FOLLOWING last week’s murder of broadcast journalist Samuel Oliverio in Digos City, Davao del Sur, former Manila representative Benny M. Abante has reiterated the need for Congress to pass the bill on Freedom of Information (FOI) “as a necessary step in the fight against media violence.”
“Instructing the police to exert maximum effort in tracking the assailant has been government’s standard answer to these acts of violence. But that is after the fact – after the crime has been committed and after another life has been lost. What we do not realize is that lives may be saved by allowing media and the public freer access to information through the FOI,” said Abante, former chair of the House committee on Information and author of the FOI bill.
According to Abante, motives behind the murder of journalists range from revenge to preventing the release of damning information to the public – the latter, “an issue that FOI could address.”
“The most dangerous time for any journalist is when something potentially explosive is being investigated, before it is published or broadcasted; when the death of a journalist meant the death of his story. The longer it takes for information to be gathered, the greater the danger to our brothers and sisters in media,” he explained.
On Monday the world’s largest organization of journalists, Belgium-based International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), condemned the Philippine government of being guilty of “murder” because of its supposed inaction in curbing media killings in the country.
Oliverio is the third journalist killed in the Philippines this year and the 28th under President Benigno Aquino III’s administration.
“I have said it before, freedom of information means freedom from corruption. Today, however, it also means freedom from humiliation before the international community and freedom from violence, and freedom from this wretched culture of impunity. The sooner we enact it, the sooner our country, people, and journalists can be closer to genuine freedom,” said Abante.
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