now, I have not really lowered my guard. I still play hide-and-seek,” she said.

But all the years she spent on the frontlines of Mindanao — reporting for DXND and filing dispatches for such newspapers as Manila Times, Today, Manila Bulletin and the online news site MindaNews ? didn?t prepare her for what happened one day in May.

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Arroyo, the press and international pressure

The killings of journalists have long been the focus of attention of international media groups. But instead of responding positively, this regime has done nothing but deny, deny, deny the fact that the Philippines is the second-most dangerous country in the world for journalists, next to Iraq. ?

A bit of good news today: the US Senate has put more pressure on the Arroyo regime regarding the killings of journalists. In an inquiry, U.S. senators expressed their concern about the deteriorating press-freedom situation in the Philippines.

?Democracy depends on the free flow of information to the public, which depends on a press free to do its work without government intimidation,? said Richard Lugar, the chairman of the foreign-relations committee, as quoted by the Inquirer.

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Washington Think Tank Urges Bush to Act Vs. Arroyo?s ?Dictatorial Methods?

But despite ?waning? U.S. support of her, Arroyo not on shaky footing, says analyst

DAVAO CITY ? The United States government should now review how its military aid and security assistance to the Philippines are being spent by the Arroyo administration, a policy analyst of a major American think tank said this week.

Washington should also pressure President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo into ensuring that killers of Filipino journalists are brought to justice, said Dana R. Dillon, a senior policy analyst at The Heritage Foundation, a respected and influential American think tank, in an op-ed piece published last Sunday by Fox News.

Dillon criticized the Arroyo administration for, according to him, resorting ?to the methods many dictators use to silence criticism.? Arroyo, he said, ?appears to have given up on convincing her constituents of her competence.?

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In Valencia, Mayor Gags Critical Commentator

Joash Dignos, a commentator critical of the mayor, said he continued broadcasting because he thought that was the only way to prevent the official from harming him. ?I had to continue it, to inform the people about every step he was doing,? he said. ?It was my refuge.?

Story and pictures by Grace Cantal-Albasin
davaotoday.com

Dignos steps out of his station under the watchful eye of Galario's men. VALENCIA CITY ? A radio station was ordered closed by the mayor of this city on Wednesday, who claimed that the station had been operating without a business permit.

But witnesses said the target of the mayor?s ire was a commentator of the station who had been very critical of him.

Mayor Jose Galario Jr. and his men stormed DXVR, a station of Radio Mindanao Network, at past 9 o?clock in the morning on Wednesday after Joash Dignos, the anchorman of the Kuskos Batikos program, refused to stop broadcasting his program despite an earlier closure order by Galario.

Dignos said he continued broadcasting because he thought that was the only way to prevent Galario from harming him. ?I had to continue it, to inform the people about every step he was doing,? Dignos said. ?It was my refuge.?

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