February 27, 2006
Media Repression
This came from Diosa Labiste, a colleage both in the Inquirer and the Women's Feature Service. When will Pangasinan media organizations come up with their own statements against media repression?
We, participants to the First Visayas Media Summit, strongly denounce the police raid on the Daily Tribune on February 25, 2006 and the confiscation of copies of the newspaper.We demand that the Arroyo government end all other acts and threats to curtain the exercise of press freedom and the people’s right to know.
Ironically, it happened on the daybreak marking the very historic event –EDSA I – when we haven toppled a dictator and ended his long years of repressive rule.
Nobody, not even President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, has the right to stifle the basic rights to freedom of _expression and access to information, especially not in these trying times.
We remind here of the provisions of the Philippine Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that categorically guarantee the freedom of speech, of _expression and of the press.
"Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and _expression, this includes the freedom to hold opinions without interference, and to seek receive and impart information and ideas through any media, regardless of frontiers." – Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
"No law shall be passed abridging the freedom of speech, of _expression, of the press, or the right to the people peaceably to assemble and petition the government for redress of grievances." – Philippine Constitution, Bill of Rights, Sec. 4, Article III.
We call on our colleagues and all who cherish freedom and democracy to oppose all moves by this administration and any other government agencies to curtain the rights and liberties we have struggled so hard for."
