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NUJP challenges Arroyo to show respect for civil liberties, press freedom

by Inday Espina-Varona, Chairperson
Carlos Conde,Secretary General

April 7, 2005

In his statements to the press yesterday, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita let the cat out of the bag — that indeed the military has been conducting surveillance not only on sectoral groups critical of the government but also on media groups such as the NUJP and the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism.

Ermita’s disclosure, as well as his justification for the military’s act of spying on these groups and considering them as “enemies of the state” in its internal briefing documents, is significant because it brings this issue all the way to his boss, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. In other words, “Knowing the Enemy,” the PowerPoint presentation the military has been using as a briefing material, is not just the product of some over-active imagination in the military’s intelligence service ­ it is, in fact, policy.

And this policy targets not just certain media groups but those that the military and the Arroyo administration perceive to be critical of the state. It not only betrays a narrow view inside the government (“Either you’re with us or against us”) ­ it betrays a systematic plot to intimidate critics and the press.

This, in other words, is nothing but an attempt to constrict the democratic space that Filipinos fought so hard to regain. “Knowing the Enemy” seeks to suppress our constitutionally protected right to dissent. By targeting organizations that operate legally and openly, particularly in the media, the military suppresses not only criticism by the press but also the people’s basic right to air their grievances against government.

This is not only McCarthyism ­ this is a manifestation of the fascism that now pervades in our land, as can be gleaned from the murders of journalists, human-rights and political activists, and ordinary citizens.

All these years, the NUJP has been steadfast in its defense of press freedom and freedom of expression. We have excoriated the government for its inaction on the media killings and for the culture of violence that’s bedeviling the nation. We have come out strongly against the pending anti-terrorism bills in Congress, which the military wants to use not only against suspected terrorists but also against ordinary citizens, activists and journalists.

We challenge President Arroyo to disown “Knowing the Enemy” and the military’s plot to taint and intimidate legitimate groups critical of the government. Indeed, we challenge her to show her respect for civil liberties and press freedom not by merely paying lip service to these but also to ensure that the perpetrators of the violence against activists and journalists be brought to justice.

We call on all groups concerned with our basic constitutionally protected freedoms to unite and denounce the attempts by government to deny us those freedoms.

We call on our colleagues in the journalism community not to be cowed or silenced by this. History has shown that Filipino journalists have courageously defended not only press freedom but the people’s basic rights. It is our duty now to be vigilant, to defy the sinister forces of government to once again deprive us of those rights. #

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