Philippine communist rebels say they plan to meet with the government of incoming President Rodrigo Duterte to discuss a resumption of long-stalled peace talks, and will demand an end to the US military presence in the country.
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And Reporters Without Borders called for journalists in the Philippines to boycott Duterte’s press conferences until he apologised.
Global media groups are condemning recent remarks by Philippine’s incoming president defending the killing of journalists in the Pacific archipelago.
This is the lofty ideal that many, non-corrupt, members of the media still aspire to.
He said Duterte would tap state-owned television station PTV 4 for his press releases and interviews. “You son of a whore, I will really kill you”.
Tima said he was expecting “catcalling” from someone like Duterte.
Salvador Panelo, Duterte’s spokesperson, told Philippine broadcaster ABS-CBN, the question of apology arises when something wrong has been done and added the president-elect’s remarks were misinterpreted.
Rodrigo Duterte told a huge crowd celebrating his presidential victory late Saturday in the southern city of Davao that Filipinos who would help him in the bloody war against criminality would be rewarded.
The police in the Philippines are skeptical that the drastic measures Duterte wants to take will work to curb crime. And he answered another question about journalist killings by impugning the integrity of the victims and justifying their deaths as corruption-related. If you don’t, then I will think lowly of you.
No one denies the existence of corruption within the ranks of the media.
The accords have helped the US reassert its presence in Asia, which dovetails with Philippine hopes for American help in countering China’s increasingly assertive claims to areas of the South China Sea also claimed by the Philippines.
‘Duterte’s statement is a chilling reminder that journalists in the Philippines continue to live under threat, decades after (the association) was founded to fight for press freedom at the height of Ferdinand Marcos’s dictatorship, ‘ it said. However, citing it as a deplorable reality in journalism practice is one thing, but using it as a justification for murdering or attacking journalists is absolutely another. “If you destroy the youth of this country, I will kill you”.
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“But journalists should also be responsible in performing their job”, VACC chairman Dante Jimenez said.
