By Carlos H. Conde
International Herald Tribune
Published: January 13, 2008
MANILA: Philippine and international journalists’ groups are protesting a Philippine government memorandum that threatens reporters and news organizations with criminal charges if they disobey government orders while covering emergencies.
The warning, contained in an advisory memorandum released Friday by the Philippine Justice Department, was denounced as “dangerous” and “perilously vague and broad” by the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, the biggest media group in the country. The National Press Club of the Philippines said the policy “constitutes prior restraint.”
Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez, who signed the memorandum, told reporters Friday that it was needed because enemies of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s administration were planning a “destabilization plot” for later this month, similar to the incident in November in which dissident soldiers took over the five-star Peninsula Manila Hotel and called for Arroyo’s ouster. That uprising was quickly squelched.
The warning, Gonzalez said, was issued precisely to avoid a repeat of that incident, in which more than 30 journalists were arrested and briefly detained along with the alleged plotters. At the time, the police said the journalists had been arrested “for processing” because some might have been rebel soldiers in disguise. The police said they had arrested those who defied an order to vacate the premises.
In his memo, Gonzalez warned media companies that they could “incur criminal liabilities” if any of their representatives “disobey lawful orders from duly authorized government officers and personnel during emergencies which may lead to collateral damage to properties and civilian casualties in case of authorized police or military operations.”
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists urged the government Saturday to withdraw the advisory. “Journalists in the Philippines have long covered dangerous emergencies without the threat of being charged as criminals,” Bob Dietz, the group’s program coordinator for Asia, said in a prepared statement.
“One wonders what sort of effect this directive would have had on reporters covering the dramatic events which ousted the Marcos regime and paved the way for what were supposed to be more democratic governments,” Dietz said, referring to the public protests that drove President Ferdinand Marcos from office in 1986.
On Sunday, the National Union of Journalists called on journalists to defy the order, saying a public demonstration against it was being planned.
