NUJP logs 100 attacks vs journalists under Marcos administration

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 7) — The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) said it has recorded 100 attacks against Filipino journalists since President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. assumed his post in 2022.

“The attacks continue and in fact NUJP has recorded a hundred incidents of attacks since Marcos Jr. assumed the presidency,” NUJP secretary general Ronalyn Olea told CNN Philippines’ The Source on Tuesday.

She noted that the incidents are the continuation of the attacks that happened during the Duterte administration.

Olea said aside from killings, the attacks come in the form of surveillance, red-tagging, libel and cyberlibel, and police visitations. Journalists in the provinces remain vulnerable to these actions, she added.

Last Sunday, radio broadcaster Juan Jumalon was shot dead while he was broadcasting live in his home in Barangay Don Bernardo A. Neri in Calamba town, Misamis Occidental. He was the second journalist killed this year and the fourth since Marcos took office.

“It sends a very dangerous message, it worsens the chilling effect that we already feel for the past few years and it’s really enraging to see how Juan Jumalon was killed,” Olea said.

“The brazenness of the manner he was killed is a product of decades long of lack of accountability with regard to the killing of journalists,” she added.

Olea also said the lack of resolution of cases emboldens perpetrators. hence the attacks against journalists continue.

Citing a 2022 study by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, she said only 19 of the 176 cases of media workers killed since 1986 resulted in convictions. Of those sentenced, only four involved the masterminds.

Olea urged the government to have stronger political will to stop the attacks against media workers.

The Marcos administration should also honor and acknowledge the importance of journalists’ work, and to not view them as enemies, she added.

She also called for the reformation of the country’s justice system to resolve cases faster and hold the perpetrators responsible.