Category: Media

Reuters cameraman’s chilling last picture show

Published by Ellen on April 13, 2010

This is journalism!

by Nick Macfie
Bangkok
(Reuters) – Seven minutes of film taken by Reuters cameraman Hiro Muramoto illustrate how a scrappy street protest turned deadly on a balmy Bangkok night.

It is some of the last video Muramoto, 43, a father of two young children, ever took. He died on Saturday from a gunshot wound to the chest, his killer unknown.

The film encapsulates the fear, the tension and the sudden, chilling bloodshed after a month of protests by Thailand’s “red shirts” whose anti-government protests had largely been festive and peaceful until then.

Muramoto, a Japanese national who had worked for Reuters in Tokyo for more than 15 years, arrived in Thailand on Thursday. He was taken to hospital two days later without a pulse. The bullet had entered his chest and exited the body through the back.

His camera was returned to Reuters by the protesters. It is not known if the footage was his very last.

The power of being informed

Published by Ellen on March 12, 2010

Last Monday, VERA Files unveiled its Vote 2010 page within its website www.verafiles.org.

(Click on the Vote 2010 logo on the upper right side of this page and it will bring you to the page.)

Vote 2010 is a partnership among VERA Files, civil society organizations, the community media, individuals and institutions monitoring the May 10, 2010 elections.

Readers will find stories related to the forthcoming May elections that is being held at the time of deep distrust of the administration that is overseeing the nationwide, untested automated polls.

Readers will also find basic information on the May elections and background materials on the candidates including their schedule and campaign movements.

This partnership is about citizen empowerment.

Journalists score on libel raps filed by Mike Arroyo

Published by Ellen on February 7, 2010

by Evangeline de Vera
Malaya

Journalists who are suing First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo for damages for his propensity to file libel charges yesterday scored a victory after the Court of Appeals turned down anew Arroyo’s bid to dismiss the same damage suit.

The newsmen are seeking P12.5 million in damages before the Makati regional trial court in response to the flurry of libel cases that Arroyo filed since 2003 – 10 against 45 members of the press, a number unprecedented in Philippine history.

All these libel cases that Arroyo filed against the journalists prospered, with the city prosecutor of Manila supposedly finding probable cause to charge them.

In a 23-page decision penned by Associate Justice Sesinando Villon, the CA’s Ninth Division sustained the ruling of Judge Zenaida Galapate-Laguilles in denying Arroyo’s motion to dismiss the damage suit for failure of the journalists to immediately answer the written interrogatories within the extended period.

Media covenant for elections

Published by Ellen on February 4, 2010

Media remains the main battleground for the hearts and minds of voters.

As we approach the start of the official campaign period (Feb.9), members the Philippine Press Institute came up with a media covenant for elections.

The covenant was drafted when PPI, with the support of The Coca Cola Export Corporation, conducted a seminar-workshop on preparing journalists for the 2010 election in Cagayan de Oro in October 2009. This week, in Cebu, the covenant was approved by 31 journalists who represented PPI newspaper members.

Paalam, Cerge

Published by Ellen on January 20, 2010

Mrs. Remonde:Cerge going through crisis in credibility

Nasa taxi ako kahapon ilang minuto pasado ng 12 ng hapon nang lumabas ang balita na lumisan na si Press Secretary Cerge Remonde ng 11:51 ng umaga sa Makati Medical Center.

Sabi ng taxidriver, “Kung sino-sino ang kinukuha, bakit hindi pa tumbukin ang talagang yun dapat kunin.”
Nakuha ko ang ibig sabihin ng driver. Nang sabihin ng radio reporter na kaya pinuntahan ng kanyang driver si Remonde (at doon na natagpuan sa bathroom na walang malay) dahil may naka-schedule na press conference sa Malacañang, sabi ng driver, “Ayaw na siguro ng Panginoon na magsinungaling pa siya.”

Mahirap talaga magtrabaho para kay Gloria Arroyo. Kahit mabait ka na tao, kahit wala kang ginagawa na masama para sa sarili mo, mahirap ka hahanga-an ng taumbayan.

Ampatuan Jr. harrassed at DOJ preliminary hearing

Published by Ellen on December 18, 2009

Related stories from ABS-CBN: I killed hundreds for Ampatuans – ex-child assassin

Ampatuan Jr waves right to answer murder charges

From ABS-CBN:

Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. was harassed by a handful of Filipino journalists when he arrived Friday afternoon at the Department of Justice (DOJ) for the preliminary investigation into the mass murder of 57 people in Maguindanao province last month.

Ampatuan Jr. arrived shortly before 1:30 p.m. at the DOJ compound on board a bulletproof van. He came out of the van handcuffed and clad in a bulletproof vest.

Before Ampatuan Jr. entered the DOJ building, he was harassed by some members of the National Press Club (NPC). The journalists were holding several pictures of the bodies taken from the massacre site in Ampatuan town.

Marlon Purificacion, a reporter of People’s Journal, threw pictures into Ampatuan Jr.’s face. The journalist said their protest is a show of support and sympathy for the 57 families of the massacre victims, which includes 30 journalists.

Ampatuan Jr. has been charged with 25 counts of murder for the massacre. Several witnesses have testified he took part in the killings.

RP fuels record death toll of journalists worldwide

Published by Ellen on December 17, 2009

2009 is the deadliest year for journalists worldwide, with the election-related massacre of 31 journalists and media workers in the Nov. 23 Maguindanao massacre fuelling…

Day of mourning, indignation

Published by Ellen on December 10, 2009

by VERA Files

Never again to martial law. Justice for the victims of Maguindanao massacre. Stop killing journalists.

These were the resounding messages in Wednesday’s media-led indignation rally at the Chino Roces (formerly Mendiola) Bridge held to demand justice for victims of the Nov. 23 massacre in Maguindanao and protest the imposition of martial rule in the province.

Black was the color of the day. Participants from different sectors mostly wore black clothes and arm bands to assail the attacks on the media, rule of law, and accountability.

VERA Files photojournalist Mario Ignacio and trustee Chit Estella share their photos:

Click here (VERA Files).

A portion of the statement by the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility:

‘It’s like Rwanda’: UN expert on Maguindanao massacre

Published by Ellen on November 30, 2009

by Romel Regalado Bagares

COTABATO CITY.–Peruvian forensic anthropologist Dr. Jose Pablo Baraybar didn’t like what he saw when he visited for the first time Sunday the massacre site in Barangay Salman, Ampatuan town.

Take note of the backhoe with the marking 'Province of Maguindanao'

“It reminded me of something—it’s just like Rwanda,” said Dr. Baraybar after spending a few hours in the area in the company of Commission on Human Rights Chair Leila M. De Lima, British forensic investigator Chris Cobb Smith and lawyers from the Center for International Law (Centerlaw).

Baraybar said the “topography of the crime” in Ampatuan town is eerily similar to that he had found as a United Nations expert serving in the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

Media groups to GMA: swift justice or resign

Published by Ellen on November 30, 2009

Media groups and journalists call for the resignation of Gloria Arroyo if her government fails to the catch the perpetrators of the Maguindanao massacre and make them accountable for the crime.

Statement of the Nov. 23 Movement

A Challenge of Conscience

The brutal, indiscriminate mass murder on Monday in Ampatuan town, in Maguindanao province, raises the ultimate challenge of conscience. It carries the culture of impunity at work in this country to such levels of horror that, if it remains unpunished for long, can send the nation into an inexorable descent into absolute dehumanization.

The crime thus calls for swift justice, which can only be achieved through a credible and independent process, which in turn can only be achieved without the hand of this government – a government justly mistrusted generally and openly friendly precisely to the very members of the clan accused in the massacre.

We, ourselves colleagues of the more than a score journalists who were killed, demand the following: