EDITORIAL — Threats evolve; impunity endures

Apart from remembering the dearly departed on All Souls’ Day, the nation also joined the global community on Nov. 2 in marking the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists.

The United Nations General Assembly passed the resolution for the special day to commemorate the murder of two French journalists in Mali on Nov. 2, 2013.

But November is also the month in 2009 when 32 journalists were massacred along with 26 other people in Maguindanao, in what remains to be the worst case of election violence in the Philippines, and the world’s deadliest attack in a single incident on media workers.

The massacre and the gruesome burial of the victims on a hillside in Ampatuan, Maguindanao on Nov. 23, 2009 arose from rivalry between the Ampatuan clan, which had a political stranglehold on the province, and Esmael Mangudadatu, who dared challenge the clan by running for vice governor.

While there has been no repeat of the attack on such a horrific scale, journalists in the Philippines continue to be targeted in connection with their work. 

The latest attack occurred last Oct. 12. Broadcast journalist Adrian “Golden Boy” Loterte of RBN News Television and DWIZ FM was shot dead by gunmen on a motorcycle at his bakery in Daraga, Albay.

Colleagues said Loterte had been commenting on local politics and illegal sand extraction in the province, and had been receiving threats prior to the murder. He was the fourth journalist slain this year and the eighth during the current Marcos administration.

Bereaved relatives and friends of Loterte can only hope that he will get justice. Apart from being ranked among the deadliest countries for journalists, the Philippines also ranks high in the global impunity index because of its poor record in bringing the perpetrators to justice.

This weakness breeds impunity, especially when the perpetrators are politicians and other influential people who have control over the criminal justice system in their turfs.

Efforts have been undertaken to improve protection for media workers in this country. As the theme of the International Day to End Impunity stresses, however, “threats evolve; impunity endures.”