Impunity led to massacre of reporters

“The convoy departed from Ismael Mangudadatu’s home in Buluan just after 9am and proceeded on the national highway. After 10 am, as it neared Ampatuan Town, the convoy was stopped at a checkpoint roadblock at at Sitio Malating, Barangay Salman, by about 100 armed men, allegedly led by the son of the Ampatuan clan patriarch. The convoy was then diverted west on a side road for about 2,5 km’s to a hilly and sparsely-populated area where pits had been dug by a back-hoe.

Over the next four hours, 57 people who were in the convoy as well as passersby were murdered and their bodies, with some of their vehicles, were buried in the pits. General Cayton, alerted by journalists who had turned back from the convoy before the roadblocks, ordered his troops to search the area. Soldiers arrived at the site before the gunmen could complete the disposal of the bodies and vehicles, and found almost two dozen bodies – all had been shot."

Of the 32 (some say 34) journalists killed in the massacre, the body of photographer Fernando “Bebot” Momay from the Midland Review in Tacurong City, has not been found.

Almost all local journalists

A review of the list of Filipino journalists who died in the line of duty since 1986 reveals that almost all were from community papers or radio stations. The fact-finding report compiled by the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, the Freedom Fund for Filipino Journalists, and MindaNews makes it clear that most of the victims were reporters and photographers for Mindanao-based newspapers, although some were employed by radio and television outlets.

“Nearly an entire generation” of local journalists was wiped out, said the report, which noted that most of the victims were married and had children. For those journalists who remain, fear is a constant.

The culture of impunity was the topic for a round-table discussion sponsored by UNESCO in September 2009, only two months prior to the tragic murders in Maguindanao.  Jose Pavia, publisher of the award-winning local newspaper Mabuhay and the Executive Director of the Philippine Press Institute, noted during the discussion that the press has become part of the problem.

Journalists must go back to the basics of accuracy and excellence. Their role of reporting is necessarily investigative. The “citizen journalist” cannot replace good journalism, which checks and double checks the facts and which disregards them when in doubt. While news is “history in a hurry,” citizen journalism has become merely “news in a hurry” without the guarantee of accuracy. Journalism can only have one advocacy, and that is the advocacy for truth, says Jose Pavia.

Key questions without answers

During a few days together in February 2010, key Filipino journalists and editors discussed many of the core issues facing journalists in the country. Several questions remain after the deeply tragic events in November 2009 and demand action from government, civil society and the media organizations.

Here are just a few of the questions: