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No applause for press freedom

This is Press Freedom month. Shall we start clapping for press freedom?

Definitely not! Even with the recent Supreme Court declaration that the acts relating to the Presidential Proclamation No. 1017 are unconstitutional, the press and the poorest of the poor whom journalists push their pens for, cannot be complacent.

“Action speaks louder than words.” So what if PP1017 is constitutional? If it was meant to curtail the press, as it seems so ordered and applied in the case of the raid of the Tribune? Or, can be interpreted to apply in such unconstitutional actions?

Like the ultimate form of censorship as exemplified by the political killings in the cities, and more glaring in the countryside? Seventy-seven (77) journalists were murdered in the past two decades, 41of them under the Arroyo administration that has placed the Philippines as the most dangerous for journalists over the war ravaged Iraq in 2nd place.

Over and above conditions of poverty, are the promulgation of BP880, the peaceable assembly act; “the gag” Executive Order 464; anti-terror bills of the congress and those pending in senate; and PP1017 will always be a threat to Press Freedom as well as it is to Filipino freedom.

Press freedom is not just for practitioners in the media profession, it belongs to the people. It is the peoples’ inalienable right to free expression; the right to information and the right to peaceably assemble. It is a prequisite to a democracy.

Let us all continue to fight for press freedom, and constantly guard it against all forces that threaten to curtail it. After all, press freedom, like any other freedoms, was never served in a silver platter. It is asserted and fought for and for the peoples’ courage and vigilance shall we applaud. #

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