Filipino journalists to Eleksyon 2022 bets: Be transparent, stand for press freedom

Philippine media on Monday urged Eleksyon 2022 aspirants in to be more transparent and be clear on their support for press freedom.

This as groups and individuals from different media organizations celebrated the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize won by journalists Maria Ressa and Dmitri Muratov.

"We, therefore, call on all those running for public office to make clear their stance on press freedom and to be transparent about their public relations efforts," read the statement.

Further, journalists demanded that political campaigns must respect the rights of journalists.

For the upcoming elections, journalists also vowed to serve the people with "standards of fact-based and ethical news gathering."

"But we are outnumbered by professional public relations staffs and troll factories. We alone cannot fight the deluge of disinformation in an election where the future of our democracy is at stake," they said in their statement.

They also asked social media companies to make a safe platform for media personnel.

The group of journalists also warned of the fragile state of press freedom as elections drew near.

"The climate for independent reporting is fraught. Lawsuits have been filed in an attempt to silence our colleagues. ABS-CBN, the country’s largest broadcast network, has been shut down. Frontline journalists, many of them just in their 20s and 30s, bear the brunt. They are moving targets for death threats, insults, and unrelenting trolling," they said.

Despite this, they added that press freedom continued to be resilient because it was needed to battle a tyrannical rule of government.

"Press freedom in the Philippines is resilient and enduring. This resilience was forged over time, from the struggle against colonial rule, the tyranny of authoritarianism, and the challenges of democracy. Filipinos have defended press freedom because they know it is their right and that their hard-word democracy cannot thrive without it," read the statement.

On October 8, the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced that Ressa and Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov won the Nobel Peace Prize for their fight for freedom of expression in their countries. — DVM, GMA News