DAVAO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 24 Feb) – Party list Bayan Muna urged the Philippine media on Saturday to support its call for the public to reject the government’s implementation of the Anti-Terrorism Bill.
“The media is in the most apt position to distrust, negate and stop the full implementation of a law that will further quell freedom of expression, kill more journalists, and deny civil liberties," it said in a statement sent to the Mindanao Examiner.
The militant group previously condemned the killings of journalists and political activist in the country. More than 800 had been killed since President Gloria Arroyo assumed the presidency in 2001.
"The members of the press are among the common victims of state repression and massive human rights violations in the country. When we, the members of progressive organizations are continuously hunted by military intelligence and gradually butchered like animals, the media is subjected to the same abuse of power for their commitment to educate the people of the true situation of the country," said Bayan Muna Party list Rep. Joel Virador.
Bayan Muna reiterates the dangers that the anti-terror bill poses to the media as clearly contained under Section 5 (accomplice) or Section 6 (accessory) of the said bill. “As stated, the bill punishes persons "who, having knowledge of the …conspiracy to commit terrorism and without having participated therein... profits from it" or conceals its conspirators,” it said.
Virador said with the apparent objective of the bill – to silence critics of the Arroyo government – it becomes ironic that proponents of the said bill declared that the press is exempted from its provisions.
"The media gets its story from the people without any prejudice to their political leanings. Any dissent that represents the people's legitimate concern and any situation that reflects social realities is any journalist's responsibility to expose and to ultimately catalyze meaningful changes from it," Virador said.(Mindanao Examiner)
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