Roque nominated for UK’s Freedom of Expression award

Congratulations to lawyer Harry Roque who is short-listed for an Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Awards.

Index on Censorship is Britain’s leading organization promoting freedom of expression. The awards are co-sponsored by the Economist, the Guardian, The Robert Gavron Trust and Bindman’s, a leading law firm in London.

Roque is a nominee for the Bindmans Law and Campaigning Award. The Award aims to recognise lawyers and campaigners who have fought repression or who have struggled to change political climates and perceptions, especially those who have used or established legal means to fight injustice in the field of freedom of expression. Special attention is given to people using or establishing legal precedents to fight injustice.

Index on Censorship’s website specifically cites Roque’s efforts in a class action suit on behalf of several dozen journalists against First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo, husband of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo whose “attacks on journalists seemed a blatant attempt to intimidate the press into silence.”

To date, the Court of Appeals and Regional Trial Court have denied Arroyo’s efforts to dismiss the case on the ground of lack of cause of action. According to Index on Censorship, Roque’s “success in this case, and others, should be an example to journalists and human rights lawyers throughout the rest of South-East Asia. His victory reveals that determination and resistance can win freedom of the Press, even under the oppression of arbitrary power.”

Last year’s Bindmans Law and Campaigning Awardee was U Gambira, the leader of the All-Burma Monks Alliance, which organised and spearheaded the nationwide protest in Burma in 2007. The brutal crackdown that followed forced him into hiding until he was detained in November 2007 where he his ever since.

Roque says he is honored to be nominated alongside Egyptian human rights champion Gamal Eid, director of the Arab Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) who was recently deported from Jordan; Zimbabwean lawyer Harrison Nkomo who has defended high-profile journalists and campaigners and been arrested himself; and Malaysia’s Malik Imtiaz who is a leading figure in fighting law suits against journalists and bloggers.

Aside from the unprecedented media class suit, Roque is also involved in the damage suit filed by the journalists who were processed and detained by the police for covering the Manila Peninsula Hotel standoff between the police and opposition figures. He also initiated an effort to challenge before the UN Human Rights Committee the criminal nature of libel as being contrary to freedom of expression based on the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Other related efforts in the campaign for freedom of expression are his victory in securing a writ of amparo in favor of a media practitioner, Nilo Baculio. He is also defending Marine lieutenant Artemio Raymundo who is facing court martial proceedings for sharing CDs critical of the Philippine President.

Aside from the Law and Campaigning Award, Index on Censorship also gives the Journalism Award, New Media Award, Film Award, and Book Award. The winners will be announced at the Awards Dinner on Tuesday, April 21, 2009, at Kings Place in London.

Roque is Chairperson of the Center for International Law (CENTERLAW), a member of the UP College of Law Faculty, the Presidential Assistant for Human Rights of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines.