Wednesday, December 01, 2010

Journalists call for more protection in the Philippines




Journalists sign a declaration calling for more protection in the Philippines. (Mindanao Examiner Photo - Jung Francisco)

CEBU, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Dec. 1, 2010) – Dozens of Filipino journalists signed a unified declaration calling for the protection of journalists and media workers in the just concluded two-day conference in the central Philippine province of Cebu.

The November conference held at the Marcelo Fernan Press Center coincided with the commemoration of the first anniversary of the so-called Maguindanao massacre in the southern Philippines where 57 people, including at least 32 journalists, were brutally murdered in the country’s worst political killings.

Dubbed as “Journalists Under Fire,” the conference, organized by the International News Safety Institute, Peace and Conflict Journalism Network and the Center for Community Journalism and Development, was the first on protection of journalists.

Journalists from around the country were invited to the event. The Cebu Declaration will be sent to United Nations for the yearly review of safety for journalists under the UN Resolution 1738 adopted by the Security Council in 2006.

The resolution calls for the protection of journalists.

Speakers invited to the conference also spoke about safety of journalists and showed videos and tributes to those who were massacre in Maguindanao province on November 23, 2009. (Jung Francisco)

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