EDITORIAL – Who can speak up?

It is another sad season for the journalism profession as another colleague is shot down in cold blood. Melinda “Mei” Magsino was a hard-hitting journalist and former correspondent of the Philippine Daily Inquirer who previously had a run-in with the powers that be when she reported on illegal gambling and corruption in Batangas where she had lived. Her stories on these issues riled the authorities so much that she was at one point declared persona non grata. Her work also caused her to quit her job for fear of her life as two convicts were reportedly released from prison to liquidate her. Obviously, however, quitting her job did not remove her from the hit list.
The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), in a statement immediately after the killing, said Magsino’s murder “not only highlights the fact that leaving journalism is no guarantee of safety from the perils of the profession – especially not from those with long memories and deadly intent – (but) it also underscores the depths to which the culture of impunity has become entrenched in our country and society, courtesy of a government that has shown only the most cursory regard for human rights.”
The NUJP also points out that if subsequent details reveal Magsino’s death involved her former work as a journalist, “Mei will be the second fallen colleague this year, the 26th under President Benigno Aquino III, and the 166th since democracy was supposedly restored in 1986.” Those numbers are frightening for their effect on freedom of speech and of expression in this country. These rights are guaranteed for all of us, but if journalists are so easy to silence, then how much more for the ordinary person who does not have a newspaper or TV station behind him? If journalists can’t speak up against corruption, then who can?