The latest Global Impunity Index, released annually by the New York-based nonprofit Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), that ranks countries based on the number of unsolved murders of media workers in proportion to the total population, posted a slight improvement for the Philippines which now ranks at ninth place compared to last year’s eighth.
The country placed ninth with 18 unsolved murders against a population of 113.7 million, while Haiti took first place with seven unsolved killings to a population of 11.7 million.
The CPJ said it was only counting the murders of journalists that, based on its research, was “in direct connection” to their work in the media.
The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) responded that while it is “easy to take comfort” in the idea that the Philippines was in a better situation than Israel and Haiti, the country is “supposed to be a working democracy where rights, including the freedom of the press and the safety that the freedom requires, are guaranteed by the Constitution.”
It reminded the public that the alleged mastermind in the 2022 killing of Percy Lapid, former Bureau of Corrections chief Gerald Bantag, was still at large. Moreover, the families of the victims of the decades-old Maguindanao Massacre have only received “partial justice,” NUJP said, after members of the Ampatuan clan who were convicted in the case appealed their convictions.
“Each year that passes risks relegating these murders into the past and sends the message that attacks against journalists are to be expected and can be expected to be done with impunity,” NUJP said.
Any improvement is always welcome, but when it comes to impunity, especially against journalists and members of the media, a government that claims to be free and democratic cannot be content as long as that particular scourge still exists and casts a dark shadow and a chilling effect over the ability of the media to perform its mandate. The continued killing of members of the media, and even worse, that many such crimes remain unsolved and justice has not yet been delivered after years, should never be allowed.
The climate of impunity that manages to pervade in this country will not go away until there are zero murders of media workers and all those who involved in past murders are unmasked and brought to justice. That will take time and a lot of effort on the part of government, but it is a goal that has to be accomplished.*
