Journalists view HSA as threat to press freedom
A nationwide organization of journalists has warned of threats to press freedom posed by the Human Security Act that is set to be implemented starting July 15, 2007.
The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) said in a statement issued recently that the HSA could stifle the public's right to information.
The NUJP issued the statement a day after Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez said that journalists can be subjected to wiretapping if they are suspected to be terrorists or have links to groups and individuals considered terrorist by the government.
"The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines treats as a serious threat to press freedom and the people's right to know Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez' statement that under the Human Security Act he may recommend wiretapping journalists government believes to be "co-mingling" with terror suspects," said the statement signed by Jose Torres Jr. and Rowena Paraan, NUJP chairperson and secretary general, respectively.
In interviews with reporters, Gonzalez said that journalists could be subjected to wiretapping if "there is sufficient basis or if they are being suspected of co-mingling with terror suspects."
But Gonzalez also said that under the anti-terror law, media's sources of information are "sacred."
"This is a statement as vague and as fraught with danger as many of the anti-terror law's provisions, especially those that supposedly define what terrorism is and who terrorists are, provisions so open-ended they could actually lead to anyone and everyone who government deems fit being tagged a terrorist," said the NUJP in its statement.
"What, we ask, constitutes 'co-mingling with terror suspects?' Interviewing them? Meeting with them in pursuit of stories?"
The group said it is not assured of the safeguards against the possible abuse of the law.
"Alas, as we have seen all too often, and not only in the case of media, such safeguards too sadly become a recourse after the fact, when rights have been tramped and freedoms run roughshod over."
"Indeed, given this government's general apathy to the continued assaults on press freedom and the people's right to know, as seen in its continued inaction on media killings and the continued failure of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to issue a categorical order to end the bloodshed, Gonzalez' latest pronouncement can be nothing but a dire portend of things to come," the NUJP said.
It called on Congress "to act posthaste on this potential threat not just to press freedom but to democracy itself by reviewing or, better still, repeal altogether this law that is worse than the disease it purports to cure."