Philippines out of top 5 countries with worst impunity for journalist killings —report

The Philippines has found its way out of the list of top five countries enabling impunity for murders of journalists, based on the Global Impunity Index 2020 released by the Committee to Protect Journalist (CPJ) on October 28.

A "mainstay" in the GII since its inception in 2008, the Philippines ranked 7th out of the 12 countries which were included in the index this year.

Eighty percent of the global total of unsolved murders of journalists for the 10-year index period have transpired in these countries, according to the media watchdog group.

The Philippines was described in the CPJ report as the "biggest mover" in this year’s rankings, improving from being in the fifth spot in 2019.

There are still 11 unsolved murders of journalists in the country, according to the index.

"The change reflects the fact that the November 2009 Ampatuan, Maguindanao, massacre of 58 people, including 30 journalists and two media workers, no longer falls into the 10-year time frame for calculating the index," the report read.

"Landmark convictions late last year led CPJ to adjust the status of the Ampatuan cases to 'partial impunity' from 'full impunity' previously – meaning that they would no longer have figured into the index calculation regardless of the time frame," it added.

In December 2019, a trial court has declared several members of the influential Ampatuan clan guilty of multiple murder for the Maguindanao massacre which claimed dozens of lives, including 32 media workers.

This massacre has been considered by the CPJ as the single deadliest attack on the press since it began keeping records on journalist deaths.

The top five worst countries in the GII 2020 are Somalia, Syria, Iraq, South Sudan, and Afghanistan.

The ranking is determined by calculating the number of unsolved journalist murders in the past 10 years as a percentage of each country’s population.

The Presidential Task Force on Media Security (PTFoMS) welcomed the improvement in the Philippines' ranking in a statement.

Its chairman Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said the development proves that the country's justice system is working.

"We shall remain steadfast in our commitment to protect and promote media security by all means legally possible, relentless in the face of adversity," he added.

Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Martin Andanar, co-chair of the PTFoMS, said the Duterte administration will continue to uphold freedom of speech and expression.

"There is no other way to interpret this great improvement but to think that we are on the right track and, at the same time, that we should do more," Andanar said.

PTFoMS executive director and Undersecretary Joel Sy Egco, meanwhile, committed to continue the work to eventually get the Philippines off the index.

He said the task force would also clarify the 11 unsolved cases mentioned in the report as he claimed that most of these are undergoing trial in various courts in the country.

"We will not rest until we are completely out of this list and until the day that no more media worker had to be killed in the name of his sacred duty and regardless of motive," Egco said.

PTFoMS is monitoring all cases of media violence in the Philippines and keeps track of the progress of these cases, he added.—AOL, GMA News